In addition to being a great read, "In Defense of Noise: SM Future Sound and Red Velvet"
has praise for Wendy:
To begin with, in Red Velvet’s case, tech meets touch in Wendy. There is not a day that I am not thankful for Wendy’s failing her Cube audition and finding her way to Red Velvet. Aside from the textural familiarity that “All Right,” “Butterfly,” and “Look” share with early Janet Jackson and Whitney Houston, Wendy’s hitch to a note higher in “Hear the Sea” (at 2:32) reminds me of Houston’s own for “heat” in /I wanna feel the heat with somebody/ (“I Wanna Dance with Somebody”), and this is in an admittedly challenging song to sing. Analogous to a football team with a fantasista, natural-born star, Red Velvet with Wendy is a team and a half, and Red Velvet without Wendy is a team halved. Although she is not yet on a par with Luna’s virtuosic technique or Taeyeon’s seven-times-a-divorcee song realization, Wendy’s soul leaning, strong sense of pitch, and capability for melismatic runs make the backbone of Red Velvet repertoire.
In Defense of Noise: SM Future Sound and Red Velvet
The first half of 2019 have seen Red Velvet flex their musical muscles to varying degrees of reception. Being one of a few SM acts in which founder and SM’s largest shareholder Lee Sooman (LSM) is …
seoulbeats.com
has praise for Wendy:
To begin with, in Red Velvet’s case, tech meets touch in Wendy. There is not a day that I am not thankful for Wendy’s failing her Cube audition and finding her way to Red Velvet. Aside from the textural familiarity that “All Right,” “Butterfly,” and “Look” share with early Janet Jackson and Whitney Houston, Wendy’s hitch to a note higher in “Hear the Sea” (at 2:32) reminds me of Houston’s own for “heat” in /I wanna feel the heat with somebody/ (“I Wanna Dance with Somebody”), and this is in an admittedly challenging song to sing. Analogous to a football team with a fantasista, natural-born star, Red Velvet with Wendy is a team and a half, and Red Velvet without Wendy is a team halved. Although she is not yet on a par with Luna’s virtuosic technique or Taeyeon’s seven-times-a-divorcee song realization, Wendy’s soul leaning, strong sense of pitch, and capability for melismatic runs make the backbone of Red Velvet repertoire.