REVIEW: CIFIKA’s “Old Fantasy” Is a New Beginning for an Artist Who Has Never Been Afraid to Reinvent Herself
REVIEW
REVIEW
☆ BY ALICIA ZAMORA ☆
10 YEARS INTO HER CAREER, CIFIKA IS ENTERING A NEW CHAPTER WITH OLD FANTASY—Released today, the EP marks an important moment for the Korean artist, who has spent the past decade building a body of work that leaves plenty of room for change.
CIFIKA produced every track herself, putting even more of her own perspective into a project she describes as “thirty people singing through one person.”
That description feels especially fitting for the EP. Across seven tracks, CIFIKA makes room for the different ideas, emotions and perspectives that have followed her throughout her career.
There’s a sense of looking inward throughout Old Fantasy, but it never feels like she’s trying to pin herself down to one particular version. Instead, the project gives her room to explore the different sides of herself that have developed along the way.
After ten years of making music, CIFIKA has naturally lived through a lot of different creative phases, and Old Fantasy feels connected to all of them. The EP carries the perspective of someone who has had time to grow, change her mind, experiment, and figure out what still feels true to her. It’s personal, but it doesn’t feel like she’s giving us a neatly packaged explanation of who she is.
Having CIFIKA produce the entire project adds another layer to that. There’s a clear sense of ownership behind Old Fantasy, and it feels important that the person shaping these seven tracks is also the person at the center of them. The result is a project that feels closely tied to her own creative instincts, allowing the EP to exist as its own little world.
The title Old Fantasy also feels fitting for where CIFIKA is in her career. There’s something nostalgic about the phrase, but it doesn’t necessarily feel like a record stuck in the past. After a decade of making music, looking back is inevitable. The difference is what you choose to do with everything you’ve collected along the way. In CIFIKA’s case, those older ideas and experiences become part of something new.
That comes through in the way the EP moves between its different song titles, from the questioning nature of “Who” to the intimacy of “Belong 2 U.” “Mine,” “Passing a Gossip,” “Lullaby,” “HEX” and “All Because Of” each add another piece to the picture, making the seven-track project feel less like a single statement and more like a collection of different thoughts living together.
There’s something exciting about that, especially this far into a career. Old Fantasy doesn’t feel like CIFIKA trying to prove that she can reinvent herself again. She simply does. With all seven tracks shaped by her own hands, the EP gives her plenty of space to figure out what that looks like this time around.
