Rundown: UAU, RIIZE, I-DLE, SEVENTEEN, IRENE & SEULGI, BAEKHYUN, Jin, Kim Jaejoong, SHINee, KickFlip

Another couple of weeks, another run of releases with a lot of big names, and a lot of songs I wish weren’t in here but are.

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Jin (BTS) – “Don’t Say You Love Me”

A bit like a poor man’s “Leave Before You Love Me“, which I think might be the issue with a lot in K-pop. Still, another song that can be described as safe and fine that should please fans.

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RIIZE – “Fly Up”

Very musical in a High School Musical sense, which is not necessarily derogatory in itself, but this sorta felt like a throwaway ensemble entry rather than a centerpiece. To be fair, grading on a curve, anything with a bit of energy and excitement gets my attention at this point.

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I-DLE – “Good Thing”

It’s less than ideal when the main takeaway from a comeback is Soyeon chopping off her hair. It’s kinda throwback in a 2NE1 or 4minute way with the vocal effects and what not, but more like one of their releases without a decent hook to absolve the weaknesses.

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Baekhyun (EXO) – “Elevator”

This is actually quite cute and a groovy vibe, but I’m a bit confused because this is very similar to his own 2020’s “Candy“, and my takeaway is primarily that it’s a slightly lesser version of it. Very listenable, though.

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Kim Jaejoong – “ROCK STAR”

While I do wish one of these songs with “rock” in their title actually aggressively rocked instead of being a ballad, I like listening to his voice. A bit generic, sure, but something for the lives.

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SHINee – “Poet | Artist”

A song that was originally for a Jonghyun album and features his voice, it’s a fansong in that sense, but obviously one with a ton of meaning behind it.

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SEVENTEEN – “THUNDER”

Gonna be honest, I was excited about the releases this week, starting with this run, and … as you could probably predict, this kind of sing-talking track isn’t up my alley. It reminds me a bit of “Like A G6“ without the chorus, which unfortunately for them was the only thing that made that worth a shit.

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IRENE & SEULGI (Red Velvet) – “TILT”

It’s hilarious how this was somewhat of a controversial concept for K-pop, when in my opinion the final product doesn’t go nearly as far as it should’ve if they were going to lean into this and be risque, both in terms of music video (them being in each other’s general vicinity and staring) and song (surprisingly flat and uninteresting). I kinda feared this, but was hopeful.

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KickFlip – “FREEZE”

I actually really liked the pop-rock chorus section where the tempo picks up quite a bit as it has that fresh, youthful, and fun quality they were looking for. Unfortunately, there’s like literally every other second of the song, where it muddies the energy and drags it down, also featuring an incessant droning in the background of the production.

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UAU – “2 Months”

Should go without saying, but I love Dreamcatcher, think UAU is a great sub-unit idea with members that fit the concept perfectly, and think they look arguably as good as ever.

This is also pejoratively a very trendy release as a mini in general that includes many of my least favorite tropes at the moment, and “Good Luck” is probably the only song I might listen to again.

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Honestly, part of the reason for the delays on this stuff is simply because I don’t have a ton to say about a lot of the releases. A lot of the singles are topping out at above-average.