Song Review: Close Your Eyes – Drop That!

With their new album, Close Your Eyes have taken the unlikely move of fusing jazz with K-pop. It’s not that this has never been done before, but it’s certainly outside of current trends. So far, this approach resulted in the very strong Open Your Eyes, which really leaned into the concept. Title track Drop That! is more hesitant to go full bore, keeping one foot furmly planted in expected boy group tropes. In this case, that means melding jazz samples with an old-school hip-hop beat. While I appreciate the influx of energy, this sound is more familiar — and thus, less interesting — to me. Much of this is due to Drop That‘s monotonous hook, which is essentially the kind of chant-rap we hear from so many other acts. Without its ear-catching samples creating a unique backdrop, the song itself is quite generic and very lacking in memorable melody. For me, Close Your Eyes thrive most when given incredible melodies to work with. I don’t see them as a hip-hop group and maybe that’s my fault, but their singing voices (and harmonies) have such unique appeal that it’s disappointing when they’re not taken advantage of. And unlike other chant-heavy CYE songs like SOB, the instrumental here doe...