Song Review: WayV – Big Bands

SM Entertainment has been on a roll lately with their boy group albums, though they’ve also struggled to pick the best songs to promote as title tracks. I’m hoping that might be the case with WayV as well, especially since their albums tend to hold many buried treasures. New title Big Bands is bolstered by an interesting concept but the final product fails to ignite sparks.

I love a big band influence in K-pop (or in this case, C-pop) tracks. SM has a storied history of injecting these elements into brilliant pieces from the likes of TVXQ and SHINee. That’s an intimidating lineage to live up to, and unfortunately Big Bands bunts when it should be aiming for a home run. Yes, the flourishes of brass are a cool touch, especially when they fully take charge for funky breakdowns. But apart from that gimmick, the song is essentially another braggadocious, trap-infused hip-hop track. There is no Sherlock bombast or Spellbound grace. The hooks are pretty flat and very repetitive, squandering potential to go bolder.

To be fair, Big Bands is simply not that kind of song and it’s unfair to grade it on criteria it’s not even attempting, but even as a swaggering hype track the energy feels oddly inert. The production would greatly improve with a heavier In Da Club style thump, adding gravity to the jazzy ornamentation. As it stands, the instrumental feels at odds with itself, at once grand and chintzy. And sadly, the song itself is not interesting enough to compensate for these dull textures.

Grade: C-