This is the fourth and final Japanese song review for this week. As mentioned previously, I will find time to do another four reviews for girl group releases in Japan. But in the meantime, this is my review for UP10TION’s official Japanese debut. The boy group made their official debut with the single ID on 8th of March this year. Their most recent Korean promotions were late last year for White Night.

Out of all the four songs that I had chosen to review, this one didn’t reel me into the song, like how the others did. That being said, the song was still quite good and was incredibly strong in its instrumental and the group’s delivery. ID is an extremely synth-heavy, with its roots in electronic and EDM. Some parts did catch me off guard at first, but overall, the instrumental sounded pretty good. The vocals were mostly covered with autotune, which felt okay. It wasn’t misused or overused in any way, like in other songs. The raps could have been a little better. The reason why goes back to why I felt the song didn’t reel me in. The song felt extremely slow. The song’s tempo felt like it was in slow-motion the entire time, which did take the energy out of the synths. Going back to the raps, the raps were done so to match the tempo of the song. To me, the slowness sucked the energy out of that as well. Another thing is that the song didn’t have many hooks. There just wasn’t anything catchy about or anything that makes me want to go back, beside the powerfulness of the song. I would like to know what the meaning for “Dirty Little Freaks” in the song is (as it was mentioned during the heavily autotuned parts and throughout the chorus). Anyone willing to share?

The music video follows the same formula of choreography shots and closeups. The edgy vibes and toughness were portrayed through the industrial and urban sets. Overall, the sets were quite minimalistic, with the main focus on the group and their choreography. Hence, I have decided to join the performance section of the review with the music video. Honestly, their choreography for ID was quite amazing. The moves weren’t that special, but together, the dance that accompanied the song was great! The group is definitely emerging a group to look out for when it comes to choreographies.

Song – 7/10
Music Video – 6/10
Performance – 8/10
Overall Rating – 7/10