While I did promise to do a set of reviews for JPOP releases by girl groups, I am having a hard time finding songs to fill that set. But yet, there is an abundance of boy groups releasing JPOP songs. So, for today, I have picked one song by one of my favourite groups, GOT7. My Swagger, released in May, ended up topping charts in Japan, showing the group’s popularity.

Right off the bat, just by listening to the first few seconds of their song, you could tell it was going to be a messy song. They do not mess around with their intense and more hardcore EDM sound. I tend to get worried when it comes to such songs because some aspects are hidden under the midst of all those loud sounds, such as the vocals. But I would gladly headbang to this. I know.  The song itself was quite catchy and left a positive impression (i.e. no headaches) on me when I first listened to it. Those vocals weren’t hidden at all and not once did the song feel repetitive. I think the vocal work contributed to that. As for the raps though, I don’t think it is their personal best. It felt dragged out and their tone didn’t feel as hard-hitting as in their Korean releases. The build-up was quite good, hyping the song up until the beat is dropped for the chorus. Not exactly fond of the ending, though. Overall, not a total fan of the song style, but they make it sound pretty good.

I thought the use of the pictures was interesting. They didn’t amount to much but it made the video look appealing. One thing I did notice was that the video started off much more focused on the tough sound and seriousness. But that was kind of dissolved into nothing as we proceeded with the video and the guys started to interact with the camera and each other. I know it is an odd observation that probably would be more disapproved (such as the guys were always like that from the very start). While it fit the music video, in the end, I thought it was rather odd. Poor Youngjae (at the end) and the moment he realised something was up. Overall, the video wasn’t too bad.

The dance was pretty good. Given the song style and their capabilities as dancers, they did pretty much was expected. Though I think we saw more of the choreography during the chorus, rather than the verses (so I am essentially going from that).

Song – 8/10
Music Video – 7/10
Performance – 7/10
Overall Rating – 7.5/10