After over two years, HOTSHOT has finally returned with their latest single, Jelly. The group made their debut in 2014 with Take A Shot. They were fairly busy in 2015 with multiple releases but has been absent from the scene since then. The group resurfaced this year with two members participating in Produce 101 Season 2, to which member Sungwoon ranked in 11th place and made it into Wanna One. Hence, the current line-up promoting Jelly is Junhyuk, Timoteo, Kid Monster, Yoonsan and Hojung.

Given the title of the song, I did not expect the song to take the route in which it did. You would associate Jelly with a vibrant and sweeter sound, like the desert itself. However, the song felt quite the opposite. It was definitely a lot more serious and it felt monotone. But this is the one time that the monotone nature did work in the songs favour. The dance instrumental felt very neutral throughout, which brought small bursts of colour to the song, which I thought was a really strong aspect of the song. That small ‘jelly’ break before the chorus starts really gives a moment of suspense, before the chorus starts, which actually does grow on you. After a few listens, I noticed tension in the song, which makes each replay, even more, better than the previous. I would like to say more about the song, but my comments are mainly centred around the instrumental and the overall sound. The member’s vocals and raps felt very neutral. It fitted the instrumental, making it into a good track, but they could have added or done something to the vocals/raps to transform the song into something even better.

I will be honest about the video. It was boring. There were aspects of the video which I liked but I don’t think there was enough to carry the video. The darkness matched the tension which I mentioned earlier. The choreography scenes were quite good. Their close-ups were the boring parts. They did their bit but I am quite sure they could have boosted in some way. The ‘Jelly‘ cut-ins looked good, but for some reason, they make me giggle every time I watch the video.

Like the music video, the choreography could have been better. The dance can already be described as quite good. The sharpness was there, the charisma was also present. The dance just felt sluggish in some parts and lacked energy in other.

Song – 8/10
Music Video – 5/10
Performance – 6.5/10
Overall Rating – 7/10