Hoya has officially made his solo debut with his first mini-album, Shower. This is his first major release since leaving Infinite last year. He did previously release a pre-release single, titled Angel, a few weeks back. Shower also features All Eyes On Me, which is the title track of the record.

All Eyes On Me was exceptionally boring. I think that would be my nicest way of describing the track to you all. There isn’t anything holding me there to listen to it. Instead, it feels monotone and grey, which doesn’t really hold well with another R&B track. For a moment, the instrumental did perk my ears up during the chorus with that background echoey sound (not exactly sure what it is). But it just wasn’t enough to keep me interested in the song. His choice of vocals are interesting but it just slows down the song and robs its any energy it could have had. When I listen to his pre-release and the title track, Angel is the more superior track by far. The two of together, however, doesn’t really give off much impression, which has me concerned for the now-solo artist. As harsh as it sounds, those are my thoughts. Though I will admit, we have to see how his future releases stack up to be sure.

Like the song, the music video is quite underwhelming. The only impressive part of the video is when Hoya is literally bouncing towards the camera (at the very start of the video). The video just felt empty and the lack of people doesn’t really reflect well on the minimalistic sounding song. As a result, you get a boring video that doesn’t keep me around.

Hoya is known for his performances and is always seen as the main dancer of Infinite. Unlike the song and video, his dance performance looks quite promising here. While it was fitting for the song, there were moves throughout the video which I thought was cool. The bouncing (mentioned previously) is one of them, another is the pre-chorus build-up.

Song – 4/10
Music Video – 4/10
Performance – 8/10
Overall Rating – 4.8/10