From what I can tell, there aren’t that many groups making their comeback this week due to the Chuseok (Mid-Autumn Festival) However, this does not mean I get to take the week off. I henceforth declare this week as ROOKIE WEEK. I will be posting at least one review for a different rookie group each day, so keep your eyes opened!

For the first group on ROOKIE WEEK, I have decided to review a brand new group who made their debut just last week. LUCENTE is a seven-member male group currently under Nago Entertainment who debuted with Your Difference just last Tuesday. The group consists of Hero, U.Seong, Ba, Z.Hoo, Kogun, Taejun and Parkha. Some of the members of the group were previously part of other groups, some of whom I have never heard of. But today we are here to talk about LUCENTE, so let’s just do that.

Your Difference does not mess around with energy. It starts off slightly low in energy (as most songs do at the very start) but very quickly builds up to an energy packed song. I thought the instrumental was quite nice, despite it going for the ‘now-traditional’ tropical route with a hip-hop influence. It was definitely upbeat and had a ‘cool’ presence to it. Their vocals and raps were quite good for a new group but felt very typical for a group trying to push themselves to sound ‘tough’. I also thought the chorus was a little too spacious and doesn’t really hold my attention for long. Usually, the chorus is the catchiest parts of the song but I felt the lines leading up to the chorus were much more appealing and memorable. That doesn’t mean the chorus was all bad as it is where we get most of the song’s energy.

The music video felt like a typical music video for a debut. To me, it felt like a whole bunch of different scenes mashed into one video to ‘present’ the group to the public. I hardly doubt that there is a plotline to this video (though I have been known to assume wrong in the past). Some of the scenes, however, looked really nice. The choreography scene with the flashing lights and the ladder scenes looked really good. I also liked how they managed to infuse some edge into the video, which is what the song visually needed.

The group has a fair amount of stage presence on stage. Given a song with slightly more angst and power, I think there is potential for this group. The performance showcased some pretty good moves. However, when I looked at it as a whole, it felt mediocre. Once again, they need to stand out and their performance can do just that. This one just isn’t the one.

Song – 7/10
Music Video – 6.5/10
Performance – 6/10
Overall Rating – 6.7/10