Making their comeback today was 14U with N.E.W.S. If you are new to 14U, they are a 14-member boy group who made their debut last year with VVV and made their first 2018 comeback with Don’t Be Pretty (which I had reviewed). N.E.W.S is featured on the group’s third single album, which also features an instrumental to the song and an unplugged version.

N.E.W.S jumps on board the Latin train with the presence of the guitar throughout the entire instrumental. And while the Latin influence trend is nice for the ‘broadening of the horizons’, the trend is officially getting boring for me. What does save the song, based on my preferences, were the vocals and raps. Vocally, the song had some drive, especially towards the end when high notes started becoming involved. The rapping also gave the song some momentum and energy, which saved it from being too monotone or ‘linear’ as I always call it. I did also like the melody of the chorus, which also gave the song some more energy and contrast to the bland verses. I feel like the hooks were a little in the weak side. They did have some appeal but it wasn’t as grand as I hoped. Overall, it is an okay song. I just don’t expect myself to be replaying it all the time.

One of the members find this magical compass washed up along the beach and decides to use it, which leads a magical (or creepy) ghostly female figure to them, all dressed in red. It scares some of the members while also intrigues some others, who go looking for her. Besides that, I don’t really know what’s going on. Especially with the guy who had a ship’s wheel appear on his neck as a tattoo, that left me more confused than anything else. Besides the mild confusion, I thought it was a nice video. I liked the way it was shot and didn’t really utilise any crazy effects.

With 14 members, it is going to be easy to make the stage feel a bit too crowded. So I thought them taking some members out of the first two choruses was actually quite smart. I thought the rap section had really cool choreography, especially with the members lying down and doing that drum-like action. Overall, I liked the looks of the performance and how it matched with the song.

Song – 7/10
Music Video – 7.5/10
Performance – 8/10
Overall Rating – 7.4/10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGFV-mC0r2E