The next artist to review as part of the catch-up is a new rookie group who made their debut back on the 27th of May of this year. We In The Zone (also known as WITZ) is a 5 member male group under Choon Entertainment. The group consist of Eson, Jooan, Min, Kyeongheon and Shihyun. The group’s debut title track is Let’s Get Loud, which is featured on their first mini-album which shares the same name as the group themselves.

I am not going to lie just because of this their first song. But I hate to be harsh for the exact same reason. A crucial element lacking in Let’s Get Loud is boldness. The presence of boldness will flow onto other areas of the track that I commonly think of when I write these reviews. And without boldness, you will get left with a plain and unmemorable track. That is the song in a nutshell. And after one month of its release, I think it is fair to say that this is a lacklustre debut. Not many tracks get time to grow on me before I write its review but Let’s Get Loud just didn’t have anything for me to warm up to. Many elements fell short of expectations set just by the title alone. For example, I had expected the instrumental to have a rush of energy and ignite the need to shout or party. But the instrumental we ended up hearing was conventional and didn’t excite me. The vocals and rapping were good, showcasing some potential. But some parts (such as the ‘Let’s Get Loud‘ in the chorus) felt unenergetic and unexciting. The ‘Better Po-Po-Pose‘ in the chorus (which came off more as a ‘Pum-Pum-Pum-ma‘) was drowned out by the instrumental (which wasn’t even that loud). There were no strong hooks to reel me in. I think there is enough for you to understand my overall thoughts.

One thing I did remember about the lead up to their debut was that it was announced very early on. I remember very well putting the date into my calendar. But apart from that, I don’t recall teasers or images in the lead up to their debut. Not really the best foot forward if you ask me for a newly debuting group. But despite the lack of pre-debut momentum, the music video actually turned out quite nice. I really like the small drawings that appear on the screen, which highlights their moves and details during their close-ups. The video had nice cinematography, as well. The peak of the track has to be the breaking of the sunglasses (that loud crack). I liked how it was handled in the video, as I thought it was passed over too quickly in the actual audio.

Like the song, I didn’t see too much in the performance to really make any comments on. I did like how they brought the cracking of the sunglasses onto the stage for some of the performances, while others didn’t have that element. So the song ended up incorporating a camera shutter sound. Though, breaking the sunglasses to add a hint of boldness to the comeback, which I guess makes up for some of the flaws of the song.

Song – 4/10
Music Video – 7/10
Performance – 7/10
Overall Rating – 5.5/10