2019 has seen the debut of multiple groups, some more promising than others. ONEUS is one of those that fall into the promising category. Boasting Valkirye and Twilight as kick-starters to their careers, there is a lot of expectations for the group. And it seems Lit (the title track) and Fly With Us (the mini-album title) will continue this momentum. The group has also launched their careers in Japan, debuting with the Japanese version of Twilight.

Lit stands out for one reason. It incorporates Korean folk into the dance track, which isn’t anything new. But it is kind of rare in the industry, given how electronic music is undoubtedly dominating the industry at the moment. I find the song interesting in that sense as it gives the song a different profile to what we have been hearing. The use of the traditional instrumentation (I am not exactly sure of the instruments used) was quite heavy at the start and as the song progressed along, we got more of that electronic influence. Despite that, however, the traditional instruments still managed to maintain its dominance in the instrumental. Minus the traditional sound, I found the rest of the song to be rather plain. Given the song’s direction, the members ended up doing a lot of sing-speaking. And while that probably gets a few people to engage, the constant change between that mode and just usual vocals made the song feel a little disjointed and cut the flow on numerous occasions. I also found the song to be less dynamic than their previous tracks, which was a little disappointing. Overall, it is something different and I applaud the members for doing this.

With the traditional sounds, it seems like the music video had only one option. That is to incorporate some of that traditional style into he music video. Not exactly sure if it was because of this new direction, but the video is a lot more colourful, which is a side of ONEUS I haven’t seen. To see the members be engaging in a non-serious way was a little odd for me, I have to admit. But at the same time, I thought it gave the video a fun tone and made the video appealing. The closeups were nice and the choreography shots looked cool. I wasn’t as impressed with some of their outfits, particularly that white pastel colour set. It didn’t look fitting with the set.

Given this traditional theme (I really should stop using this word in this review), I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the moves in the choreography were of this influence as well. But there was a lot of typical modern moves. The choreography also seemed to also give off a fun vibe. I also liked the moments in which the song got a little more intense, as the members managed to kick the choreography up a notch to match.

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