Now, since I have taken multiple breaks over the last few weeks, I have fallen behind in the reviews on this blog. And so, starting today, I aim to start reviewing these missed reviews (before I leave them to brew on a list for a couple of months). The first review will go to ELRIS, who recently made their comeback with their fourth mini-album and the title track, Jackpot. It has been a while since I have heard from this group. My last review for the group was back in 2018 for Summer Dream. Since then, the group returned with Miss U and added two members to their lineup just this year.

Jackpot attempts to be a playful tune that suits the group’s youthful charms. I thought it was very vibrant (notice the past tense here) and there is a slight quirkiness in the instrumental to give it that playful tone. It isn’t until I started digging into my thoughts about the song’s element that I started to realize that my intiial impressions may not be as strong as I hoped. The music was relatively plain for the pop genre and I felt the song could have been a lot more dynamic in this regard to give the song some oomph. What did give the song some dynamism were the vocals, particularly around the chorus. I liked how they provided the song with a blast of energy through their voices and melody. And as any song, the chorus was by far the strongest part of the song. The verses was hugely forgettable. I didn’t like how they relied on the rapping for the verses. Some songs/groups can execute this well. But sadly for ELRIS, it feels repetitive and this disappoints me. When the group does switch to vocals, it consistently followed up with a repetitive sounding rap sequence, and this bores me as a result. Honestly, it seems like the weaker aspects of the song outweigh the strong in this case, as opposed to what I had in mind originally.

The music video is very typical. I am trying very hard to find different things to say about the music video. But I find everything just standard. The members try to give off a cute impression while doing some everyday stuff like acting bored or speaking on the phone. This is in no way a new idea and basically every female group who have attempted the cutesy concept has done this already. The lip syncing in this video was pretty poor for current standards. Throw in pastel colours that ended up dulling the video and choreography scenes shot with ordinary camera work, I think you might understand where I am getting with this section of the review.

The opening move when they all pulled each other up looked impressive. The rest of the choreography was very ordinary as well, a definite recurring theme in this review. Nothing else is worth mentioning.

Song – 6/10
Music Video – 5/10
Performance – 6/10
Overall Rating – 5.7/10