IZ*ONE made their comeback yesterday with their 3rd mini-album, Oneiric Diary, and the title track, Secret Story of the Swan. A review should have been written yesterday, but IZ*ONE’s agency made a last minute call to delay the release of the music video until today. In place of the music video, we were treated to the performance version of their music video along with performances from their comeback showcase. But as I focus on the music video usually, this meant I couldn’t write a whole review. But as we only had to wait a day, I decided to delay the review until today, as well. We last saw the group through their Fiesta promotions early this year.

Each of IZ*ONE’s title tracks have grown on me considerably, regardless of whatever comments I have made in the past regarding the songs. The beauty of time. And with time, maybe Secret Story of the Swan (henceforth Swan) may go in that direction as well. At this present time, I find the song to be very standard and meh. I just didn’t get a level of excitement that I had felt with Fiesta or Violeta. Swan‘s biggest asset is its instrumental, more specifically the chorus. It is the only part that really captures my attention. The drop feels memorable and bold, in comparison to the rest of the instrumental. There is a lot going on in its instrumentally, but it is all tied together very well with the loud crashes that accompany the ‘Like Swan Swan Swan‘ hook. This hook is also a really good element of the song and is helping me warm up to the song (though there is a big hurdle for it help get me over). Everything else in Swan just failed to stand out. The vocal work didn’t have much oomph to it, especially with a standout chorus like this. It was pretty much forgettable during the verses. The rapping had momentum, but it just felt very typical and something that we all heard before. Swan had some highs and lows, with the lows seemingly taking hold of the song. But as I said at the start, maybe time is needed to help make this song more appealing.

While the music video does take on that closeup and choreography formula, I found the music video to be captivating. This is because of the use of chroma-key (i.e. the technical name of the green/blue screen effect). It helped made the video look very pretty, from the purple coloured sky, to the presence of clock gears, to the use of circle. It was quite mesmeric. There might be a bit of a story in the video via symbolism of the different elements in the video, though I didn’t pick anything up. The choreography shots are stunning, as well. Very nice looking music video.

One of the strong points about the performance is that is looks really elegant, which suits the idea of a swan as in the song’s title. At the same time, the choreography finds that sweet point where it can be dynamic, allowing for the performance to take full advantage of the energy from the chorus.

Song – 7/10
Music Video – 9.5/10
Performance – 9/10
Overall Rating – 8.2/10