If you are a fan of the SuperM (the ‘Avengers’ of KPOP) members (that is Baekhyun, Kai, Taemin, Taeyong, Mark, Lucas and Ten), then you must be excited for their comebacks that are ongoing or ‘soon-to-be’ occurring. Here is just a quick rundown for these busy members. Taemin made his solo comeback earlier this month with Criminal, whilst NCT is gearing up for NCT 2020 in October (NCT and WayV members combined!). On top of that, Kai has been confirmed for a solo debut some time in the future, while I remember reading somewhere that Baekhyun might be releasing new music. But while we wait for those comebacks, check out SuperM’s latest title track, One, which follows the pre-release of 100 and Tiger Inside.
One is a hybrid track, merging two of the side tracks (Monster & Infinity) from the group’s first studio album. It is similar to how SHINee’s Sherlock, which merged Clue and Note from their Sherlock mini-album back in 2012. So the concept of a hybrid track isn’t new, but it is rather rare in KPOP. This alone already makes the song stand out. However, I wish I could say the same for majority of the song. For the purpose of this review, I wanted to delve into One only. This proves to be a little difficult, however, as I feel like we are constantly reminded of the fact that it is two songs merged into one. I find One to be slightly disjointed, especially around the start of the chorus. It didn’t feel like it was a natural blend. In addition to that, I find One‘s instrumental to be a generic form of EDM. The chorus does bring a grand and adventurous vibe to it, which I liked (it also brought me back to their debut track, Jopping). But everything else wasn’t as adventurous by today’s standard. The vocals and rapping work performed by the members are a lot more captivating than the instrumental and I give them ticks of approval. Unfortunately, I found the melodies were pretty generic and I didn’t really find a hook in the song to help make the song catchy. That being said, there was one part that really stood out to me. This part was the climax of the song (Taemin’s husky vocals, Baekhyun and Ten’s high note, followed by Mark’s rapping), leading into the final chorus. The intensity and epicness of the EDM during this part really help make the climax more fulfilling and the members involved made it pretty dynamic. At least, there was something in the song worth waiting around for.
The music video on YouTube made it pretty clear that there was some paid promotions, which I assume is the mobile phone that we see during and at the very end of the music video. I wonder if there was more to it, as the music video seemed to look like it was based or modelled after a game of some kind. I just got that type of vibe from the teasers they released and the overall setting of the video (even though most of it was literally inside a box). There were some snippets throughout the video, whilst the ending went through a very quick flash of various visuals of the members that I don’t remember seeing anywhere else before (unless my memory has completely failed me). I find them to be captivating, mainly because I had question marks about what was going on in those mysterious and unfamiliar shots. Any one knows?
The performance was good to watch. But I didn’t see anything impressive or ground-breaking, but I liked that they went hard and didn’t hold back in the performance.
Song – 7/10
Music Video – 7.5/10
Performance – 7/10
Overall Rating – 7.2/10
One thought on “[Review] One (Monster & Infinity) – SuperM”