I definitely have a long way to go to ‘catch up’ with the magnitude of comebacks, debuts and other releases I haven’t reviewed yet. I just wished I could ‘Run Away‘ from it. Hahaha… Excuse my lame pun. As you can tell by that terrible joke and the title of the post, I am finally getting around to reviewing Mino’s comeback track, Run Away. The comeback occurred two weeks ago at the very end of October (apologies per usual for the super later review). It also headlines Mino’s second studio album, TAKE.

As expected, Mino’s solo comeback delves into the hip-hop genre. No surprises there. While his solo debut track (FIANCE) was more robust and had very unique flourishes, Run Away is a lot more straightforward and plain. There are advantages to plainess if I were to think of it in an optimistic manner, but unfortunately it didn’t work in Mino’s favour. I didn’t get much excitement from the song instrumentally and that is the reason why I didn’t have much drive myself to start typing out a review for the comeback. One definite good thing about Run Away is Mino himself, who’s delivery was pretty dynamic throughout the song. It is admittedly quite sluggish at the start. But from the first chorus onwards, his delivery has a bit more of an energy kick to it, which gives the song a bit of needed dynamism. His super fast rapping sequence in the second verse was probably the song’s iconic moment and it does provide a minute and limited wow factor. However, no matter how much energy Mino infuses into the song via his delivery, the instrumental drags down the song nonetheless. Overall, Run Away doesn’t have that pull or enticement to get me into the song and get itself an earlier review.

The music video leaves me confused for a bit. But upon some research, it seems like the video is showing Mino is running away from the painful memories represented by different scenarios (i.e. people turning into stone, water filled train carriages and a pixelated former lover pushing the artist away). Each of these probably have some sort of significance and shouldn’t be taken literally. The final scene makes the most sense, as that would be his most painful memory of all (i.e. his former lover pushing him away). The scene where the people turn into stone represents the sadness that has lingered around and ‘hardened’ as mentioned in the lyrics. The water filled train carriage doesn’t make any sense to me, however, though I assume this has something to do with the ‘alcohol mixed with memories’ he sung about in the first verse. Despite the mild confusion, I did like the overall concept of it, which goes nicely with the lyrics. The video also features Kang Seung Yoon ever so briefly at 1:38 mark of the music video.

There really isn’t much of a choreography for this comeback. Hence I won’t include a rating for it. Unless you believe that Mino stumbling around on stage as if he is drunk and a mess is a dance routine. Obviously, this choice was made so that he can focus on performing live and I respect this choice. There are dancers in the background with some choreo, but I didn’t think they were necessary for this comeback.

Song – 6/10
Music Video – 7.5/10
Overall Rating – 6.6/10