Today is one of the days in which we don’t have any musical release. So I thought I take this opportunity to select a song from my ‘Coming Soon’ list to write a review for, which I seem to touch every blue moon. Today’s choice is actually a release from way back in January. Actually, to be precise, this release dropped on 5 January of this year (almost four months ago). I am talking about Hong Eunki’s ON&ON. It caught my attention a few weeks after its release, and has since been on the ‘Coming Soon’ list. As this is my first time reviewing a Hong Eunki release, here is my short rundown of the soloist. He was a former member of Rainz, a project group formed after Produce 101 Season 2, in which he placed 38th on the show. He made his solo debut in 2019 with Blow, and has since made comebacks with Breath, Flower and now ON&ON.

To me, I find that ON&ON has this fresh mix of the groovy trend and deep house. It isn’t reaally much of an interesting mix, nor is it innovative. However, I do appreciate the remergence of different styles and combination once in a while. ON&ON defintiely benefited from this, as I couldn’t really think of another song from the top of my head that has blended the two together in recent times. What is also great about ON&ON is that while the two is a blend of the groovy trend and deep house, neither really felt like a commitment. It was a relatively light mix that felt pleasant enough to enjoy. And I say that in a positive manner. In addition to the instrumentation, ON&ON has this great upbeat vibe and catchy hooks that really caught on. You might argue that it didn’t have much effect, given how delayed this review is. But that shouldn’t mean anything (given my long and growing list of songs that I personally want to review). When it comes to the vocal front, I think ON&ON could have been more interesting. Hong Eunki has some standard vocals that were able to showcase a bit of vocal variety, such as falesttos throughout the song. There was also some decent effects placed over his vocals to give off some texture. But by the end of ON&ON, I was a little bored with the same techniques on the vocal front. But this didn’t really drag down the song for me. Overall, ON&ON was a nice and decent introduction to Hong Eunki for me. I will definitely keep my eyes open for further comebacks from the soloist in the future and hopefully they catch my attention as this one did.

The music video was okay. It tapped the shoulder of the standard choreography and closeup formula that isn’t that inventive. And while the saving grace of that formula is usually amazing and stunning closeup of the artists the music video features, this one doesn’t get up to that level for me. I did like the subtle emphasis on the colour blue, which is a bit interesting. It wasn’t bold in any way, but rather muted. But you could tell the producers were pushing a blue agenda for this music video.

I think the choreographer missed the opportunity to add a bit of a bounce to the routine. This could have potentially made everything better, given that the performance was focused more on generic output, if you understand what I mean. Everything looked standard and felt more like a clash of moves that didn’t really work with one another. I did like his enthuasism and the energy that he conveyed through the routine, however.

Song – 8/10
Music Video – 7/10
Performance – 6/10
Overall Rating – 7.3/10