TXT is officially back with a brand new single, LO$ER=LO♡ER, which comes three months after 0X1=Lovesong (I Know I Love You). This new song is featured on the group’s repackaged version of their second studio album, The Chaos Chapter: Fight or Escape. Once again, I held back on writing a review for their second studio album, The Chaos Chapter: Freeze, upon hearing news of a repackaged version – so I will be fast-tracking an album review this weekend for TXT. In the meanwhile, here is my review of TXT’s latest track.

LO$ER=LO♡ER continues the rock influences from 0X1=Lovesong (I Know I Love You). For those who missed my comments of their previous title track, I was full of praise for the song, given that the rock influences felt just right. While LO$ER=LO♡ER has that rock influence and feels like an appropriate follow up to 0X1=Lovesong (I Know I Love You), it wasn’t as satisfying. The lack of satisfaction stems to a number of issues throughout the song, but majority of it was due to the fact that the influences in the chorus were quite flat. Given that the chorus is usually the centrepiece of any song, this is a massive blow towards the appeal of the song, especially since the verses had enough oomph to them. The buildup towards the chorus in the pre-chorus alluded for something with more intensity, and that just didn’t like it was delivered for me. Mellow and melodic are words that I would describe the chorus of LO$ER=LO♡ER. However, I just wanted more bite to the song, so that it could have been more show-stopping. The hooks in the song were quite decent, however I could have done without the whole ‘I’m a loser, I’m a loser, Lover with a dollar sign is a LO$ER‘. It is a step towards the cringy side of KPOP. I guess this shouldn’t have come as a surprise, given that it was foreshadowed in the title of the song. What stood out the most for me in LO$ER=LO♡ER are the members themselves. Their vocals were really good and well-presented throughout the song. Taehyun, in particular, had the right level of hoarseness in his voice to really give the song some punk edge. The rapping also had a nice kick to it and felt appropriate for this song. Overall, LO$ER=LO♡ER has a bit of a way to become a standout track. However, it still had a nice showcase of TXT’s skills.

I am not too sure if I understand the video correctly, but I think I have a solid theory to what is going on. Throughout the video, we see the events unfold in a first person point of view. In these scenes, we see the members as they are in love (i.e. the ‘lover’ side of the song). But my guess is that all these scenes are Yeonjun’s memories. At the start of the video, we see that Yeonjun is alone once again, similar to what we saw in 0X1=Lovesong (I Know I Love You). The most important ‘memory’ in this video is the livestream (which was Beomgyu’s solo scene). We see him being abused by his father and this occurred live to the world. I presume his lover was watching. It is a vulnerable side that he didn’t expect people to see, especially his lover, which started a shame-spiral. Throughout the video, we continually saw confident versions of the members, but this was not the case during the livestream. And as teenagers, you tend to overthink. So I guess Yeonjun overthinks that because he was kicked around by his dad, he is no longer confident and cannot impress his lover (i.e. he is a loser). The video ends up with all members in the same car as in 0X1=Lovesong (I Know I Love You) with Yeonjun at the wheel and driving off the cliff. Aside from my choppy interpretation of the plotline, I really like the choreography scenes on the back of the truck. It looked cool, and I liked the attention to detail in these parts. Outfit-wise, I feel something along the lines of their previous set of outfits would have been better.

I really like the use of the microphone stands in this performance. It is pretty unoriginal idea, but I like the fact that it emphasised the emotional aspects of the song and the rock vibes. I like how they incorporated the ‘L’ sign into the choreography. It felt like an obvious choice, so I am glad they did.

Song – 7/10
Music Video – 9/10
Performance – 8/10
Overall Rating – 7.8/10