There will always be a bit of time jumping for me, with the next release on the reviewing block coming out a month after BDC’s MOON WALKER (which I just reviewed). But there is another reason why I want to cover ONEUS’ Life Is Beautiful over many others today. For those who may not be aware, ONEUS is making a comeback (tomorrow in fact), and I wanted to review this particular release before their next comeback. So essentially, the deadline for this review is tonight. Life Is Beautiful is the second release in the ONEUS Theatre series, following Shut Up 받고 Crazy Hot!.

Add why I hadn’t reviewed Life Is Beautiful sooner to the list of world mysteries out there because even I cannot figure out why I completed passed over the opportunity to review this amazing release much closer to its original release date. I freaking enjoyed Life Is Beautiful‘s refreshing tone and its breeziness, which doubles as a great Summer release. It is also a very soothing and calming pop track that I just want to continually go back to. Just listening to the song brings a smile to my face, and I quite liked that in a song. Compared to what ONEUS usually puts out, Life Is Beautiful is very different. Not only does this release steer away from the group’s heavy dependence on synths in their title tracks, but the pop song is also light, extremely pleasant and quite upbeat. It is pretty much a straightforward song in retrospect, staying quite consistent from one end to the next. But is that an issue in Life Is Beautiful? I don’t think so. There are a few standout moments in the instrumental. The guitars in the second verse felt so right and the flutes used in the song’s post-chorus instrumental hook were fun and added so much colour to the song. Otherwise, all the descriptors that I started off within this paragraph can be applied to the rest of the song’s backing. When it comes to the chorus, I loved the melodically driven approach that the pop sound enables. The melody is charming and exudes that happy feeling that the song is effortlessly conveying to the listener. Their vocals bring this to life and they sound so good, highlighting their vocal versatility. The English lines in the chorus were very catchy and addictive to listen to. Even the rapping we get in Life Is Beautiful works really well. I do wish there was some sort of peak in the song. I felt like that was the only thing that was missing and would have made the song less consistent (not that was an issue in this particular track). Overall, Life Is Beautiful is almost a perfect song that I want to continually listen to.

As mentioned previously, the music videos released as part of ONEUS Theatre are based on movies. For Life Is Beautiful, the inspiration for this video was the movie Dead Poet’s Society. I personally haven’t watched the movie, but upon some reading of its themes (you can get a sense of those themes by reading the plotline of the movie on Wikipedia), you can definitely tell that they were carried throughout the lyrics and scenes of the video. The members played students in what seems to be an uptight school. They are taught the exact same thing as the movie’s main character had taught his students – ”Carpe diem”, which is Latin for ‘seize the day’ (i.e. make the most of present-day). And we see that when the members enjoy their time with one another on the beach and by the sea. I liked the camera work for most of the video (sans the shaky camera work for the indoor choreography scenes), especially the drone used to capture footage as the members dance. It made the video seem more epic and amazing.

From what I can see from the music video, the choreography looks pretty good. I liked the way it captured the energy of the song, along with the song’s breeziness. It might not be as complex as their other tracks but I think the group managed to find an amazing balance of their skills for this song.

Song – 9.5/10
Music Video – 9/10
Performance – 8/10
Overall Rating – 9.1/10