NCT DREAM and NCT 127 is nominated for Best Subunit, while NCT Dream’s Hello Future is nominated for Best Pop Song in the 2021 KPOPREVIEWED Awards. Support either NCT DREAM or NCT 127 in the Best Subunit category, and Hello Future in the Best Pop Song category by clicking here to vote!

NCT is back as a full group (aside from two members, Lucas and WinWin) with the new album, Universe. The new album is not out yet (its formal release date is 14 December 2021), however, the first lead single from the album has already dropped. It is titled Universe (Let’s Play Ball) and features NCT members Doyoung, Jungwoo, Mark, Xiaojun, Jeno, Haechan, Jaemin, YangYang and Shotaro. This full group comeback comes a year after the NCT 2020 promotions, which saw the group return with 5 title tracks, including Resonance.

Universe is a very intense track. So intense to the point that it felt very ‘in-your-face’ type of intense. There is nothing wrong with that however. If nailed, like Universe did, then it can be a fantastic track. And that’s the impression I get from Universe. It isn’t 100% perfect, however. I will return to that in just a second. The song starts off with the song’s shouty hook. Personally, I don’t mind the ‘Let’s Play Ball‘ hook. Admittedly, it does feel a bit childish and I didn’t know if it went with the intensity of Universe. But subsequent listens to the song have helped justified it. The hook repeats on a loop through some iterations of intense instrumentation, a ‘What You Got‘ loop (courtesy of Jaemin) and some vocals (courtesy of Doyoung). While I like overlapping in songs, I felt that Universe went an extra unnecessary step when the hook overlapped with Doyoung’s vocals. It felt a bit much when it got to that point and was hard to focus on Doyoung’s vocals. I wished they held back on that additional iteration. That was the only part of Universe that I did not enjoy. Other than. the song gets a big tick from me. Universes showcases interesting vocal and powerful rapping throughout the song. There is a lot going on in this department, but I was not disappointed with the variety! The chorus melody was actually pretty solid and had a smoothness with counteracted with the the rougher textures brought through by the synths. In addition to the synths, there was some pretty good elements that made up the instrumentation, such as the synthesizer guitars and I also felt a bit of a rock influence at point through the presence of actual electric guitars. The overlapping returned at one point in the second verse and at the end of Universe and sounded fine, simply because they didn’t overlap with any vocals. Overall, there was one minor hiccup to Universe, but otherwise a great song that showcases a lot!

Part of the music video takes on a baseball game, which makes sense given the main hook being ‘Let’s Play Ball‘. The casual wear elsewhere in the video, like in the outdoor scenes and some of the closeups, felt fitting enough as well. However, I am not entirely sure of the direction of the choreography scenes in which the members were wearing suits and wearing those full face masks. They look good though, and I presume they have a reason for being in this video. But it just didn’t feel obvious. Over than that, a pretty typical music video.

What impresses me with the choreography for Universe is the speed at which the moves were performed at. There as a lot of fast moments in the choreography that made the performance looked pretty cool and much more impactful.

Song – 9/10
Music Video – 7/10
Performance – 8.5/10
Overall Rating – 8.3/10