This week kicked off with the return of NCT U and its familiar lineup of members for the release of the single Baggy Jeans, which also serves as the second title track off the NCT 2023 studio album Golden Age. For those who may not know, within NCT, NCT U is a rotational unit that changes its lineup depending on the single. For Baggy Jeans, we see the return of the lineup of The 7th Sense (the single in which launched NCT U back in 2016) – Taeyong, Mark, Jaehyun, Doyoung, and Ten. Last week, I reviewed the first title track from the album, which shares the same name as the album and features all the members in NCT currently active.

My review of The 7th Sense was pretty harsh in retrospect. While it came from a time where my thinking and writing wasn’t as mature as now, the review is truthful (and I still do not understand why so many people rave about it till this day). Maybe if I had a chance to rewrite the review, I would say it in a less harsher manner and think of the finer points to discuss in the review. But I am not here to discuss the initial single of NCT’s career. I am hear to discuss Baggy Jeans. But let me just say that when I first read the reference to The 7th Sense (which was in relation to the lineup, but I actually thought of the song in the first instance as I couldn’t remember who was part of the lineup then) when reading into the details of the comeback, it didn’t raise the bar of expectations for me. And that stands true to even after listening to Baggy Jeans. The hip-hop dance track does catch on thanks to the power of repetition (even though the repetition of the song title in a dull manner) and I enjoyed the whispery, descending, spoken vocals just before the choruses. I also thought the tinny instrumental break adds some dynamic flair to Baggy Jeans (though I could have done without the ‘Baggy/Baggy Jeans‘ repeats) and Mark’s ‘Yeah Boy‘ line just after the 2-minute mark was memorable. Unfortunately, that is all I personally enjoyed from the song. Baggy Jeans‘ verses were a bore due to the lack of attractive melodies from both the rappers and vocalists. The choruses was largely plain and the instrumentation in the central part lacked creativity. Talking about the instrumentation, the backing for some reasons gets scratchy and jarring within itself in the final run of the chorus. I am not entirely sure why this was a necessary development, but it made the already unappealing instrumentation even more unappealing. Unfortunately, Baggy Jeans doesn’t do it for me, just like how The 7th Sense never did as well.

Glad to see the members in baggy jeans for the video. Relevant and they look good. I also like how it wasn’t just denim central, with the stylist putting in some thought about how the members could blend in more cohesively with the plain yet simple backgrounds the video had and the hip-hop sound. The video could have been saturated in blue denim and I think that would been cliché and a bore to watch. I did like the choreography scene where it was just Mark and the four baggy jeans dancing along. That looked cool and emphasised the title of the song quite well.

The choreography was also quite good. I really liked how the routine captured the hip-hop side of the song and the members really took on that ‘swag’. My favourite bits were the formation around Doyoung, the striking start of having Taeyong on the floor between the other member’s legs and the dance break during the instrumental break.

Song – 6/10
Music Video – 7.5/10
Performance – 8/10
Overall Rating – 6.9/10