Beginning in April 2021, SEVENTEEN members have been releasing solo mixtapes as part of ‘The Thirteen Tapes‘ project. The first was HOSHI’s Spider in April 2021. WOOZI released RUBY in January 2022, followed by VERNON in December 2022 with Black Eye. Next up in the series is DINO, who dropped Wait two weeks ago.

Wait explores a hybrid genre of music that see jazz and glitch come together. It is a unique mashup of genres, and we should definitely commend DINO and the producers of Wait on going out there in terms of the sound profile. But I am kind of left wanting more from Wait. While the mashup does come off as a notable centerpiece, everything else in Wait (from the verses to DINO’s vocals) doesn’t come off as nearly memorable. And when I reflect on the song overall after listening to it, the overall feeling I get from Wait is that it is flat. I just wished there was a bit more zing and zest to the song, to give it that vibrant factor and to really hone it all in. We do get some variety from DINO in this song, like some rapping and a decent peak towards the end of the song, which makes me form the opinion that DINO’s delivery in Wait is good and decent. But it also could have been more exciting and eventful. Overall, I’d considered Wait to be a fair release.

DINO does a whole heap of waiting in the music video, with the song expressing his desire to move forward with his relationship, whilst his partner has reservations or hesitations on the matter. We see DINO pull a ticket number and is made to wait for his food, wait to cross the road, awaiting a text message reply but is met with the dreaded three dot bubble. All the waiting appeared to be fruitful though, as he is able to collect his food by the time the video wraps up. And attached to his meal is a dried flower and his ticket, which we see him respectively smiling at and lose earlier in the video. I take this as a sign of acceptance of their relationship and moving forward from his partner. I guess my only query regarding the video is why he has such a dirtied look when he is sleeveless during a choreography scene. Not sure what the connection is there.

Talking about choreography, his performance skills are shown off in this video/release. His moves were sharp and precise, and he looks so focused and charismatic whilst dancing. The whole bridge sequence was my favourite part of this routine.

Song – 7/10
Music Video – 8/10
Performance – 9/10
Overall Rating – 7.7/10