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Did you know that WEi made a comeback in June of this year with their sixth mini-album, Love Pt. 3: Eternally and the title track OVERDRIVE? Well, I never got around to reviewing OVERDRIVE. But that changes today! Both their sixth mini-album and OVERDRIVE follows WEi’s fifth mini-album, Love Pt. 2: Passion and the title track Spray.
OVERDRIVE is quite upbeat and bright, which feels very appropriate for the summery season in which was released in. It is also very appropriate where I live currently, which has been heating up quite rapidly the last few weeks. The electrical guitar at the very back on the instrumentation, the twinkling details, the tropical base and the crunchy percussion helps all makes this track pleasant and lively, while the members bring to life the melodies that give off that brightness and good vibes in OVERDRIVE. While the chorus was probably the best bit of the song (thanks to all of the above), I am impressed with the bridge. It does slow the song down, but it serves as a nice showcase of vocals from the group, particularly Seokhwa’s breathier vocals. His part in the bridge was brief, but definitely caught my attention. I also commend the ramp back up to the final chorus, which was handled extremely well with WEi, going from Yohan’s vocals (which ended with a slight touch of autotune) to the very fun “Woah~” from everyone else to the chorus. OVERDRIVE was a solid summer song!
My understanding is that the original music video was replaced with a reuploaded version following an issue with the map at the start of the video. I couldn’t find an official source for that news, but that is the explanation I gathered from Reddit and YouTube comments. If that is the case, it had very little impact on the rest of the video, which captures the members having fun at the beach. The video is lowkey and light-hearted, which suits the summery vibe they are channeling. The beach setting makes sense, given the song’s lyrics which makes reference to going to “the end of the world”, which is commonly associated with the coast. It might not be a music video I would consistently return to, but it complements the song quite well.
The choreography is quite nice. I like its more fluid and freer energy, particularly as we get towards the end of the routine. Its fun, its upbeat and it looks like a blast – all of which goes hand-in-hand with the song.
Song – 8/10
Music Video – 8/10
Performance – 8/10
Overall Rating – 8/10