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Last week, you would have seen me drop two reviews for NCT U – PADO and The BAT. These tracks form part of NCT’s Golden Age album and also had an ‘archiving video’ (whatever that is). There are two more tracks that have archiving videos, one of them being the focus of this review – Alley Oop. In addition to the four songs with archiving videos, Golden Age also features the title tracks Baggy Jeans and Golden Age.

Alley Oop features YUTA, WINWIN, HENDERY, JENO, JAEMIN, YANGYANG, and JISUNG. These seven NCT members brings us an energetic hip-hop track with powerful bass and 808 bass (based on the official description). I really like the hyped-up energy that the members and instrumental exudes, which makes Alley Oop a strong song. Once you start head-nodding to Alley Oop (and you will), it is extremely hard to stop and put down the song. I also really like the textures in this song, which I felt also came from both the members’ rapping/vocals and what I assume is the intentionally unpolished instrumentation. The texture gives Alley Oop some more vigour and intensity. I have to commend both JENO and YUTA in this song, as they are the members that stood out to me the most in Alley Oop (The rest did a fine job themselves, as well). JENO’s rough voice and YUTA’s vocals (particularly in the bridge) are my picks of Alley Oop’s highlights.

Based on a Google search, the term ‘Alley Oop’ is a basketball term and the moves that leads towards an alley oop requires teamwork. Alley Oop (the song) makes a lot of basketball references itself, but also focuses on that idea of a team. So, it makes perfect sense that the archiving video for Alley Oop is set on a basketball field and the styling of the members also go down that path. There is still a bit more to the video, with references to music, glittery pizza (?) and the members stealing (or maybe just unloading) shoeboxes from a truck. In addition to that parallel, I find the concept and styling throughout the video to work well with that hype-energy that I made reference to earlier in this review.

Song – 8/10
Music Video (or “Archiving Video”, in this case) – 8/10
Overall Rating – 8/10