A group who I don’t really pay attention to whom I ought to pay attention more to is Lapillus. While I am not 100% sure why, I have a gut feeling that tells me that they should be on my radar. And their latest song, Who’s Next, backs up this thought. Who’s Next was released in June 2023 as part of the group’s second mini-album, Girl’s Round Part.2.

Who’s Next is clearly loud and noisy, but it is the boldness and striking nature of the song that I like best. You can say that the instrumentation plays a part in this (and it does, though I am not 100% impressed with the background – more of that in a second), but I actually put it down to the song’s clear and simple chanty “Tell me who’s next” hook, which does get pretty addictive. The “Na Na Na” refrain that follows the second chorus and ends off the song also has a similar effect. The pre-chorus that leads to the song’s main hook actually sounds quite good and gives a nice incline towards my personal likeable aspect of Who’s Next. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the rest of the song. The verses were a complete miss, with vocals and rapping not coming off as polished. The instrumentation was very typical and dated ‘loud noise’ and I felt it didn’t offer Who’s Next anything new to really set it apart from the competition. I also didn’t feel like it was cohesive, with it feeling like we were more so thrown into the production. Overall, I like Who’s Next’s intention, but not necessary all of its execution.

The music video appears to be pretty sub-par. There just isn’t a whole heap going on over than closeup and choreography in this video. While the background does give off an edgy vibe, the concept either felt plain (i.e., street food laneway) and was pretty overkill (i.e. gun-filled bathroom). The members’ styling was also quite boring. The post-production sucked. For example, the video includes a pretty cool drone shot at 1:10 of the video, with the drone flying through a window. But the editing that follows to merge it with the choreography scene to make it feel like the drone was also going to capture the choreography to make it appear seamless was very elementary and cheapens the whole deal. Also, what on earth is going on at the 2:33 mark, with the camera work capturing all members of the gun filled bathroom. They kind of used a 360° camera on a drone? It feels a bit much and felt distracting from the rest of the video.

I am quite impressed with the routine for this release, particularly when it comes to the chorus and instrumental break. The synchronisation between the members and sharpness of the moves looked cool and edgy. It also felt logical, which I liked.

Song – 6.5/10
Music Video – 5/10
Performance – 8/10
Overall Rating – 6.4/10