ZEROBASEONE makes their grand return today with the new single BLUE and mini-album, BLUE PARADISE. It follows the pre-release single Doctor! Doctor!, which I will be reviewing soon. The new mini-album is the group’s first Korean release in 6 months, following their CINEMA PARADISE mini-album (album review coming) and GOOD SO BAD comeback in August last year. The group has also been busy in Japan with releasing their Japanese debut mini-album PREZENT last month and a new single NOW or NEVER.

But today’s post focuses on BLUE. BLUE is a pleasant alternative pop song that follows GOOD SO BAD quite nicely. The pleasantness comes from the airy and buoyant melodies, the underlying guitar we hear very clearly when the synth work is stripped away during the pre-choruses, and the refreshing synth instrumentation in the choruses. ZEROBASEONE’s vocals bring brightness to BLUE, giving it sweetness and a wholesome feel. Most of the song was enjoyable, and I liked it a lot. However, some parts in BLUE haven’t won me over yet (who knows what some more repeats of BLUE may do). The first is the way the chorus ended. It felt abrupt and sudden. A post-chorus would have helped offset this. The second is the rapping, which is a loss opportunity, in my opinion. While what we got in BLUE wasn’t bad, it played too safely with the pleasant trajectory. Listening to it closely, I wonder how a bit of roughness could have given the rapping some additional personality and oomph to make it even more memorable amongst the pleasantry vibes BLUE had throughout the song. Thirdly, the hooks don’t feel as established as they could be. BLUE is definitely more reliant on melodies given the song’s pleasant and vocal focus, but I wished the hooks were a little more enticing.

A clear blue sky symbolises a good day, and the members recall the fond memories of meeting someone special on that good day in BLUE‘s lyrics. The music video shows bright and beautiful days with clear blue skies throughout the video. Some of it is virtual, some is real life – all show us the consistent message of how good these days are. Even in some of the indoor shots, you can definitely get a sense of how blue the skies are by watching the good moods the members are in. Altogether, it’s definitely a feel-good video. As a small side note, the choreography scenes in the virtual world (i.e., the street with the changing buildings) reminded me of their Feel The POP music video from last year.

The choreography opts for a more flowy and airy approach, which works well with the song. Nothing that memorable, though the scarfs were a nice touch. I do want to point out that I didn’t notice how shouty the vocals were in the chorus until I watched the performance. But I am not disappointed by it. The shoutiness gives BLUE some character (more so than the audio version), and it was well-controlled and felt piercing in a good sense.

Song – 8/10
Music Video – 8.5/10
Performance – 8/10
Overall Rating – 8.2/10