Tag: Cross Gene

Cross Gene made their first comeback in over a year yesterday. Their latest comeback single is titled as Touch It. This is also the group’s first comeback as a 5-member group after the departure of Casper in August last year. They were last on stage with Black Or White in February 2017. They also debuted a subunit last year called X HEARTS, which I somehow missed.

I feel like Touch It is another solid song from Cross Gene. It does lack some things to make it that winning song for the group. The song doesn’t really feature a chorus. Instead, it utilises instrumentation as its main hook. While it isn’t that troubling, I feel like if the song has a hook via the traditional lyrical approach, the song could have been much more memorable. That being said, the words uttered before the chorus (and the pre-chorus) do have that same effect and it does ring in your head throughout the song. Talking about the instrumental, the song takes on the tropical sound, which I think sounds a lot better since the trend has died down and not every song released features that sound. I thought the vocals were pretty good and I wished the rapping was extended for a long time frame, mainly because it was extremely well suited and kept the song from becoming too repetitive. Overall, I personally liked the song and thought it was pretty good.

The feel like the music video should have stuck with the ominous and mysterious concept. Those last few seconds where Takyua rejoins the guys and they act surprised in an exaggerating manner just ruined the suspense and mystery that the video was building up. Essentially, the guys follow this mysterious lady around and find themselves going through portals that lead them to different places, which I believe all end up being traps of some kind. As if she is luring them. I thought that part of the video was well done, despite it being extremely typical and standard.

I really enjoyed the performance. Those pieces of fabrics that start off as blindfolds were used very well in the performance to give off a sensual yet elegant vibe, which is rather interesting given the musical choice. With that said, I really enjoyed the chorus and it keeps the choreography captivating.

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

Cross Gene has finally returned to South Korea after over a year’s absence. They last made comeback with Noona, You in January 2016. That didn’t mean the group went MIA for the year. They did release their first Japanese album in April 2016 as well. Moving forward to 2017, the group released their Mirror mini album, which features Black or White as the title track.

Cross Gene has made releases with an edgy sound and concept before. But this release takes thing a lot further. And it sounds really cool. There are a lot of horror influences with the instrumental and song in general. The use of rock during the verses, the howling wolf in the background at certain parts, a grunting sound from one of the members etc. The instrumental tries to pack a punch. For the most part, the electronic-based instrumental succeeds in doing this. But there are segments where they remove the intensity and replace it with a hip-hop sound. It kills the mood, which is disappointing. The difference was far too noticeable to avoid talking about. The vocals of the song, along with the rap, was quite good as well. It built and gave the song the intensity it needed. I guess this is the song you would listen to if you want to be sitting on the edge of your seat. On a more personal level, it sounds really cool (as I specified above), but it doesn’t amaze me. I do read other reviews to see what people think of the song and I do agree with a majority of them when they say the song has a familiar sound and has been “done before”.

The music video is quite graphic and if you are not into gory stuff or violence – do stay away from the video. Essentially, the video is similar to the Jekyll and Hyde storyline. Each member has an innocent side (which we will refer to as the good side) and the creepily insane side (which we will refer to as the dark side). The dark side taunts the good side and ends up killing the good side as well. Let’s just say stabbing, drowning in blood and strangulation are involved. The other methods that were used to kill the good side are a little too graphic to even put into words. The odd thing is the good side ends up living again. As if the dark side never even touched them. Or everything was just in their head. I have to say the guy who ended up being drowned did a good job at portraying the good and dark side. He looks really innocent one second and then insane the next. I feel like they should have ended with the dark side just in the background, while the good side is just to come to grips with what had happened. It would give a video a more eerie and ominous look (even though they got that covered). I thought the video was well shot. Some of the acting looked a little awkward but still bearable to watch. Overall, I liked it. It just isn’t for the faint-hearted.

The performance was generally quite good. They split the group into smaller groups of three. One being the white group and the other being the black group. The dance is also split amongst the two groups. Either group performed by themselves, with little interaction between the two groups. While this has been done before, the separation here looked more obvious made everything seem a lot edgier.

Song – 8/10
Music Video – 9.5/10
Performance – 8.5/10
Overall Rating – 8.5/10

Cross Gene has returned to the stage with a brand new mini album. This is my first review for the band. Cross Gene made their debut back in 2012 with La Di Da Di and this is a band that also promotes regularly in Japan. They actually made their debut in Japan around the same time with the same song. They received a lot of love and attention in their more recent comebacks from fans especially with their last comeback: Play With Me.

This song isn’t that bad. I don’t really like this style for the boys. I don’t honestly pay attention to them, but their best song to date is Play With Me. Beside that, their other songs have all be lacking for me. This one is just another song to add to the latter list. It does not appeal to me and it really can’t get into no matter how much I listen to it. It is a much brighter song and has a catchy chorus but that is all I can say about it. The verses just feel like they don’t belong to the song and the rapping just doesn’t feel like it fits in. The vocal work in the chorus is pretty good but the verses is just another story. The instrumental feels like 10 different song styles have mashed into it and that confuses my ears quite a bit. So overall, I am quite disappointed with the song.

The music video reminds me of Wipe Out. Hahaha. The Sucker Punch Wall, the big ball that swings from side to side and the rolling barrels. The video is literally the boy group going into this abandoned warehouse to save their lover, which was where they went to go on dates in the past. Their girl is kidnapped by these playful and idiot kidnappers who where clown faces on cardboard boxes to protect their identity. First of all, why not clown masks? You drew clown faces which I am 100% sure you can buy in the form of masks. In the end, the girl takes her two kidnappers out and scares her “saviours” who probably did not expect it. Well, I predicted as soon as I saw her sigh. It was a video with a good concept and idea. The way it was presented was pretty good and easy to decipher. Just the close up scenes of the members do not match the style of the video.

The dance fits in with the playful vibe the song had going. But it is not as good as their previous dances. They had this serious expression at the start but I am so happy they changed into smiles and surprised faces. Their slow mo small distancing running weren’t that great and I can’t seem to pinpoint the key move.

Overall, disappointing song and dance but the music video was pretty good. 4.5/10