Kim Woo Seok (UP10TION)

[Review] Switch – Kim Woo Seok

March 10, 2022March 11, 2022Posted in KPOP, ReviewsTagged Kim Woo Seok (UP10TION)2 Comments

A year after his solo comeback with Sugar, Kim Woo Seok (currently an inactive member of UP10TION) is officially back on stage with his 3rd mini-album, 3rd Desire (Reve), and title track Switch. This comeback also follows he continuation of his acting career through the recent drama Bulgasal: Immortal Souls.

Switch is another decently pleasant track. Nothing overly memorable or special about it, but it isn’t terrible. It just a pleasant track. There is a fair bit out of Switch that I personally enjoy, but I enjoy them more as standalone elements than in a whole song. Just thinking about that is a bit abstract, but that is the best way I can describe my feelings about Switch. The pop instrumentation, particularly the rhythmic guitars, was the main driver of the pleasant description I gave to the song. It also gave the song a sleek profile throughout, which was a nice touch. As for Kim Woo Seok himself, his vocals were light and airy. I quite enjoyed the lightness. They aren’t the most riveting set of vocals ever, but they had a sweet and dreamy tone to it, which complimented the pleasantries of the instrumental. The melodies of the song were quite a strong point to Switch as well. The melody for the ‘It’s not fair, it’s a love affair‘ line was the strongest in this song, hypnotic in a way. It was an interesting direction for the song in general and I wished they explored more of it. But when you piece these good elements together, Switch comes off too light, too airy and too pleasant. And too much of these ended up making Switch forgettable, enabling for it to drifting away into the background. It is not something that you want from a title track. Switch needed something to ground it, and it should be something dynamic (e.g. more pronounced rock influences, particularly in the final chorus – you can hear something along the lines of this, but its just not fulfilling enough). I felt this dynamic energy was lacking in the song, and hence everything felt too one-sided. Had there been something to hold the song down and make it pop out more, I think Switch could have been more memorable.

I find the music video for this comeback to be suitable for the song. It is quite colourful and vibrant, in a way that fits the pleasant energy and tone of the song. Kim Woo Seok’s visuals are quite strong throughout the video. I did like the mix between animation and real life shot, as it brought some uniqueness to the video and visuals. However, aside from that, nothing else pings as memorable for me.

Again, there is nothing memorable coming from the performance, as well. But the choreography overall had a pleasant vibe to it, just like the other elements of this comeback. I can’t really fault this on Kim Woo Seok or the choreographer, simply because the song didn’t have any strong moments within it for them to really work with. At least, they did well with what they had.

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

[Review] Sugar – Kim Woo Seok (UP10TION)

February 8, 2021Posted in KPOP, ReviewsTagged Kim Woo Seok (UP10TION), UP10TION1 Comment

Kim Woo Seok made his solo debut with Red Moon back in May 2020. Since then, nothing much has been going on with Kim Woo Seok. It is still a shock to me to know that he (and fellow member and soloist Lee Jin Hyuk) have yet to return to the group for a full lineup promotion. There is so much opportunity to group both the group and the solo acts alongside one another, yet TOP Media has decided to promote the two singers seperately from the group. And must I say in a poor manner. While other soloists were enjoying two comebacks throughout 2020, Kim Woo Seok was only given the opportunity to promote Red Moon and that was it. Flashforward to 2021 (i.e. 8 and a half months), Kim Woo Seok is finally making his solo comeback with Sugar and the mini-album 2nd Desire [Tasty].

Sugar is a sweet pop track. Not overly sweet, thankfully. Despite that, Sugar is quite a change for Kim Woo Seok, given that it has been a while since I have heard anything quite fluffy from him. I am guessing an UP10TION track was when I last heard Kim Woo Seok approach that sound concept. After the sensual vibes that Red Moon carried, this is pretty much a polar contrast. But while Sugar is more upbeat and colourful in its musical approach (which can be my thing if it is done well), I am disappointed with the song. No matter how times I have played the song since the music video dropped this morning, it just doesn’t excite me. It felt plain and typical. I would have enjoyed the song more if it had more energy or more of a pop to it. Maybe something a bit more punchy or texturally captivating. This just feels like candy that tastes a bit flat. The most promising part of the song was the ‘Right/Ready, Tasty, Yum, Yum‘ deep whipser that we got after the first chorus. I guess what savours the song for me is Kim Woo Seok’s vocals, which were solid throughout Sugar. That high note at the end was quite good. I am tempted to say that I like the bounce that came along with the song’s melody. But I just cannot get over the fact that the song’s instrumental was dull as a whole, and that practically sours that comment. Overall, I feel like Sugar feel victim to UP10TION’s plainness. I don’t want to constantly make the link of the two acts, as they are meant to be different and standalone. But I feel like the plainness of both are on par with one another this time around.

The visuals of the music video faired a lot better than the song itself in my books. To match the song’s pop tone, the music video opted for colour. And it isn’t KPOP if all the colour is not in its pastel form. It is still quite bright and there is a noticeable innocent vibe that comes from the video. Alongside the colour and the youthful tinge, we have a pretty solid set design that ties the sweet aspect of the title and lyrics together nicely by moulding the sweets concept. If you have a sweet tooth, this might be the video to indulge in.

For some reason, his company made him promote prior to the offical release of the song and album. I guess it is to hype up the comeback before it actually drops. So naturally with this technique, we are treated to an early taster to the performance version. I find the choreography to be quite fitting for the pop sound of the song. The entire chorus routine seems pretty decent and showcases some skills. I was nervous that the song would hevaily impact appeal of the performance. The sliding chair moves while Wooseok is sitting on it does seem quite tacky, however.

Song – 5.5/10
Music Video – 7.5/10
Performance – 8/10
Overall Rating – 6.5/10

[Review] Red Moon – Kim Woo Seok (UP10TION)

May 25, 2020Posted in KPOP, ReviewsTagged Kim Woo Seok (UP10TION), UP10TION2 Comments

Let’s kick off this week with reviews for two solo releases. The first belongs to the solo debut of Kim Woo Seok, otherwise known as Wooshin when he is apart of the UP10TION lineup. Though, you may be familiar with Kim Woo Seok for his more recent endeavours. Last year, he was one of the two members of UP10TION (the other being Lee Jin Hyuk) to participate in Produce X 101. He placed second overall in the survival show and thus was one of the 11 trainees from the show to make their debut as X1 with Flash. However, due to the voting rigging scandal, the project group disbanded earlier this year. Since then, Kim Woo Seok took a short break and has now returned as a solo artist with Red Moon. Let’s see what he has to offer with Red Moon.

Kim Woo Seok’s debut title track is a sensual styled song, made up of heavy bass and electric guitar. It isn’t a song that I find instantly powerful like many of the current dance tracks. Instead, it slowly builds as Red Moon progresses to become a really bold track. The song knows when to make an impact with its sound, such as the consecutive thumping that appeared between the more classically geared bridge and final chorus. This really helps boost up Red Moon to a whole new level. I say this because while I did enjoy the resulting instrumental, the ‘blank canvas’ or the trap-based layer that was heard underneath those already mentioned instruments above were incredibly dry and boring. Without those thumping beats, heavy bass and electrical guitar, I would have passed over this song and not looked back. If I could have my way in some capacity, I would wanted the song’s instrumental backbone to be a little more exciting as this could have provided the song with a little more electricity and power. But as I said, I did like the effects that were added to give that power and boldness. What I have no criticism for as I believe that Kim Woo Seok nailed from the very start was the vocal works. The song really does captialise on his vocals, bring that sensual nature to life. I really liked the relatively low tone he uses in the song’s verses. I also really liked how his voice amped up to match the increased energy flow from the chorus. All working well together to deliver Red Moon.

The music video looks pretty good. Sure, the music video heavily adopted the close up and choreography formula, which I have grown to dread. And this does bring a dry energy over the video. But I thought the sets designed looked cool. Furthermore, the warm hue in this video really reflected well with the song. The warm colours really made the video shine in a subtle manner and the song pop out of the video. The more vibrant coloured scenes ended up going well with the rest of the video. Kim Woo Seok takes on a homme fatale type of look throughout the video, which I am sure fans would love seeing. I do notice a growing trend of cutting fabric from clothing

The music video was definitely strong sensual vibe. And this is thanks to the performance. I think the main choreography points of the video is when his fingers run down his body and he proceeds to perform hip rolls. There is a lot of body rolling this in performance, which I am sure will excite fans. I particularly like the choreography during final moments of the bridge, leading into the final chorus. That looked powerful.

Song – 8/10
Music Video – 8/10
Performance – 9/10
Overall Rating – 8.2/10