Tag: Lapillus

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

Before I can return to writing reviews for releases from the past week (plus some other posts such as album reviews and International Song Reviews posts), I need to cover one more female rookie group (just to keep things balanced with the male rookie groups I focused on the previous week). And this one more review will focus on Lapillus, a 6-member female group under MLD Entertainment, the home of Momoland and T1419. The group consists of Chanty, Shana, Yue, Bessie, Seowon, and Haeun, and they all made their debut in June of this year with the single HIT YA!. More recently, Lapillus returned with the single GRATATA, which will be the focus of another review post in the future.

Out of all the female rookie releases I have reviewed this week, HIT YA! is probably the heaviest of all. There is a powerful, edgy, girl crush vibe that comes off strongly from the song. Out of the four reviews I wrote this week for the female rookies, HIT YA! does manage to stand out as a result of this powerful and edgy energy. But when you compare HIT YA! to the rest of the industry and what is out there at the moment (or at the time of HIT YA!‘s release), the song falls into pretty generic territory. It also doesn’t help that the entire second verse was substituted out for an instrumental break. It does add more to that powerful and girl crush vibe that I already mentioned and there is a uniqueness to this approach, but it is done at a pretty large expense. Surely, the producers could have used that segment better to show off the members. As a result, HIT YA! only had a limited amount of time for the members to make a lasting impact. And unfortunately, I don’t think they did. The high notes at the end were definitely a hint at something promising for the group, but they ended up being in the background. Those high notes easily could have breached the surface and become an explosive element. There were potential behind the rappers in the first verse with their solid delivery. But without a second verse, there was a missed opportunity to reiterate it. Even the lyrical hooks were quite lacking, relying on the instrumental of the choruses to be the main centrepiece of the song. I feel lyrical hooks leave much more of an impression, while the instrumental only does so much. So unfortunately, Lapillus’ debut song HIT YA! was riddled with problems that just did not work in their favour. Hopefully, their comeback track GRATATA can be more promising.

While the song isn’t for me, the music video was definitely much better. They got a fairly decent budget for the music video that enabled them to get some cool backgrounds in the post-production department. Their closeups and solo shots were also quite cool, though some better lighting could have shown off the members more successfully. I know they approach the video with a darker and edgier concept in mind, but the backgrounds for some of the scenes turned out to be quite colourful, so I feel like they could have gotten away with some better lighting. The real and built dance sets were probably the most lacking elements in the video, as they come off as quite plain.

The choreography for this release worked well with the song. The members doing a great job of showcasing that edgy and powerful vibe from the song behind each of their moves. I did particularly like the body waves and the right-angled positioning of the arms in the chorus, while some other moves (i.e. the arm shotguns) are becoming dated.

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