Tag: OMEGA X

[International Song Reviews] Stray Kids, WEi, OMEGA X

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I think it is time for another International Song Reviews post, with the last one being from 10 weeks back and covering Japanese releases from THE BOYZ, BoA and TWICE. This time around, I will be covering Japanese releases from Stray Kids, WEi and OMEGA X. I would like to stress that these songs are from last year (not this year – I will get to them eventually), as I am still catching up on the many releases that I just didn’t cover last year due to time constraints. I am hoping for another post in a couple of weeks, so I am hoping I can get around to the 2023 release soon. But for now, here are my thoughts on Your Eyes (by Stray Kids), Maldives (by WEi) and Stand Up! (by OMEGA X).

Your Eyes – Stray Kids

Language: Japanese
Release Date: 1 June 2022
Album: Circus (2nd Japanese mini-album)

Your Eyes features a different sound for Stray Kids, who are usually known for their electronic dance tracks (see their lead single Circus from the same mini-album that features Your Eyes). It is a soft ballad that expresses their feelings about being in love and the anxiousness and happiness in their relationships. It shows Stray Kids in a more delicate manner, as one expects when it comes to ballads. The track is also purely vocally driven, and this allows the members to bring a sweeter colour and approach to their tone. The piano driven instrumental was soothing and calming. Altogether, Your Eyes was a dreamy number.

The music video is shot in a first person’s perspective, with the camera capturing the members who act as boyfriends to the person watching the video. I am sure fans have enjoyed this, as it gives them the opportunity of seeing the members up close and in such a loveable light. The video feels personal and works well with the song (in terms of both sound and lyrics). For me, I am not affected by this stuff. It isn’t my cup of tea, but I enjoyed watching the members smile and looked down to earth in this video. For Stray Kids, however, I can imagine this video coming back to haunt them (possibly a few years down the track where they are more matured). We have seen their reaction to the video at release. Just imagine the hilarity that would come about when they are reminded of the video’s existence later on in their careers. Their former labelmates, GOT7, also went through a similar thing with their debut teasers a few years back.

Overall Rating – 7.6/10

Maldives – WEi

Language: Japanese
Release Date: 11 August 2022
Album: Youth (1st Japanese mini-album)

WEi’s first Japanese single, Maldives, is a upbeat pop track that dabbles into some groovy territory with its instrumentation. The energy was great, and the vocals and rapping altogether was quite pleasant. It elicit feelings of a good time, which is the point behind the track – dreaming of paradise in the Maldives. However, there is a bit of typicalness to the song that held me back from completely liking the song. I felt like the producers could have done more to innovate Maldives into a better track. Maybe have more funky undertones to the song, or create a killer hook to the song to make it more memorable. As it is, Maldives is a fine song and a nice listen. But it quickly disappeared from my mind when it was out of my listening rotations (i.e. Weekly KPOP Charts segment on my blog, and I boil that down to lack of a memorable hook.

The music video is what I had expected. The video shows the members having a good time, spending time at the beach and in each other’s company. I am not sure if the group actually shot the video at the Maldives (I guess not due to the lack of scenery that would indicate a Maldives beach was chosen), but the beach location in which they chose felt appropriate nonetheless. Even the forest scenes we see in the video had a fresh vibe to them, something you would expect in Summer. The setting for the indoor choreography scene was pretty generic (I recognize the background from other videos) and I wished something better was chosen here. The choreography itself was also on the typical side. But I did like the fun and playful undertones present behind some of the moves.

Overall Rating – 7.3/10

Stand Up! – OMEGA X

Language: Japanese
Release Date: 24 August 2022
Album: Stand Up! (1st Japanese Mini Album)

Prior to the revelation that OMEGA X was being mistreated and abused by their former company (and the subsequent lawsuit ended in their favour), OMEGA X made their Japanese debut with the single Stand Up!. It is another fun dance track with funky and groovy undertones, making it super upbeat and suitable for the Summer season in which it was released in. The melodies and vocals were all very pleasant, as well, making it an enjoyable listen. Like the previous song above, I think Stand Up! lacks that memorable factor. Listening to the song now, I wished the raps in with a little more oomph. The track was pretty neutral overall, and I think some harder rap lines would have helped boost the song up and created a more eventful atmosphere. But what we got was still a great and fun listen.

Just like the music video preceding this review, this video shows the members having fun with one another at the beach. The main difference is that we get a different lead in – one of the members was bored of their original summer, and with the help of VR, he is taken to an alternative summer which was much more fun and exciting. This video also features some more urban locations, such as the skatepark and surfing activities, which do feel a little more summery. As for the choreography, I felt that it was light and flowy, whilst also being upbeat and playful.

Overall Rating – 7.5/10

[Review] PLAY DUMB – OMEGA X

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Naturally, the night I decided to take off (yesterday) had multiple comebacks. But don’t worry, I will (slowly) get around to them! First up (and I will explain why I chose this one to be first up from yesterday’s options for a review) is OMEGA X’s PLAY DUMB, which is the title track off their 1st studio length album. This is the group’s first comeback that I am reviewing since their debut with VAMOS last year, Story Written In Music. However, OMEGA X has had two comebacks since their debut which I have yet to cover including What’s Goin’ On and Love Like This, both of which will be reviewed in some form in the future. As for now, here is my review for their third comeback track, PLAY DUMB.

Out of all the releases from the 15 June 2022, PLAY DUMB was my favourite. And it was so for a very simple reason – it was fun and had strong ‘feel-good’ vibes which I needed after a long day. PLAY DUMB isn’t an innovative pop song, but it also doesn’t feel like a straight up copy of another bright and vibrant pop song from the top of my head (though one could say it is similar to other songs of an equivalent nature and I wouldn’t disagree with them). In addition to the vibes that I already mentioned, I found PLAY DUMB to have lively but also pleasant instrumental, stepping away from the heaviness that synths that we hear so often nowadays. I love the funky vibes that the guitar brought to the post-chorus hook. PLAY DUMB also features a strong showing of vocals and raps from the members, which is always appreciable. It also contains some decent hooks and melodies which I thought tied the song together really well. I really enjoyed the inclination of the pre-choruses, which helped drive up the energy of PLAY DUMB to make the chorus even better. There was something about the melody and the instrumental combination that worked really well and attracted my attention towards the song. I do think PLAY DUMB would have benefited from a more centric hook or melody for the actual chorus sequence, just to drive up the memorable factor of the song. But the hooks and melodies we did get in the song still works fine. Overall, PLAY DUMB is definitely a fun release, with its vibrant and brightness suitable for the Summer season.

Listening to the song, the accompanying music video had to fulfil one criterion for me to be considered successful – be fun. And I feel like that was nailed perfectly. The members looked like they were having a blast with one another and there were some funny scenes throughout. I also like the vivid colours of the video, which just works extremely well in bringing out that vibrancy from the song. If you missed the concept that was consistently present from start to end, it is just tennis. The sport was the pure focus of the video (aside from laughs and having fun). I did wonder what happened to the massive tennis ball that featured at the start of the video (the one that came crashing into Earth, put on displayed and subsequently stolen by one of the members so they can sketch it). I thought that whole ‘plotline’ was a bit of fun and would have liked it to make some sort of reappearance in the video at the end or something. it just disappearing didn’t make sense to me, and I am a bit disappointed by that.

The choreography was nice and worked well with the fun and energetic side of the song. I liked the refreshing vibes the members brought to the stage. I would have liked more bounce to the choreography (I think the song calls for this), but what we got was perfectly fine!

Song – 9/10
Music Video – 8.5/10
Performance – 8/10
Overall Rating – 8.7/10

[Review] VAMOS – OMEGA X

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Next up this weekend is OMEGA X, which is a fairly recent debut (two weeks ago, actually). OMEGA X launches their career with the single VAMOS and mini-album which shares the same name. What makes OMEGA X’s debut interesting is that the members of the group are all former members of groups that unfortunately never took off. It is quite disappointing to hear that some of these groups are now defunct or disbanded, as they released catchy and great tracks back when they were active. OMEGA X’s lineup include Hangyeom (former member of Seven O’Clock), Jaehan (former member of Spectrum), Hwichan (former member of LIMITLESS), Sebin (former member of SNUPER), Taedong (former member of pre-debut group GIDONGDAE), Xen and Jehyun (both of which former members of 1TEAM), Kevin, Junghoon and Hyuk (all former members of ENOi) and Yechan (former member of 1THE9). Let’s see if VAMOS has what it takes to relaunch their careers once again.

VAMOS (which is ‘go’ in Spanish) is a pretty plain song. And this would be troublesome for a debut song (let alone a redebut for the case of OMEGA X). It features an repetitive instrumentation and lacks a lot of elements to make VAMOS memorable. The main star of the song isn’t the members. They were unfortunately very forgettable and didn’t stand out. I did like how the rest of the members echoed the lyrics by shouting them out. But that was an echo, and intended to be in the background, not the foreground where the vocals/raps should have really been prominent. Rather, the ‘main character’ of VAMOS are the heavy brass synths that dominates the instrumental. They were off-putting when I first heard the song. But because the song doesn’t really have much to work with, the synths interestingly emerges as the song’s memorable aspect. Not only do the synths start the song, they actually feature in the chorus, as well. This pretty much dulls whatever intended effect it was supposed to deliver. The chorus also lacks a strong hook, making those synths do the talking, rather than the members. The second chorus attempts to change the song up by incorporating pan-flutes, but they replicate the same sounds of the primary brassy synths, and hence delivers no further impact. The bridge of the song is where things get a bit more interesting. The use of the whiny electric guitars is a bit different from any release in general, and gave me something to ponder about briefly. The chorus returns, once again. But rather than leaving it there, VAMOS ends with an ending sequence that reminds me of how iKON ends their songs. It gave the song that breath of life that it needed. But sadly, it was too late to really leave any lasting impression on the song. Overall, OMEGA X’s redebut doesn’t really live up to my standards. I do hope that the group are given another chance to release something else. And hopefully that something else is more dynamic and memorable.

What a great music video! While I didn’t have high expectations given that they were from a much smaller company (SPIRE Entertainment), I was pleasantly surprised at how good the video watch. Even their use of green screen puts a much larger company to shame! I really liked all their choreography scenes. Some of them were set up to mimic the outdoors, and these actually looked good. The best was the circular set, with the gold detailing, black and white visuals on the screens and the red lighting used in the background. It all gave off the impression of depth and that there was more to the set than just the circular stage. I also thought the members looked great, especially in their red and black outfits.

The routine was good and energetic. But it was riddle with the same issues experienced by the song itself. It was plain and didn’t have anything memorable within it. If I did have to point out which section I did like best, it would be the bridge. I think it was the most appealing part of the choreography.

Song – 5/10
Music Video – 9/10
Performance – 6.5/10
Overall Rating – 6.5/10