Tag: TREASURE

TREASURE is back with their final release of 2020. The group has definitely been quite busy since they made their debut in August of this year with BOY. They followed up their debut single with I LOVE YOU in September. Once promotions for the second single was wrapped, the group was confirmed for a third single (MMM, the focus of this review) which dropped earlier today and a full-length studio album in January next year. For those who are wonder, December won’t be a month off for these guys as they prepare for and perform at a number of award nights and those end of year music festivals.

TREASURE has so far stepped away from YG Entertainment’s association with hip-hop. BOY was more of a departure than I LOVE YOU was, but both felt to be outside the common hip-hop bubble. MMM, on the other hand, pretty much steps back into that bubble. While I do like their individuality, I also liked that MMM plugged themselves back into the roots of their company. It says that they are still a YG group despite the different musical influences that they are drawing upon. MMM retains the modern KPOP hip-hop influenced structure (rap intensive verse, followed by a vocal-heavy pre-chorus, which leads into the chorus – a typical structure nowadays from how I see it), whilst also incorporating the EDM that they have really embraced in all their releases thus far. The peak of the EDM in the chorus was a very interesting centerpiece to the song. It works really well with the more serious nature of the song and it seems to add a bit of dramatic flair to the song. For the hooks during this part of the song, I thought they were weak at first. But those ‘Mmms’ and ‘Treasure you‘ whispers ended up feeling quite substantial for the song in retrospect. To me, the chorus was probably the only impressive part of the song. Everything else felt a little hit and miss for me this time. The instrumental had a nice Middle Eastern flair, but it failed to excite me for the most part. MMM manages to change it up by throwing some energy at us and keeping the EDM more consistent for the final chorus. It was a needed move, but I wanted more oomph to really get out of the repetitive loop that the song felt like it was stuck in. Similar ‘repetitive loop’ comments can be made in regards to their vocals and rapping. MMM doesn’t feel like their most impressive foot forward, in my opinion, and I will be picking their earlier singles over MMM any day.

The music video looks quite good. I like their use of the industrial look of their setting and the use of black and white throughout the video. It gives off a stylish look and adds a bit of simplicity to the music video. This also make the choreography scenes that feature their more colourful outfits feel like a ‘splash of colour’ and thus stand out a bit more. They do opt for the choreography and closeup formula, but it isn’t really that noticeable to me. I only realized it when I was typing out their review. Some fans mentioned that the video features YG Entertainment’s new building, which I thought was a little fun fact to add to the review. I think you can definitely say that this is a YG video. Hahaha… 🤣

The choreography for this comeback is definitely a highlight. Let’s definitely talk about the choreography they had for the EDM centrepiece. It looks amazing, complicated but very sophisticated. I didn’t want to say this before in the song review section, but those ‘Mmms’ had a sensual sound to them. And it looks like the choreography had that effect as well!

Song – 6/10
Music Video – 8/10
Performance – 9/10
Overall Rating – 7.2/10

Making their first comeback literally weeks after their debut is TREASURE, with I LOVE YOU. This hastiness to make a comeback is quite rare in YG Entertainment’s world, given that their artists tend to go for months and years on end with no signs of a comeback. That being said, YG Entertainment have already confirmed plans for an ambitious end for 2020 with confirmed BLACKPINK and AKMU comebacks and it is rumoured that iKON, WINNER and BIG BANG will be also making their comebacks before 2020 wraps up. Today, the focus is on YG Entertainment’s latest addition to their family and their comeback single, I LOVE YOU.

In my BOY review, I noted that the group stepped away from YG’s strong association with the hip-hop genre, going with what felt like a pop sound instead. I am not sure if I LOVE YOU confirms that observation, as it seemed to take a step back towards the hip-hop genre. It isn’t strong throughout the track, but it prevalent during some parts (i.e. the second verse). Personally, I don’t mind this as both BOY and I LOVE YOU manages to breath some freshness into their company’s discography. I LOVE YOU‘s opening verse promises more of that pop feel. I really like the lightness of both the guitars and their vocals. The pre-chorus brings about a build up that felt typical, but makes total sense given the fast-approaching epic, deep and abrasive drop for the chorus. I personally enjoyed this drop as it totally throws your expectations for the song array. I liked how the chorus doesn’t stay in this rough gear for its entirety, instead emerging out of the deep and abrasiveness nature to help bridge to the other parts of the song. The second verse was a typical trap-based rap sequence. I am not entirely against this trap-rap sequence, but it did feel dry and unoriginal. Skipping forward to the bridge, we return to that pop feel briefly before we are launched right back into the pre-chorus. The one part of I LOVE YOU that I am not a fan of is the anthem-half of the final chorus. It is very YG to do an anthem at the end of the song and (as I have mentioned before) it is pretty cliche. I wished that they just made the second half of the final chorus be the actual final chorus. I would have been fine with that. They could have also thrown something dynamic into the mix to change up the final chorus if they wished. To sum up, a good followup to BOY in my opinion.

The song talks about their feelings towards their lover and the music video was a pretty good representation of that. There were a lot of love hearts and youthful visuals throughout the video, matching with the song’s innocent theme. I wasn’t a fan of the closeups of some of the members during the second half of the rap sequence. It felt a little try-hard and mis-matching. I actually preferred the visuals and choreography closeups during the first half of the rap sequence, as it binds nicely with the rest of the music video. My favourite bit of the entire music video has to be any scenes in front of that huge screen. Especially when it came to the chorus and the screen showed this huge wave and a really nice blue/green hue to it.

The choreography is fantastic. I liked how powerful they made the chorus feel from just the moves alone, emphasizing the bass and power that the chorus had musically. The head bopping and finger hearts was definitely a killer part in my opinion. This might just be a visual component in the music video and not necessarily replicated on stage, but the dancing in the water looked epic.

Song – 7.5/10
Music Video – 8/10
Performance – 10/10
Overall Rating – 8.2/10

I break the catch up transmission with a review for a new release! TREASURE officially makes their debut with the release of the title track BOY. This is YG Entertainment’s latest addition to their company, consisting of 12 members (Hyunsuk, Jihoon, Yoshi, Junkyu, Mashiho, Jaehyuk, Asahi, Yedam, Doyoung, Haruto, Jeongwoo and Junghwan). The group itself was formed through the 2018 trainee survival show, YG Treasure Box. The show formed two male groups to join the YG Family and was collectively 13 members earlier this year. However, Yoonbin left the group prior to their debut and the decision was made to merge the two groups together to form Treasure. The group’s debut was teased since January 2020 and Bang Yedam debuted as a solo act earlier this year as well with Wayo (to be reviewed).

Previously, YG Entertainment has been heavily associated with hip-hop music in the KPOP industry, with some noticeable exceptions. And I think TREASURE, based on BOY, is another one of those exceptions. They stray away from their company’s heavy reliance on hip-hop and goes down more of the pop route for the group’s debut single. I am basing this observation on one song, so there is a chance that the group might end up going for something more towards YG roots in future releases. That being said, the producers still employ a notable YG element in BOY, which I predicted was coming. More on that later. BOY is quite dynamic and intense. I actually felt this at the very start of the song and they managed to continue this throughout the song. I also find the EDM drop (the genre of EDM is so familar but I cannot pinpoint its exact name) in the chorus to be very profound and refreshing. Their vocals and rapping adds to the song’s dynamism and energy. I really like that they were very clear and crisp throughout the song. The song’s memorable hook ‘I just wanna be your boy‘ was handled by Junkyu and Yedam, who both together form a very powerful duo. Definitely members that I will keep an eye out for. However, the song isn’t perfect. The song starts to unravel after Hyunsuk’s shouty bridge. BOY could have done without the anthem-like ending. It is a very overused YG tactic, so it is very plain and boring. It was good the first few times. But since it is now overused, I just roll my eyes at it. It is done to give the song one last hype moment, but I just felt it overwhelmed everything that came prior to it. But apart from that, BOY is definitely a strong debut song.

The music video definitely has great visuals. From the members to the sets, everything looked exciting. On a side note regarding the sets, there seems to be a lot of depth in comparison to other YG music videos. I say this because compared with this video, other recent YG music videos end up looking more like box sets now. The music video does follow a closeup and choreography formula. But there is a lot of dynamism in the music video as well, so I am not as fussed. I really liked the special effects they added during post-production. They helped heighten that level of fun we get from the visuals in the music video, which compliment the song in a variety of ways.

From what I can see, the choreography is going to be superb. The air guitar-like move and the footwork during the chorus looks very impressive. They seem to use their space very well, as seen in the second chorus. The dance break we get as part of the bridge also looked really cool!

Song – 9/10
Music Video – 10/10
Performance – 9/10
Overall Rating – 9.3/10