Song Review:: Jinho (Pentagon): CHO:RD- Teddy Bear {Debut}

- September 23, 2024

Release date: 2024 September 19
Album tracklist: Goodbye With You, Teddy Bear, Dear Precious One Our Shimmering Days, Over, Bad Criminal
Album runtime: 16 minutes

Since most of the members of Pentagon left CUBE, and we're coming up on the one year anniversary of that, there's been a somewhat dramatic uptick in business among the members (something that is echoed in their sunbaenim group, BTOB). On the other hand, we also have impending military enlistments, and it's anyone's guess when the remaining three members who will need to enlist will. In the meantime, we have a bunch of solo debuts and the most recent one of those is Jinho, the eldest and the one I know as the one who enlisted mid-Road to Kingdom and made me cry. Teddy Bear is the shortest song on the album. It still averages out to over three minutes a song on average, but that's only because two of the songs are almost four.

This is such a mellow jazz that normally I wouldn't even call it jazz. Or maybe it's just jazz adjacent. It's a genre in that ball park, but I'm not entirely sure. But it is the genre that came to mind while I was listening. I like the snapping. Audience participation like that, outside of the fanchant, is always appreciated by me because when the audience can actually do it on the beat, it's really cool. And it starts with that right off the bat.

I wasn't incredibly impressed with what the song was having him do with his voice at first, and it did take me more than a few listens to decide that, yes, I like it, in large part due to the fact that there are sections of the song where Jinho settles into a lower register, and my goodness, he sounds so much like JR from NU'EST that my brain got confused about who I was listening to. Those lower notes he has going on are completely boyfriend worthy, and because he goes into them, the entire song is transformed. The depth of range he exhibits is lovely to hear, considering we usually only hear the higher notes from male artists. The high notes are impressive. But I really, really love that Jinho isn't afraid to dip down low.

Okay, so that makes it both Jinho and Hui who are adding the random cute animations to their music videos. Can I just say that I really kind of love that for them? But the animation adds a dual storyline that works alongside the live-action one, doubling the cuteness and sweetness. And I'm pleased to know that I caught the boyfriendness of the song, and it's almost an overdose of it. This is such a cute music video. Jinho looks so good here. He vibes well with the concept here. And apparently there's a Japanese version of it. So that's cool.