Song Review:: DXMON: Youth Never DIE- Zip Zip Zip

- October 22, 2024

Release date: 2024 October 21
Album tracklist: Zip Zip Zip, Heart Balloon, Zip Zip Zip - Instrumental
Album runtime: 9 minutes

This is the group that I know with the spiky anime hair. I'm also pretty sure that they don't have the spiky anime hair anymore. But as a recent debut, I do need to take a look at their maknae's age, so I'm just going to do a quick sniff at the group. It's a bit of a dilemma, but I think I'm going to put them in the technicality pass. Because if their original maknae hadn't left, it would be a no (hope he's doing better; it's always concerning to have a member leave the group for health reasons). The new maknae was sixteen at debut, but he turned seventeen this year and the rest of the group were adults at debut, some of them by less than a month. Thus, a technicality, because they have a new maknae. Oh, and their leader is also named Minjae and also born in 2003, like with xikers, which explains some of the videos xikers have posted. That's actually cute and made me laugh a little.

On with the review of their first five member release!!

Ooh, okay. We're starting off with something science fiction sounding. I am always appreciative of that, but I'm also not going to lie. I'd decided that this song was, despite the auspicious opening, going to be a standard hip-hop affair, but the song very quickly told me I was a moron and that I needed to wait a little bit longer. We have tempo changes. We have genre changes. There are a couple of sections of this song that reminded me of ATEEZ's cover of Rhythm Ta from Kingdom with the big, bold, anthemic chorus suitable for riling up a coup or revolt. This all was a more than pleasant surprise. I really like it. This is some good stuff. Does a surprise violin show up as well? Yes. There's so much happening that I never have a chance to settle and get complacent. And I'm including this part here because the producers took advantage of the stereo in speakers, and I'd highly recommend listening to it with both ears.

The opening stutter leading into the rapping first verse, which then leads into one of the slowdown, rolling pre-choruses, was actually really well done and highlights strengths for the members. And the bridge! Look, I am a sucker for a strong bridge that sounds very distinct from the rest of the song, and Zip Zip Zip delivers that. It's also where the violin shows up, and that's something I can get behind. There's exactly one big belt outside of the ad-libs at the end, but there is also a quick splash of a falsetto leading into the bridge I like so well. I am not going to shut up about that bridge. It's very well done.

However, I also feel like this song is the exact opposite of FACE, for instance, or The Real. The former deals with telling bullies they suck, and the latter is a declaration that even though they have this reputation that precedes them, they still focus on humility and kindness. This one feels like an "I can do what I want" kind of song, which is fitting for a group that splashed into the K-Pop arena with the hair that they did, hair which has settled down quite a lot for this release, but I'm also not necessarily sure that they have the clout to be able to back a statement like that up. This isn't the same as BIGBANG releasing a song like this, or iKon, or Epik High. But, I really like the choreography we see in the music video. And there's a horse. Why is there a horse? Not a clue, but it must feed into the theme of "I can do what I want." The camerawork also reminds me a lot of challenge videos, the dynamism of them, especially during the chorus.