Song Review:: Vanner: BURN- Automatic

• Release date: 2024 September 30

• Album tracklist: Revolver, Automatic, New Heights, Blossom, Xcellerate, Be Together

• Album runtime: 18 minutes 

One of the things I like least about K-Pop is finding out how tragic the stories of some of these groups are. As much as I like other aspects, those tragedies remind me of why I decided not to stick it out as a sociology major in college. 

Such is the case with Vanner, an idol group that had to work normal jobs to be able to afford to be an idol group with a CEO who also had to work a normal job to be able to afford doing anything with said idol group. And then they barely had time to be an idol group. The pandemic hit them hard. But they didn't give up.

Oof.

Anyway.

Automatic starts off reminding me of an old radio broadcast. I know that technically that would be part of the vocals, but I'm putting it here because that wouldn't necessarily be something that would have to be performed if performed live. That could be part of a back track. It reminds me a lot of the opening to ZEROBASEONE's GOOD SO BAD, which is a compliment from me as I added that one to my regular listening playlists, and has a similar disco-and-funk style. The piano that pops up brings me joy and makes me think of an old man in suspenders dancing with a cane. It's an odd image, especially for how brief that is, but I love the peekaboo piano. I'm not wowed by the instrumentals for this song, but there are others in the album that I like a lot better. Honestly, I would have picked Revolver as the title track. But Automatic was chosen instead.

And, like with the instrumentals, while I like their vocals, there are other songs in the album that I think highlight them a lot better. Automatic has high performability value, which is useful, and I hope the reason that it was picked as the title track is because the members liked it best. But, this song also lacks their lead rapper while he's enlisted, so the extra depth his voice specifically brings to the table is absent. Gon does well, and I think he's awesome (his birthday is the day before SCoups's and it delights me to no end that it goes him, SCoups, and Minhyun. Just boom boom boom. What was in the water in South Korea in late 1994 because there's a huge crop of idols born in the second half of 1995?), but he doesn't have the same tone as Sungkook. It's like the other members of Stray Kids trying to imitate Felix. Doable, yes, but sustainable? The vocalists still do very well as they always do, though I don't hear as much of a punch as you normally get from them. Still, even without that punch going into the climax or during the climax, they're very solid.

I feel like this is just ragging on the song, but it's not that I don't like it and it's not that it's not a good song because it is. I'm still adding it to one of my regular listening playlists. It's just my least favorite song on the album, which makes this a struggle.

The music video makes the song really cool and charming. They did such a good job with it. It has less of a storyline than I was thinking it would have, but it's at least very slice of life interspersed with their choreography, choreography which will do very well as a challenge. Lots of interesting details. Plus, I like the fact that the music video matches the song and is filled with them just being together. The celebration at the end is my favorite part. They're acting like dorks, and I couldn't be happier for them. Not going to lie, it's a little weird seeing Taehwan with black hair. I apparently learned him with lighter hair, and the only reason I recognized him here is his voice and his smile. I don't have the same struggle with Gon even though he has black hair in my head, but apparently my memorization of Taehwan with the lighter hair was stronger for some reason.

Also, just as a quick shout out, Gon had his hands in writing the song, and Lee Gikwang of HIGHLIGHT worked on another song on the album, Blossom.