Song Review:: ODD YOUTH: Best Friendz- Best Friendz {Debut}

• Release date: 2024 November 01

• Album tracklist: Please Stay

• Album runtime: 3 minutes

 So, last night, I was looking up what the members of Shinhwa have been doing lately, because I would love to see them release a new album, but I'll likely have to wait for another anniversary album. Which is fine. Anyway, as I was looking in to them, I found out that the maknae, Andy, has been busy with groups! (Also, it wouldn't surprise me if he named the company after their first financial success, which is a fabulous song and I love it). He had both TEEN TOP and UP10TION, which is super exciting for me to discover because I like both of those groups. Why do I bring them up? Because ODD YOUTH is the latest group to debut from one of the OGs of K-Pop and join their older brothers, MCND, as one of the active groups under TOP MEDIA.

I do have to decide on if I can listen to this group, if I end up liking them though, because yes, the maknae is 16 and yes, they don't have majority adult members at debut, but by the end of their first year, all but one will be adults, and the maknae will be turning eighteen a little over a month later. So it's a gray area, and I allow myself the ambiguity of "within the year" on purpose.

Ooh, I absolutely do not like that run time.

Okay, that's not a sound I have typically been associating with newer girl groups these days. There's something of "street music", that pops up in the instrumentals occasionally, clanging metal mostly, but it's just a brief little greeting. There's no overstaying of the welcome here. These are some very solid instrumentals to support the vocals of the song. And with regards to THAT'S ME, the other song on the single, I'm almost positive they actually use a cowbell in the instrumentals. If Best Friendz sometimes has the sound of street music, then THAT'S ME leans into it. 

Hold up. I'm going to go digging around in the credits for a second, because I've got a feeling and I want to see if I'm right. I WASN'T BUT YOU KNOW WHAT I'M OKAY WITH THAT BECAUSE OF WHO ACTUALLY WROTE THE LYRICS. Only freaking Seo Jieum!!! You might know her better as the lyricist for Move by Taemin, Growl by EXO, Electric Shock by f(x), Love Dive by IVE, Red Moon by Kim Woo Seok (which is one of my new fave Halloween songs), Fiesta by IZ*ONE, and Dumb Dumb by Red Velvet, among many, many, many others. As well as two NU'EST songs (Beautiful Ghost and Back to You) and Minhyun's Universe. 

Two things. One, the very first thing I noticed was how supported their voices are. Their voices are so clear and well-done that I was instantly interested in the song from just the first couple of notes. And there are some really interesting runs that the applicable members get to quickly flash, runs with vibrato. Two, the melody is fun and cheerful. There's a very TWS/Gfriend vibe to them, which I appreciate, and I found myself immediately vibing to it, and singing the parts I could pick up in English. Not that I think the Korean would be too much more difficult. As far as THAT'S ME goes, I wouldn't like it as well as I do if it had been picked for the title track. They just debuted. They don't have the street cred for bragging like that in a title track, but a b-side is fine.

Oh, that's an adorable music video. The TWS-like vibes are strong and that opening verse is one you can basically only make at debut. We don't get to see a lot of dedicated choreography in it, but we do get the vibes and there were multiple sections where I laughed a little. It's just fun. The members are cute, and they've got a little bit of a goofy thing going on that I deeply appreciate. But the thing I like the most is they just leave absolute chaos in their wake and they have absolutely no idea about it. It's genuinely funny.