Song Review:: L5ST: Free Fall

• Release date: 2024 December 12

• Album tracklist: Free Fall

• Album runtime: 4 minutes

 When I tell you that I love this recently debuted group, I mean I love them. The debut review I did was full of surprised, instant love for them. Vocally, they remind me so much of BTOB that it's not even funny, but they can also do non-ballad well. So I'm both curious and excited to hear what they come out with for their second single and their first comeback about two months after their debut. I'm really rooting for this group. Also, I mentioned it in the review for their debut song, but the group name is pronounced like "lost", which I only understand now because I discovered the existence of the first Gen group 5tion and then felt a little dumb because I was reading that number in English, not Korean, like a dingus. 5 is 오 ("o") in one of the Korean number systems. 

The instrumentals for this one remind me of both early Astro and Seventeen. Bright and cheerful, but also very clearly dance pop. The comparison could also be made to a more mature TWS, which works considering age-wise, L5ST fits squarely between the older groups and the younger one I just mentioned. The verses and bridge get the benefit of softer instrumentals, 

It kind of feels like this group is the inverse of Nowadays. Both groups were full adults when they debuted (this year). They've both proven they've got both good vocalists and good rappers, but Nowadays puts the rapping ahead of the singing, relegating their examples of good singing to b-sides, where L5ST focuses on the vocals and keeps the rapping focus on the b-side. This may change with more releases but for now, the difference makes me laugh a little. In the case of Free Fall, the rapping is a lot more melodic, reminding me of Ilhoon rather than Minhyuk or Peniel. Rappers have a tendency to flatten their voices a little.  It's something that genuinely fascinates me when I find it in songs, especially ones where the focus isn't on the rapping as that helps me be able to identify it. There's a lot of breathy vocals that make me worry for live performances. This is definitely dance pop, but the parts where the music goes hardest, though at no point would I call this going hard in general, is also where the voices are best supported, so I'm hoping that their choreography matches that. The song theoretically also shouldn't require high-octane dancing anyway. Their vocals are just soft and pretty and soothing anyway. A new healer group has arrived on the scene. I said this for their debut, but this song solidifies that.

As I thought, the choreography is there and it's definitely dance pop, but it's not high octane or aggressive. The music video is very much as close to slice of life without being in the found footage style as I think it can be, which helps contribute to the comfy vibe of the song. The members are just having a good time. Actually, if the parts with choreo were removed, it would remind me a lot of the music video for Pretty U by Seventeen, which I love. It's a good showcase of them.