Song Review: Oneus: Rupert's drop

• Release date: 2024 December 10

• Album tracklist: Rupert's drop, Rupert's drop (Inst.)

• Album runtime: 7 minutes

 As expected, all the groups that were on Ace of Ace are dropping mostly singles about a month after the show ended. This was the group I went into it hoping they'd win, even though I wanted all the groups to do well, but by the end, I really didn't care who won because they were all so good. There were some serious dark horses for me, whose reviews are coming up. But that's the thing about love: it's not a finite resource. Even though I added more groups to my ever growing list, Oneus's performances were also phenomenal. Also, one more thing I've learned is that Oneus's album artwork is gorgeous, Malus in particular.

There's something about the instrumentals of this song that screams "indie band playing in the parents' garage," but specifically from the late 90s, early 00s, where the accompanying "music video" was shot on someone's camcorder and is kind of weird and fuzzy. Relatively low budget, but brimming with love for music and passion coming out of the walls. This feels like a literal GarageBand, and that gives it a weirdly familiar, refreshing sound that I know is as polished as everything else coming out of a kpop group should be, but it doesn't feel like it, and because music is all about the feelings, universal language and all that, that's a good thing.

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm really digging the ballads being released right now. I will continue talking about the vocals shortly, but I'm going to science nerd for a moment. So, the only reason I know this is because I spent about five months as a teenage being really into glass-blowing (this was after the metallurgy and really was a natural progression from metal to glass), but Rupert's drops are these fascinating little tadpole-looking drops of molten glass dripped into cold water. The bulbous head can withstand thousands of kilograms of pressure, but the tails are so fragile that any damage to them and the entire thing shatters into dust almost instantly. So, number one, I'm fascinated by the fact that this song was named after them, and number two, I'm impressed that this song was named after them. So, a ballad titled after something that is strong, until it isn't, and then it's irreparable tells me that this is likely a sad song, no matter what the instrumentals sound like. The lyrics, by the way, are actually pretty sad, assuming the translation was correct, and fall pretty well in line with the metaphor of a Rupert's drop. The past is the past, and it's never coming back. The whole lot of them sing, and they all have lovely voices. There was a survival show where some of the rappers were getting snippy about having to sing, and Oneus is proving why even rappers need to be able to sing with this song. Also, Leedo has the rapper rasp, and I love it so much. Not a drop of English in the lyrics and Seoho is one of the lyricists. Good for him. 

I almost see this as more of a special video than I do a music video. The music video is storyline-less with minimal choreography if any. Their stylists need a raise, though. It's mostly just them being pretty in pretty clothes in pretty environments.