Song Reviews:: BE BOYS: BE:1- I'M SO SORRY, BUT I LOVE YOU {Debut}

• Release date: 2025 June 18

• Album tracklist: I'M SO SORRY, BUT I LOVE YOU; if i ain't got you; CLOVER; BE There

• Album runtime: 13 minutes

 This group has the first North Korean to debut as an idol! His name is Hakseong, he was a finalist on MakeMate1 (which I watched and was sad he didn't debut in NouerA, but couldn't be happier that he gets to debut now), and he has a gorgeous voice, you guys. And, best part, is that the whole lot are full adults except for the maknae, who turned seventeen less than a week ago, so the group passes both of my criteria. I actually would have been really sad if one of the two didn't pass because I fell so far head over heels for one of the b-sides. I'll talk about them later. Because I'm giving this group a little special attention. I'm rooting so hard for this group. 

That guitar is loud and in front, very much a seventies sound. Actually I'm reminded of one of the songs from Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed soundtrack. This is basically the definition of funk, without the sociopolitical attachments connected to funk from the sixties and seventies It's good. It's solid. There's a lot of energy, which is good for a title track, but there's also a saturation to the sound. I'm hoping this is another indication of general movement away from the soft, insubstantial fluff of music that is pretty common these days. Instrumentally, this song kind of sounds like if Mansae by Seventeen had originally been done by NCT 127. That's a delightful combination to be hearing out of a freshly debuted group in 2025.

The NCT comparison carries over to the vocals as well. It's got sections where I fully could hear an NCT legacy in this group, the rapping especially. BE BOYS has a member who sounds a lot like Seungkwan from Seventeen as well, so really the NCT/Seventeen comparison has a bit of merit to it. I don't think he has the same stability as Seungkwan has, but this is debut. Seungkwan has ten years of active idoling under his belt. It would be cruel and irrational to expect the same from a newly debuted voice. But the vocals everywhere else are so solid. This is a good debut. I'm looking forward to listening to the rest of the album.

It seems like both if i ain't got you and CLOVER fall under the more trendy category, but still funky, which I'm personally fine with for the sole reason that that they aren't the title track. I do like CLOVER slightly better, even though it's shorter, but I feel like they're still pretty similar and they have the same flaw of feeling a little too high for the members' voices. That's not on the members though. But I still like both of them. I want to be clear about this. BE There, the ballad of the four and also my favorite of the bunch, is a gorgeous song that feels lower and less of a vocal stretch, which I like for obvious reasons. The song has a lot of things I typically like and the added benefit of feeling lower, but (and part of this stems from my frustration with Eden to not give xikers a real and proper ballad when the entire group have gorgeous singing voices and most of them have solid vibratos) I really like that a proper ballad like this was included on the debut album to prove that they can sing and harmonize and actually use their vibratos. All four songs legitimately are a good choice for a debut album.

So this is more of a performance video because we get a lot of choreography, and only a little bit of anything else. But I don't think I'm going to be overly disappointed, because we got an abs flash in the debut music video. That is a bold choice. But, congrats on your debut, BE BOYS! I hope the industry treats you well, your fans have a foundation of respect and support, and that you accomplish the things you want to do.