Song Review:: ZEROBASEONE: NEVER SAY NEVER- SLAM DUNK {Pre-Release}

-

  • Release date: 2025 September 01

  • Album tracklist: ICONIK, SLAM DUNK, Lovesick Game, Goosebumps, Dumb, NOW OR NEVER (Korean ver.), EXTRA, Long Way Back, Star Eyes, I KNow U Know

    • Album runtime: 32 minutes

     I love looking at the timing of album releases, and their pre-releases, because you can obviously tell when something is released because of a certain other thing that is also happening around that same time. It just makes me laugh a little. But I do have to say that they've been remarkably active, even in the less than a year since I started writing these reviews. With their contracts only being two-and-a-half years long, on top of being one of MNET's beloved project groups, it makes sense that they've been so active. Good for the fans, potentially exhausting for the group.

    So, I don't know if this is the result of me being the demographic I am, but literally every time we get one of these sports-type songs, my brain immediately flashes back to High School Musical (fun fact: one of my friends had a poster of Cordin Bleu in her gym locker). And even if it's not a song I probably would normally like, I think I just automatically like it by association. This one is actually surprisingly minimalistic, with at most two, maybe three instruments happening at a time, but most of the time, it's two. The point where this song definitely stands out from other members of the genre is we get shoe squeaking through most of it, the introduction sounds like something sampled from an actual basketball game with a ref and whistles, and the sound of a ball bouncing. I really appreciate the integration of the basketball sounds into the song. We also get a delightful cowbell, and I'm kind of fascinated by how often we get that specific instrument in K-Pop.

    I don't actually like this style of song for a couple of reasons, but it's very effective at doing what it says on the tin. The "keep your head in the game" doesn't help with my associations with High School Musical either, but that can't be helped probably. But there is something interesting about the singing parts, not including the ad-libs, specifically the "Three, two, one" part. It reminds me of Abracadabra by Brown Eyed Girls. That's not a combination I thought I'd be hearing or saying, but it works. It's a well-textured song that has the vocals supported, but not overpowered, which is exactly what I want.

    The choreography is exactly as fun as I was hoping it would be. Excellent. There's also a bit of a storyline underneath the sports metaphor, so I am also all about that. It's also just fun, you know? And we need fun.





    Comments

    Post a Comment

    Popular posts from this blog

    Battle of the B-Sides:: Stray Kids: MEGAVERSE

    -
    Image
     Yeah, I'm still continuing this. Needed some mental motivation and then I got a nice little boost, so here we are, here you are, and here this is. This comes to you from The Form , so if you've got a song you want me to highlight, go for it. Throw as many or as few as you want. For the person who submitted this, I hope it finds you. And also for the dance practice you want me to highlight. I too am very much into the dance practices, so I'm deeply looking forward to this. This is my second Stray Kids post for either a GH or a BBS, the first being My Pace , so it'll be fun to do one that is a lot more recent. (I have another one on the list suggested by my Stay friend, so that'll happen eventually) Before I begin with the chatting about the cool bits of the song, if any of you get hit by the Felix Effect, do let me know. If you don't want to let me know here, you can find me over on Tumblr (or wherever else you happen to have found this, I post them in places). ...
    Read more

    August 2025 Wrap-Up: The Witch is Back!

    -
    Image
     Okay, everyone. Welcome back!!! It's been a hot minute since I've written one of these, but considering how many songs I didn't review over the course of the last three months, I didn't feel like I had enough done to warrant a wrap-up. Still, let's get to it! And yes, the title is a reference to the movie Hocus Pocus , but also, I absolutely adore Nina Simone's . High Priestess of Soul, indeed. Back to K-Pop, first up, our lovely debuts. Now, to be clear, I do have a couple that I'm still planning on covering and once I do, this will be updated, but still. The debuts I covered were N. Top , idntt , AtHeart , Cortis, and soloist ZZONE (cignature/Good Day) . Debuts I'm still planning on covering are Rainbow18 and ZOONIZINI (ASTRO). Other debuts include MADEIN S , OFF EQUALS , IXIA , LIPSTICKERZ , and iii . (I may actually consider LIPSTICKERZ as well because that's a whole mini album and an intriguing concept.) Next section is for the songs I was loo...
    Read more

    Song Review:: Monsta X: THE X- N the Front

    -
    Image
    Release date: 2025 September 01 Album tracklist:  Do What I Want , N the Front , Savior, Tuscan Leather, Catch Me Now, Fire & Ice Album runtime: 18 minutes  Happy tenth anniversary, Monsta X! Everyone but Mr. Maknae I.M has returned from the military, and I'm pretty sure he needs to go this year. But! This is also my first review for September, which means that I have now, officially, been doing this for over a year. Whoo! I did have to round that up, mostly because the first and the last tracks on the album are under 2:45, and while I'm a little surprised that they didn't drop something longer for their tenth anniversary, the fact that they've been rereleasing their older songs both re-recorded in Korean and newly released in Japanese, clearly specifically for their tenth anniversary makes the mini album a few months later better. Do What I Want , despite my already having done the review for it, dropped as a pre-release so it technically doesn't count as the ...
    Read more

    Greatest Hits:: Stray Kids: My Pace

    -
    Image
     I tossed some potentials at Tumblr in a poll and this was what came back in first place, so here we go! Yes, I've gone back to the wasteland that is Tumblr, discovered that I'm considered ancient and decrepit for how long I've HAD a Tumblr account, and had to relearn how to Tumblr. But, that's fine! My Pace is one of the songs that had to be rerecorded following the departure of the former ninth member, so I'm not quite sure how to navigate the differences. I really want to be respectful of the situation and try to find as many post-departure performances and events as I can, but it may not be especially possible in all cases. In any case, I won't mention his name, because I'm aware that there are feelings surrounding his departure on all sides, and I follow the direction of Chan, who prefers that material of the nine of them not be used anymore. So all of that to say, I'm going to focus on the eight members as they are now and not mention the former ni...
    Read more

    Song Review:: TREASURE: LOVE PULSE- PARADISE

    -
    Image
    Release date: 2025 September 01 Album tracklist: EVERYTHING, PARADISE , NOW FOREVER, BETTER THAN ME Album runtime: 12 minutes  I did watch the YG announcement for TREASURE, BABYMONSTER, and BLACKPINK. That is a lot of capitalizations. So I knew this was coming and this was on my list of releases I was curious about for this month. I haven't listened to them a lot, much like I haven't actually listened to a lot of BIGBANG, WINNER, or iKON (again, so many capital letters), but when I like one of their songs, I tend to really, really like it. Plus, the members of TREASURE are all adults now, and that's important because at debut, I couldn't have listened to them (maknae was fifteen). So I came it at a good time. The album doesn't quite hit the desired three minute average, but each song is at least in the 2:50 range, so it could be a lot worse. The title track is the shortest of the bunch, but it could be worse. I'd prefer if all the songs got an extra ten seconds,...
    Read more

    Song Review:: GIRLSET: Commas {Debut}

    -
    Image
    Release date: 2025 August 29 Album tracklist: Commas Album runtime: 2 minutes  Welp. Honestly, I'm a little surprised that JYPE didn't toss the whole group out with the bathwater, but I suppose either the remaining members are more willing to stick out what are industry wide conditions, mostly, or JYPE sees potential for the remaining members to still do something with what's left of their careers. So, here we are with a re-debut. You'll notice I don't always hit the Katseye releases (and I've been entirely ignoring the British group from SM whose name I do not remember, but I'm also still very angry with SM over the Seunghan situation, and that reminds me, I need to do his solo debut) because they're not K-Pop and my backlog is currently so massive that I'm not going to cover them too much, especially when I'm peeved over things about that group (mostly HYBE related, as you can guess) and I don't particularly like their sound to begin with. ...
    Read more

    Battle of the B-Sides: LABOUM: 빛이 되어쥐 (Be the Light)

    -
    Image
     Unless I do The Roulette Wheel, I obviously can pick which of the suggestions I've gotten that I'll write posts for. I also have a spreadsheet where I have my posts organized by generation and boy group, girl group, and co-ed. The co-ed groups definitely need more attention, but I'm taking these last few Specialty posts to focus on the girl groups because they're not my natural inclination, and while the Roulette Wheel is weighted equally, I don't like that it's uneven. So, I ignored my normal addition of the B/G/Co-Ed Wheel spin and just did it for a girl group, and I ended up with LABOUM. I'm not sure I've heard of them, so this will be exciting.  LABOUM is a third gen girl group that are younger sisters to U-KISS and Brown Eyed Girls, which is wildly hilarious considering the last GH post I did was in fact for BEG's song Abracadabra . So, that was unintended. 빛이 되어쥐 , or Be the Light  as I will be calling it through this because while it would be...
    Read more

    Song Review:: NCT Wish (NCT): COLOR- COLOR

    -
    Image
    Release date: 2025 September 01 Album tracklist: COLOR , Baby Blue, Surf , Cheat Code, Videohood, WICHU, Reel-ationship Album runtime: 21 minutes  Apparently there's another NCT Wish song that dropped ahead of this that I didn't know about. Mildly peeved. It's fine. I may not get to it though if it doesn't get a win anywhere. Apologies for that. I feel like I've heard the beginning of this song somewhere, and I feel like it's a first Gen song. I mean, SM had three groups: H.O.T, S.E.S, and Shinhwa. It wouldn't be out of the picture to borrow a snip of instrumental from one of them. After that slightly more mystical introduction, things get a little more industrial with the clanging and the street performance music vibe. We get the mystical back, which I appreciate as that means that the introduction isn't a one-and-done, and we get some interesting instruments that spice up the song a little.  SM songs just sound like SM songs, and I get why if you like...
    Read more

    Song Review:: ZZONE (cignature/Good Day): Devil's Jam {Debut}

    -
    Image
    Release date: 2025 August 25 Album tracklist:  Devil's Jam , Devil's Jam(Inst) Album runtime: 7 minutes  Okay, so if you're a fan of cignature, you might be confused about that name because none of the cignature members went by that name. This is Jeewon! Whoo! Apparently this is her official solo debut, although she did release a solo song earlier than this. I also can say that I do occasionally listen to cignature. They're not one of my groups that make super excited to see music or content from, but I do have some of their songs in some of my playlists. So I am looking forward to seeing what she'll give us with this digital single. It's interesting that there have been a couple of songs released in the last month or so that have sort of an Indian vibe or overlay or something of the sort. It does make me wonder if something was prompting this the last couple of years for songwriters and for the companies to pick these songs. There are some synth effects that ki...
    Read more

    Song Review:: ZEROBASEONE: NEVER SAY NEVER- ICONIK

    -
    Image
    Release date: 2025 September 01 Album tracklist: ICONIK , SLAM DUNK , Lovesick Game, Goosebumps, Dumb, NOW OR NEVER (Korean ver.), EXTRA, Long Way Back, Star Eyes, I KNow U Know Album runtime: 32 minutes  It feels like Slam Dunk came out absolutely ages ago, but I guess it only came out the end of July. Which, again, to be fair, feels like it was absolutely ages ago. Time is a soup. We have an excellent run time on this album, with an average of over three minutes per song, which is impressive because 40% of the songs are under three minutes and one of them is barely two-and-a-half (I'm really looking forward to that one, though, because it's not a title track and I'm very curious about its title). And shout out to the four-minute song! The pre-release was energetic and sporty. This one is smooth and a little noir. It's not full noir, but if they were wearing suspenders and fedoras, doing whatever else, it would make a lot of sense. I'm also reminded a little bit of...
    Read more