Song Review:: CORTIS: COLOR OUTSIDE THE LINES- What You Want {Debut}

-

  • Release date: 2025 September 08

  • Album tracklist: GO!, What You Want, FaSHioN, JoyRide, Lullaby, What You Want (feat. Teezo Touchdown)

    • Album runtime: 17 minutes

     I can jive with this one a lot more than their pre-debut song. Instrumentally, it doesn't quite feel full or complete, but on the other hand, with what we have of the song, it feels a lot like a teen song from the 90s. We're talking skateboards, surfers, the chill California vibe. This feels like a summer song, which is a little bit of a bold move to go with for a debut, but I'm actually fully supportive of this move., because while it matches seasonally, it doesn't quite match the current fifth gen sound. Because it does feel rather bare-bones, I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it being the debut track, but from a sound and genre standpoint, it's an old enough sound that I have to remember that this isn't an American boy band from the 90s doing a stripped out version of one of their songs, but a freshly debuted boy group that is quite young. Not as young as they could be, but still 80% of them are minors. 

    That 90s band sound carries through to the vocals with that very specific echo you get from like indie bands recording in the garage. It's genuinely fascinating. We also get some indie band coming through on the vocal fry you hear occasionally on their held notes. It's an interesting concept to be going with, I'm not going to lie, because they're obviously not an indie band, nor are they old enough to have lived in the 90s. But here we are. And you know what? While normally I'd be grumping or whining about this not being a good display of vocals, blah blah blah, because this sound is unlike what we've been hearing out of the boy groups debuting recently, that actually makes it stand out more. I'm actually kind of chuffed about this, which validates my belief that even if a song or two or even ten don't speak to you, you shouldn't toss the whole group out with the bathwater. I'm mixing my metaphors here, but the point still stands. If they weren't 80% minors at debut, I'd be adding this to a couple of playlists, not least of which would be one of my summer ones. I'm also actually kind of curious to see if T'Challa likes this song as well, so I'll have to play it for him later. Let's see if this one is T'Challa approved™️. Or PJ, but PJ usually likes the harder sounds (he really likes early BTS and specifically J-Hope, if anyone cares).

    Okay, now I get to actually watch the video instead of hitting play and switching to a different tab because it's not available for me to stream on music platforms yet. 

    So, if anyone cares, this looks like it was filmed in the salt flats outside of Salt Lake City, UT (where part of the movie Independence Day was filmed). The choreography is a little silly, but it's shaggy without being particularly bragadocious, which matches the song. And we have a dance break, more or less, so I am down for this, you know? We may get a proper music video for the album release, but if not, that's okay. This also looks like it may have been filmed in one take, and if that's true, then that's pretty impressive of the group at debut and they deserve a compliment on that.



    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

    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:: 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

    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

    Greatest Hits:: MBLAQ: Stay

    -
    Image
     Summoned for you directly from The Form, it's ironically a song from the same album that I've already done a BBS post from. I chose to do Darling  because of the roulette wheel and shuffle, so that one's on me. But apparently someone out there in the world really likes this album to slide the title track my way as well.  So, I was technically focusing on the repackage album of this for Darling , so you get sort of new information. Released in 2011, this was their first full album. Containing a grand total of thirteen tracks and a runtime of 43 minutes, which averages out to a little more than three minutes a song, it's at a good length, even with the first track dropping the average. It did pretty well on the charts, peaking at second on the Gaon weekly chart and third on the Gaon monthly chart. No music show wins with it, but that doesn't matter because music show wins are not the final dictator of love for a song.  Flashing Lights warning for the music video. Gro...
    Read more