Song Review:: Haechan (NCT): TASTE- CRZY {Debut}

• Release date: 2025 September 08

• Album tracklist: Camera Lights, CRZY, ADRENALINE, Love Beyond, Roll With Me, Intermission, Talented, WYN?, Should Be, Grey Rain, Outro (Back In The Studio) 

• Album runtime: 33 minutes

 So, it's actually kind of funny. When I was tagging this post before I started it, his name already came up. And I was briefly confused so I did a quick search to figure out which group he was in because I couldn't remember why I'd already used his name when I knew this was his solo debut. That search revealed he's a member of NCT, at which point I remembered where I knew his name from: Mark's pre-debut release. But, look! Other than a pair of "supposed to be short" songs, there's only one song on here that's under three minutes. Fabulous. Phenomenal. Dare I say we seem to be moving away from the era of the ridiculously short songs? Is HYBE the only actual hold-out left? We'll see. Fingers crossed though.

Ten seconds and I'm sold. That's it. That's how fast this landed for me. We'll see if this can hold on to it, but we have the combination of the old timey, old cinema soundtrack effects (something I dearly love and never hear enough of; it's honestly part of the reason why I stuck it out with Bioshock even though I'm a scaredy-cat when it comes to actually playing the scary games (that and the story, but I'm sure you could have guessed that I really love stories if you've read any of my reviews before when we get down to the music video section)) and then it moves into something surprising with a delightful guitar. It's obviously Latin inspired music, but I'd actually argue that the song leans towards Latin flavored country music. I'm thinking New Mexico or Arizona, southwest flavoring rather than southern, if that makes sense, but not, like, California. While there's a decent amount of stable repetition throughout the song, there are some fun techno additions and false stops that interrupt the flow just enough to keep your attention on the song instead of being soothing, which the song easily could do. But it doesn't. Which I appreciate.

Spanish and belts. Oh. Oh, yeah. This is good. Haechan is going straight for the sultry and the seductive with his solo debut, which makes me laugh a little because I'm remembering Jaehyun's release right before he enlisted. We've got some good falsetto, we've got some lower rapping, and we've got a couple of bigger belts, which feels ridiculously extravagant in this economy. As a debut, there are certain things I specifically look for, mostly because debuts need to be strong and highlight well the strengths of the artist, as well as demonstrate a range of abilities. Debuts are difficult to nail because you can't just go for a concept and expect it to work. This one isn't just a song I like but it also shows off his versatility in a way that allows him to vocally branch out to wherever he'd like to go. So, well done. Also, I love this.

I mean this in the highest and best way possible: this choreography, like the choreography for Super by Seventeen, does not look like it's being done by a real human body. Normally, I'd be like "Well, we get some story, but I would have preferred more because we get an awful lot of choreography." And that is normally where I'd be. But, this is, again, a debut song and thus it needs to have a lot of showing off for the artist. In this case, that includes very fine choreography. I loved the detail of the license plate, because that's his solo debut date.