Song Review:: Hoshi (Seventeen): Take a Shot

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  • Release date: 2025 September 16

  • Album tracklist: Take a Shot

  • Album runtime: 2 minutes

 I'm going to get this out of the way now, because if I don't do it now and I justify not doing it now because the music video isn't out yet, when the music video does drop, I'll probably use the excuse of "Oh, I'm so busy. I have so many other songs to do, and this one has been out for a while. What's one more day of not doing it?" And then I won't do it. Because this makes me sad and I'm handling this a lot worse than I thought I was going to. Both of them. But my Ppyopuli (species: steamed rice) is my buddy right now so we'll be okay. Serve well, Soonyoung. Serve well, Jihoon. I'll be waiting for you to get back. I've already added their photocards to my Enlistment Wall (I managed to find a Wooahae photocard to match the Horanghae photocard I decided on for Hoshi, so even though they're apart right now, they're still a matching set). It says something that I don't even care that the song is under two-and-a-half minutes. I'm not going to analyze what it says though. That way lies emotional maturity and acceptance, and I'm not ready for that yet.

Hoshi spoiled this song already during the HoWoo concerts. Well, good to know that if I ever want the inside scoop on anything, I know who to go to: Hoshi. This doesn't surprise me. Him and SCoups would blab everything if they could.

Also, yes. Explicit language is used. A few times. So be aware of that. Would be rated R for more than one occurrence. 

The performance leader has been going quite hip-hop the last little bit. There is a lot of synth in this song as well as a very prominent beat, but what I appreciate about what the composers and arrangers avoided was the urge to have the instrumental be only a beat, or a series of them layered over the top of each other. Instead, we got a very nice, reliable beat, but we also got bits of a melody to sort of interrupt that beat and prevent this from being too predictable. It also reminds me quite a bit of the soundtrack to Danganronpa, so that's fun. Also, interestingly, for being so focused on dance and choreography, there isn't a space for a dance break, which probably contributes to the short runtime, but I would have expected a space carved out for him to show off his dancing, especially when he could have done a new dance style or something for this song. Maybe at the end? But it could just as easily be used as a dramatic exit song before a costume change, you know?

As I said, the explicit language is explicit languaging. Despite this, I like that he gave a shout-out to Seventeen. Even as a solo artist, he's still a member of Seventeen. I don't know that I'll ever be able to know one way or the other, but there's a line in there that feels a lot like G-Dragon's Home Sweet Home. And normally, it would be an acknowledgement of the similar sound or vibes, and then I'd move on, but this time, because I know how highly he regards G-Dragon and that G-Dragon seems to like him too (he's out here collecting seniors like it's his actual job to be a professional fanboy), that doesn't seem too much like a coincidence. And given that, this feels like...oh, how to put this delicately... This feels like a G-Dragon inspired diss track, like he lit the match and tossed the molotov cocktail, and then bounced. And he did write the lyrics, or help write the lyrics. Anyway, he doesn't try to rap too quickly, but there's a weight to his rapping in this song that I really, really like.

When the music video drops, I'll update this. For now, here's the audio.




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