Song Review:: IDID: I did it.- CHAN-RAN {Debut}

• Release date: 2025 September 15

• Album tracklist: CHAN-RAN, SLOW TIDE, STEP IT UP, ImPerfect, So G.oo.D, STICKY BOMB, Taking Off - Through Your Dreams, Blooming CROWN

• Album runtime: 24 minutes

 I'm not sure that I ever did their pre-debut song. I'd have to go look. Oh well. In other news, even though I thought they were very nervous at KCon LA, I also thought they did a great job for being pre-debut rookies. And both because this is a debuting group as well as a survival show group, the odds that I'm going to be upset about ages is a little bit higher than normal, but I'm also pleased to report that by the end of October, all but two will be eighteen. As a side note, all but two members of the group were born in either April or October, and the October birthdays are kind of stacked on top of each other. 3rd, 5th, and 10th.

The choice to basically start off with just an acoustic guitar is a really interesting one and one I'm pleased with because it highlights vocals in a very specific way. The amount of guitar in this song in general is delightful, but the entire instrumental stays out of the way of the vocals in general. I generally like to see big variations in the instrumentals, but with the simplicity of the opening, ignoring the interesting squeaks, provides enough of a contrast that even though the song doesn't have big bursts like I like, there's enough that it's satisfying. It's pleasant without being milquetoast or elevator background music.

I love the radio announcer bit. I probably should have included that as part of the instrumental, because it's unlikely to be a live performance rather than be part of the back track, but I love it. Again, we don't have a lot of big vocals, like with the instrumentals, and that does sadden me a little. But I can take a listen through the album, because they're all of a good age, so I can see if there's one where I hear that. However, we do get some nice back-and-forth with the vocals, especially with the play between singing and rapping. It's nice. For a debut song, it does feel a little like it's playing it safe, which is disappointing, but it's nice enough.

 This new trend of including who is singing which part in the subtitles of the music videos? Best thing to come out of recent music videos, especially when it comes to the new groups. If we could get names in the photobooks when we get the albums as well, that would be even better. They're a cute group and that's shown off pretty well in a music video that I'm not sure where it falls in the vibes-and-visuals or the actually-a-performance video line. I think I'm leaning more to the vibes-and-visuals sort, but we do also get quite a lot of the choreography. Still, despite the lack of a storyline, I do think that it shows off the group well-enough, especially for a debuting group where a lot of people use music videos to get to know the members. Again, one of the reasons why I love the names included.