Song Review:: KEYVITUP: KEYVITUP- KEYVITUP {Debut}

• Release date: 2026 April 08

• Album tracklist: BEST ONE, KEYVITUP, LEGENDARY, SHOW ME SOMETHING, POLAROID

• Album runtime: 14 minutes

 How many times can I write their group name before it ceases to have meaning?

This is a joke.

In all seriousness, this is Jaejoong's first boy group he's debuting (with another coming next month, so if I don't like this one, I may like the next one more since he said they're very different). This is not the group that is set to debut with the two trainees who were on Boys Planet 2, but regardless I get to see if this is going to be on Underage Protocol or not. We have one member that was at YG Entertainment, one that was at SM Entertainment, and one that was at ADOR, but the maknae is the only one who is underage and he turns seventeen next month, so we are good to go. I don't know why Jaejoong couldn't do that with SAY MY NAME (who are their older sisters, which is a little ironic), but at least he didn't do the same thing with KEYVITUP. Now I just need the next one to debut similarly so I can listen to them if I like them. I am, however, simultaneously deeply disappointed with the runtime because that's a round up to fourteen minutes, which isn't great, but there's also only one song over three minutes and it's not the title track. 

The instrumental isn't very complicated, but it's got the hip-hop record scratching in spots underneath the beat that is very steady but isn't particularly heavy. Actually, the beat sounds a bit like a metronome, which amuses me a little. One of the things that is interesting is how even though the song is actually pretty predictable for the most part, there are spots where the instrumental changes tone completely or drops out from underneath the vocals. I really like the piano that we get there because it's so different. This is a good use of the time given, but you know what would really work with this song? An EDM dance break. I know that I talk about them often, but hear me out here. We already have the hip-hop and the metronome with the occasional screech, and a softening section, but the song gets an extra fifteen seconds at the end and an extra boost of energy to punch at the end of the song, which also allows the kids to show off the dancing skills I'm sure they have, and gives their debut song a distinction from other recent debuts because it's been a hot minute since I heard a K-Pop debut with an EDM dance break like that. 2:09 would have been a great spot to fit it in. What we already have is nice, though. I kind of like it. 

This sounds so 90s. It also sounds a lot like 96ers. You can really hear the second gen influence courtesy of the CEO in the vocals and we get actual vibrato here. I also just learned that all five of them worked on the lyrics. I'm intrigued by this. There's enough variation in the texture that even when we're in one of the more tonally repetitious parts, they're not that long and then we get something very different. We get quite a bit of harmonization. We've got some almost runs and a couple of almost belts (both of which have multiple members involved). So that's two and a half of the things I look for, and if we count both the almost runs and the almost belts as halves, that would put us up to three.

For the record, I really like POLAROID, LEGENDARY and BEST ONE. BEST ONE in particularly sounds a lot like a certain second gen group that debuted in 2003 that may or may not have given the CEO his start. And POLAROID has such a lovely, lovely sound.

There are a lot of things that I really like about the music video, and the storyline is subtle but present. I was originally a little annoyed by the lack of color, but that annoyance was fixed. I would have liked more of a storyline and less of the choreography, but there were some interesting points. It's definitely more of a performance video though.