Song Review:: ZEROBASEONE: Ascend-- TOP 5

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  • Release date: 2026 May 18
  • Album tracklist: Intro., TOP 5, V for Vision, Customize, Exotic, Changes, Zero to Hundred
  • Album runtime: 19 minutes

 This is their first release after the contracts ended for some of them and we now have the new version of ZEROBASEONE. It’s not going to be fun for them to have to rearrange all of their songs for choreography and singing, but unlikely many of their MNET survival show group seniors, they didn’t disband by the end of their initial contract period, so we’re in a little bit of an unfamiliar territory with them in some ways. And I'm appalled at the title track run time. It's barely longer than the intro song.

The instrumental is largely a collection of beats. We occasionally get an instrument that gives a little bit of a melody, but it’s not the basis of the instrumental. Which is fine. This feels a little 90s boy group in spots, and I’m cool with that, but I’m not currently over inspired about this instrumental, other than to note that we’ve got an a cappella section that I appreciate.

Those are some bold lyrics from them. Interesting. We’re missing some of the voices that make ZEROBASEONE sound like ZEROBASEONE, but with the new reality, we’re going to have to get used to the new sound. I’m very happy with the a cappella section, partially because I’m curious about how that’s going to sound live and partially because it’s a rare song in K-Pop that actually has a section for a cappella. This is a little bit of a departure from the ZEROBASEONE sound anyway, sitting somewhere that’s a lot more 90s boy band, but I appreciate that from a music standpoint where we haven’t heard this particular sound in a while.

I love male yearning songs. You know the old saying how if a music video features the choreography in water, it's going to be fire? Well, we've got that here. It's largely a vibes and visuals music video, but we also see bare shoulders. So.

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