'Your Choice' review: K-pop group SEVENTEEN hits 'Home-run' again!
What's the story
Popular Korean band SEVENTEEN became quadruple-million-seller with their eighth mini-album, Your Choice, today. Known as "self-produced idols" in the industry, they sold as many as 8,80,000 copies on the first day of release (June 18) and continues to receive love from Carats (official fandom) worldwide. Among the six tracks in the album, let's find out which song hit the mark and which didn't.
Information
'Your Choice' has been entering charts 'Left and Right'
The Billboard Music Awards 2021 nominees broke their previous first-week opening record in just one day with Your Choice, and topped the Korean Hanteo Daily Chart. They also entered Chinese QQ Music's daily chart and Japan's Oricon's daily album chart.
Imbalance
Title track 'Ready to Love' is catchy, music video lukewarm
Your Choice is part of the thirteen-member group's Power of Love project and the title track is Ready to love. The R&B-driven pop song is catchy and talks about fearlessly falling in love. However, the music video is comparatively lukewarm. Directed by Han Sa-min, the MV shows the boys in pastel shades, posing with flowers, to dancing in heavy showers, without making much sense.
Best song
'GAM3 BO1' is the game-changer, 'Heaven's Cloud' is cheery
The game-changer for this album was the fourth track, hip hop unit's GAM3 BO1. Composed by member Vernon, the glitch effect works efficiently to give a feel of the retro video games. You'll be nodding your head to this trippy beat easily. Heaven's Cloud is the opening song and was used in the promotional teasers. It is cheery and heartwarming, true to SEVENTEEN's image.
Misses
'Wave,' 'Same dream, same mind, same night' don't immediately click
My next favorite is Anyone, a basic pop sound aided with a scintillating climax. The rest two-unit songs, Wave (Performance unit) and Same dream, same mind, same night (Vocal) are a bit underwhelming. While the R&B melody is not as hard hitting as their previous hits Hug or Habit, the sensuous beats of Wave might need repeated listens to get used to.
Conclusion
Bland compared to previous albums, but still gets 4/5
The six-year-old band has definitely succeeded with its release, however, it is bland when compared with previous albums (An Ode). Notably, SEVENTEEN has its members S.Coups, Jeonghan, Joshua, Jun, Hoshi, Wonwoo, Woozi, The8, Mingyu, DK, Seungkwan, Vernon, Dino divided into three units. Woozi has participated in making every track on the album, collaborating with HYBE's CEO/founder Bang Si-Hyuk and others. Verdict: 4/5 stars.