We long for the Another Bad Creation comeback.
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[5.57]
Patrick St. Michel: Here’s a case where the jam-packed production, which sounds great by itself, gets weakened by the jam-packed singing of BTOB themselves. The music of “Wow” is high-energy 80s pop that doesn’t sound like an obvious nostalgia grab. This song features something that sounds like a baseball organ from Mars, and manages to make a brief talk-box breakdown sound cutting edge. The members of BTOB, though, try too hard to shout over the music – the actual verses and chorus are fine, but all the little “whoops” and “woo-wees” and “wows” become distracting. “Wow” is a little too hyperactive for its own good.
[6]
Will Adams: The chromatics in the chorus wouldn’t have jarred had they not been harmonized with more chromatics, which create an unsettling dissonance. Similarly, the throwback track would have earned points had it not been jam-packed with superfluous noise – oo-wee’s, shouts, synth gurgles, etc. Scale back, guys. Scale back.
[4]
Iain Mew: Search ‘BTOB Wow translation’, ctrl+f “sexiness that’s finally been defined”, no results: yes, this is good.
[7]
Anthony Easton: I like the racket so much that even when things clear out a bit for the chorus, there is still a chaos of competing singles. The percussion fighting against the hip-hop sections is also interesting: K-pop seems to be moving away from what can be called pop and into logical extensions of the form.
[4]
Brad Shoup: Laid-back new jack that tries to coast on personality. The orchestral intro is straight out of “Sherlock,” but the exclamations can’t match Gigantic Horns.
[6]
Jonathan Bogart: Disregard every previous time I’ve said that a K-pop tune sounds like new jack swing. Obviously.
[7]
Alfred Soto: BTOB back again…BOYS II MEN ABC BBD.
[5]