March 4, 2020

[Review] NCT 127 - Kick It

Perhaps through no fault of my own, boy groups and soloists got ignored entirely during the February craze. So in return, I bring you an extremely fresh review of NCT 127's latest endeavor with "Kick It." How fresh you ask? I'm writing this as I listen to the song for the first time. For some reason this video has a Korean, Chinese, and English title. I don't believe there's a Mandarin version of this song (yet?) so I'm not sure why SM went hardcore on the extra languages.

Okay, it's no secret that I'm not the biggest fan of NCT 127...or really just NCT in general. Their music is certainly distinct but in general it rubs me the wrong way. The lone exception for the 127 unit's case is "Superhuman" That song was an exciting dance number that focused on what they do super well: electric choreography and kickass instrumentals. "Kick It" is...far removed from that kind of hype. There's hella chanting from start to finish, and I've said enough about these types of songs. And not helping matters is the instrumental which is uninspiring at best and repetitive at worst.

The choreography has its moments, but is also not that appealing based on NCT's standards. Now I'm not questioning the difficulty or anything like that, because as someone who flailed around in a Kpop dance crew for years I've no right to critique something like dance and dance ability. But the choreo in "Kick It" doesn't look as flashy or interesting as their other work. I did like the bridge break where they orchestrated a fake fight between all the members, and it's fitting based on what you see in the music video and all the martial arts motifs (and constant shouting of Bruce Lee's name). Haechan and Jaehyun have their moments in terms of vocals but when a song sounds as messy as this it sounds even more awkward and out of place.

Every group gets lucky at some point, and as of this latest release it seems that NCT 127 got their high with "Superhuman" and have fallen back into the near-unlistenable category of music for me. It's certainly not the worst out of their discography (and all of NCT in general) but it lacks punch even if the dance doesn't. Plus all the chanting business adds to the anti-catchy nature of "Kick It" as well. At least Mark and Taeyong can still rap?

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