I am ashamed that I did not listen to ATEEZ’s latest mini album, Golden Hour Part 4 until almost three weeks after its release!
In fairness, I am currently being swept off my feet by &TEAM, but there will be more on them later. However, I did not sleep on their single and video release for “Adrenaline.” In fact, I was up so late that I saw that just a few hours after it officially dropped! As far as a single goes, this is the kind of stuff I like. It was fast paced, with a thumping back beat and a bit of techno laced throughout. That particular mix isn’t entirely new to them, but it still managed to sound fresh. I think a part of why I like it is there is something about it that takes me back to the early 2000s, though I can’t quite pinpoint what it is. The chorus is immensely fun and something that totally belongs in a club.
With that being said, I am a little confused on the extreme popularity of this song. Yes, it’s fast and fun and has a great “dance break” at the end of it, but this is not even close to one of their best singles, let along from the Golden Hour series. I think a part of that also rests on the music video, which is cool in a lot of ways, but there is a bit too much obvious CGI for my taste, as well as background dancers. I suppose they want this song to feel big, and the visual does achieve that, but with eight members already, I don’t love parsing through a bunch more faces. All in all though, this is a good song.
The opening track, and the one that bleeds in pretty seamlessly to “Adrenaline” is “Ghost.” At the start it felt like an interesting choice for an opening track, as the verses are a bit slower and quite tame. Thankfully the chorus offers up some nice contrast in sound. By comparison, it makes the verses almost completely forgettable. Like “Adrenaline,” this too has a slight techno vibe to it, but I really like when a lot of the sound strips away for Hongjoong’s rap in the second verse. And just like the chorus, I like how contrasting Mingi’s rap is immediately following Hongjoong’s.
“Nasa,” the B-side single that’s getting a decent amount of air time, continues on with the more fast-paced, slightly techno sound. Though this one almost has a bit of a Latin flair to it; kind of like dirty club music. While I’m not wild on a space theme, regardless of what it’s supposed to represent, I do like the reference to “Masterpiece,” as well as getting a Jongho and Wooyoung “hell yeah” in the pre-chorus. Swearing is few and far between in K-Pop, so I latch on whenever I do catch one. Admittedly, “On the Road” and “Choose” do absolutely nothing for me. Neither of them fit well with the first three tracks. They both sound cheesy in different ways. The latter is adpoting a very generic pop sound, while the former is going for something anthemic that just comes across forced to me.
Overall though, I’m gald to be getting new music from ATEEZ. And music might be all I’m getting this year from them!