Review

Song Review: UP10TION – Your Gravity

I was surprised when it was first announced that members of UP10TION would be participating in Produce X 101. I knew that the buzz around the group had slowed in recent years, but I always thought they were relatively high-selling. Maybe their agency just realized they needed more of a push when it came to individual personalities. I can understand that. Though their singles placed within the top ten of my year-end countdowns in both 2016 and 2017, UP10TION has never really had a strong identity of their own.

Unfortunately, I don’t think that Top Media knows what to do after Wooseok made it into soon-to-debut project group X1. They received a gift of sorts when member Jinhyuk failed to make the final eleven Produce contestants, leaving him free to rejoin UP10TION and lend his considerable popularity to the group. But, Your Gravity does not feature Jinhyuk at all, putting UP10TION in the same place they were before Produce 101: mostly unknown to the general public.

With this in mind, Your Gravity needed to absolutely knock it out of the park. Its high-octane instrumental seems to be headed that way, but without a strong hook to back it up the song proves difficult to remember. Echoing Pentagon’s Sha La La from earlier this year, Gravity borrows elements of deep house and builds upon them with an aggressive dose of electronic dance beats. The trendy synths are recycled from any number of recent boy group tracks, but I appreciate the song’s relentless energy — even if it’s undercut by an eye-rolling trap breakdown during verse two.

Melodically, Your Gravity is an odd beast. There’s not much of a hook to be found at all. I hear where the chorus should be, but in its place is an assortment of half-hearted phrasing that’s almost melodic but not quite. This lack of a compelling centerpiece causes the track to collapse in on itself. Every time it gets going, the momentum is blunted because there’s nothing dynamic to build towards. I love the brisk, powerful instrumental, but that alone isn’t enough to carry the entire track.

 Hooks 6
 Production 9
 Longevity 8
 Bias 8
 RATING 7.75

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9 thoughts on “Song Review: UP10TION – Your Gravity

  1. Nick, I think they heard your prayers and just cut out the unnecessary drop chorus. That’s why the song is only 3:10 long. Straight from prechorus build to 2nd verse.

    Actually I think the “Always meomchul su eopso … ” IS the chorus. Its just doesn’t sound like it. Followed by a couple bars of instrumental with ad lib sung over, and then next verse.

    I think it is pretty good. I admire the propulsive energy. But yes, there isn’t much of a melody and the sung parts all sound like the same guy siging within about 5 notes of range. The vocal neither rises nor falls, nor creatively sticks on the same note (vis Savage Garden “I Want You”, or “Sorry Sorry”) but just hangs around the same couple of notes.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. This song lifted the opening Vi-VII-I progression straight from Sha La La without even a change of instrumentation to try and hide it… and then proceeded to copy pretty much the rest of it for good measure.

    Like Heart Sign and Energetic, this song is Sha La La -2.0. Sha La La but not as good. Sha La La, but without Hui’s melody writing skills or Pentagon’s spirit.

    Still, I like it. A lot, actually. Besides an unwanted trap breakdown, the instrumental’s a good time and the song has energy. I foresee myself dancing to it in my room a few times before summer ends.

    Liked by 1 person

    • omg
      I hadn’t really listened to Sha La La, but absolutely yes.
      How could they do this, almost straight copy? I don’t know how to look up songwriters for each.
      I am almost curious enough to go on the other kpop boards .. … wait, no, not that desperate or interested.

      Liked by 1 person

      • It was produced by a song camp basically. 5 sets of producers working on thise song. I’m not surprised. This song doesn’t seem to have much flare and personality to set it apart. That’s one of the dangers of song camp writing.

        Like

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