It feels like ONEUS are a little late to the game, releasing the music video to their Road to Kingdom finale track Come Back Home over a month after the series ended. I guess they’re positioning it as a prologue for their upcoming comeback rather than an epilogue to the series. Thus far, Kingdom has boosted the sales of Golden Child, VERIVERY and TOO, so I’ll be interested to see if this trend continues when ONEUS and ONF make their return in a few weeks.
I’ve already written about Come Back Home when discussing Road to Kingdom, but an official music video warrants an official song review. However, not much has changed when it comes to my opinion on the song. Over the past few days, I’ve been breaking down my all-time favorite K-pop tracks, and a few common themes have popped up. One of the big ones could be summed up with the phrase “structural experimentation that maintains momentum and continuity.” That may sound like some pretentious thesis statement, but for me it’s a vital ingredient. Come Back Home embraces the “experimentation” part of that equation, but forgets momentum and continuity. So, we end up with a few great moments that never come together to create a great song.
When it comes down to it, this is the limitation of music designed for a performance competition show. Too often, K-pop underestimates the ability of a dynamite song to draw attention on its own, convinced instead that a track needs to constantly transform into disparate segments to combat short attention spans. If Come Back Home had stuck to the sound and energy of its opening verse, it could have been one of the year’s highlights. Instead, we get a lurching chorus that totally upends its momentum, followed by an awful trap-rap verse that might as well have been ripped from another piece of music entirely.
This is a shame, because there are some great vocals within Come Back Home’s hodgepodge arrangement. Its bridge is particularly gorgeous, but feels like a distinct piece of an incongruous whole. And without that connective through-line, it’s hard to enjoy Come Back Home‘s highlights. Here’s hoping the official comeback opts for a more cohesive approach.
| Hooks | 7 |
| Production | 7 |
| Longevity | 7 |
| Bias | 7 |
| RATING | 7 |
Be sure to add your own rating by participating in the poll below!
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
I watched this this morning when it showed up my feed, and my mind and memory is such that I remembered hearing this song and I thought it already had a proper release and a MV. I even remembered the chains and zombie forest thing they got going on.
In any case
I am of the completely opposite opinion. I think they should have put even more cray cray into the production. More more not less more. Now a month+half on from RtK, it sounds like an ATeez copycat song a la “Wonderland”. What this song needs is more COWBELL! Or any cowbell. Add an elephant roaring, perhaps a horse whinnying, and drop out more instruments here and there. Replace that heavy synth on the chorus with strings, symphonic strings, and big low fat brass tubas, and depth charges,
LikeLiked by 1 person
Gonna have to disagree, strong eight for me. I loved this track sooo much and love the dramatic, lurching instrummental. I can see where you’re coming from with the seven though. Also for the music video, I can’t help but be a little disappointed. Look, I loved the performance, but we already saw that on rtk. And since this was labeled as an MV, I was expecting more story shots. Still, not bad, at least the song was good.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I disagree
LikeLike
As is your right!
LikeLike
I am actually one of the few people who really enjoyed this song, and who DIDN’T particularly enjoy ONEUS on the show itself haha. Their stages left me mostly underwhelmed but I really enjoy this song’s drama.
LikeLike
Oh, ONF will definitely get a sales kick from RTK. They’ve been consistently in the top 10 of BG brand rankings for awhile now (while the winner TBZ I believe was in the twenties last month).
Anyway, the chorus was just not it for me. That they used the same theatre as A.C.E did in Savage did not conjure any particularly pleasing associations, either.
LikeLike
You, the writer of this article, are a pretentious bastard. The song, video, visuals, and ect are great. I think it’s just “cool” to hate on kpop right now because it’s getting so much hype. These guys, like so many other kpop artist have talent and at least try at producing an art, can’t we leave it at that. They put something out there, why judge.
LikeLike
Um… if I was hating on K-pop, why would I be writing positive reviews about it every day?
This comment reads like you just stumbled drunk into a bar, unaware of your surroundings and hurling insults just for the thrill of it.
Probably not your intention, but I can’t take this comment seriously.
LikeLiked by 1 person
“If Come Back Home had stuck to the sound and energy of its opening verse…” – YES! you’re right about the song not being cohesive – it kills me cause this could have been a great song. The lurching chorus doesn’t bother me as much though, i actually liked it, but that trap verse – sigh.
7.5?
LikeLike