Think of Omega X as the idol group version of 2017’s The Unit: Idol Rebooting Project. The group attempts to take members of disbanded (or disbanding?) acts and bring them together for a re-debut. Its line-up includes performers from Spectrum, Limitless, Seven O’Clock, 1Team, ENOi, 1THE9, Gidongdae and even my beloved Snuper. If anything, this just goes to show how many under-the-radar K-pop groups exist. I like the idea of giving these guys a second chance, but a song like Vamos does them no favors.
To be honest, I had trouble getting all the way through this one. The struggle begins during Vamos’ first ten seconds, which bludgeon us with one of those farty brass loops, distorted and turned up to eleven. It’s an instant headache. I get that the intent here is to “go hard,” but we’ve heard this kind of audio sample so often that it’s lost all its bite. Unfortunately, the riff underpins the entire verse, growing more obnoxious as the key rises.
Vamos’ pre-chorus offers a brief respite, though its familiar turns lack any real punch. And before we know it, the chorus hits us with that trumpeting bombast once more. Apparently, the producers deemed this instrumental loop strong enough to act as a central hook, because apart from its overpowering use, there’s not really a chorus to be found. The guys rattle off errant affectations with no structure or purpose. It’s unconvincing and forgettable, and these underrated, long-suffering performers deserve more. Vamos’ stripped-back second verse gives them some time to breathe, but the song is too suffocating and banal for those moments to matter.
| Hooks | 5 |
| Production | 6 |
| Longevity | 6 |
| Bias | 5 |
| RATING | 5.5 |
My farts sound better than this.
Just kidding of course but yeah, it’s definitely not my thing. I wouldn’t say I dislike the song, but both the melody and the sound design are far from what I typically enjoy.
LikeLiked by 2 people
the boy group version of How You Like That by BLACKPINK.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I couldn’t even get through this song. You are brave it was as bad as I thought it would be.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I wish these boys the best of luck. Re-debuting, again, and still trying to make it work. This where the oversupply of the kpop industry is so evident. I recognize some of their former groups, but not all.
This song. That synth hook sound is so noisy. I can barely hear or stand the rest of the song over that synth line. Its like they sampled a traditional horn-like instrument and compressed it to make that sound setting. Do you think maybe the speakers in the production room sound … oh, whatev, on my best earbuds it’s a no for me.
LikeLiked by 4 people
I have no idea why, but I am having a feeling that this song dragged June from a culmative “8” rating to the very-close average of “7.9”….
LikeLiked by 1 person
You may be onto something!
LikeLike
I have just calculated somebody else’s opinions for half-an-hour and Have came to the conclusion THAT I AM RIGHT!
…what am I doing with my life…
LikeLike
Calculating averages for kpop ratings is never a waste of time 😎
LikeLiked by 4 people
Hah, I figured that you wouldn’t like this one, but it’s just the kind of noisy garbage I enjoy. Deep dark admission here: this reminds me of Savage with dumber lyrics, and I actually like Savage.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nothing I comment on this site is ever going to be taken seriously again, is it? Ah well… 😀
LikeLike
Hey, whatever floats your boat! No judgement here 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, I’m just kidding – I didn’t start commenting here until I’d lurked long enough to know that you’ve got a great comment section that’s not out to tear anyone down. Besides, I love your turns of phrase even if I respond to those elements differently – I’m totally adding “farty brass loops” to my list of signs I’ll probably enjoy a song, right next to “aural equivalent of a fire alarm”. “Turned up to eleven” has been on the list for decades, of course.
LikeLike
Ha, I like Savage, too. Don’t apologize for what makes you happy. Life is too short.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Aww, I’m glad I’m not the only one around here who likes Savage! And I’m 100% with you on not apologizing for what I like – I learned a long time ago not to feel bad about my taste in entertainment. I don’t think I could handle becoming a kpop fan in my late 30s if that wasn’t the case.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I’m a K pop fan in my 50s. I stopped caring about other people’s opinions a long time ago.
LikeLiked by 6 people
Yay, another older fan! I’m in my 50s, too.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Member of the eonnie crowd here too!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I kinda really like this, and I don’t normally ilke things that are that frantic all the way through. (Except it would be better if it was groovy metal guitar instead of the synths.) It has a kind of crazy around the eyes feeling that appeals to me. But then again I think Lay’s solo stuff is pretty cool.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I couldn’t even finish this. I want to like them as well since most of the groups mentioned have at least one song I really like.
LikeLike
I … don’t know what I think about this one. I like that sort of cartoonish synth, but it’s unrelenting. I can’t hear their voices very well when it’s playing. I don’t hate this, though. It’s kind of a fun party song? It’s definitely better than the rest of the tracks. Who is writing and producing this? Who are AnoTHeR and HOYAS?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sounds like an iKon song. And I say that as a fan of iKon
LikeLiked by 2 people
I was blasting this in the car earlier (my favorite way to enjoy this kind of song) and I could totally hear the iKON comparison.
LikeLike
It’s a bad song, but not that bad. I’ll never listen to it again but I assume people who enjoy noisy and edgy stuff might like it.
As someone whose native language is Spanish, “vamos a la fiesta” made me cringe so hard. I guess I can finally understand you all when the lyrics in Kpop say something cringey in English.
By the way, what does Sebin being here mean to Snuper? Did they finally disbanded or what?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m trying to re-learn Spanish this summer but I wanted to ask is “vamos a la fiesta” grammatically incorrect? Or is it correct but it just sounds extremely awkward? Also their band description is still in the present tense so I feel like their on an inactive hiatus
LikeLike
Native speaker here. It’s a perfectly correct sentence, just impossibly cringey in this context.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Gotcha 👍
LikeLike
I quite enjoyed this but then again I’m a fan of these types of songs. I can see why it wouldn’t appeal to fans of a more old school style but I find that sound rather plodding and boring and this works well for what it is. Lots of energy and some fun hooks, feels like it might be missing something but not a bad debut in my opinion. Close to an 8 for me but might fall a little short.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I really enjoy those said groups, especially SNUPER. They have made some great songs. This, as a debut, is somewhat underwhelming.
LikeLiked by 2 people
The curse of The Uni+ strikes back: history repeating with the same concept and the same annihilating results. The only survivor of the first chapter was Chan, who’s gonna be the next this time?
LikeLike
Oh wow, is Chan really the only currently active member of UNB? I guess the MixNine guys ended up (mostly) the winners after all.
LikeLike
I found ACE through MixNine. So, yes, absolutely.
Also, Yoo HweSung (now of NFlying) by not making it to WannaOne is a winner.
LikeLike
I thought that couldn’t be right, but I looked it up and it pretty much is. Even on Uni.T’s end, things are quiet. Yebin’s having her solo debut in a week though!
LikeLike
I checked out UNB when I heard someone from ACE was in it. All of their singles are kinda meh (but they don’t have many) but there’s this one single by them called Black Heart, and I think it might just wreck my Top 5 2018 singles list.
LikeLike
I’ll listen to/watch everything I can find with one of the A.C.E members in it (some of their OSTs pleasantly surprised me given OSTs aren’t usually my thing), and I agree that UNB’s output is generally unremarkable except for “Black Heart”. The group chorus (I hear you, Chan!) and jazzy piano is just perfect. I was still a casual listener to kpop in 2018 but I bet it would be on my top ten list if I sat down and figured out what year various songs I’ve collected came from.
LikeLike
Black Heart was a big favorite around here when it first came out!
LikeLike
You graded Black Heart 9.25 and Feeling got a plain 8? 8!
*anime rage*
But thanks to this comment ↑ I learned UNB had more than 2 singles. One learns something every day, huh.
LikeLike
Not the best, but not as bad as you make it seem to me.
LikeLike
“Farty brass loops”
Never thought I’d see you say something like that.
Oh, what happened to my sense of humor.
But hey, this is the same industry where Hot Sauce just sold 2 million records when people had teasers to *warn* them, so I guess this was worth a shot, wasn’t it?
BTW, I’ve noticed this new wave of “insert random Spanish for Cool™” recently and I never thought I’d be saying this but K-pop, please just stick to pummelling English.
And ‘the heck is “baby you’re my only señorita” supposed to mean?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m in no way denying that the lyrics are cringy as hell, but “[term of endearment] you’re my only [second term of endearment]” has got to be one of the most basic pop/ballad lines in existence. “Darling you’re my only sweety/Sweety you’re my only girl/Girl you’re my only darling” and so on.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think OP meant that “señorita” is a really cringey way to refer to someone in Spanish lol especially when it comes to someone you’re trying to seduce. Probably the only people who do it are men on their 50/60s trying to hit up on girls on their 20/30s (at least that’s how it is where I live)
LikeLike
Yeah, but what I meant is that “señorita” is not even a term of endearment; it’s just flat, for lack of a better word. Neutral, and certainly not equivalent to the “you’re my lady” that K-pop uses so often, and that was probably what they intended here. If anything it carries the connotation of an older person speaking down respectfully (finger quotes) to a young woman, like an older man to a waitress, or simply your parents or teachers downright scolding you, quite condescendingly. So, in short, slighltly ridiculous.
But hey, that’s me and my quibbles. The Spanish speakers among what few people seem to be watching this on YT are eating it up, and I can’t blame them. God knows there’s precious little representation here for what seems to be a pretty big market.
LikeLike
This has to be regional, because I grew up in Northern California and I don’t think the guys shouting at me from their cars were speaking down respectfully. To be fair, that was also 20+ years ago, but I suspect it’s still used as a “term of endearment” in some places.
LikeLike
Watching the live stages altered my perception of their music. There stage presence transforms this song, at least for me. Their joy in performance doesn’t come across in the mv.
LikeLike
This is a weird one. I certainly was hoping for more for this “rebooting project,” but there are elements of this song that I liked. Well, maybe one element, which is the instrumental, the loop that plays during the chorus. It’s catchy, smooth, kinda fun. But it feels like they came up with that first and then they said “great, we have a song!” and didn’t really do any of the work to finish it. The song totally loses steam during the verses that don’t really feel connected to the chorus at all. It’s like they’re just standing around waiting for the next chorus. Oh well, better luck next time.
LikeLike
I’m in the minority, but I’m certainly not mad at this. My score would actually be like a 7.25. It is a little noisy and jarring at times- but it is one of those songs where watching the performance helps. I’m not a huge fan of just listening to the song by itself, but watching the mv makes it much more enjoyable to listen to. I am excited to see more of this group because it seems like they have a lot of potential!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I definitely expected something worse from the response here. Though the main riff got a little stale for me by the end of the song, it’s not nearly as slow as a lot of these “drop” style songs tend to be. I will almost always prefer something weird and unappealing to a song release that’s just boring, nothing more and nothing less.
LikeLike