Review

Song Review: TAN – Du Du Du

TAN - Du Du DuDebut group TAN (To All Nations) were formed through MBC’s Wild Idol audition show, which paired typical Produce-esque tropes with outdoor training and survival challenges. It was a bizarre concept, and I’ll admit that I gave up on the series after episode one. Even Infinite’s Sungkyu as a celebrity mentor couldn’t keep my attention! Thankfully, TAN’s music has no real connection to the show. Du Du Du stands as one of the year’s stronger debuts so far.

Opening with a capella vocals and a simple finger snap, the track lays down its slinky sound piece by piece. The overall approach is pretty rote at this point in K-pop, but the vocal performance is solid and the melody has some bite. The layered arrangement during the pre-chorus feels as if it could have been plucked from the industry’s “second generation,” largely forgoing manic percussion in favor of dramatic vocals. This continues into verse two, which replicates Du Du Du’s core melody but injects an extra bit of oomph to keep momentum growing. It’s a simple trick, but one we rarely hear in K-pop anymore.

If anything, Du Du Du suffers from its trendier moments. The chorus is fine, and would have sounded more exciting if every other group hadn’t already done the “slink bass drop hook” to death. Thankfully, the arrangement grows more robust as the track goes on, giving Du Du Du a character of its own. In the end, a sense of cohesion wins the day and TAN have quickly established themselves as a new group to watch closely.

**With all that said, why the heck wasn’t the fantastic album intro turned into a complete song and promoted as the group’s debut? It sounds like Fiction!

Hooks 8
 Production 9
 Longevity 9
 Bias 8
 RATING 8.5

31 thoughts on “Song Review: TAN – Du Du Du

    • I’m also thinking the same thing because I’m used to kpop intros to be mostly just instrumental and some sung lines. It’s too strong in hooks to be an intro and the last part doesn’t sound like the end. Maybe they’ll give us the part 2 and the full version (hopefully) in the next release and the trailer for Fix You looks like they shot an MV for it for real.

      Liked by 1 person

  1. when i watched TAN’s debut teaser last week i was instantly blown away by how GOOD it sounded??? it definitely recalls the quintessential 2nd gen boy group sound and i was sooo obsessed with it. unfortunately it was relegated to merely being an album intro ugh what a way to break the momentum

    Liked by 4 people

  2. TAN’s DU DU DU is very promising and a solid debut in 2022. I was not expecting anything like this, it is very quintessential yet innovative. It harkens to the golden era of K-Pop, which I think is coming back but not because of the right reasons that is, and we’ll have to pay the price for it.

    MBC definitely didn’t play on this one and with producers familiar to SM like MZMC, it is really interesting how they did this.

    Liked by 2 people

  3. Thanks for the positive attention towards them. They’ve not even been debuted 7 hours and they’re already being picked on by larger fandoms for their company’s marketing tactics despite this being a better musical output than any of the former groups have put out in idk how long. Also lol at how everyone was waking up expecting Fix You as the title and the side track was used as debut fare instead – expected of a nugu group. The “fan” song on their album sounds like it was plucked out of 2012 nugudom

    Liked by 2 people

  4. Well, hot damn this turned out well. It sounds old fashioned and yet new, so the best of both worlds. Last year, every now and then, the “Answer” song by the Wild Idol would come around and every time I would think “Who’s this, its pretty good”. The “Fix You” teaser is also promising. So I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that whoever the creative team on the music side is, they do a good job. (The TV side, notsomuch.)

    For those who haven’t found Kang Daniel’s Hush Hush (Korean version) from a recent OST, it is also a hot one.
    ‘https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJEIbqn153c

    Darling daughter says of both “They’re pretty good”, which is teen for she will start listening on repeat and won’t think I know.

    Liked by 3 people

  5. Either this isn’t on Apple Music or it’s the least searchable group/song name combo I’ve ever run across. I hate listening to things if I can’t add them to the library so hopefully the algorithms will get sorted out somehow.

    Liked by 3 people

  6. I was considering not even reading into this group because of their name. TAN is ironic considering the beauty standard in Korea lol. I really like this song.I didn’t expect anything but a nosy mess do to the title.

    Liked by 3 people

  7. once again im thankful for this site. I would’ve never listened to this song before your review and that’s a missed opportunity rip. disregarding the ill advised trap break, du du du is my favourite song this year holy shit

    and im definitely going to check out that intro next!!! as someone who got into beaast as a kid because of fiction, ive vv high expectations

    Liked by 1 person

  8. We might end up hearing the full version of Fix You probably on their next release because I don’t think it’s composed as an intro and there’s a part 1 indication as well. As for this song, it’s good but Fix You is definitely better. In fact Fix You reminds me of Black Eyed Pilseung works in boy groups like Teen Top and If You Do by GOT7 that I even checked the credits to see if it’s them (it’s not).

    Liked by 1 person

  9. This was surprisingly good! The vocals were so pleasant! The pre-chorus and chorus being so melodically charged is a rare phenomenon now! 😂 It definitely stands apart from a lot of other debuts. Also… the rapper with the umbrella is really good! I liked the whole aesthetic of the song as well – I’m not sure if I wanna say creepy, but just that there’s something more, maybe?

    March is turning out to be a real treat alright! And with more groups still announcing their cbs it’s only going to get busier!

    Liked by 1 person

  10. From the first seconds I could feel that it was different from the current trend and that I would like it. Pleasantly surprised. I was happy and intrigued by Lee Jaejun’s third redebut but I’d have lost track of them (zero publicity) if it wasn’t for KVille channel.
    Eager to hear their following title tracks.

    Liked by 2 people

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