Review

Song Review: Golden Child – Rata-Tat-Tat

Golden Child - Rata-Tat-TatI want to be very clear with you, Woollim Entertainment. When I mentally scream into the void about wanting another Golden Child comeback, this is not what I mean. If you’re going to give us another Rata-Tat-Tat, you might as well just keep it.

I do not recognize Golcha in this song. None of their skill or individuality is on display. This is the lowest common denominator or generic boy group noise music, and easily the worst thing they’ve put their name to.

Flash back a couple months and – against my better judgment — I had a few hesitant praises for the group’s Japanese debut, A WOO. Even if I feared its workaday sound would come to define their Japanese output, I was willing to give it a chance — wolf howls and all. But, time has not been kind to that track and now I’m just a little pissed off. How dare a song as dull as Rata-Tat-Tat put a smear on an otherwise excellent discography? It feels like the worst kind of sellout — a placeholder release, a waste of precious resources. I can only hope this marks the end of Woollim’s confounding desire to saddle Golcha with sound effect titles. In the past year, we’ve Ra Pam Pammed, DDARA‘d and A WOO‘d. Now, we’re Rata-Tat-Tatting. We’ve gotta be more creative than this, right??

My admiration for Golden Child has been well-documented, so when I call Rata-Tat-Tat obnoxious, blustery and boring the critique comes from a place of love. I’m just embarrassed they had to perform such a crappy chorus, and I’m irritated at the Powers That Be who thought this tired, formulaic shout-a-thon was what the Japanese market deserved. Fortunately, it’s easy enough to ignore within an otherwise spotless discography. Just don’t do it again, Woollim.

Hooks 6
 Production 6
 Longevity 6
 Bias 6
 RATING 6

36 thoughts on “Song Review: Golden Child – Rata-Tat-Tat

  1. Holy crap. (ngl i feel sad that Ra Pam Pam is even mentioned wrt this track, cuz i love that song and this thing is… yeah.) I could FEEL the rage through my screen.

    Liked by 3 people

  2. how dare they autotune my precious sungyoon 😦 honestly it wasn’t even that bad until the chorus made me want to curl up and cry

    Like

  3. (not to triple comment, but I have a lot of thoughts since i’m in the apex of my golcha phase)
    I fear the worst for Golcha’s future nowadays — with the awkward age gapping of their members (and I suspect contract renewal will hit them too, ahem Oh My Girl), I fear there will never be another OT10 comeback. Cuz right when Daeyeol returns Y goes, then the dominoes fall… sigh.
    Am doing my best to make it to their tour in Dallas though 🙂

    Like

  4. Walking through the moon was one of the best releases so far in 2022 for me. I dont agree with 6.0. It is no where good but there are so many kpop acts from big companies releasing japanese song like this. It is not a wollim shit. Just one of the disappointed foreign releases

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  5. I just woke up and had to rub my eyes because I thought I had seen an 8 as a 6.

    Nope. Not dreaming. TheBiasList really has slapped a 6 on his darling Golden Child.

    The end is near. I am packing my things and booking a trip to the moon.

    Liked by 11 people

    • woollim, if you’re gonna break golcha into the japanese market, give them something that sounds like kisumai or hey say jump, not this garbage 😭

      Like

  6. That seals the deal. I just smashed my light stick in front of 30 guests at my watch party because of this song. My wife just took our crying kids and said they’re all spending the week at a hotel. This song has ruined my life and my party. I’m sorry but I can’t handle this anymore. So yeah, I’m no longer a Golcha fan. 🚶🏾

    Liked by 2 people

  7. This is just a pure PIECE OF TRASH. Why do songs like this have a right to exist?……We’ve already heard billions of such generic noisy tracks, and I have no idea why we got another one.
    Fuck you, Woollim.

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    • I’m praying that any American goldenness doesn’t have to deal with this song at the concerts. As much as I don’t like Oasis, it is a song to jam out at a concert and the online play concerts showed that. I doubt Ratatatata can deal the same energy.

      Liked by 1 person

  8. I’m low-key terrified to listen to this now after reading this review lol. I probably shouldn’t too as Golcha is spotless in my mind lol 🤣

    But speaking of Japanese… I really found Enhypen’s Japanese version of Tamed Dashed much more to my liking than the original! I don’t even know why it felt so different! Was the music amped up in some way? Or was it the way the Japanese words seemed to flow together better? Anyhow it seems I’m vibing to that song months later 🤣🤣

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  9. It’s like what Love Me Like Was for Omega X. On one hand it’s a huge disappointment, even more so than OX (Younger is their only great song). On the other hand it hits my stupid bop buttons pretty hard. It’s a fun song if you don’t think about it being Golcha. But dammit I just bought a light stick for their upcoming MN show.

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  10. Don’t worry, Golden Child released four excellent tracks before this and now they have released four meh tracks.
    So now they will of course do a *third* imperial phase. Eternal Optimist like you Nick!

    Like

  11. A penny of my thought (not on the song though):

    – Golcha as the oldest group Woollim have full control of -> means the steadiest fanbase, especially between the 2 boygroups they have
    That’s why Woollim will experiment with genres (e.g. Ddara, Ra Pam Pam, Burn It) for their future title tracks. The only salvation I can see are (1) the members themselves strongly pushed for certain song like they did for Pump It Up (2) Woollim will not mess up with the b-sides to keep the fandom/fanbase? from straying

    – So far the “Golcha’s noise music” come only from Japan releases. Not sure how much Woollim have a say in their Japan releases, but the better line distribution definitely doesn’t seem like Woollim. So, there’s still hope for the Korea comeback (at least I hope so)

    Liked by 1 person

  12. Let’s just ignore this one and revisit Sleazy by Kesha why don’t we? Because that’s what immediately gets stuck in my head when I see this title. RATA TAT TAT ON YA DUMB DUMB DRUMMM THE BEAT SO PHAT GONNA MAKE ME CUMMMMMM. over to your place!!! 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  13. Let me give my opinion. My rating is 8.5

    Definitely Previous Golden Child songs and their Japanese songs are different. If you make a playlist, then put Thank You, Damdadi, Make me love, One Lucid Dream, Burn it, then Rata tat tat, You’ll feel like -” Umm…is this.. their song? ” It kinda feel like it does not have the unique golcha.

    BUT BUT BUT I personally like this song so much. Definitely the rap in this song is very better. After Burn It, I loved this rap so much. And Seungmin ad-lib in second pre chorus. Unlike Awoo, the highnote doesn’t feel like out of place.

    Yup, the noise is too much and adding earphones you can hear too much music that you can’t focus on the members voices. But give it a listen twice or thrice. AND I AM 1000 % SURE YOU WONT BE ABLE TO SAY THIS SONG IS TRASH !! DEFINITELY NOT !!

    This has so many works. I’m not a pro but at least I myself has learnt music. And I’m not defending this song because this is a golcha song. I really like it, even better than Awoo.

    It is different than usual golcha so it’s hard to accept at first. I miss bright golcha. Definitely after Burn It, woolim has lost track of what do to with golcha. So this song does not link with other songs.

    Still, just listen it as song, not as some particular group’s song and you will like it.

    Liked by 1 person

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