“Woo! Ah!” is the sound I desperately want to make after listening to a new K-pop track. But more often than not, those exclamation marks have been replaced with angry face emojis this year. Seriously… this is getting old. Just a day after Secret Number’s by-the-numbers boredom of Doomchita, we have another aural assault from the occasionally-great woo!ah!. It’s danger, indeed.
Kudos to anyone who enjoys a song like this. You’ve got more fortitude than me. Danger (단거) opens in decent fashion, underlined by a bouncy percussion loop that grows more off-kilter as the verse goes on. There isn’t much melody to be found here, but the arrangement works reasonably well. Then, the song slows for a predictable pre-chorus. It’s pleasant enough, but fails to build energy the way these structures usually do. However, this is all pop perfection compared to Danger’s chorus.
The first time through, this hook instantly repelled me. The melodies are cloying, the vocals are strained, and the ping-ponging energy goes nowhere. Multiple listens didn’t improve the experience, making Danger a dud. It’s easy to see what the producers were reaching for with this quirky arrangement. Many K-pop groups find success by getting a bit weird with their music. But, these acts tend to bolster their quirk with satisfying songwriting. Remove the instrumental and Danger plays more like an assembly line of vocal asides and affectations. This approach is just not for me.
Hooks | 6 |
Production | 7 |
Longevity | 7 |
Bias | 6 |
RATING | 6.5 |
Considering everyone and their mama is doing this disastrous type of instrumental and chorus these days in k-pop it’s not even weird anymore it’s just annoying. 😭
Like, come on… there has to be someone in the studio with a sense for melody… right? 💀
LikeLiked by 5 people
it was all good till the chorus hit…i dont see myself returning to this song
LikeLiked by 3 people
For a song that sounds like it should be fun, it isn’t really fun. No worries, just click 1.15x on the youtube setting, and there, it is fixed.
Actually, it sounds really good at 1.15x. I don’t have enough skillz to paste it here though I tried, so go do it yourself and see.
LikeLike
I couldn’t get 1.15x but I did try 1.25x. A much better experience
LikeLike
The optimum speed to ensure a positive experience 100% of the time is 0.0x. I’ve tested it; it works. Trust me.
LikeLike
Been trying that out for about 24 hours. I can confirm that is the superior way to enjoy this song
LikeLiked by 1 person
Under the gear shaped settings -> Playback Speed, upper right corner is a small clickable word “Custom” which allows for .05 increments.
LikeLike
Oh shit, thanks I had no idea
LikeLike
I know that bright songs like this tend to be my cup of tea, but, alas, their new comeback failed to do it. Heck, this aegyo stuff has got so old that now I can’t take it anymore just like those noisy beat drops…🥴
Regarding the song itself, nothing is actually bad or terrible about it for me, but it made me think that the girls have been turned into 5-year-old kids singing this somewhere at the kindergarten by their agency. There’s just TOO MUCH of this cloying cutesy shit.
P.S. I’ve listened to the whole mini, and the only b-side I liked is Switch Up, though I wish its chorus had more meat on its bones. Especially considering the fact that was a pop rock song.
All in all, I believe that one day idols will be stopped being tortured with this kind of underwhelming trash, and 2022 will give us more outstanding material in the nearest future…
LikeLike
diehard wow here, haha. i enjoy many elements of this song a lot. i think the beat is super fun and bouncy, i love how diverse and all over the scale the verses are, the prechorus is gorgeous, but… the first chorus is a little flat to me, i have to admit. it’s way too empty for what they were building up to. i do love the second chorus, however, but it takes a little too long to get there imo. and i don’t like the outro, which is too short/abrupt and also doesnt do enough to legitimize its existence or blend itself into the preceding parts.
i actually really liked their song “purple” on first listen, which was unpopular here and elsewhere for reasons similar as the ones you listed here. but this one…hm. it’s hard to place. as mentioned, i like parts of it a lot, but that almost makes the parts that don’t do it for me MORE disappointing lol. will be repeating this a bunch, but i can see how it might be off-putting to non-fans, especially those who aren’t into woo!ah!-style music lmao
LikeLiked by 1 person
i like this definitely at least an 8/10 for me #KeepKpopWeird
LikeLiked by 1 person
honestly this is more of “k-pop” than the many vaguely retro offerings we’ve been getting recently, not that i dont love those but they easily could have been released in western music markets just by tweaking the language
LikeLiked by 2 people
i guess my point is this song feels distinctively k-pop and only k-pop can get away with releasing such a bonkers song and thus should be appreciated more than the initial scoring it received
LikeLiked by 2 people
totally agree with this take. i think woo!ah! are one of if not the only new group that consistently brings the spirit and sound of quintessential kpop into the 4th generation, which is why they’ve become so high up on my list.
LikeLiked by 1 person
FUCK RETRO
LikeLike
I actually love retro but I’m tired man
LikeLiked by 1 person
Also I didn’t like this but i did like Purple (probably the only person that did) but i think that’s kinda why. It was weird in that signature K-POP™️ way. Plus i thought it was actually catchy
LikeLike
At this point, I don’t care if it’s retro or “k-pop” or whatever. I just want a good song.
I… don’t think this is a good song. But, everyone is entitled to their own opinion 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
Pardon the completely unrelated comment but I love TheEastLight’s discography. Much like Produce’s 이뻐이뻐, I feel like this bright, “childish” sound is missing in kpop. It just makes anyone’s day that much better, and perfectly fits the upcoming season. TheEastLight’s sound has the benefit of being a band. (It would be interesting to see Dongpyo, Hyeongjun and friends pull off a band concept (Yet it would be even more interesting for Wonder Girls to get back together)). It is a shame that those kids had to go through that awful ordeal, and maybe it is better that kids do not participate in kpop at all, then negating the first part of this comment.
Now what is happening in this woo!ah chorus?
LikeLike
One other comment, off topic: I am not staying up until midnight my time for the new BTS song. The teaser music does not sound promising, but who knows if it is in the real song. When the cynic in me reads a title “Yet To Come”, I don’t think Sinatra anymore but instead can’t unhear the line being shouted at full volume. ‘https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlNQXwkpvdM
LikeLiked by 1 person
I saw the teaser and was already with low expectations. I don’t seem to dislike as much, but woo!ah! seems to produce some solid songs and then throw something like this and Purple out of nowhere. Catch The Stars and I Don’t Miss U are pretty solid imo, wish they would follow something a bit more like that, especially now that it seems like the production value of their MV got an up.
Apparently, in between me hearing of them again, they got quite famous on tiktok? I mean, good for them.
While Secret Number got Weekly’d and Woo!ah! got this track, i’m quite happy listening to Lightsum’s Alive.
LikeLike
I saw a new release, and my first listen didn’t really get anything from the song, and further listens really didn’t give me more though I kind of like the ending. It’s doing something. Still, the vocal melody feels too high and the hook is more repetitive than catchy. Probably not gonna listen to this more unfortunately.
Unrelatedly. OH, my excitement for June 15th is palpable. I’m gonna have to go overdrive to finish all my projects before it comes because it seems like PIXY will dominate my playlists for a while.
LikeLike
I was kinda praying during the pre chorus that there wouldn’t be a drop. And then it happened, I thought ” c’mon dude, did you really think we’d escape it?”. I can see the appeal of the hook , but I don’t know if this song will grow on me. I really liked the. Outro of the song though.
LikeLike
LikeLiked by 3 people
😎
LikeLike
Thank you for restoring my faith in Woo!ah with this song. That title track IMO is worse than “Purple,” and I can’t stand that song. Like the old joke goes “I blame it on Obama.” For KPop ggs, I blame it on Itzy. However, Itzy knows how to do Itzy.
LikeLike
Completely unrelated note but i randomly found myself revisiting kpop from 2016 and MANNNNNN what a year. I’ll probably make some top lists in my spare time when i get the chance.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Together with Purple this is my least favorite Woo!ah! track , it’s not bad but far from what i like and honesyly they deserve a way better title track than what this is
LikeLike
I like the verses a lot, that pre-chorus is real fun. Unfortunately, the chorus is totally buzz-kill. Catch the Stars reigns supremes for woo!ah!’s discography.
LikeLiked by 1 person
weirdly i am quite leaning to like everything, but i don’t really think its an amazing song or a trash song. it think this is one of those kpop haecceities. it just feels intriguing rather than being good and bad. its above those. idk this song is making a radical movement within itself, as we are all seemingly divided on what it is, and why is it either good or bad. i think this song is totally meta. performative but post-ironic. i’m just throwing words here and there but its very weird and that what makes me gravitate to my first sentence.
LikeLike
its so bad its good
LikeLike
by no means my favorite of theirs. Even Purple was better. i’ll have to check out the Bsides. Bah.
LikeLike
I feel like I should hate it but I don’t. somehow it’s keeping my attention. I need to remember to listen to the B-sides too, maybe I’ll feel less confused :’)
LikeLike
Disastrous? This song is way better than How You Like That!!!!
LikeLike
What’s funny is that everything in the song’s fine EXCEPT for that annoying whiny synth sound. Like we need a ban on that shit pronto.
LikeLike