Kim Jaehwan’s finally gone and done it. He’s promoting a funk song! Ever since 2019’s excellent Designer, I’ve been on his case about releasing more upbeat material. Yes, big voices are well-suited to ballads — but there is nothing better than a skilled, powerful singer flexing their skills over an equally powerful dance beat.
Lucky! has the formula down, and even enlists iKON’s Bobby for added firepower. It’s bright and brassy and filled with more percussive stabs than you can count. Jaehwan sounds amazing (as expected) and the freewheeling energy is bound to get your body moving. There are many times when the song feels as if it will segue into Fleur East’s 2015 hit Sax — one of the many post-Uptown Funk funk workouts that took EDM’s drop structure and asked how it would sound with more horns.
Unfortunately, there’s not a ton of melodic meat to Lucky!. A brass riff takes place of a chorus, leaving Jaehwan to fill the space with ebullient ad-libs. Bobby’s segment slows things down unnecessarily and an insistent whistle does the song no favors. The track gets by on great energy and Jaehwan’s fun performance, but it could have been so much more.
| Hooks | 8 |
| Production | 8 |
| Longevity | 8 |
| Bias | 9 |
| RATING | 8.25 |
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
I know, Kim Jae Hwan was in midtempo and ballad world for a while, which I adored.
Finally, funky KJH. shows up I think it goes well and suits him.
Its a bit like a Max Changmin or TVXQ duo song, which isn’t a bad thing. Parts of it also remind me of the old “Walk the Dinosaur” song, and at other times SuJu “Black Suit” or “House Party”. I’ll take the brass too, easily, even though it sounds sampled.
For the kids here, here is the old “Walk the Dinosaur” song. This was in heavy rotation on MTV back when MTV actually showed music videos. Apparently Queen Latifah does a cover for one of the Ice Age movies, but this is the original.
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isn’t the overall rating just 8? unless you made a mistake with one of the criterias
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Oops… forgot to change one of the scores
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I really want to like this. I love him on fun upbeat songs like this. But he is killing me with the whistling. His last song had it too.
I don’t know if it’s just me and my recently developed and very strong whistle pet peeve, but I feel like I’m hearing it everywhere these days. I would have liked LUN8’s debut if the whistles were removed.
MAKE IT STOP 😭
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It kinda reminds me of Uptown Funk, but not as funky.
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