Prior to listening to this song for the first time, I played the highlight medley for Treasure’s new album and thought: “This sounds great! Except for… Bona Bona.” After last year’s fun Hello and sub-unit T5’s excellent Move, YG Entertainment are up to their old tricks for this jarring, formulaic title track. I should have known not to get my hopes up!
I just… why? Why do the producers feel the need to sabotage a good thing? Bona Bona‘s opening verse is very promising, offering a glimpse at the banging dance track that might have been. But the composers couldn’t resist going all BLACKPINK with the chorus, lurching into a ugly, faux marching band breakdown that kills all momentum in service of a chanted hook that lands with a total thud. From here, we move into the requisite tempo-shifting second verse and tacked on, shout-along finale. I can see every move coming before it hits, and not in a satisfying way.
It’s ironic that YGent decided to name this album “Reboot.” That may be true for the b-sides, but Bona Bona is the same old agency crap, reheated. I have no doubt I’ll salvage some highlights from this track as the weeks go on (that opening verse is legitimately great), but we shouldn’t have to scavenge treasure from trash. If the composers must segue into some “hard” chorus, at least give us a memorable groove that doesn’t just sound like a toddler banging on pots and pans.
Hooks | 7 |
Production | 6 |
Longevity | 8 |
Bias | 7 |
RATING | 7 |
Grade: C-
The way they kept teasing the bsides and barely revealed the title track kept me high hopes. And then it turns out an another typical YG song.
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I was really hoping there would be a solo on the album.
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“scavenging treasure from trash” if that wasnt intentional lmfaooo
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It was totally intentional 😉
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LOL but seriously, this album is pretty awesome. as someone who didnt like their older material i will have to tune into them if their music maintains this standard. G.O.A.T just blew my mind. the title track is a fluke, an in-depth album review would be cool!
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Agreed! I liked 6 tracks out of 10 on Spotify, definitely more positive than my initial perceptions.
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It’s like Jikjin, except the high point first verse is higher and the drop is even more obnoxious.
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I can’t properly listen to this song it’s soo bad to me sorry. The b sides though are some of their strongest work imo.
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NICK, on a very off topic side note, my cousin a long time Infinite fan gave me their entire discography including a SIGNED album :D, I’m over the moon right now.
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So is there a “Buried Treasure” in this album?
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this song is just diet “kill this love”. now ktl is far from blackpink’s best work but that song somewhat succeeds at being loud, big, and bombastic, and its outro is truly electrifying. this, however, is rather uninteresting. the production choices confuse me because it seems they want to go big and go hype but everything feels so subdued and restrained that it blunts the overall power of the song. after the terrific “move” by their sub-unit i was hoping i’d get a song with more bite.
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The chorus really sounds like a worse version of “kill this love” like K pointed out earlier… That’s a shame, I was really digging the song up until the chorus dropped.
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Came back to say the entire song grew in me in these few days, including the chorus… Happens almost every time that I heavily dislike a centerpiece lol
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Basically Jikjin 2.0.
Gosh, why tf does the industry still keeps doing this????!!!! An absolutely bombastic verse one sparked big expectations in me, drownin’ my ears in high hopes I’d hear an equally bombastic, mid-to-late-00’s-inspired dance banger, but NO!!! Again we get a noisy boy group schmuck instead of a normal chorus, which literally interpolates Blackpink’s atrocious KTL😭😭😭😭…Again we’re backstabbed by this damn noise music existence!!! It ain’t even a failed good song, but a hate crime! YG, JUST GO FUCK YOURSELF🤬. Didn’t even wanna hear the rest of it after that so-called centerpiece arrived!!
7 is too much for this, 5.75 or flat 6 seems enough to me.
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does the industry still keep doing this*
My bad, was typin’ this too fast out of madness.
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I’m obsessed with how your comments are basically manifestations of the most dramatic parts of my brain before I temper my feelings to write the review 😅
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Oh hahahahaha, so it means I’ve basically leaked some of your thoughts…DANG. Can’t say it was unexpected, tho.
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About the same here, Bae~ captures the thoughts that run through the intemperate side of my brain before words and language take over.
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I am the rare exception this time ig because this sounds so amazing to me! 🥲😭❤ I love this! Like… this is in many ways so reminiscent of an Ateez song from their old era – just that Treasure is behind it now. Like that rap segment – and the verses that followed and everything – I could feel the spirit of Ateez everywhere.
I thought they really pulled this off well – like that chorus in any other song wouldn’t have worked – but with all those strong melodies around I feel it works perfectly as a hype main part – and the instrumental is really cool too! Yes, this is gonna grow alright ❤
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I really enjoyed it as well 😅
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Welcome to Episode 1000 of YG using the BIGBANG Bang Bang Bang strategy to give to every group
7.75/10 for me
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We’re so tired of their reruns!
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True
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‘I Want Your Love’ or ‘Run’ should’ve been the title track. Somehow they managed to choose the weakest song on the album to be title track
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This song is the answer to “which overused trend shall we drop into this song”. Yassss, allllllll of them. With an “interpolation” of Kill This Love too.
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Just a reminder, this is the same author who gave the awful Ateez’s song Bouncy a score of 8 🤣
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wow hard disagree here because bouncy is actually a great song
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Bouncy actually dropped to 7.75! At least Bouncy isn’t under the spell of Kill This Love.
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honestly i kinda get where toxic blinks r coming from……if i was a fan of a group whose money was going to their juniors to promote a mid ass song while theyre locked in the basement 24/7 id be pissed too
(and thats not even mentioning the fact that (a) treasures 2 main slayers left the group and (b) one of the members was caught in 4K being homophobic as shit and their fans r still trying to make excuses for him)
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I kinda like this but also don’t like this. It sounds so empty yet it works.
7.75/10 for me for now
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I thought I was gonna dislike this a lot more considering the review, but I personally see this as win because I like it more than any of their title tracks post-Boy bar Hello. There are moments of true brilliance, while other parts are more mediocre but not to the pointof being utterly offensive. I still feel like it is a reboot of some sort, given how those brilliant parts really don’t sound like any other Treasure song. I’m not sure how the ‘born to born to born to love ya’ will age, but I really like some parts a lot. Maybe an 8 for me.
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I don’t wanna talk about the song anymore because i’m in the middle ground when it comes to it but the album is strong, their strongest so far. At least 3 songs are title track worthy so let’s just hope we will get a double title (or more) because it would be such a waste to not promote those songs as those captured the essence of REBOOT more.
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I don’t get it… how does anyone listen to that and think ‘yep that works’. I guess the producers/songwriters look at Blackpink’s success and don’t care if it sounds awful on its face
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Mmhhhh I was really liking the verse and pre-chorus and when the chorus kicked in I found it so uninspiring. Everything is uninspiring about that chorus. The production reminds of “Kill this love”; more shockingly, the instrumental riff which is the most memorable part, is a total lift from ATEEZ “Wonderland” – I almost fell off my chair because it really sounds like whoever wrote this song took that melody and changed a couple of notes… I’m no lawyer, but I’m not sure if and how they’ll get away with it. The concept is so throwaway it sounds like someone was asked to write some lyrics in 20 mins and couldn’t find something decent so they made up some word just so that “born to love” sounds more unusual 😂 honestly I’m a bit shocked. I can’t “fault” the production, or the performance, meaning it’s a slick production like all productions YG puts out, but the chorus itself left me really surprised, because the rest is good, so why not look for a better chorus idea. So weird…. maybe YG gave up on Treasure to focus on the girl band that is about to debut.
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I like the first verse. This song gives me… 2nd gen bg mix with blackpink feels?
Esp the chorus and rap verse, feels like u can mashup to make a co-ed song with blackpink.
Maybe cause I rarely listen to boy groups, didnt check their teaser too, so I wasn’t disillusioned?
At least the chorus is not THAT empty or anti-drop as I’ve come to expect from YG. It’s quite listenable, around an 8.
This coming from casual listener of gg songs.
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I came to the conclusion that Treasure’s one and only problem is yg. The promotions were non-existent, but I gave them the benefit of the doubt until the d-day when it was announced that Bona Bona has the “yg sound”.
It’s been almost three years, why can’t they let Treasure have their own identity too? Songs like My Treasure, Beautiful, Hello, Clap, Run represent better their sound. Bona Bona’s bridge is the only part that screams “Treasure”.
For their last mini album, the boys thought to release for the first time what they’d like to sing rather than what everyone else expects to hear from them (= the yg sound with Jikjin). It sold less, it didn’t go viral, it didn’t give them any win. I feel bad if they were forced to go back because of this. Bona Bona is even more disappointing when you realize how great the album actually is.
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Well, what a crazy quilt of a song. Do I like it? Do I hate it? I don’t hate the worst parts as much as Jik Jin in its entirely, so there’s that. It could grow on me, perhaps, but it’s kind of exhausting to listen to.
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well this was a 10 for me, i loved the song. it had that classic edm yg sound that i love! i find it funny how a group has a marching band theme and people are like yep kill this love, lmao. oh well, you can’t please everyone.
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Kill This Love (Treasure Edition)
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WAIT WHAT– WAS I THE ONLY ONE WHO LIKED THIS SONGGG ??? GAWDD NOHHH
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