Boy group n.SSign finally make their long-awaited debut today, bolstered by a ton of goodwill. Their early-2023 pre-debut album is quite strong, they’re paired with excellent producers, and pre-release Higher only gets better with each listen. This makes title track Wormhole: New Track all the more baffling. It sounds like nothing else the group has recorded. To be honest, I’m not sure it sounds like a finished song!
Even Wormhole‘s title feels like a filename placeholder for a demo on someone’s hard drive. And though the audio is challenging and interesting, it comes across as a sketch rather than a finished project. At nearly four minutes in length (including a 30+ second introduction), the track pushes against the shorter-is-better trend in K-pop, but it doesn’t do enough with this luxurious running time. Wormhole is remarkable sparse in execution, finding its off-kilter percussion early and treading that beat with a series of disconnected melodic peaks surrounded by rap. There’s a lot of empty space in the production, mainly due to the phrasing and tempo employed in the performance.
I don’t dislike this song. It catches my interest through the sheer audacity of its strangeness. But it doesn’t feel like a title track or debut, and it doesn’t really go anywhere. The guys are clearly talented, and I wish Wormhole built to more thrilling vocal peaks. It sputters all the way through, making me want to squish it together into a taut three minute package that’s all killer, no filler.
| Hooks | 7 |
| Production | 7 |
| Longevity | 8 |
| Bias | 8 |
| RATING | 7.5 |
Grade: C
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
n.SSigh. 2020 called, it wants its sound back. Oh good lord, and a bass note vocal fry yaiiiiii
I am just going to pretend that this song does not exist and go back to the excellent “Higher” from last week. La la la I can’t hear you.
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…how did we get here from Higher, which is in my top 10 of the year. Feels like me greeting someone with open arms and smile on my face only to get sucker punched in the jaw
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Agh…what were they thinking!?!? Is this even a song?!?!
After Higher, Salty and even WooWoo?!?!🤯
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It’s weird and I kinda like it. It’s probably intended as a hype performance piece, so here’s hoping they have some great choreo to uplift it. Not in their usual wheelhouse, but I admire wobbly steps toward new ideas.
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I wasn’t sure I would like it based on the teasers but it’s actually not bad. It reminds me of something NCT would do (I hate using them as an example) but with a vocals similar to EXO.
For some reason I feel like they recorded this so the new members would have some shine. I belive the newer members are all “rappers” or as I like to call them talk-singers. However, I was still confused why all of their main vocals are talk-singing. Like come on,in my opinion they have multiple main vocals which shows how talented they are but let them sing.
They’re still one of my favorite debuts this year, along with 8turn, Lun8, and ZB1, and Xeed (I think they actually debuted end of 2022).
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They went through a wormhole and ended up south of NCity.
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Meh.
They played Higher before Epik High’s concert in Argentina. The concert was amazing tbh (i can proudly say tablo waved at me lol)
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this feels like an experimental b-side/performance piece rather than a title track, it definitely is an experience that goes on for too long
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Huh, if Higher was the lyric poem, this is the prose poem. Although I was hoping for a song more like Higher, I really like Wormhole. It’s appealingly … odd.
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The intro meant this song was doomed from the start.
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I ended up liking this a lot. I guess I understand the hate, though god knows it seems like half the comments on any post here are complaints about something. So I’ll unabashedly and unreservedly love this. It’s weird, the structure is odd, there are bursts of lovely melody punctuating the song – it’s so wonderfully eccentric.
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It took me a whole month to appreciate this song (I’m actually still in the process). What keeps me coming back to it are the vocals…simply amazing to me. The instrumentals and the voice effects still throw me off a little, but I’m listening to it more and more these days. I’ve been meaning to dive into the n.SSign rabbit whole for a while now and this song and Higher might be the ones to finally push me down to it✌🏻
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