ONEWE have taken an interesting approach to military enlistment, continuing to release music no matter how many (or few) members are left in their group at any moment. Salty Boy is a project track between Dongmyeong, Giuk and Harin — one half of a special single album that gives these guys some room to stretch their wings.
Salty Boy feels more like an interesting experiment than a song vital to ONEWE’s discography, but as an outlet for the guys’ creativity the track equates itself well. It’s got a grungy sound, melding rap and rock with a 90’s edge that feels pretty nostalgic. It has some fun singalong moments, though I don’t see myself returning to it often.
| Hooks | 8 |
| Production | 8 |
| Longevity | 8 |
| Bias | 7 |
| RATING | 7.75 |
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
This song plays it soooo safe. Its fine. Its “pleasant”. But I really want to hear a thrash metal double kick drum version. How someone could deftly take that one sing-song repeating line in the chorus and change the key three times instead. Or what Green Day would do with this material, how the vocal would be turned up to 12. Or what some old ska band like the Specials would do. How a milquetoast la la la “salty boy” would become “SALLLTYYYY BOYYYYYY” like their lives depended upon it.
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TBF, Onewe tend to spice up their songs in performance, since they are the ones playing the instruments. They are not really tied to what is in the album as much as vocal-only groups.
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The good: A SONG OVER 3:30 MINUTES!
The aesthetic of the MV was adorable
The chorus was catchy and summery
The bad: why was Harin not in the MV?
Kanghyun’s guitar is very much missed 🙃
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Because it was just meant to be a Giuk-Dongmyeong unit song. They performed it first on the hybrid (streamed) ONEWE concert last year, back when Yonghoon and Kanghyun hasn’t enlisted yet.
Performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NR9NGdtscg
Giuk talking about the production behind for this song on their VLIVE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSXG0J0bYQc
While the other one, 동서남북, was originally uploaded as Giuk’s soundcloud song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDsKiuYl0_8
Then, in XOXO (this release), he rearranged the song with Harin and some other RBW composers, no Dongmyeong; with performance MV released tomorrow. Both songs has been performed at their 3-members fanmeeting/concert last December, ONE day in the WEnter.
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Thx for the info! I knew it was originally by the two of them, but I thought after the new arrangement, they would include him in the MV even if it was in like a few added shots playing drums. I am not mad about it or anything, but it’s a bit of a pity 😦
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