Seven years after his debut with NCT U, Ten has finally released his first solo album. Talk about delayed gratification! He’s had plenty of solo singles throughout the years, but I can’t believe it took this long for SM Entertainment to give him something more substantial. He follows a lineage of male idol performers gone solo, following in the footsteps of fellow showmen like Taemin and Kai. Title track Nightwalker draws on his strengths as an expressive dancer, delivering edgy theatricality.
As much as Nightwalker‘s vibe elicits cinematic spookiness, the song itself plays things pretty safe. I feel like I’ve heard this structure time and time again in current pop and dance music. The instrumental is beefed up with an industrial stomp, but when you strip it down to its most basic elements, this is essentially a bass-driven anti-drop style. It’s an expected route for a male idol and suffers from this familiarity. Ten sells the track as much as possible, injecting drama into the strings-assisted pre-chorus and excelling whenever a dance break comes around.
I’m most intrigued by the instrumental’s more abrasive textures. The crunchiness of the production occasionally recalls OnlyOneOf’s excellent libidO, but the melodies and lyrical content aren’t nearly as idiosyncratic. It’s quite telling that Nightwalker‘s strongest moments occur at its finale, when the melody stops and gives way for the beat to bound at full intensity.
| Hooks | 8 |
| Production | 9 |
| Longevity | 8 |
| Bias | 8 |
| RATING | 8.25 |
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
Ten is a ten. Performance is a nine. Song is an eight.
To be more specific, the song doesn’t have a driving force behind it, a reason for being, a central story that grabs you and doesn’t let go. There are good moments, and a nice beat underlying the second half of the song, but that only allows for a quality performance.
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Wish they just kept those strings damn…Sounds like tremolo guitar I think. That thing could have solely layered the chorus and made everything ten times better. pun intended
Btw, I liked Shadow and Lie with you pretty much
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I really enjoyed the song, especially the dramatic pre-chorus and the ‘psytrance’-like instrumental in the chorus and the dance break/outro.
It’s nice to see someone dabble in this type of genre after so long; I miss those songs in the k-pop industry so much.
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Its fresh to my ears, and therefore stands out from what I’ve heard past 2ish years. Very addictive instrumentals and key vocal moments
This is SOTY for me as of now
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Agree as usual, Nick. I do think SM sells Ten short. We all know he’s an incredible dancer, but his voice is really compelling, too–not terribly strong but flexible and emotional. He could do a lot more if they would give him the resources to do it with. Like, Kai had to go into the military for Ten to get a solo album….
On Tue, Feb 13, 2024 at 6:33 AM The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussi
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In the beginning, I was worried that the song would be just another minimalistic, subdued song, though Ten does minimalism well as seen with “Birthday”. But I loved how the song builds up as it goes on. I also loved the spooky vibe, so I wonder it would have been sweeter had they released it during late-October or early-November. Well most likely age well for me.
8.5 (8,9,8,9) for now.
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It’s a cool lizard brain dumb dance song, Ten sells every single atom of it, and the ending is badass. It’s still not quite there. Very enjoyable to listen to, though. I’m bummed there wasn’t a big ballad on there as he was absolutely essential in making Horizon and Lighthouse the powerhouses they are.
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Love Ten as an artist. Didn’t like this song at all on first listen (watching MV with subtitles on), I just hate the lyrics. But if I just listen to the audio and don’t pay much attention to the lyrics, its has some nice textures. I do like the instrumental.
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I don’t know, I think this is pretty unique – but maybe that’s me being fooled by the set dressing. I’m reminded of Taemin’s style and that’s not a bad thing.
I don’t know if I’ll listen to it again, but I’ll give it kudos for having plenty of drama.
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It landed somewhere between Taemin’s darkness and Key’s dramatic clean moves for me as a shawol, kinda like one of Taemin’s title tracks meets Key’s Bound 🤣
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I like this song. Ten has a certain charm that keeps me coming back for more.
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