What did poor 82MAJOR do to deserve a comeback on the same day as both Seventeen and IVE? It’s hard to see how new single Choke (촉) doesn’t get lost in the shuffle, though maybe they’re hoping a rising tide will lift all boats. The song’s rubbery bass definitely deserves attention, even if the song itself could do more to live up to that production.
82MAJOR have already gone through several musical iterations, from the laidback pop of Sure Thing to the bombast of First Class. Choke embraces the hip-hop genre and the guys are given a great groove to play with. The production is easily the song’s strongest asset, and you can tell they know it from how little the beat changes over the course of three minutes.
Choke‘s verses mostly take advantage of this great production, but the song falls apart during its chorus. The hook is monotonous and underdeveloped, like a demo placeholder before the topliner comes in to write a memorable refrain. It’s too bad, because the rest of the track is quite enjoyable and paints a promising way forward for this rookie group.
| Hooks | 6 |
| Production | 9 |
| Longevity | 8 |
| Bias | 8 |
| RATING | 7.75 |
Grade: C+
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
Holy shit- a 7.75? Damn, I had a feeling that because of the chorus alone (and the minimalistic production), you’d give it somewhere in 6s, because you said in the Smoothie review that “catchphrase choruses” is a huge pet peeve for you.
Idk, I enjoyed the bombastic First Class, and kinda wish Choke followed in its footsteps. Maybe the production isn’t up to the mark for me, but I can vibe with it.
7.25 for now (6, 8, 8, 7), but I see this age well for me. The album is decent (Illegal and 82 are pretty good, especially 82 is a hip-hop banger, though I wish it was longer)
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I personally think the catchphrase chorus isn’t as bad here, meanwhile Smoothie is just very clunky imo 😭
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Yeah, this one is alright, just repetitive and bland, while Smoothie just happens to be *too* serious and… dull (?) for its own good (and since when on earth is the word smoothie supposed to be all dark-sounding? 🤧). But well, at least glad that the song got in 7s than 6s, since I tried to predict that it’d get a 6.75 or smth because of the chorus and minimalistic production (it can occasionally be hard to tell what kinda minimalism is good and what kind is just… limp production) 🤡
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Minimalism at its best is when two measures of one line can completely define the song as its own song and nothing else.
This is where I usually turn to the New Wave pop examples (Pet Shop Boys “West End Girls”; Depeche Mode “Personal Jesus”). Or classic U2 “With or without you”, they carve an entire sonic atmosphere from 4 lines (drum, bass anchor, guitar obbligato, Edge’s ringing pinging notes). For more rock, White Stripes “Seven Nation Army” (drum, bass, vocal, and touches of guitar). How about “We will rock you” which is nothing but stomp stomp clap and vocals until almost the end when a crushing guitar line starts and ends.
To stay in kpop world, think classic SHINee “Lucifer” or “Ring a ding”, or Super Junior “Sorry Sorry” or “Mr Simple”. Ring a ding ding starts with a basic bongo line, instantly identifiable within a measure. One bongo line.
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Wait, those SHINee and SuJu songs are minimalistic? Idk, cause I always considered minimalistic songs to be songs that doesn’t do much instrumentally, but also doesn’t feel bland either (something like ICHILLIN’s Demigod). For me, those songs you mentioned in K-Pop seem a bit too bustling and chaotic (bonkers you can say for Mr. Simple and Ring Ding Dong lol) to be considered minimalistic, but well, maybe it’s just how I perceive things 😅
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Yeah, doesn’t seem like it, but they get beefed up with a big fat wahhh white noise synth which fills space and time effectively. There is usually a vast synth wash behind every good minimalist song that gets turned on and off to create contrast. A B and C blocks all programmed in like they learned with their Bach back when. Touches of hand-added sonic flourishes here and there like a garnish. The vocal gets treated in select spots with doubled and tripled reverb with spots of vocoder or melodyne crafted harmonies in dense diminished chords. That the key to the tension in classic 2nd gen SM – those vocal chord progressions. Its all very clever and mathematical.
I usually pick on Pet Shop Boys and all things Vince Clark, but this time I’ll go to my other other other favorite New Wave OMD. This song is from 1980.
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The verses are certainly much better than the repetitive chorus. Great performances by the members, too. It’s not the main point of discussion, but I really like the styling and music video and music video for this song.
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Although they don’t have many songs, 82major is one of my fav debuts of last year. The chorus could be better but I loved the verses, this group has some impressive rappers which I will always go up for. These kids come off as rappers who then decided to get into kpop. They know how to ride a beat and change their tones, it never comes off as uncomfortable posturing.
As someone else mentioned, the styling and the look of the video is really cool. I don’t see the basketball theme used very often so I thiught they used it well. Plus there’s finally a full version of Illegal, I wish there was a full version or spotify version of ”Fire.” That song got me into these kids.
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