When JD1 made his debut as a K-pop idol in January, I never realized how young he was. It wasn’t until I watched him on the TVXQ episode of Immortal Songs that I learned this guy is only seventeen years old (sixteen at the time!). Perhaps this would have been more obvious if he had debuted with the sugary Error 405. This track feels a lot more youthful than Who Am I.

Funk pop has been a popular genre for male idols lately, and Error 405 definitely has ‘early-Seventeen’ in its sights. I tend to enjoy this sound, but it has a pesky habit of favoring chants and exclamations over robust melodic choruses. I guess producers figure a big blast of brass is enough to compensate for skeletal songwriting. And sometimes, it is.

Error 405 starts promising enough, delivering a punchy verse driven by a lively melody that coasts over the buoyant production. It’s very much a pastiche of songs we’ve heard before, but JD1’s energy pulls it off. I’m less enthused with the chorus, which feels a little underwritten. It’s not quite the chanty bummer it might have been, but it’s not a dynamic hook for the ages, either. That’s an admittedly high standard, but with so many tracks in this style across K-pop history you’ve gotta deliver something incredible to stand out.

Grade: B-