Since moving on from Wanna One, the quality of Ha Sungwoon’s solo career has been mixed. For me, his music peaked in 2021 with the one-two punch of Sneakers and Strawberry Gum. New single Blessed takes him down a more aggressive sonic route, but falls apart once it reaches its chorus.
By now, anyone with a passing familiarity of this blog knows how I often feel about choruses like the one in Blessed. Chants and repetitive vocal loops can work if tethered to a killer instrumental, but more often than not they feel like obnoxious placeholders waiting for a satisfying hook. Blessed falls in this second category. The rest of the song is tolerable (if devoid of new ideas), but the stuttering “Blessed uh uh uh uh uh” centerpiece feels like a pesky mosquito circling your ear. No matter how hard you swat, it always finds a way back.
I’m more encouraged by Blessed‘s effusive pre-chorus, which sees Sungwoon belting out the melody with panache. The song needs more of this heartiness to counter the non-starter at its core. Sadly, the chorus feels like at least 70% of the track, even if it’s probably less if measured in a purely objective way. This makes Blessed an easy skip.
| Hooks | 6 |
| Production | 7 |
| Longevity | 7 |
| Bias | 7 |
| RATING | 6.75 |
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
He may be blessed, but he sure didn’t let us be the same with that chorus.
6.75 is the perfect rating for it.
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Not blessed with this one.
Oh man, “Sneakers” was so good. Iirc it was in my top 10 for that year. It just wove and built slowly and then had a lovely lovely sung harmony chorus. ooooohhh WOOOOOOOW singalongs too.
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I actually really enjoyed the verses but man, that chorus just wasn’t good. I think the problem is that there are way too many people credited for writing this, spotify is showing almost 19 people…for what?
Sungwoon is too talented for this, i’ll still check out his album because I really like his voice. Plus I enjoy people who can actually sing without all the vocal effects. I kind of wish he and Han Seungwoo would do a song together. Both deserve better solo music.
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He has such a great voice, and this is his comeback from the military if memory serves so this is unfortunate. I also think it is a clue when there are too many writers. On a side note, he is with the same company that Taemin went to. I realize that Taemin’s A&R might have more songwriters chomping at the bit to work with him because he has more name recognition …hope so.
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