Pre-releases have become incredibly common this year in K-pop — particularly from the big agencies. NCT Dream’s album isn’t out quite yet, but they’ve surprised us with new track Flying Kiss during the lead-up to promotions. The song showcases the lighter side of the group, offering a soft burst of pop buoyed by a standout chorus.
Honestly, until we hit Flying Kiss‘s chorus I wasn’t sure I’d enjoy the song at all. The verses are a dull musical mush with melodies so slight they evaporate as soon as you hear them. The production is also quite unremarkable here, unwilling to deliver any memorable tone or texture.
Then, Flying Kiss‘s chorus presents the exact opposite experience. The instrumental suddenly bounds to life with percolating synths and chugging percussion. The guys’ vocal performance wakes from its slumber to deliver a rhythmic, rapid-fire melody that sticks with you after just one listen. Why couldn’t the entire song have been this engaging? I understand the need to contrast between verse and chorus, but this is like going from nap to house party several times throughout the track. Luckily, that “party” segment is strong enough to pull everything else over the line. (But I badly want a remix/rearrangement because the song squanders a ton of potential.)
| Hooks | 9 |
| Production | 8 |
| Longevity | 8 |
| Bias | 8 |
| RATING | 8.25 |
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
The chorus is fire. Since this was solely written by Haechan, I’m now very, very excited for his solo, sleepy verses aside.
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The chorus’ instrumental is unexpectedly 80s, it’s very enjoyable
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Average pleasant song, but with a great chorus. Oof, nowadays, we can either have shitty verses, great chorus, or great verses, shitty chorus, not great verses AND chorus.
Rating’s the same.
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the chorus is great but the verses are largely unmemorable. I cannot wait for the rest of the album though, the highlight medley is honestly so solid, it might become their best album.
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Love seeing my two favs XG and one of the NCT sub-units dropping today. Sadly, I haven’t been liking NCT Dream’s singles this year as much. I feel like it’s harder for me to get into this style but I love their vocals and some elements in the production, too.
I would love to hear some of the R&B/pop of “Yogurt Shake,” “Poison,” or “Box” in their upcoming album. Good thing is they usually include those genres in their tracklists in 2 or three songs.
Mainly, I just think it has been a cold streak for me with NCT Dream because I wasn’t a huge fan of “Rains in Heaven,” this new track and specially “Smoothie” (catastrophic song, I don’t think the guys liked it themselves. A major skip in their discography to me). I’ve been more drawn to NCT 127 or WayV lately.
A 6 to me.
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I have the opposite opinion, actually! I love the verses, they’re so dreamy (haha). This chorus is a torrential hail storm of rapidly repeated words breaking through the soft clouds. It is melody-less and hectic to me in a very unpleasant way especially when contrasted with the verses.
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Samee the delivery of the verses was so satisfying to me
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I’ve always loved the melodic side of NCT Dream more, Flying Kiss is a sound I could go for if it weren’t for the distracting segmentation, this is a problem. I say ‘distracting’ because it seems that this is the impression I have about the experience of this music, they seem to try to distract us during its composition. Taking away the chorus, the rhythm here seems very unimpressive
I give it a 7.75 for now
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I actually really like this. I think the contrast between the verses and chorus works very well, this may easily grow on me.
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The verses follow the bland trend, but the chorus, bridge and outro are very NCT Dream and I like it 8 sounds right, but Jaemin’s ending flying kiss may elevate it to an 8.25…I’m a simple woman🙃
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the best
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The arrangement of the verses and chorus is soo satisfying. It’s like the vocals are tickling my ears ooo. Love the 80s/90s influence here.
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Incredible, beautiful song. No mistakes were made with the verses. They compliment the chorus perfectly. The album is delightful, very little left wanting. Even the intro is a wonderful standalone song. 10/10/10/10 – 10
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