Late last month, new Korean-American trio RE:WIND surprised me with their fantastic pre-release RE:SET. It’s so fun when an act bounds out of the gate with strong material. This track set the stage for their debut single Forever, but unfortunately I don’t find myself as bowled over this time.
This is a tough one because I absolutely love what the group is trying to do here. I’ve often said there’s a huge hole in the K-pop market for the kind of slamming, post-New-Jack-Swing teen pop that dominated the early-2000’s. Forever clearly takes its cues from acts as big as Backstreet Boys and Nsync and as niche as A1 and Youngstown. This has my name written all over it, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired.
My main issue here is the production on the vocals. The guys’ voices are slathered with effects to the point where every line sounds like mush. This directly contrasts with the sharp style they’re attempting and makes for an extremely frustrating listen. It’s too bad, because the actual song is quite strong but this approach makes the end product feel overly amateur. A simple re-recording could elevate this so easily.
| Hooks | 8 |
| Production | 7 |
| Longevity | 8 |
| Bias | 8 |
| RATING | 7.75 |
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
I agree with this review, I like the song but the vocal effects are not for me.
Kind of irrelevant but I have similar feelings about Jimin’s Who, a song that also has this late 90’s-early 2000’s sound, and is great melodically and arrangement wise (imo of course) but the autotune ruins it a little. In some moments it does fit the song because it contributes to this otherworldly/ethereal effect but globally I don’t like it, Jimin’s voice already has that effect on its own, that’s what it’s primarily famous for! (Luckily the acoustic remix of the song makes up for it, one of the few times Big Hit got the remixes right).
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it does sound a bit like I’m listening to it with a head cold, but I still really like the song.
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I was expecting Nick to enjoy this a bit more.
Decent enough song, fairly dramatic and a strong hook, just what I like.
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That’s the thing. I like the song itself, but the vocal production makes it hard to enjoy.
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Feels like they got the production from that era down pat, but agreed the vocal effects detracts from the overall song. Think I still enjoy it enough, but like a lot of HYBE boy group songs there’s too much vocal processing to really push it over the edge.
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