Kai’s been teasing the release of his new album with several songs, both of which took dance elements and subdued them to a leisurely pace. All the while, I’ve had to make peace with the fact that Kai clearly wants something different from his solo work than I’d expect. Title track Wait On Me continues this approach, melding Afrobeats with SM Entertainment’s tried-and-true musical touches.
While Wait On Me continues the vibes-first approach of his album’s pre-release material, it’s slightly more successful in its approach. I like the blend of soft percussion and atmospheric synth, and the track kicks up some real funk during its too-brief dance break. This sonic brew compliments Kai’s airy vocal and allows him room to showcase his dance without the music stealing too much attention from the visual. As far as atmosphere goes, Wait On Me has style in spades.
Like many of the agency’s tracks this year, my biggest issue stems from melody. SM was once a king of immortal melodic hooks, but that no longer seems to be a priority. Stripping the production and performance away from Wait On Me, its melodies are quite unremarkable. I know we all come to music for different reasons, but as someone who likes to sing along there’s not much to grab hold of here. Compare this to TWS’s Last Festival — a song with a very similar arrangement — and the power of a knockout melody becomes immediately apparent.
| Hooks | 7 |
| Production | 9 |
| Longevity | 8 |
| Bias | 8 |
| RATING | 8 |
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
the production on this track is actually incredible
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It sounds like it would be better with Wonho, who would sell the shit out this song. It could have been a Ten song. Kai does it kind of well, but does not sell the shit out the song. Kai, what makes this a Kai song? Its like he is holding back from being too sexy, from being too Kai. The energy is set at an 8 or 9, instead of an 11.
I agree with Hoya above, the song is slickly produced.
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I actually like wait on me. He doesn’t have to be sexy all the time in his videos. He wanted to do something different.
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Since debut Kai and the producers he’s worked with have continuously said they work on a Kai song. The producer of Blue talked about him and Kai spending hours sending voice notes back and forth when he produced the song. Kai himself talked about going to Yoo Young-Jin personally for Peaches because he kept requesfing revisions and it was hard to get it perfected to how he wanted. And he had Peaches before Mmmh came out. So it’s not like it went back in the SM vault for another idol. Even the lyricists have spoken about writing specially for him. They would not be the same songs if another idol did them. He’s not seeing the songs for the first time at the studio when it’s time to record them or handed finished music at a meeting. They request songs specially for him and they get produced according to his requests. And if he likes them he holds on to them even if he doesn’t plan on using them in the current album he’s working on. They’ve all been vocal about this from day 1 so he’s not able to hide behind the company when it comes to his music. It’s the closest process idols get short of writing their own music to the western system of pop music making
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It’s one of kpops less offensive versions of afrobeats. It’s not ground breaking and sounds like a more atmospheric version of Orbit by The8. As mentioned the production is good and works well with Kai’s softer tone. I do wish he gave us a full out house/dance track but this is line line with his previous release so it makes sense.
I’m more excited to see the choreography.
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I’m always keeping an eye out for whatever Baekhyun, Kai and Lay come up with, I think their styles resonate with me the most. Not gonna lie, I was waiting for something a little more explosive for the so-called “title track,” given that the first two singles were going for the subdued style, like Nick mentioned.
But then again, I’ll go to Kai’s very short discography consisting of three mini-albums and we’re really short on dancepop tracks. Like Nick implied, this is probably the style Kai wants to go for (this more chill, kind of dark and sultry songs).
In my opinion, this track does the job. I find the melody effective enough, but as others already said, the production is what carries the track (very sexy synths btw). His studio vocals sound good, although this is not peak Kai vocal performance, that honor belongs to Peaches.
I also enjoyed the mini-album, it has quite a few boooops.
8.5/10
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Awesome job KAI!
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