After a lengthy hiatus, RIIZE are gearing up for their first full album in a few weeks’ time. Teasers have promised a strong visual component and that kicks off with today’s pre-release single Bag Bad Back. Though RIIZE’s music has been high-quality across the board so far, their sound hasn’t embraced just one style. This genre experimentation continues as the guys try their hand at hip-hop.
My favorite RIIZE tracks have harnessed strong melody over production that could be described as funk, house or anthemic pop. I find them less successful (or maybe just less unique) in the hip-hop realm, with tracks like Talk Saxy and Siren feeling like they could have been released by so many of their peers to similar effect. Most of all, I’m eager for them to differentiate themselves from the NCT sound that has defined SM Entertainment’s boy groups for so long. Bag Bad Back‘s verses attempt to do this, but its repetitive, one-note chorus brings us right back to the agency’s worst instincts.
From choral accents to lumbering bass, Bag Bad Back‘s first verse opens with promise. The melodic pre-chorus is even better, adding a sense of drama to the track. The choral vocals return for a standout bridge that goes hard in a way we’re not used to from a song like this. This potential makes Bag Bad Back‘s lack of a satisfying chorus even more glaring. It’s as if the songwriters just shrugged their shoulders and gave up when it was time to reach the song’s centerpiece. “Just throw in a bunch of ‘bag bags’ and no one will care.” But songwriters… *I* care! When you’ve got a group with as much potential as RIIZE, you have to give them your all. Half of Bag Bad Back seems to understand this, but its limp hook spoils the party.
| Hooks | 6 |
| Production | 9 |
| Longevity | 8 |
| Bias | 8 |
| RATING | 7.75 |
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
Idk I personally dont believe every song absolutely needs a killer melody for a chorus. This works completely fine. I actually think its quite catchy. This sounds like if GGUM was just better composed lol.
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I don’t think it needed a melodic chorus, per se. But, at least give us some variation in the chant instead of a monotonous one-syllable word repeated with no variation.
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I like this song but if this was released as an NCT song I wouldn’t even tell you the difference.
8.25 (8, 9, 8, 8) for me
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And sounds like one of the duller NCT songs too. I’d take the bonkers Sticker again any day in comparison.
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Let’s hope they released the worst of it first, because how can you go down from this? Optimistically, you can only go up, right?
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its a good song(8/10-7,9,8,8) but if I listened to it without the mv it would take me a long minute to realize it’s a Riize song.
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Unfortunately, I didn’t like this song. The tropes are very reminiscent of NCT’s style – the intense use of fragmented beats, abrupt transitions and the strong presence of rap in unconventional structures – and that’s not something I like melodically. RIIZE have already shown more interesting and emotive sounds, so I was disappointed. It’s the first track of theirs that I’d really rather not hear. I give it a 6.75, I tried to like it, but it didn’t work for me
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As a general complaint, rapping in kpop has become so controlled and planned. Composed. Viz, the flow here. It isn’t flow, it is a conventional line reduced to one chanted note.
Eighth notes alternating with quarter notes in simple measures. One-two three-four Five Six.
oh change up, switch it around, later in the verse it becomes One Two Three-four Five-six.
oh second verse, now is triplets with quarter notes! Innovation! One-two-three Four-five-six Seven Eight
Having the chorus hit on the two and four is just so ordinary. I grow old, I grow old, I shall wear my pants cuffs rolled.
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The rap triplets just showed up again in Young Posse “Blue Dot” also released this morning, now with extra subwoofer. So much subwoofer that I feel like I am in That Car that just pulled up to me at a stoplight. You know the one, the one with the lowered axles, skinny tires, neon strip light, and the BASS on Deaf Con 11.
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After a minute into the song I knew Nick wouldn’t like this lol I was debating whether it was gonna get a C or a C plus.
It sounds a lot like an NCT track, which I don’t hate! I remember liking ARrC’s debut material and it sounded a lot like NCT, but I never really returned to it because I don’t have a bias for them. Personally, RIIZE is one of my favorite 4 gen groups-or is it 5??- so I’m sure replaying the heck out of this lol.
I take this any day over the sound they had with Combo, but since they seem to be taking clues and sounds from all the other SM groups, we’ll most likely have another pop-rock track, a dance-pop song and an R&B-influenced jam.
As per the song, I love it. Sungchan’s second verse is so fire, I even cried a little bit. Sorry, I just love RIIZE so much. I’m having the fan boy moment Nick had last month with TWS.
9.5/10
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yeah this is veeeeery neo-sounding. it’s not bad to me though. I enjoy it, especially the pre-choruses and bridge. excuse my language, but Anton ate it the fuck up.
judging from the album trailer, I think the 3(?) music videos left are brighter/softer songs.
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I knew we would have the same thoughts. Although for me I was really disappointed because this speaks to the regression of SM’s 2024 attempt at expanding beyond the NCT style to the tried and tested “neo-sound”. 2024 sparked large shifts to SM’s style away from neosound in many of their other releases (Supernova, Whiplash, Songbird, Impossible, Boom Boom Bass), although Smoothie and Walk was still carrying the neosound.
I think SM should just abandon this sound completely because we have come to a point where SM is just reinforcing genericism because of how many NCT knockoff sounds the boygroup scene has tried ever since the pandemic, and well it resulted to the general degredation of boygroup music as we speak. Then again this is SM 3.0 we are talking about, they are never trying to experiment especially after everything that has happened and well its sad to see RIIZE fell victim to this again.
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We’re exhausted, truly.
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I HATE the vocal effect on the postchorus and intro vocals. I wouldn’t mind these sections if they didn’t produce it like that. See 3:10 for an example of how much better it sounds without so much of it (I think there’s still some of it buried deeper in the mix).
My mind hates the “BAG” chorus, but whenever it comes up my heart and body still groove to it. I don’t know why I don’t hate it, but I somehow don’t. I don’t love it, but it is still funny they spend between 30-40 seconds of the song just saying bag every other beat.
The rest of the song I’m actively enjoying, and even while MYMAGOOGLE accurately describes the predictability of the changing rap parts when you’ve listened to enough of these songs, I still really like them. Along with the bridge, these parts are all doing exactly what they should, predictability be damned.
Overall: 8,7,8,9 = 8
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This concept looks good on them but I can get this type song from 127. Good thing it’s just a bside. Hoping the tt delivers a more bright/emotional sound which they execute well. I do appreciate their music consistently capturing 2000s nostalgia.
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Massively disappointing.
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what in the nct? why is sm just making infinite nct groups at this point….. there is no artistic diversity for their male groups….. very baffling
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This samples something but I can’t put my finger on it…
Also, super NEO.
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I just remembered it’s Clique by Kanye West, Big Sean and Jay-Z.
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Hopefully the title track will sound like RIIZE and not like NCT.
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This is the type of song that Taeyong will absolutely love while the rest of the NCT members starts questioning their life decision
Sounds nothing like RIIZE but at least it’s not the title track
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I’d go along with this for sure without all the baggage. I love that heavy, insistent beat and all the other sound effects. I would rather they tried a wordless chorus than use a filler word. I really do like the rest, although it doesn’t sound like them at all.
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I like it, but that chorus reminds me wayyyyy too much of Lay’s Sheep………
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The chorus reminds me so much of Gas by NCT 127 and it just doesn’t sound like RIIZE at all.
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Agreed with a lot of the other comments that this sounds like RIIZE does NCT
I think if I let go of expecting to hear Mark in the next verse I might like it? “Baggy Jeans’s” repetitive word chorus eventually won me over, but that had NCT’s incredibly distinct vocal tones. We’ll see how this one fares.
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Just disband already.
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