Though I had waited years for KickFlip’s debut, the resulting music left me mostly cold. It’s clear that JYP Entertainment wants to give them a youthful, rebellious concept, but the songs felt like they could have been delivered by any other boy group of this generation and the hooks often grated when I wanted them to soar.
New single Freeze isn’t miles away from that debut material, but by adding a dose of rock bombast the track is able to anchor its more tiresome elements with a triumphant chorus. Honestly, every part of the song that doesn’t feature electric guitar could use a rewrite. The verses are plonky and underwhelming and the tempo-shifting “freeze” breakdowns should have been jettisoned entirely. But when the guys lock in to the track’s pop/rock chorus, Freeze becomes an energetic burst of summer singalong bliss. I know K-pop prides itself on blending genres and upending expectations, but sometimes a straightforward banger is the way to go and KickFlip fit this sound very well.
This contrast leaves me in an odd place with Freeze. I find myself sitting through a bunch of musical nonsense with the knowledge that there’s a great rush of adrenaline waiting around every corner. Many songs this year are more nonsense than “great rush,” so I guess I should be thankful for baby steps in the right direction. If KickFlip can build upon the strongest moments of Freeze for future comebacks, their third time might just be the charm.
| Hooks | 9 |
| Production | 8 |
| Longevity | 8 |
| Bias | 8 |
| RATING | 8.25 |
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
Man, that stupid chorus breakdown, what a momentum ruiner! 😩 It’s so damn jarring right in between a strong pre-chorus and a stronger post-chorus, it ruins the flow completely. Just remove that and we’d get a passable summer banger.
Rating’s the same.
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Same thoughts on that chorus break really😅, from the first teaser I dodn’t know it was even gonna exist.
In my language we have a word “skalamerija”, you can look it up but it relates to building stuff, when you put together something in a way that makes it look strange, imagine scaffolding for a building being pieced together in a weird way and without a building. I think that it perfectly summarises some of the incoherent stuff going on, not just in this song but whatever the song camps are doing lately. This song is also from some kind of a camp hence so many names in the credits, along with some contribution from the members. Now, on the last album the members only had lyric credits, this time they have some composition as well.
Amaru’s song Complicated is almost entirely done by just him, which is just so obvious given how coherent the song is. It seems that Amaru doesn’t view songs as “skalamerija”s, and sees them as a whole, natural thought. His song right now is pretty simple, but I hope in the future he can take the lead for composition. The whole album has more than a few nice moments going on, I think I like Skip it, Before the sun explodes?, Code red (has some britrock vibe?), the album closer is also nice, and Complicated as I alredy said, it’s definitely far from some filler b-sides. Not to mention that they have a good vocal blend and some very nice singing tones.
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At least they’re improving… I hope the next comeback sets them on their right track, it’s fair to say they’re working on the right path. The pre chorus is stuck in my head, super cool.
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And their first album is also kind of a grower, so this one will also probably get better even though it’s already pretty good. Can’t wait to see them on music shows tbh
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Well, I’ll always say yes to these kind of well executed fun boy group songs. It is short but it packs a punch, especially the pre chorus, post chorus, and the outro.
Now, they almost lose me with that chorus breakdown, but by the time I finished rolling my eyes and about to click out, they moved on to the post chorus and brought me back. The second time around they added some vocals and it sounds a little better.😅
Rating is about right (8.25)
PS: I find it funny (or depressing), that it is my favorite release of the day, considering Seventeen, the RedVelvet ladies, and TxT had comebacks today🤷🏻♀️
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I can see how the tempo-shift when they say “freeze” might throw some people off (I mean it definitely happened to me lol). I don’t hate it, though, it just feels like a fragment of a different song put into this track. I’m guessing that’s the reaction they wanted to get from us as listeners, to throw us off a little bit?
I enjoyed the pop-punk elements of the song and the chorus hits really hard. This time I agree with Nick, though. The verses could use a little bit more work because that’s a lowpoint in the song and the shift before the chorus… I’m still deciding whether I like it or not.
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KickFlip’s discography as a whole seems like songs that are good in theory but aren’t tethered to strong enough hooks to be that good in practice. Nice to see an exception to that. I enjoy this.
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The songcraft is trying a bit too hard to hit that tempo shift. That said, I think the boys sell the shit out of the song and somehow make it pretty okay.
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I actually think the other sections work to make me even more excited when we hit the chorus, which is definitely the highlight. Seventeen’s Thunder doesn’t hit like it could because it is hard to distinguish any part of the song from anywhere else. We certainly don’t have that here. I also give them points for actually sounding like kpop… but tbf I also thought O.O was a banger from my first listen, so I have to assume these same antics from JYP in this song are made for people like me.
The boys also perform this so well, and there are lots of juicy layers going on throughout.
9,9,9,10 = 9.25
The album is excellent as well. Special callout to Before the Sun Explodes.
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Kickflip’s debut grew on me a lot, and I have a feeling this will do the same.
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The whole album is a solid 8 easy all the way through. They fixed all the issues I had with the debut.
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It’s definitely an improvement! Here’s hoping they’ll keep up that trajectory.
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