Since going their separate ways for solo promotions, no SHINee member has been as musically prolific as Onew. This isn’t what I would have expected based on past history, but he’s been churning out material with great consistency. Next up is summer single Confidence, pre-released ahead of this third full album next month. As you might expect from the season, the track has a brighter aesthetic.
While summer used to be a time of bounding, energetic title tracks, I’ve noticed a cooldown over the past seven years. Groovier, downbeat fare has become just as popular as those great Duble Sidekick-esque bops of the past. I suppose this captures the duality of summer. As exciting as it can be, an endless string of summer days can also feel languid and drowsy. However, “languid and drowsy” is definitely not how I prefer my pop music.
Confidence casts its laidback vibe right at the start and never strays from that simple groove. This is not a song of peaks and valleys. It’s simply the sound of Onew’s voice gliding through a light bed of coffeehouse-ready muzak. Even when he moves into a surprising rap verse, it’s delivered in a cast-off, lackadaisical fashion that feels almost like improvisation. Fans of this style will be very pleased, but for me a song like Confidence wafts in one ear and out the other.
| Hooks | 6 |
| Production | 7 |
| Longevity | 8 |
| Bias | 7 |
| RATING | 7 |
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
hi nick! what’s your favourite twice solo snippet?
LikeLike
Honestly, none of them appealed to me
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ll answer for myself: Jeongyeon’s.
LikeLike
Have you heard “Kawaii” by LE SSERAFIM on their recent Japanese album? It’s the only proper b-side on there but it’s quite good imo.
LikeLike
Onew actually whips through complicated melody lines like they are nothing at all. Like a triple flippy whip with a double bubble bub blink and you miss it. It starts out simple for the first verse then at about 0:35 it starts to diverge. The balance in what I believe is the chorus, bouncing around. The best part is shortly thereafter we lose track of what is verse and what is chorus and it all just becomes jazzy flow.
Yep, this one is for me. It doesn’t have much verve, but it does have Music with a Capital M in spades. It reminds me of some Crush songs from the later 2010’s, like “none” and “Ohio”. Less coffee house, more of whatever we might call Crush music.
Minus a point for the unnecessary rap.
Low to mid 8’s for me.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Nick, I’m sure this isn’t your kind of thing, but I’m quite taken by Caroline Polachek’s new song:
LikeLike
Hmm, I get similar vibes to this track from GitS SAC because of the vocals I guess
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP4t_GGl3Es
LikeLiked by 1 person
I usually like what he’s doing, and this song is no exception. I agree the rap is the worst part and is unnecessary but the rest of the song is around an 8.5 for me, I guess. Still, it’s too short again, especially for that style imo. It needs another ~40 seconds.
LikeLike
Also they should stop trying to edit his face into The Irishman ffs.
LikeLike
I am a bit like Nick in that I like my pop theatrical, more like Key’s or Taemin’s, but the lyrics combined with the sad ending of th le MV and the slightly off-tempo percussion really got me in this one, it adds some sauce to the pretty midtempo “drowsy” vibe.
LikeLike
I come from a different background, the one closer to that other cun… I mean guy’s blog. I listened to hip-hop my whole childhood, and then I heard Beat the Bastards by The Exploited and it was a revelation that changed everything forever from that day on.
I don’t even think I can say I have specific tastes in pop, unlike with some other genres where I know what I like. It’s more like I tend to DISlike certain stuff. So just as much as I might like something bombastic — in Nick’s terms, with layering and nice melodies, like one of my all-time k-pop favorites Save Me, Save You, I might also like something disjointed like, God forgive me, Gnarly.
As a rule of thumb, I tend to like slow, rhythmic music like doom or sludge, or if we’re talking pop, something like Doja’s Streets or FKA Twigs’ Video Girl or Two Weeks. Sadly for me, not really the kind of stuff k-pop songwriters usually do.
LikeLike
Onew always impresses.
Not his finest work, but like manse there’s a bit of understated greatness to here.
LikeLike
i love shinee but one is my fav i love his voice and this was something very different for him but I believe he nailed it it was whimsical and fun vibe I loved it #fighting onew🩵🌟
LikeLike
and there again… another talent wasted
LikeLike
Onew has amazing vocal tone. However, the only way you can listen to this song is without watching the MV. I don’t find a 35 year-old man acting and dressing like a 10 year old boy an attractive concept. We are fully capable of understanding the message through the lyrics alone. Definitely not the best song choice for his vocal range, and not something I would listen to again.
LikeLike