I hate to be cynical, but collaborations between K-pop stars and Western artists rarely work. Western pop tropes almost always take precedence, smoothing out K-pop edges until we’re left with very middle-of-the-road material. For her first solo album, BLACKPINK’s Jisoo went down a dance pop route, but all of that promise is shaved away on her duet with former One Direction member Zayn.
Zayn hasn’t been active as a recording artist for years, making this team-up a real coup for Jisoo. Eyes Closed could have been a real moment for both of them, but it never reaches far enough in any direction to do much of anything. This is mid-tempo radio fodder at its most basic, anchored by a lifeless stomp that brings to mind the style of vaguely religious platitudes currently clogging the top of the U.S. charts. The vocal performance is just as inert, dutifully following the dull melody. Everyone involved sounds bored. I’m bored just writing about it!
Presumably, the hope is that content creators will be able to snip some small segment from Eyes Closed and make it go viral online, but I don’t even know which part that would be. The entire song trudges without any highlights. Jisoo and Zayn’s vocals make a nice mix, but they’re given nothing notable to do. It’s a complete waste of three minutes, honestly.
| Hooks | 6 |
| Production | 6 |
| Longevity | 6 |
| Bias | 6 |
| RATING | 6 |
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
like i would remains zayn’s certified banger
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Cute but boring and plodding. Melodies are decent though generic
6.25 (7, 6, 6, 6) for me
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eh
7/10 (7, 7, 7, 7) for me
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The song itself has a generic bland taste of western collabs, not very memorable.
Both voices also do not blend very well in the song and make it far from enjoyable.
Zayn voice is too powerful and do not highlight Jisoo unique tone. I believe Jisoo could have chosen a better suited artist for a duet next time
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I heard it’s zayn’s team who chose jisoo not the other way around
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This is fine and inoffensive which is… the worst thing it can be in my book. I selfishly prefer ‘bad’ songs because they stay on my mind for a while no matter if I changed my mind on them or not. This just exists.
I don’t mean to be pessimistic, this collab is defs for someone, just not me.
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I find it incredibly bland, and like you say it sounds like the religious-sounding songs that’ve been so popular on the Billboard Hot 100, but I don’t know if this track in particular will have the same effect. I was hoping this collab would lean into R&B-pop, since that’s usually Zayn’s strong suit. On a positive note, they do sound great, their vocals are beautiful.
By the way, Zayn has been much more active, but I think that if you don’t actively look for his music, it’s gonna be hard to know. Last year, he released an album titled Room Under The Stairs and toured the UK and North America for a while.
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Isn’t Zayn particularly famous for his sexy sound? I’m no expert but this was my impression. Call me shallow and superficial but when you have two hot pop artists doing a collab, it would be cool to have them actually interact in the MV, at least look at each other, at least for one shot of the MV. See the Weeknd’s collab with Lana or in kpop Hwasa and Loco in the song “don’t”. These two don’t do that at all and it feels so lifeless. As for the song I agree with Nick. I have to add that sth weird happened in the mixing of the MV, the audio on spotify is so much better, especially Jisoo sounds way better.
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They do make a good pairing, but the song is pleasant and mid
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As both of the singers have such nice vocals normally (especially Zayn who was kind of known for his great vocals in 1D) I’m a bit sad that they didn’t do anything with them. I wish that they would’ve added more ad-libs near the end like they did in duets like “No-Air” by Jordin Sparks and Chris Brown or even in “Free” from Kpop Demon Hunters.
There was just so much potential and as someone who feins for duets, I was a bit sad to see that this song didn’t have much flavor to it as it was kind of bleh.
Other than that I generally liked the song, I just wished they added more vocal power to it instead of just singing the same notes over and over again.
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I have nothing to add about this song to what others have said. It’s pleasant.
I don’t really follow the 1D soloists, but I did listen to Zayn’s Urdu song a few times back when. Its nice when a Big Artist can do something smaller that has perhaps more impact than the main stream singles.
https://youtu.be/A7NDb0iDZd0?list=RDA7NDb0iDZd0
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Mega church worship song vibes. Jisoo sounds like a backup singer for a lot of the song. Doesn’t fit in her discography as BP or a soloist either.
Pleasant, but oversaturated sound. It’s a 7-7-7-7 = 7
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