One of my biggest pieces of advice for any newly debuted group is: don’t give the public time to forget about you. Starship Entertainment seem to agree when it comes to their promotions for IDID. The group actively promoted and performed their debut track for almost two months and now they’re extending that blitz with an ultra-quick comeback.
Despite being someone who generally prefers more melodic material, I ended up enjoying IDID’s hip-hop heavy pre-release Step It Up more than the rock-tinged CHAN-RAN. I don’t know that this is the direction I’d like to see them pursue further, but Push Back offers another convincing entry in the genre. The song still harbors some annoying tropes (I don’t think I’ll ever enjoy the sound of K-pop boys shouting in unison), but the track favors quirky sounds over typical bad boy bluster.
I’m particularly impressed with elements of the production. There’s a satisfying lower end to this instrumental, driven by distorted bass and electric guitar. It creeps forward with real presence, giving the guys plenty to play with. It reminds me of the NCT tracks I’ve enjoyed in the past. The song’s hook is also quite groovy, using its shouted moments sparingly to deliver contrast. I’m not sure how this will age, but I can easily see it sharing Step It Up‘s positive trajectory so I’ll be cautiously optimistic.
| Hooks | 8 |
| Production | 9 |
| Longevity | 9 |
| Bias | 8 |
| RATING | 8.5 |
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
It is very NCT-adjacent, minus some of the outre pizzazz, the weird stuff that somehow works. The original NCT subunit debuted in 2016, so its been 9 years of other groups copying their sound.
For the nth version of a song that sounds like this, it meets expectations.
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They took my favorite things about NCT songs and used them in this one, so that’s a big yes from me. I had to check out their ages because their voices sound very mature (at least to my untrained ears). I also had to check if I had any of their debut songs and it turns out I preferred ChanRan over the other one. But my favorite from that album was bside Taking off…Off to a great start I guess. Rating is about the same
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I loved the pre-chorus, they are doing pretty good given how much over-saturated this type of music is in kpoop now.
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post-neosound is thriving so bad right now and it is great. I’m glad A&R’s of ARrC, ALL(H)OURS, idntt, and IDID seem to be getting all the great parts of that style and bridging with melody and actual interesting instrumentation and arrangement. We need more of these its really all about the melody and tonal center.
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