To my great continual regret, I “recapped” the entirety of this year’s Boys II Planet, though these write-ups became shorter and less enthused as the series went on. If you want to read the perspective of someone losing interest in real time, I guess I’d recommend you check them out. Otherwise, you’re probably safe to skip right to the debuting group’s pre-release Formula.
ALPHA DRIVE ONE premiered this song on last week’s MAMA Awards and I was immediately unimpressed. After many minutes of dramatic intros and set pieces, the actual music landed with a thud. Further listens have not been kind. Unfortunately, Formula succumbs to so many of modern K-pop’s worst instincts. The vast majority of the track is simply the guys talking over a beat. Its chorus is particularly empty. There’s a way to make this approach work, but the spoken-word segments must be ultra-charismatic and phrased in a way that’s as catchy as a melodic centerpiece would be. Formula‘s hooks are too monotone and forgettable to leave any mark. It’s lazy posturing, and the production isn’t strong or interesting enough to compensate.
Even Formula‘s melodic segments are designed as connective tissue rather than highlights of their own. The song is constantly moving from A to B in a corporate, soulless way that feels more like product than music. I could say the same about Boys II Planet as a whole, and hope this approach doesn’t continue into ALPHA DRIVE ONE’s debut and ensuing output. Wake One found a way to make ZEROBASEONE work wonderfully. It would be a shame if they let their heir apparent fumble the ball.
| Hooks | 5 |
| Production | 7 |
| Longevity | 7 |
| Bias | 5 |
| RATING | 6 |
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
Hyper masculine groups like this piss me off for some reason, I also do not currently f with this group because ZB1 is slated to disband in march and I’m sad that wakeone is wasting 5 years of their time on this failed project of ugly kpop tropes💔😭
Not listening to keep my peace/10❤️
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5 years that could have been zb1s💔
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I agree with you re: zb1 pre-grieving (I actually was pre-grieving them as soon as they debuted which is part of why I never went all-in to be a stan 😔) but I guess I don’t know what makes you describe them as hypermasculine if you haven’t listened to the song (which is, yes, an attempt at masculinity I guess). Just concept and vibes? The word “alpha” in the title?
The fans are already calling them omega drive one of course.
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mourning zb1… they have SO MUCH potential. under any other company, they probably would have thrived better but man, they HATE wakeone. not surprised if they all want out.
i’m disappointed i didn’t like zb1’s recent full album. i thought they would go for a more disco, synth bass sound or a rockier day6 vibe, but it kinda felt like they lost their musical way. sigh. we could’ve seen more. i always thought they could be 5th gen’s exo especially with such a talented lineup and a pretty good music direction.
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i’ve seen your past comments before and you always eat them up 💗 ur a true diva
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I’ve seen your comments before and you absolutely eat them up 💗 ur a true diva
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omg stupid wordpress 🙄
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Man, this song checks all the criteria of an average boy group song. Posturing? Check. Spoken/chanted/shouty chorus? Check. Uninspired NCT-esque production? Check and the farty synths in the verses really grind my gears. Melodic but generic pre-chorus and bridge that doesn’t flow well with the rest of the song and is only there for the sake of being a pre-chorus and bridge? Checkity check.
But overall, this might as well be the worst introduction to a survival show based group of this year, I can only hope the actual debut is good.
6 (6, 6, 6, 6) for me.
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They got the formula all right
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It’s an unintentionally funny title
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LMFAO 😭😭 it’s so… ironic oml 😭😭
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Can’t wait for them to unveil the title track CLICHÉ
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All that and Minus a point for telling us all again to put our hands up. Telling the DJ to turn it up. Don’t stop out my way. We go all night babe.
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”Turn it up” and the energy’s non-existent
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Maybe they’re just pleading with the producers.
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um can you play the song with the fucking beat?
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The audio just came out, and said producers is the combination of KENZIE and Moonshine. A plot twist for me
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jiahao finally getting his debut but at the cost of zb1 is one of the most gut-wrenching tradeoffs for me personally. i’m not happy with the concept the group has been given and i think they will only get sing-talkier and shoutier and alpha drive-ier as time goes on. i don’t hate the song but its just so faceless and empty. rip my jebis
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There’s some vocal potential but time will tell if what little there is will be utilized well.
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yes! i’ve always liked anxin’s voice, and geonwoo sounded great on this track. none of them are necessarily singers but that doesn’t mean they can’t have nice vocal moments on songs that cater to their strengths. my worry is that the only time they’ll be given something melodic is the occasional throwaway ballad or unpromoted special single, but ofc as you said only time will tell 🙂
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not too impressed with the track. Bass seems cool though
7/10 (7, 8, 7, 6) for me
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This feels like a less fun version of Lucky Macho
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Normally I rate things ever harsher than you do, let’s see what’s up with this.
Eh. Why listen to another ripoff of NCT when I could be using this time to just discover new genres of music as a whole? This gives me the same feeling as listening to girl groups using the PinkPantheress sound over and over, if everyone’s going to do it, there is no selling point from any of you.
I don’t follow the equivalent of dirtsheets for KPop but apparently ZB1 was made to disband to make this group happen? Please correct me if I am wrong, but if that’s correct, that is just… feels bad for everyone involved really.
6 (6, 8, 6, 4) I like the instrumental, the performers do not sell this one for me, although the material in writing and concept already made that a tall order.
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I don’t think that’s true at all? Unless I am mistaken, zb1’s contract was always set at 2.5 years and there was realistically very little chance of them ever getting a renewal.
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Yeah, it was weird but it kept getting worded like that in the comments and I was like 👀. I also should’ve known that they were on a 2.5 year contract and it completely slipped me.
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tbh it’s just kpop stan delusion imo like how hybe company stans hate newjeans because they’ve made up a version of how that whole story played out. zeroses have decided that ald1 exists at the expense of zb1 when the reality is that zb1’s time was limited from the get go. It is annoying that some survival show groups get longer contracts than others, but I’d imagine that in this case we are seeing wakeone using the budget and clout they got from zb1 to secure a longer contract for a group that the companies have reason to think is worth leasing out their trainees for.
tbh I think the real wrinkle in all of this is yuehua, who represent 4/9 of zb1 including mega-popular zhang hao. They have more reason than anyone to want a short contract, build popularity for their assets and then take them back to reform their own group.
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just wanted to clarify because i wrote a comment above mourning zb1 (with confusing wording lol) that yes zb1 is not disbanding because mnet wanted to push a new boygroup, but because yuehua had no interest in any contract renewal beyond 2.5 years. they are essentially zb1’s replacement and, in a way, brother group. zb1’s contract was set in stone since the beginning, but its frustrating as a zerose that their treatment was pretty bad for the entirety of their run and right when wakeone found a sweet spot for them music-wise they basically abandoned it with this last album. cj enm already seem to see more potential in ald1 after zb1’s success by giving them a five year contract, so i can only hope they are managed well and that wakeone learns from their mistakes
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Not as bad as I thought it would be but not good. I’m not sure I’ll ever get on board with them. I’ll follow the music if there’s improvement but I’m not exactly anticipating the unfolding of their discography either.
It’s unfortunate W1 didn’t feel like investing in ZB1…the wasted potential is actually insane. Now here comes ALD1 with a longer contract and more budget but without the charm and chemistry.
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I was very interested in this debut but I gotta take a step back because… (sigh) this is such a disappointment. I gotta tell you I was watching the MAMA video very closely precisely up until the actual song started and my attention immediately plummeted. I started thinking about what I was gonna eat for lunch and shit. If there was any point that the song didn’t sound like total ass to me, I reminded myself of ZB1’s rollout and their whole debut EP and thought, my god, there’s just no contest, it’s really sad. Maybe there’s some chance this isn’t reflective of their actual title track or the rest of their future body of work, but this is intended to be a preview so I’m not hopeful at all. So as much as I like a lot of the members, if this is the way things are headed then I have to get off the allyz train. It’s just like Meatloaf said…. I would do anything for Lee Sangwon, but I won’t do that.
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it’s what i expected based on those bp2 songs and with a lineup like this (aka no hard-hitter vocalists or rappers, just “well-rounded” aces… which i have more to say about but that’s for another day)… just very macho cool guy-esque bg music. fitting for a pre-release song but still kinda ehh. this song is more reminiscent of evnne’s debut “trouble” and riize’s “ember to solar” but missing the extra bite of charismatic singers and rappers. tbh if zb1 or riize sang this, i’d probably eat it up and they have nearly 10x more charisma in their voices (but i’m biased towards them anyway).
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funnily, the zb1 and ald1 rollout reminds me of wannaone and x1. wannaone and zb1 had refreshing debut songs, while x1 and ald1 had noisy racecar cool guy concept. the lineups for wannaone and zb1 are immaculate talent-wise, feels pretty balanced in the traditional “specialize in a position” context. they also overall just sing well enough.
idk about x1 or ald1, who on a surface level, just seem like groups with generalized “all rounder” skills, which is a nicer way of saying members have “subpar/average” vocals, rap, and dance. but hey, almost every bg member is an amazing dancer these days… i never invested in any of their shows which is quite telling.
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Ok why are x1 catching strays…. I will try not to get mad at you but this is a group I was all in on and they were supposed to have a 5 year contract. They had an incredible lineup goddamnit WOODZ was there!!! and flash was NOTHING like this song… 😤😤😤
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you know what, i relistened to flash and that song has more delicious parts than i remembered. also crazy they had woodz, seungwoo and hangyul in the lineup… the difference in image between the 1990s and 2000s members mostly put me off the lineup.
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Yeah the vocal runs at the end of that song are kinda crazy. “Like Always” was also an adorable song. And woodz/seungwoo/hangyul were a legendary trio… oh what could have been😞
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Heavy on the last part tbh. Vocals and fleshed out melodies melodies is whats missing for me. I hear the potential but it can’t shine thru because of all the posturing and boygroupness. Hopefully they’ll have a similar music trajectory to Evnne. Their hard concept suits most of the members(whom are also mostly all rounders) but they’ve shown versatility in the output without abandoning what they excel at.
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Heavy on the last part tbh. Vocals and fleshed out melodies melodies is whats missing for me. I hear the potential but it can’t shine thru because of all the posturing and boygroupness. Hopefully they’ll have a similar music trajectory to Evnne. Their hard concept suits most of the members(whom are also mostly all rounders) but they’ve shown versatility in the output without abandoning what they excel at.
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it’s not that bad to me but it’s definitely a (rare) dud considering it’s written and co-produced by KENZIE.
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Not her best work but this sounds exactly like how I imagined their sound to be.
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Boy group mediocrity but I like it more with each listen ngl. The pre chorus and bridge is what saves it for me.
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I’m sure the title track will be better, but my hopes aren’t exactly high.
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I must be the only one liking this song cause it reminds me of 2nd and 3rd generation songs. I think the hook is good… and I am getting tired also of the super melodic songs cause let’s face it, they also sound a bit all the same… this one ticks my boxes just right. Yes, it’s a bit NCT-esque, but not as annoyingly monotone (at least to my ears) I’m not saying I am RAVING about it, but definitely OK to listen to and groove to. The only annoying thing is the lyrical concepts are getting so boring it’s almost like a parody. Can labels think of something a bit more innovative 😭 if I try to ignore the lyrics, it sounds just OK 🙂
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Right we have so many melodic 5th gen boy groups rn. Right now xikers is the only one not following that trend. We need more hardcore concepts from boy groups.
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Honestly there are much better releases of newer bgs doing this sound, Gimme Gimme and Shock by Allhours being amazing examples.
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