Modern K-pop has dramatically switched its lyrical focus from external storytelling, centered on the “you” or “they”, to boastful screeds that fully revolve around the “I”. “I’m so badass.” “I’m cooler than anyone else.” “I’m UNIQUE.” This bleeds into the music itself, which is often more combative and hits like a structural punch instead of unfolding as a sequential story. This problematic approach tends to involve much more telling than showing, which is one of the biggest reasons I find so many of these tracks mind-numbingly dull.
P1Harmony’s new title track Unique is a perfect example of this issue. It’s essentially a meaningless platitude — the kind of catchphrase you’d see on a cheap printed children’s t-shirt at a big box store. The guys spend three minutes confidently telling us how unique they are while the song itself sounds anything but. Without an actual display of uniqueness, this concept loses all purpose. It simply spins its wheels, underpinned with percussive-heavy production that could have anchored so many other recent boy group offerings.
Even without all this subtext, Unique just isn’t that fun to listen to. It feels like an over-serious lecture about how cool P1Harmony is. Without engaging the audience on a personal level, there’s no reason to care about what the group thinks of themselves. No amount of “pow pow pow” or “la la la la la” interjections will fix that. By keeping us at a distance, they’ve sacrificed the joy a hype track like this can deliver.
| Hooks | 6 |
| Production | 7 |
| Longevity | 6 |
| Bias | 5 |
| RATING | 6 |
Grade: D-
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
The beat is cunty, the song is not and I still yearn for a Scared-esque banger. Still better than Killin’ It, always found the song incredibly obnoxiois.
7.25 (7, 8, 7, 7) for me.
LikeLike
A shame because I think the first verse works well. It’s got a nice quiet starts that builds into a thrilling pre-chorus, but then everything falls apart.
LikeLike
Yes, they fail the statement that Tom Jones has often said, that part of his continuing popularity is making it about his audience, about YOU. Not him, but YOU.
Sex bomb sex bomb you’re my sex bomb …
Pussycat pussy cat, you’re so thrilling …
Tom Jones is not the sexy thrilling one (though he kinda is), you are.
This song here today is just vapid noisy boasting. *sigh*
LikeLike
For some reason the way they say “Unique” reminds me of Hyolyn’s “Dessert.” Like a lot of P1Harmony songs the part that stands out to me the most is the (usually sung by Theo) prechorus.
For a long time I’ve hoped that they would evolve and change their musical direction. I actually really liked Ex as an album and wondered if they would take a more Western route. But overall what is missing here is a sense of fun. You could always could on them for a slightly irreverent take on Kpop and, well, they were unique for it. But, ironically, this song isn’t unique at all.
LikeLike
Vocals are nice but god is that chorus atrocious
6.5(6,7,7,5)
LikeLike
HMM……yeah idek. the whole song feels like a little bit of this and a little bit of that but there’s never any satisfying moments or payoff. theo’s prechorus goes nowhere, the energy picks up ALOT during the last verse only for the song to just cut off, etc. not to mention its always a bummer when a song is so talk-heavy that lead/main vocalists don’t get any singing parts, happened with the nouera comeback as well
its probably like a 7 for me, there’s nothing i hate about it but i don’t want to hear it again
LikeLike