Song Review: &TEAM – We On Fire | The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion

Though they didn’t release as much music as usual, &TEAM had a banner year in 2025. They officially became million sellers and made their Korean debut. This has seemed to mark a shift back into moodier music after their stellar, upbeat 2024 output. The group can sell these sounds convincingly, but I hope their increased move into global territories doesn’t necessitate the kind of “dark” (read: bland) trends so many other global boy groups must conform to. Sadly, the trap-rock of new single We On Fire doesn’t assuage these concerns.

We’re far from the melodic heights of Aoarashi, Koegawari and Yukiakari, replaced instead by familiar (read: bland) phrasing that forgoes anthemic heft for flat “coolness.” Often, when &TEAM take this route their instrumentals pick up the slack with big guitar riffs and theatrical bombast. With We On Fire, everything seems to be set at a low broil. Their trademark sounds are present, but at the most boring baseline you could imagine. Throw a stone in any direction of global pop music and you’ll find a dozen of these dull, trap-infused bops. Men in pop don’t want to be glitzy and glamorous anymore. The preference these days is musical apathy.

So, what we have here is &TEAM’s worst single in years. As part of an album, I could see We On Fire working as pleasant connective tissue, but as a promoted track it leaves much to be desired. Just as I feared, by trying to please a wider swath of the global audience they’ve resulted in music that thrills no one. I hope there are better songs on the single because I love this group and would hate to see their sound devolve into generic schlock.

Hooks	7
Production	7
Longevity	7
Bias	7
RATING	7

Grade: C-

6 thoughts on “Song Review: &TEAM – We On Fire”

the AI in the video 💀 and the song is a nothingburger

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as a longtime lune i never expected we’d get a release this bad, you’re a saint for giving it a 7

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At the risk of sounding fetish-y, I’m really annoyed that 1) they’re pivoting towards a ‘global’ sound like this rather than continuing with the jpop-based sounds that they had, especially with the seasons releases, and 2) that ‘global’ is limited to this kind of moody trap-based song and nothing else. When I’m listening to these, I want to know what makes &Team special and why I should be listening to &Team instead of literally anyone else, and songs like this just add absolutely nothing unique. They’ve even done broodier songs before, but with more melody (War Cry for example).

I don’t know, I was hoping this would be a return to form for them because okay, fine, giving into the kpop trends for a Korean debut was perhaps expected but this is a Japanese comeback so – where did the group that did Yukiakari and Firework go? I do think the b-sides are so much better, even if I wouldn’t rank them among the best in their discography, so this choice is baffling.

Kpop is already stuck in this rut of trying to chase these very, very specific trends and ideas that it has about what works in the ‘west’. Please go back to Japan for inspiration though I beg!

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I don’t think this is worse than War Cry but it’s certainly more inert, it almost feels like background music. I guess we’ll see with TXT if the Cortisification of these HYBE groups continues. However, b-side Hotline is super cute and feels like it should be played alongside Scroll by KickFlip.

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They try to get more Meaning through vigorous arm waving choreo, and it just doesn’t work when the underlying song is so mid. “Can you feel this fire”: how many times have we heard this sentiment before?

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