The whole Cortis experience didn’t leave a good taste in my mouth last year, but like so many others I’ve become a bit obsessed with new single REDRED. It’s amazing what a great dance beat can do. But more than that, REDRED feels quintessentially new rather than simply a retreat of western rap tropes. This success has left me more open-minded to embrace future material by the group, and new single TNT acts as a stress test for that newfound optimism.
While the jury is still out on when it comes to my feelings about this band, TNT drags them back to where we started. The song opens with some promise, unveiling a gritty rock-meets-dance instrumental straight from the REDRED mold. However, the energy is decidedly different this time. We’re in sludgy, trap-adjacent territory once more, and this particular atmosphere rarely works for me. As usual, the guys’ vocals are slathered with effects, warping their tones into a claustrophobic, whiny mess. This worked much better over a beat strong enough to draw attention on its own, but without that sonic bombast distracting from the voices, TNT sags and droops and often sounds quite ugly.
The song is also not that catchy. Cortis are known for simple, hyper-repetitive hooks, but they usually have some spark to them. TNT‘s chorus is delivered without much excitement as a muted choir of voices echo behind them. The flows throughout TNT are all extremely familiar, cribbed from any number of global hip-hop tracks of the past decade. And above all else, the song is just… extremely boring. Time will tell, but this makes me worried that REDRED may have been a one-off.
| Hooks | 6 |
| Production | 6 |
| Longevity | 6 |
| Bias | 6 |
| RATING | 6 |
Grade: D-
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
Well… even Lay had some good tracks like Namanana despite his shit track record…
Rating’s the same.
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And useless fact cause I’m a jobless student: I just did an average of Lay’s songs rated in here and he has an average of 6.375. CORTIS on the other hand has an average of 6.1 as of now. RedRed barely managed to raise it from an 5.75 to a 6.2 until this song dragged it down again. So yeah, we currently have an artist worse off than Lay and it’s a…n achievement of sorts 🥴
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Still doesn’t beat Eternity’s average of 4
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To be fair, Nick has only reviewed 2 Eternity songs so far, so it isn’t exactly fair comparing them to the other two who have a handful of reviews here. But I doubt Nick would bother continue reviewing Eternity or even doing a full analysis (the gap between I’m Real and the rest sounds fucking hilarious thinking about it lol), esp considering they are pretty much releasing pleasant but boring girl group fare now lol
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Maybe RedRed made us a little too optimistic?
6.25(6,7,6,6)
But at least it’s not a total shitshow like GO which, as I’ve said before on this blog, I think is worse than Fashion.
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CORTIS had one good song with lullaby and decided they weren’t gonna release any good musics since.
Also ycc sucks. The Autotune….
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oh sweet baby hey zeus no
Pure speculation: I wonder if someone pitched this to BTS, and they passed quickly, then it rattled around Hybe until it landed with Cortis. Just a thought.
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6 is quite high for this…mess
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Sound a mess or Stream sombr: cortis❤️( if you dont get it they sound a mess❤️)
Anyways stream slayyyter and remember to block Gracie Abraham’s on all platforms❤️❤️❤️
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Why did it copy twice
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Stream sombr or sound a mess: cortis❤️ ( if you don’t get, it means cortis sounds a mess❤️
Anyways stream slayyyter and remember to block Gracie Abraham’s on all digital platforms❤️
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oof… this was a slog to get through. one positive is that it’s only 2 minutes long. REDRED was a fluke 💔
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this sound (…attempt) was all over Atlanta for some time with the trap scene. you’d think they were slurring and mumbling about dirty sprite and red solo cups.
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RedRed was too strong of a PR, it blows everything out of the water. I just got into the group so I really wanted to like this EP but it’s not it. The debut EP was better executed in all areas and more catchy. Wish they explored more of that electronic/rock sound as it could’ve made for a more interesting project.
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Honestly the rest of the album quite frankly sucks, which is a big shame biggest REDRED is such an earworm and one of favorite kpop songs this year so far. The one song I saw having potential was Blue Lips but it ended too soon for me to really get into it. This is also a problem with a lot of their other songs in this album. I’m really sad.
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The whole voice effect thing is soo annoying. Can we leave that in 2018?
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