izna have delivered a fractured discography so far, with some songs hitting harder than others. However, the highlight medley for their newest mini-album hinted at a synth-heavy sound that feels consistent among its tracks. This is a stellar identity for the group to pursue and results in their strongest title track yet.
Metronome is pure, unfiltered dance music. We’ve heard a surplus of this sound in K-pop this year, but most of these songs have been marred by constant talk-chanting that works against the appeal of their instrumental. Metronome isn’t the most melodic beast either, sacrificing most of its chorus for a heavily filtered vocal loop and churning out predictable phrasing during its verses, but there’s a Euro-sheen to the execution that feels as if an actual DJ was involved in the process. In reality, this is yet another Teddy & Co. production, but it’s one of his better efforts lately.
If we’re taking baby steps toward the kind of dramatic, vocal-led dance music that first ushered me into this K-pop world, Metronome feels like a tentative tiptoe into the well. If you were to stack it against the many new DJ/dance songs released globally each week, I’m not sure it would stand out. But in K-pop’s microcosm, the track is a positive evolution and fits izna’s sleek vocal delivery. I look forward to how they might build upon this in the future.
| Hooks | 8 |
| Production | 8 |
| Longevity | 9 |
| Bias | 9 |
| RATING | 8.5 |
Grade: B
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
I love this one! It’s like if Somi’s Fast Forward and Closer had a baby (makes sense since they have the same producers lol), but it’s definitely their best work so far.
Rating’s the same
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This is such a good dance song that I don’t even notice lack of melody too much because of the super tight production. Easily their best title track so far and I hope they go into club music moving forward because we’ve been missing heavy hitting dance. Makes me wonder what they’re even doing with MEOVV because this title track is way better.
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Mm not bad! Typical TBL production style but more vocal showcases. This will def grow on me.
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Love it, except of course the sorta empty chorus.
What do you think of the other bsides? I do like RIP quite a bit!
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This is most likely more VVN, IDO and KUSH’s work though. Teddy was also credited on MEOVV’s Ddi Ro Ri and that wasn’t good.
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Easily their best title track by far, though I do think the chorus could be better.
Same rating as Nick for now
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I really like this. the chorus works for me, amazing production throughout. it’s crazy that they got the best songs from Teddy/VVN & co., compared to I.O.I and MEOVV. I hope they stick with this sound moving forward, for at least the next year or so.
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The music is a club banger. The entire vocal melody is just so mid. The girls do the best with the material, but the songwriting team really let the whole song down with the nothing vocal line. It starts with the intro lines, and goes nowhere. Fortunately, we are all distracted by the music most of the time.
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at some point, this would have been just basic for the strong context that K-pop is, but today, with several mediocre singles becoming good because you need to carefully assimilate them before you have nothing you like about them, this is a good single
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It’s a good track even if the EDM pre chorus is long and repetitive. I like how the melody builds up towards the end, finally something epic.
I do prefer the rest of the EP and its excellent synth pop sound especially Paper Rock Scissors.
My one issue with IZNA is how all their vocals sound like nasal autotune and give every chorus a nursery rhymes vibe. But this is a great EP.
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The song just feels generic to me, not bad but there is no shining moment either. The beat is fine and they did not chop the vocals, but the chorus feels empty and the pre-chorus can be a bit too grating for my ears. Not really something I want to replay much.
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I like it! Rizes above its mediocrity.
Outside of Sign it’s been all garbage, so fingers crossed they release more songs like this.
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The beat here reminds of 2010s dance music, which for K-pop is pretty fresh since a lot of the industry is still capitalising for y2k/00s aesthetics. The song itself could either grow or fall for me but right now I’m liking it, hope to see more in the future.
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Mannnn izna has so much potential and their music is always sooooo close to hitting for me. I either love the melodies OR the production but rarely both. All the most interesting songs production-wise have hardly any melody 😭 Racecar remains my favorite track from them but I’ll still wait eagerly for everything to click in their future music.
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meh
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This bangs, and the whole EP is very tight and cohesive, no skips
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Not trying to glaze her but I think the EP becoming their most cohesive album yet is due to VVN (Vivian Cha) stepping up and becoming their main producer. She worked on izna’s other synth-flavored songs like IWALY, Fake It, Sign, and Racecar before and for this EP, she was actually credited first in all five tracks. I think Teddy is slowly relinquishing izna’s creative helm to her because he only participated in Metronome and even then, his credit placement is very far back. I think VVN did manage to construct izna’s sound decently and I’m very excited on how she’s going to develop this sound further in the future.
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