Every so often, SM Entertainment releases “track” videos for songs that aren’t the main focus of a promotional campaign but serve to build hype. Often, these videos spotlight only a portion of a song, but sometimes they encompass the entire thing. NCT 127 are gearing up for their tenth anniversary comeback. They’re down to five members from a high point of ten at one point — a deflated visual that made me do a double take at first. Piñata sees them going full rock with their trademark shouty hooks.

I’ve always appreciated when NCT acts add electric guitar to the mix. It brings a widescreen energy that matches the ambition of the NCT vision, but Piñata is difficult to get through. There are times when shouting a song’s hook can work, especially in punk music. K-pop just doesn’t have much success with it. The way K-pop production works, these shouted centerpieces often come across as more shrill than thrilling, and from a purely tonal approach Piñata‘s centerpiece genuinely hurts my ears. I could embrace a deliberately unpleasant track if that unpleasantness had something to say, but this is just shouting for shouting’s sake.

Piñata‘s verses are far more restrained but no less dull. The phrasing and execution are both familiar and predictable, with the song and members going through the expected motions. The song’s strongest moment comes during a too-brief bridge, which brings the kind of explosive rap that this production calls for. I would have loved to hear more of this freewheeling energy in place of the cut-and-paste badassery we get throughout most of Piñata.

Grade: C-