As is often the case with Japanese tracks, izna’s Dumb Hot! was released a few weeks before its music video. Sometimes, that offers the chance for a song to ingratiate itself without visuals setting any concrete expectations, but there’s not enough song within Dumb Hot to succeed on its own.

To put it bluntly, there is no reason for Dumb Hot to exist. It’s the latest in an endless (endless!!) line of subdued girl group tracks borrowing heavily from UK garage. We are now on year four (!) of this musical trend and there is absolutely nothing left to wring from it. Add muted synths and a dumb sing-talk hook and you’ve got a track that might as well just be a conglomeration of a thousand other songs. I’m no proponent of AI in music, but a machine could probably write something more interesting than this.

At just over two minutes, Dumb Hot doesn’t take much of your time and doesn’t really ask anything of its listener. Put it on in the background if you must, but there are so many better ways to soundtrack your day than listening to an idol group rhyme “dumb hot” with “talk talk,” “one shot” and “shock shock” with no discernible passion or interest. File this under: “the song doesn’t care, so why should I?”

Grade: D