Day eleven, here we are. The luckiest day, my favourite day. Purely because eleven is my lucky number, being born on the eleventh of November and all. Let’s hope that the luck yields some fun music today, day four of boy group week. Today we’re on a much newer group, Oneus, another challenge in pronunciation. Let’s get it, and don’t worry, I’ll google how to say it.
Who are Oneus?
OK, Wikipedia says it’s “One Us”. That’s fair enough, though why not just, you know, make it two words? Whatever. After yesterday’s NU’EST, who debuted in the black and white era of 2012, Oneus feel like absolute spring lambs with the debut date of January 2019. Their company is RBW Entertainment, who, yes, can you believe it, I have heard of! This is because they are the company that created Mamamoo, who are possibly my favourite girl group, and undoubtedly super-duper talented ladies. Yeah I said super-duper, what of it?
Thankfully this group is another one whose origin story is straightforward, though several of the six members did compete in music survival shows (including our favourite, Produce 101) before forming the group together. I can’t find much, on the three sites I look at, to describe their style, which may have something to do with the group being only two years old. I am excited about them coming from the same company as Mamamoo though, as these girls are known for their extremely strong singing ability (and also having literal-goddess-on-Earth Hwasa in their mix but I don’t need to do any more talking about how much I love her). Is this something that the company wants to push in all of their groups? Am I about to meet six boys with strong voices, unique vocal tones and winning personalities? I can only hope so.
The First Song
The beauty of a newer group without sixteen different origin stories to explain (Loona I love you but sheesh) is that finding their first song is not difficult, and not something buried under a pile of EP releases over the years. In January 2019, Oneus released their first single, the atypically-named Valkyrie. This song is well constructed and enjoyable, if absolutely nothing new. I was excited by the introduction, a simple riff played on one electric guitar, and this is built well into the song, especially the pre-chorus. The chorus, however, falls back into pretty standard, heartbeat-speed EDM synths, with the riff falling into the backdrop. Yesterday, NU’EST showed how well it can work if you put that minimalism more front and centre, and Oneus don’t seem brave enough on this song to try that yet. I will say I loved the deep tone of the rapping here, as it added an edge of aggression that made the track more interesting.
Five of the Big Hits
Another great benefit of a newer group is a smaller discography to choose from. In fact, with Oneus, it appears that they have only just enough lead singles to satisfy the structure I use here in these reviews. Excluding their latest single, Oneus have only released seven others: Twilight, Lit, 808, A Song Written Easily, To Be Or Not To Be, a Japanese version of Twilight and Bbusyeo. As 808 and Japanese Twilight are, perhaps unsurprisingly, in Japanese, that leaves a simple five left.
When listening to this little list of songs, I couldn’t help but think that I was listening to a group hitting a lot of the trends of current K-pop, without a real sense of their own specific style. Twilight and To Be Or Not To Be are brooding, grandiose, black-clad tracks with a large, techno-dance sound. The former sneaks in some guitars to give the backdrop a flourish, and the latter initially sounds pretty similar. To Be Or Not To Be is more playful with its chorus, distorting the song’s title in to become the central hook. I also enjoyed how swinging the beat became in the pre-choruses, echoing ATEEZ’s Wonderland. But here’s the thing: there’s a lot of echoing. Whilst the song feels like ATEEZ, the video had strong undertones of Blood, Sweat and Tears, and at times even of the heaviness of Monsta X (it doesn’t help that one of the members seems to look a bit like Hyungwon). The echoes continue in A Song Written Easily, ticking off the trend of ‘group doing a mid-tempo EDM heavy, emotional song where they all dance outside in a natural setting’. See BTS’s Save Me, SEVENTEEN’s Don’t Wanna Cry, ATEEZ’s Wave, and even labelmates Mamamoo in Starry Night (I think the locations might even be the same here) for reference. Not that this makes the song bad, far from it. I actually liked the tropical rhythms, and also just really enjoyed the tune. Can’t really go wrong if the central melody is good, and it is here. It’s just derivative.
The same is also true of Bbusyeo, which is the group’s swerve into bright colours and occasional shorts. The song has a fast, clappy rhythm, trumpet flourishes, and a fun word to shout in the chorus. Again, the song is good, but something I feel I’ve seen before: there are vibes of goofy SEVENTEEN or cutesy GOT7 here. Versatile, yes, but I can’t say it’s unique. I would probably say that Lit gets closest to this, as it’s sliiiightly less common to hear the overt use of traditional East Asian instruments and melodies in a K-pop song, and it does work well. The central hook is catchy and different, and the song only improves as it goes along, the rhythm picking up pace as the traditional lion dancers and drums are introduced into the video. However, I had Idol in the back of my head, not in terms of the song itself necessarily, but in the ways it chose to insert the traditional Korean elements. Of course, you could make a fair argument that this isn’t Oneus being unoriginal, it’s another Korean group calling back to their heritage, and I agree. I just wonder if there might be a more unique way for these guys to do it that doesn’t leave me thinking of something else.
The Latest Song
I genuinely couldn’t believe when I saw that a K-pop group had released a song by this name. If you read my IZ*ONE review (oh go on, do it), you’ll remember I was shocked that K-pop groups so flagrantly use titles of already very famous songs. IZ*ONE have La Vie On Rose (not that one), and Itzy have Wannabe (not that one). But I think Oneus, so far, have taken the biscuit in this category, as, in January of this year, they released No Diggity. Not a cover. Another song. Called No Diggity. The ballsiness of this is notable, but I can’t help but feel you’re setting yourself up for a fall if you give your song a name already belonging to one so loved and so good. Is it going to be referential? Or pale in comparison? These are the questions this title makes me ask, and I don’t really think that’s a good thing.
When I eventually got around to watching the video, I was pleased, if slightly confused, to realise that this title is never actually sung in the song. ‘No Diggity’ is apparently how they’ve chosen to translate 반박불가, which, upon googling, translates directly to ‘it can’t be refuted’. OK I guess, but like, why not just have the Korean title? Anyway, the song itself is actually a banger, so this title conversation isn’t really relevant. It’s nothing like its namesake, instead a distorted synth-heavy badass hype track filled with neon colours and thudding beats. The singing in the pre-chorus is actually slightly better than the main show, but it’s clearly not really about that. The video gives off major Suicide Squad/Birds of Prey/Joker vibes with the members’ bright hair, colourful outfits, frenetic camerawork and smirks aplenty. It’s aggressive and dancey, with more stomp than their more brooding earlier numbers.
The Latest Album
Well that would be their only studio album to date, January’s Devil. I’m not entirely sure where the title of this came from (probably some kind of convoluted mythology you find a lot in modern K-pop groups), because, aside from the brashness of No Diggity, this album seems to hit more of a cheerful mood. The album also features the single Bbusyeo, which, as mentioned above, is the group’s primary-coloured bouncefest. After No Diggity, we get Leftover, a Latin-infused track with trickling piano hooks, and Incomplete felt positively euphoric. It’s a classic melding of gentle guitar and building synths, and again, I really enjoyed the central melody. The song also briefly changes pace to double speed in the middle, which was an unexpected surprise, and there is some very fast rapping. I can’t see any sense of darkness here at all, rather a sense of hope. Maybe the intro’s title, Devil is in the Detail, is a hint at the true meaning of this naming choice? Anyhow, the latter half of the album doesn’t get any darker, with Rewind in particular feeling like the uplifting stadium song with its expansive backing vocals, wide synth sound, and wonderful playing with rhythm through both the rapping, and the changes in the pace of the beat. Lion Heart is slightly edgier in the deep-voiced rapping and overall sense of drama, but it’s more in the mode of Twilight than Diggity. What You Doing? Has a nice funky undertone in the electronic baseline, but again, not really any aggression, despite the rappers’ attempts to achieve this. I ultimately really liked this album: I feel it’s really well produced, and shows off the members’ talents really effectively. I guess the ‘devil’ here must be a cute, little one with dinky horns. And a big smile.
Thoughts?
I think it became clear when listening to Oneus’s five hits where I stand with them: this is a talented group that have made really fun music, but I’m not sure that they’ve found their distinctive voice yet. This is unsurprising, given that they are only two years old (aww), and it definitely feels like they’re still trying on all of the different ‘boy band modes’ to see where they fit best. The good thing for them is that, from the looks of it, they’ll be able to work well with whatever style they do go for, because they’re already making great tracks of various types and having success with it. At the moment it’s a blend of the big guys of today that I can hear (ATEEZ, GOT7, SEVENTEEN, BTS, MONSTA X), but I think, eventually, they will be able to cultivate their own, Oneus, sound.
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