The Bigbangification of Beast continues with Guess Who, their new Japanese single. They began to veer toward this more hip-hop influenced sound with last year’s Yey, but that song grew on me the more I heard it. I’m not sure Guess Who will share the same fate. There’s just not as much to hold onto when it comes to melody or, quite frankly, hooks.
Now, I consider Beast to be a bias group, and I actually thought the bulk of their Japanese material last year was heads and tails above their Korean output. Distinctive voices like Yoseob and Hyunseung can save just about any track, but they’re not given much to do here. Instead, the song’s main hook is instrumental — an overused breakdown that seems to have been copied and pasted from any number of boy group releases over the last few years. It feels like backward thinking and, worse yet, an abandonment of their incredibly strong sound for something run-of-the-mill and past trend.
Given that Japanese tracks tend to differ greatly from Korean comebacks, I expect Guess Who to be a bit of a one-off. I hope so, because they’re a group in need of a strong return to the kpop scene — something as melodically exciting as Fiction or Shadow. Guess Who feels like coasting, with even its more melodic portions lacking the group’s usual punch.
| Hooks | 6 |
| Production | 5 |
| Longevity | 5 |
| Bias | 6 |
| RATING | 5.5 |
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
Beast belongs to the generation of boybands that were famous during 2011-2012, when a more melodical and dramatic sound was the trend within boy groups. I miss that era so much because since 2013 the hip-hop vibe have been really strong and songs like Fiction, The Chaser or even Monster by Big Bang are not done any more.
YeY and Guess who were and attempt to go along with the sound that right now is dominating the charts , and I understand that , but in my opinion this doesn´t suit Beast, it turns them in “genericboybandtryingyoloswagno.23”. There are far better japanese releases by them like “This is my life”, “Hands up”, “One” or “Throwback Memories”.
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Preach! 😀
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But, I feel like 2016 is seeing a resurgence of pop-influenced, melodic tracks… at least with the rookies. We’ll see if that carries over into the bigger groups. To a certain extent, we can probably thank Seventeen and Gfriend for paving the way for this lighter sound to come back into trend.
Also, This Is My Life was my FAVORITE Beast song of 2015.
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Kpop is an industry of trends and the hip-hop one will die anytime soon. I hope 2016 is the year in which this happens, because I swear to god I want to like boy bands again , but their current sound is not the kind of pop I like.Even if I want to look for visual purposes I can´t because the boys are styled so horrible in this kpop yoloswag nightmare that I want to vomit. That is why I tend to follow more girl groups , their songs just keep getting better everyday.
Seventeen is definitely my favorite rookie when it comes to boys , gfriend won me over with their rough album, but to be honest I still prefer lovelyz.
” This is my life ” is my favorite one too!!! But that doesn´t surprise me , our tastes are very similar, that is why I read your blog 🙂
Of course , I´m also a diehard Sweetune´s fan (which makes me cry because they are not as good as they used to be but still here…haha)
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Have you checked out Snuper’s new mini album? It’s not quite sweetune at their prime, but it’s somewhere close!
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Yes, I liked it very much, bu If I have to mention a song by a boygroup that I loved that would be show me bang bang by roadboyz.
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Agree with you there. Shame that no one else seemed to notice 😦
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