This April, The Boyz explored lighter territory with the bubblegum pop of Bloom Bloom. While I will always be leading the charge for more bright boy group material, Bloom’s incessant catchiness was almost too sugary to stand as one of the Boyz’ classic title tracks. New single D.D.D pulls back a bit, coming across as a hybrid of the group’s lighter and edgier sides. Because of this, it’s a song that works in pieces, though its highs are more than enough to compensate for the lows.
There’s plenty to love about D.D.D. When it chooses to embrace its upbeat nature, it’s an irresistible blast of funky, summertime K-pop. The synth-heavy instrumental has a carnival-like appeal, winding up and pulling back in equal measure. The slow-build verses are unexpected in a track of this nature, but work thanks to the bright instrumental supporting them. Unfortunately, they’re immediately followed by the song’s weakest moment — an entirely unwelcome trap-infused pre-chorus that slows D.D.D’s momentum to a crawl. I wish that this segment had been replaced by the hard-hitting electronic break that slices through the middle of verse two. It would have made for a much more galvanizing climb toward the chorus.
Other than this misstep, D.D.D stands as a return-to-form for The Boyz. Its explosive chorus echoes past hits like Giddy Up, though the repetitive structure feels a bit more contrived than I would like. The song’s strongest moment comes during its bridge, which sets up a satisfying build that culminates in a gargantuan instrumental break. This climax is all too fleeting, but worth the price of admission alone. The Boyz are at their best when they go big, and D.D.D offers yet another hint at that limitless potential. They just need to excise the boring bits and hit us with the full, undiluted power we know they have.
| Hooks | 8 |
| Production | 9 |
| Longevity | 9 |
| Bias | 9 |
| RATING | 8.75 |
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The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
There’s my summer song!
Totally agree about the trap breakdown bit. As annoying as it is that it happens not once, but twice, it’s far from the worst possible outcome of this track. The chorus is a head-bopper-toe-tapper if I’ve ever heard one, it jumps between breezy and anthemic, and it just keeps me smiling. This group in particular always catches my attention by how well they themselves sell the song, even when they could’ve relied solely on its production. The Boyz never disappoint.
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Quite happy with this one! I prefer it to Bloom Bloom, definitely. Curious; will you be doing a buried treasure on one of the album songs? Personally I really liked Water and Complete Me.
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iirc this is the group I called “relentlessly upbeat”. Well, now they are still relentlessly upbeat, but they decided to add a bit of edginess with not one but two rhythmic dance breaks. Yeah, they don’t work. Not quite as seamless as they could be.
I mentioned SuJu “Mr Simple” in the Red Velvet posting because of the key change break, but that song also has a dance break in it which works well. They expand and contract the length of the break depending on the circumstances of the performance. This song could use that.
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It feels like the most interesting parts of this song are the things that they do different and the least interesting parts are the things that feel compulsory… interesting… I wonder if there’s a lesson to be learned here?
There’s a good chorus and bridge (that instrumental break IS great) but I think the thing the songwriters needed to do with this song is figure out a way to keep the energy up. The way the song drops off before and after the chorus is so frustrating because I think the intention was to make it feel like the song was building towards the chorus, but it spoiled the build of the song as a whole. There are ways to modulate the volume/tempo/etc. while still giving the song forward motion, but instead they settled for what just feels like a reset button.
I’m also a little letdown by the absence of a great rap, but they gotta let the singers shine too I guess. Unrelated to everything else, the crotch grab as they sing “more more more” makes me very uncomfortable.
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