A K-pop act’s title track isn’t always the best song on their album, even if it’s the one most people will hear. Sometimes, b-sides deserve recognition too. In the singles-oriented world of K-pop, I want to spotlight some of these buried treasures and give them the props they deserve.
I may never stop complaining about the vocal mixing on most of their songs, but apart from that ENHYPEN’s new album is pretty strong. In fact, it’s their first album I find myself wanting to return to. This is thanks to an energetic set of songs that don’t leave too much time to consider the production shortcomings. And as the album goes on, the vocal effects feel more toned down. When HYBE outsources its material, it seems to leave more room for different approaches.
Such is the case with Go Big Or Go Home (모 아니면 도). I also recommend the guitar thrash of Attention, Please (rock + ENHYPEN = a good fit), but I think the hooks are sharper here.
It’s funny, because Go Big Or Go Home is also one of the most generic songs on the album. It’s the umpteenth riff of Robin S’s 90’s classic Show Me Love, coupled with more modern Alan Walker-esque EDM production. Yet, composers LDN Noise work their magic and tease out hook after hook from the familiar brew. It’s nice to hear them return to this dance sound, having been the team that first popularized it in Korea half a decade ago. Go Big Or Go Home is no View (it can only dream!), but the beat is sleek and addictive and ENHYPEN bring more personality than we’re used to hearing from them.
Personally, I’m just thrilled to hear a K-pop dance track that doesn’t pause or shift tempos a million times. That alone is worth praise!
| Hooks | 9 |
| Production | 9 |
| Longevity | 8 |
| Bias | 9 |
| RATING | 8.75 |
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The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
This is the type of sound I love hearing in K-Pop but after listening to a heap of Deep House over the years, I ache to hear a song with a great melody and chord progression. This song just doesn’t do it for me. ‘Joel Corry x RAYE x David Guetta – BED’ is an example of a track that IMO gets it right despite being very generic.
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I personally like ‘You Don’t Know Me’ with RAYE & Jax Jones even though it’s pretty repetitive, but maybe that’s why it manages to stick with me.
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Yeah, that’s a nice track too. It’s got a nice chill deep house vibe and is really damn catchy.
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Attention, Please is one of my favs from the album for sure, although this one is fun as well!
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I’m glad Attention, Please got a shout out, it’s definitely my favourite from the album. They do that rock sound really well!
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This and Attention Please are the only two real b-side highlights off the album for me. Hopefully, this album leads into a bigger and better release, since it ends with an interlude.
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On a related note, I find those interludes/intros so cringy and pretentious.
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they do feel super pretentious, if you are gonna have an album opener and closer shouldn’t it be foregrounding the key sound of the album? So not sure why they’ve chosen to use not 1 but 2 DnB instrumentals for an album that doesn’t really come that close to the genre lol they need to stop getting my hopes up😭 and then the added speeches on top make the decent instrumentals feel unlistenable 😬
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Agreed. They could be cheesy fun, like the intro to ATEEZ’s first mini. But, they’re just random, poetic gibberish over instrumentals that have nothing to do with the group’s sound.
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Or something like Woollim artistes’s intros?
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WHY IS THERE NO DRUM N BASS SONGS DAMNIT WHY SAVE IT FOR THE INSTRUMENTALS.
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Its not DNB all the way through but Blockbuster definitely uses that kind of instrumental for certain parts of the song
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As an aussie, Jake’s accent in these (with a few random American inflections) brings out a lot of cultural cringe in me on top of the inherent cringe haha (it’s like reading a fourteen-year-olds poetry, but then again, they’re probably the target audience here).
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I’m just going to drop a link to the latest release from Bandage here, as I’m guessing Nick won’t be reviewing it. I discovered them during KINGDOM when I was looking up which of the competing groups had k-bands at their agencies. Bandage are under Play M, which along with Cre.ker (home of The Boyz) is a Kakao subsidiary. This is their first release since a three-track “single” in April 2020 followed by a seven-track EP/album in June 2020. I genuinely love every single one of those releases and this new one is right up the same alley. It’s still pop rock, but it’s got an almost ambient edge to it that I love. I’m hoping this is a prologue for a longer release soon, but who knows.
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Believe they formed thru the Superband TV show. Lucy, Hoppipolla, and Purple Rain came from there as well. The 2nd season just wrapped up as well but I’m not too sure about the bands in it (ik the winner was a metal band though)
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Oh yeah, I like this song too, although “Attention, please” is the bigger winner for me. “Blockbuster” is okay because I’m a sucker for the rock sound and it gives me an excuse to return to a much better kpop song of the same name.
https://youtu.be/qX9GU37Rk-I
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this free dongkiz promo… exactly! but i’m afraid their music is in a slump after they peaked with blockbuster/fever/all i need is you 😦 i still buy their physical albums to support them financially
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but i wished their music was good enough to warrant me buying their albums
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Their voices in this are sooooo much more discernible than the title that it’s really mind-blowing why this kind of post treatment wasn’t the one chosen for that one… in the first 25 seconds of the song we can already make out 4 (even if mildly) different timbres and that makes it tremendously more interesting to my ear.
And the “go big or go home” hook is laced with the best kind of vocal distortion, adding flavor to the vocal lines. Let’s hope that they eventually promote this “dance floor warriors” motif in a title track.
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I thought Nick would review Attention, please! being the best song in the album. Well, differing opinion here, I thought Go Big or Go Home was mediocre, bland and pale. It didn’t do anything out of the ordinary, it didn’t give me anything new, nor innovative to listen to. It was a rather middling dance-pop radio slop. Anyway, I really agree with this positive comment, Go Big or Go Home is addicting, the production is fluid and it is just a club banger.
My top 3 are Tamed-Dashed, Blockbuster and of course, Attention, please!
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Go Big or Go Home is probably one of my favorites from their album. An easy 8.75 or 9 from me seeing how much I’ve already replayed it. However, other than kpop, my other favorite genre is edm (esp this 2000s vibe) so it seems this song was just tailored made for my taste. I could totally hear this being mixed into someones set at some rave or club. Its nothing groundbreaking but thats okay with me. Sometimes I just want a song that I can bop along too while I drive and this is exactly that. On a side note, I also agree that this is Enhypen’s strongest album release so far. I keep playing the album again and again without really skipping any song other than the intro/interlude.
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Woah I’m late but just wanted to say I just hit play on “Blockbuster” and was oh so pleasantly surprised. THAT DRUM N BASS MOMENT!!!
Overall certainly their strongest album yet. I’ve preferred enha’s b-sides to their title tracks every time thus far, but this time there are a whole bunch that stand out.
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i think they’re beautiful!
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