GOLDEN CHILD – 'WITHOUT YOU'

Track List:

1. Re-boot

2. WANNABE

3. Without You *Title

4. I Love U Crazy!

5. Lately

6. Compass

7. No Matter What (Jang Jun & TAG) Feat. Joo Chan

8. A Song For Me (Joo Chan Solo)

9. Spring Again

10. She’s My Girl

11. Our Heaven (Dae Yeol & Seung Min & Dong Hyun)

12. Fantasia (Y Solo)

13. Don't Run Away

14. Go Together (Jae Hyun & Ji Beom & Bo Min)

Golden Child has just released a re-package of their first full album. It's called 'Without You,' and has all the tracks from 'Re-boot,' plus two new ones. Building on the success of the original (their first-ever #1), pre-sales of 'Without You' also shot to number 1. But you're probably curious about the new tunes.

"Without You" starts with a simple piano intro, and builds to a soft pop tune. The chorus is almost all falsetto, provided by Y and Joochan, which is off-putting to me, though not necessarily to everyone else. I like how emotional they get when they're not doing the falsetto thing. There are epic highs in there. The song itself has to do with missing a girl, haunted by memories of her.

"I Love U Crazy!" is more lively, and in keeping with the rest of the songs on here. It's got that upbeat vibe that Golden Child is known for. It's sort of a mid-tempo club-banger, with a guitar providing the melody. Obviously, it's an ode to a girl.

So there's one song I like, one song I don't. But the score reflects rewarding them for what they did right as much as anything. Reviewer's tilt, frankly. I don't like this trend toward falsetto in K-pop. Some people might enjoy it, but it's just not my thing. It sounds fake and weird even when girls do it. Bring back autotune. At least that way they could do something interesting with it.

MV REVIEW

I've watched this a few times, and I still have little idea what's going on.

At first glance, it looks like your standard boy in the box video, and it sure looks like they're trapped there. And you've got the different camera angles, bars as a framing device, the interplay of light and shadow. But the way they implement this is different.

Everything from shadows as blindfolds to actual physical blindfolds, sitting alone holding a bouquet of flowers, the flashes of scenes all in red, it just makes the whole thing look awesome. I may not be a fan of the song, but the MV is a different matter entirely.

The dancing is top-notch. I love how the boys flow like water towards Ji Beom during his first line, and how they explode outwards with outstretched hands. The choreo does an excellent job of interpreting the melody.

And every time I see those bars I think prison. It adds an edginess to the MV that helps make it pop.

Score

MV Relevance...........8

MV Production..........9

MV Concept..............8

MV SCORE: 8.3

Album Production.....7

Album Concept.........7

Tracklisting...............7

ALBUM SCORE: 7.0

OVERALL................7.6