Those who have followed The Bias List for some time have gone on the SNUPER journey right alongside me. It’s a story that starts with Sweetune-fueled promise, climaxes with Sweetune-fueled perfection, and takes a nasty little turn with a non-Sweetune-fueled 2018 that is better left forgotten. Time will tell if there are still pages left in SNUPER’s K-pop story, but for now they seem relegated to Japanese promotions. They’re relatively successful in Japan, but they’ve yet to release a J-pop single that really wowed me.
“Weekend Secret” switches things up and stands as their strongest Japanese song yet (not counting the fun — and coincidentally Sweetune-fueled — b-side “Like Star“). “Weekend Secret” can’t compete with their best material, but I appreciate its upbeat energy. On first listen, you may not even realize that this is Snuper. It sounds more like a generic boy group track from five years ago. That may sound like a dig, but I love generic boy group tracks from five years ago!
The song wastes no time getting to its electro-meets-disco beat, opening with a convincing rap verse before launching into its slinky (and supremely catchy) melody. From here, we get a nice extended dance build that segues into the chorus. The main hook feels a little undercooked, but I like that it’s driven by a mix of falsetto and chest voice.
In fact, the guys’ vocals haven’t sounded this impressive in awhile. The song doesn’t ask all that much from them, but the arrangement smartly draws on the best from each member. It’s a slick little production, even if it never brings the kind of quirks that made their 2017 work so satisfying.