Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
While ATEEZ have never been unpopular, within the last couple years they’ve really taken off in terms of sales during ‘The World‘ era (though I easily preferred ‘Zero‘ era, musically). Now they’re back with “Crazy Form” and follow a familiar boy group formula with pounding bass, aggressive/shouty delivery, and a lot of masculine posturing.
Regular readers will know this style/sound isn’t really my thing to begin with, but the constant vocal effects are a tragedy that only exacerbate the worst tendencies of the sound and make it insanely grating. Furthermore, it almost feels a bit downbeat for them. Instead of being frantic and hype as their performance-focused tracks usually are, it kinda stagnates in terms of energy. During the final third of the song, things pick up and get more lively, not unlike BABYMONSTER’s “BATTER UP”, but the only thing I remember from this track is the “AYAYAYA” for meme purposes.
It feels like a waste anytime ATEEZ release a track where Jongho is put on the backburner, but really they’ve reached the point where none of this matters and they’ll be doing crazy numbers regardless, even if their actual form can’t match the promise of the title.
