Review: ASSEMBLE25 - tripleS
Author’s note: I am extremely biased because I am indeed a tripleS fan. I also don’t know much about writing and music jargon LMAO. I just write these for fun, but any comments and constructive criticism is welcome :D I do love hearing other people’s opinions.
I didn’t proofread this btw mb.
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For those who know me, I am a diehard tripleS fan. My Airbuds weekly recap basically has tripleS locked at number 1. That’s why I’m excited to review their new album, ASSEMBLE25. Like their predecessor, Girls Never Die, this year’s title track was decided through a voting process called Gravity. For my American readers, it’s basically Kpop March Madness. Fans vote through an app called Cosmo with tokens called COMO. And yes, these are unfortunately NFTs which is why I decided not to participate in voting. However, I did track the entire voting process and listen to all 12 snippets. Out of those 12, I had one track I absolutely adored and one that I claimed to be “tripleS’ downfall” if released. Clearly, I didn’t overreact. Unfortunately, the track I hated with a passion turned out to win.
Stranger Things, upon first listen, really wasn’t that bad. But, I felt that there wasn’t anything special about it. Aside from the sampled XXXtentacion meme and the signature “la-la-la”, it was okay. Apparently, fellow WAVs did not agree with me because this song won over potential hits such as Lit Pop and Diablo (my personal favorite from the Gravity). I really tried to be optimistic about this comeback because apparently, Rising (one of tripleS’ earliest releases) wasn’t very well-liked when it won Gravity. With that in mind, I prayed every day that Are You Alive (the new title for Stranger Things) would be good.
Well… Are You Alive is actually good! It’s not their strongest title track whatsoever, but it definitely beat my expectations! tripleS definitely reheated their nachos with this track because it feels like an edgier version of Girls Never Die. Some may find it redundant especially with the la-la-las, but I am indeed biased and absolutely eat this up!!
To start with the good, it seems that Modhaus is finally trying to show the vocal prowess of vocally underrated members. Kaede got some really nice lines in her time at Visionary Vision, and I’m so glad that she had one of the more impactful (IMO) lines in this song. Additionally, Xinyu is finally getting her flowers!!! Even though she’s known as one of the more visual and variety members, she surprisingly has this nice deep tone to her voice that I think should be utilized a lot more… Lord, Modhaus needs to start producing smaller units so that fans get to see this side of the members more often (Chaewon next please!!).
As for what didn’t work, I have 2 main complaints: lack of vocal harmonies/layering and the bridge. Of course, line distribution will always be a nightmare when 24 members are in the mix, so I won’t comment too much about that. But… Mayu got fucked over Real Bad. This leads me to my first complaint. For a group with this many members, Modhaus should experiment with layering multiple vocals. I used to be a huge Keyakizaka46/Sakurazaka46 fan, and I love how their songs feature a full-bodied set of vocals despite not having the most stellar vocals. Songs like this feel so much more satisfying to listen to because of the layers of vocals. Adding on to the Sakura/Keyaki comparisons, I love dramatic bridges!!! You would think that a song titled “Are You Alive” would have some sort of dramatic flair, but the most we get is a snippet of Yooyeon breathing heavily (a likely reference to her drowning in Girls Never Die). Honestly, this is a whole K-pop industry issue. No one seems to be doing bridges anymore which is so sad because that’s usually the build-up to the climax of a song. Girls Never Die did it so well, and I think that caused some sort of disappointment within me during this release. Honestly though, despite all these complaints and comparisons, I’m still playing this song on repeat LOL. I am a victim of bias unfortunately.
Overall score: 8/10
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I won’t go too crazy length-wise with the b-sides since there’s 9 songs, but there are some hits that deserve more than just numerical rating. One of those songs being Detective Soseol.
For any new or non-fans, a sub-unit, Visionary Vision, released an album with a track called Love Soseol. Produced by my favorite producers, Full8loom, this obviously became a regular in my favorites playlist. With that in mind, I was thrilled to see that Full8loom worked on a track called Detective Soseol!!
In contrast to Are You Alive’s darker concept, Detective Soseol takes a much lighter direction similar to its predecessor. As a sucker for fast tempos and REAL choruses, Detective Soseol was made for my ears. I can definitely hear the influence of Love Soseol in this track. Whereas Love is hard-hitting and barely gives the listener time to recover, Detective builds up to a beautiful chorus with Dahyun and Jiwoo’s godly vocals. It’s a shame that tripleS still isn’t seen as a vocal group despite having multiple members who can hit high notes with ease.
Also, the choreography for this song is so visually appealing. I think that most of the fandom can agree with me when I say that one of tripleS’ biggest holes since debut has been Choi Hyoje. Despite having the opportunity to experiment with formations and other choreo aspects, his work with tripleS has been disappointing. So, I’m really glad that at least Detective has a really fun choreo that actually utilizes one of the group’s biggest strengths: their massive member size.
Overall score: 9/10
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Firework Diary: Very fitting into the tripleS sound but is only a slight upgrade from the H&M playlist genre of music. Not MonoTree’s brightest work.
Overall score: 7/10
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Love Child: This is A25’s Midnight Flower. It’s cute but nothing extraordinary.
Overall score: 7/10
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Persona: One of my favorite members, Sohyun, is credited as a composer and lyricist for this track. So, I was obviously excited about this song. Within the first few seconds, you immediately hear it. That woman loves her damn bass lines and you know what, I do too! Also, there’s actually some solid vocal layering and mixing here which makes me so happy.
Overall score: 8.5/10
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Too Hot: Seeing too many people dislike this song after it got snubbed in the A24 Gravity… BOO :C It’s very reminiscent of Choom which makes sense because it’s composed by the same guy. But, Too Hot is more subdued which I usually dislike but it works this time. I call this the ideal b-side; doesn’t necessarily overshadow the title track but shines in its own way. That probably doesn’t make any sense… think Odd Eye Circle with Girl Front and Sweet Crazy Love (no links because we are boycotting LOONA music). Both are amazing songs, but it makes sense for SCL to be the b-side. Do with that information as you will.
Overall score: 9/10
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As I mentioned in the beginning, Diablo was my #1 choice in the A25 title track Gravity. However, it did win another Gravity where it secured a spot in the final album. This song is easily the best song in the entire album.
Sometimes, the best song in the album isn’t necessarily the ideal title track. That’s okay. Diablo has this modern and sleek vibe to it that wouldn’t have aligned with the image that tripleS is pushing with their ASSEMBLE series. Rising, Girls Never Die, and Are You Alive all convey this sort of grittiness and determination from relatively new idols in an ultra-competitive K-pop landscape. Not saying that they’re not like other girls but you know…
With that said, I do love a good love song. I grew up listening to K-pop girl groups during peak cutie bubblegum love song era. This is not cutie or bubblegum whatsoever. Instead, this is TOXIC YURI music. The lyrics (written by Sohyun btw…) depict a toxic relationship where they can’t stop going back to this person who they describe as “disqualified as a human”. Jesus fucking Christ it’s so beautiful.
I usually hate K-pop’s sorry excuse for rap in songs, but the rap verses in the pre-choruses perfectly contrast the light and airy verses right before it. Maybe I’m just making excuses because I love this song so much though. It also serves as a nice little break right before the CHORUS MASTERCLASS because wow. I literally levitated on the first listen.
That’s not even the best part of Diablo. The slight key change and increase in tempo was the perfect final 30-40 seconds to cap off this flawless track. With a song that keeps up such a high energy, it doesn’t necessarily need a super dramatic ending. The slightest changes can add so much and I know that’s hypocritical of me to say given what I said about Are You Alive’s bridge and climax, but IDGAF!
Overall score: 10/10
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Friend Zone: Listening to this song brought me back to 12/13 year old me discovering LOONA. This sounds like something I would hear from LOONA ⅓ which makes sense since Artronic Waves, one of the production teams involved with this track, worked on a lot of LOONA music. I hope that tripleS explores a more R&B sound in their b-sides or even units, because this was a very pleasant break from the Red Bull-laced Diablo. Only taking away points because I was anticipating a Shion high note.
Overall score: 8.5/10
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Love2Love: A little bit of a sonic throwback with this. Definitely a lot of influence from 2010s western pop. I could hear peak Katy Perry singing this and I’m all for it. However, this is a K-pop song and that means that there’s some half-time breakdown that completely veers away from the bubblegum-ness of this song. Petition to never let this taint a song ever again. This could have been so excellent without that rap breakdown…
Overall score: 9/10
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Final thoughts: Given the high standards that A24 (review coming soon btw) set last year, I do feel like I was a little bit critical of A25. However, that doesn’t take away from how good this album is. I really really really appreciate that every track was over 3 minutes; I just wish that Modhaus, especially Jaden, refused to give in to things that are considered almost standard in K-pop (those goddamn rap breakdowns). Finally, I would love to see unit tracks in full-member albums. Smaller-numbered groups do it all the time anyways. This would give newer members like all of NXTGLOW more time to shine rather than making fans pray and pay to let them into the fan-voted units.