The rare year where Taeyeon has a great, non-depressive song to root for and you guys are calling it out since early on........oh Popjustice Kpop subforum! Never change!
And after this elimination, we are down to just one song by a male act. Misandry won again! Tonight, we say goodbye to ZEROBASEONE's Sweat.
Sweat served as the pre-release single of ZEROBASEONE's third mini album, You Had Me At Hello. It was composed by Kyler Niko, Rajan Muse and Gabriel Brandes, with Kim Windy (JamFactory) writing the lyrics. Sweat sadly didn't light up the charts as it failed to enter the main Circle Digital Chart. It's ZEROBASEONE's only song to miss the said chart which is just homophobic. Still, it entered the component Download Chart at number 8 so that's something!
ZEROBASEONE debuted not even two years ago but they have been hard at work building quite the stacked discography already. But that's to be expected since they are apparently disbanding sometime in January 2026. I have to say, their singles are kind of all over the place. For every good single like In Bloom or Blue, we get mediocre ones like Crush or Feel the POP. Thankfully, Mx. @boom bazooka joe decided to enter ZEROBASEONE's best single yet and that is, of course, Sweat. Thank you, unnie!
I mean, how can I not stan a song like this? It's full of hooks. It's NOT noise. The vocals are genuinely great. And!!! And it's a summer single! And y'all know how hard I ride for summer singles hehehe. It also weirdly reminds me of Energetic which is the debut song of ZEROBASEONE's forefathers Wanna One. Yes, the production is a bit basic but who the fuck cares when it bops this hard? I know I don't! I really wish Sweat was more successful because god, imagine ZEROBASEONE serving more of this?? Yum! But Korea is tasteless so whatever.
ZEROBASEONE actually just made their comeback last February with the single, Blue, and mini album, Blue Paradise. And I'm not gonna be shocked one bit if they released one (or even two) more albums before their inevitable disbandment in January. Let's enjoy their music (and visuals oop) while it lasts!
@savilizabeths (7.5): "I feel like if I were to pay attention to boy groups, ZB1 would be a group I quite enjoyed. This is fun, love that for them."[Slicey: If you're into yaoi, you will enjoy them immensely, unnie.]
@eccentricsimply (9): "A serious case of pre-release being much better than the official title track."[Slicey: Whack Fail The POP for me again, bestie!]
@roblognick (10): "They might have scored an extra point for being super cute."
@boom bazooka joe (10): "My initial male superbloom choice was Taemin's "Horizon," but then I decided I didn't need to be traumatized by terrible opinions about Taemin in this rate ever again, so I decided to go with this slice of boy group excellence. Boy's Planet is the first (only) survival show I've ever watched, and while they are way too long and irritating to the point that I don't know if I could ever watch another one, I absolutely fell in love with these boys from the show. Their releases have been mixed (some GREAT title tracks, some GREAT promoted B-Sides, and then some real flops...) but I think this is their best song so far (Edit: UNTIL DOCTOR! DOCTOR!). Video is great too. Rum pa pum pa pum!"[Slicey: You did well choosing this instead of Horizon, I'll say that much, unnie.]
I don't necessarily agree they are That inconsistent because the only subpar singles were Feel the Pop and Crush but everything else has been pretty great, which is like... Unheard of for most boy groups so dddddddd
We go back to eliminating a song by a female act tonight. Say goodbye to WOOAH's lone rate entry, Blush.
Blush is the first single released by WOOAH in almost two years and it was later included in their second mini album, Unframed. It was composed by Ryan S. Jhun, Sebastian Bilem, Elias Gauss, Kristine Bogan and Kristin Marie, with the lyrics written by Five O'Clock (MUMW), Jessica Oh, UJINLEE, HYANG (MUMW), Camel Park (MUMW). Blush sadly didn't enter the main Circle Digital Chart but it did peak at number 36 on the component Download Chart. It's their highest charting song on the said chart, slay!
Like I said above, it's been almost two years since WOOAH last graced us with their presence. Fuck, they were called woo!ah! back then and now they're just WOOAH. In 2022, they brought us two collapsedone-produced bangers, Catch The Stars and Roller Coaster. Their fromis_9 serve! But they got sidelined in 2023 when two members decided to join the ill-fated show Queendom Puzzle. One member, Nana, won a spot in the resulting group called EL7Z UP (remember them? yeah, me neither!) and I guess their agency decided to let the other members not do anything? Thankfully, EL7Z UP quietly disbanded that's all in the past now and in 2024, WOOAH made quite the comeback, releasing three singles. And of the three, I think Blush stood out the most.
Let's be real, Blush is definitely inspired by NewJeans' ~easy-listening~ genre or whatever their sound is actually called! I mean, that sound has been the go-to sound of the K-Pop industry in the last two years so it tracks that a group like WOOAH would also cash in on the trend. I for one love this trend so much so I welcome WOOAH's entry. Fortunately, Blush turned out to be one of the better NewJeans dupes. I mean, that chorus alone? A smasha!
A few of you mentioned this but Blush really is the definition of an earworm. It's impossible for it to not get stuck in your head even if you only listened to it a few times. Something about the girls' vocal delivery works very well too. They sound bubbly and cheeky and playful and just... having fun! And I like listening to girls having fun! We love girls having fun!
WOOAH did a 180 with Pom Pom Pom, their follow-up single to Blush. Not them reviving the girl crush genre! Icons! Listen to it while we wait for their next comeback which I'm hoping will come soon!
THE JURY'S THOUGHTS:
@Vixen (6.75): "Oh…... Erm, do they have a main vocalist? That issue aside, this is such a weird case of a song. It's *technically* saturated with hooks, like so many of them, one after the other, but said hooks (almost) all feel… flat and vapid? I want moar zeal, mamas... I wish it knew when to properly pick up the energy. Doesn't have to happen right at the first chorus, but yeah I don't know. To be fair, I'm not the biggest lover of Jersey club pop and 2-step minimalistic pop to begin with, so there's that, as they all tend to suffer from sounding very dull these ears, sorry ddd"[Slicey: Loossemble don't have a main vocalist either but they're doing just fine though!!]
@boom bazooka joe (7): "Part of me finds this song dumb but I do find it oddly catchy, which is why it's still getting a solid score from me."
@Salami (7): "One of the better NewJeans ripoffs I've heard."[Slicey: Nawt noted NewJeans anti Salami also slightly stanning??]
@soratami (7): "I am and have always been a firm supporter of nugu rights, however this doesn’t really rise above “cute girl” status."
@savilizabeths (7.5): "What a cutie! A little earworm. I didn't even listen to it that much yet I still somehow got it in my head so constantly throughout the year."
@roblognick (8): "This is an ear worm. Not sure it's original in sound, or has anything that particularly makes it stand out, but it's infectious."
@aux (8.5): "A smash. They've been serving hits since Catch the Stars I fear."[Slicey: Right! I need them to work with collapsedone again!]
@Serg. (8.5): "This really felt like a labour of love towards all the Girl Groups that came before them with all the references in lyrics, styling, set designs.. Wow!!! I didn't expect for WOOAH to do such a realized concept, brava chicas."
@clowezra (9): "I hope the girls felt like money after recording this because she’s a bloody banger."[Slicey: It's still such a scream to me that the lyrics is not actually "I feel like money" FFFFFFFF!]
@ultraviolet (9): "Minseo’s adlibs at the end give me life. The vibe is so special."
@YRSHKD (9): "I really don't understand the subtle change of the name (from woo!ah! to WOOAH). Also I can't make a song to not bop so here we go."[Slicey: They need to return to their roots omg... and by roots, I mean the name woo!ah!]
@Joli Chat (10): "cute girl music for cute girls by cute girls."
@love choerry motion (10): "Twice's daughters left on someone's doorsteps, someone had to say it"[Slicey: The perfect description!]
@ysev (10): "Miami Bass/UK Garage/2 Step trend pleek never end. This sounds like the color pink."
@codecat (10): "I feel pink and red and white.......an ultra cute song for ultra cute people. Simple, catchy and gorgeous: all I need for a song to be! I don't wanna hear any complaints about 2024 being filled with dance 2-step UKG-like songs!!! I had to live through the trop bop era!!! I deserve this moment!!"[Slicey: And I feel that this trend is gonna die soon anyway so LET US HAVE THIS!!]
Exactly!!!! Just look at the high scorers! Considering this is my most successful super thingy (I think?) plus the comment section, I actually won in the end. Anyway! Let's try to eliminate a song that's actually bad next!
Sorry for the straight disrespect but a consequence of being stan twitter pilled is not being able to believe there's a producer named collapsedone despite his long tenure in the K-Pop industry...
Like Blush was cute but Catch The Stars? Girl, the collapse...
