The quartet’s 3rd single “Break it Down” has its ups and downs. KiLLER KiNG wanted to play safe for this release but that only made them slip. What made them slip? Check out our review below!
Title: Break it Down Label: B-Project Release date: 15/03/2017 Genre: J-Pop/Dance
Tracklist:
01.Break it Down 02.READY TO YOU!! 03.Break it Down (off vocal) 04.READY TO YOU!!（Off Vocal）
Track by track analysis:
01.Break it Down
“Break it Down” is heavily rooted in synths, bass (disclaimer: for those that are sensitive to bass frequencies – be careful when listening to this song with headphones) and synthetic drums. This simple set up is enough to make this song one of the most interesting this unit has released so far. If this mid-tempo beat with some bright sprinkles on it aren’t enough to grab your attention than rest assured that the vocal performance will do the trick. Solid dance song that smells like summer. 4.5/5
02.READY TO YOU!!
Changing things a little bit, “READY TO YOU!!” is a bright pop-rock song that strays a bit away from KiLLER KiNG‘s trademark pop sound. Rock elements mixed with synths is a formula we find in a lot of music nowadays. Some groups pull it off, others don’t. But when the synths are overly annoying and we get that feeling that we’ve already listened to this song when we didn’t, something is off. Even if the rock elements fit with group. It’s good to be consistent with music releases, following certain patterns or formulas but when that has been done, time and time again, and with no fresh additions, it gets boring easily. That’s exactly what this song managed to deliver: a boring performance of a song that sounds the same as some of their previous songs. Nothing new here that is really worth mentioning. 3/5
Final rating:
KiLLER KiNG‘s title track sounds more polished than ever before but the problem lies with the second track. We know that this groups’ strength lies with them sounding preppy and energetic but after a couple of tries it gets tiring for its listeners. “READY TO YOU!!” is by no means a bad quality song it only sins because it’s the same old generic bright pop that they’ve been doing since the beginning. There’s nothing new to grab our attention, there’s nothing exciting – without being overly bright and repetitive.
Points for consistency, deducted points for lack of outside of the box thinking.
The vocal performances aren’t bad, in fact, the title track’s performance is incredibly good (props to Eguchi for his major effort in the background to level all tones). We can’t say as well that their vocal performance was bad in the second track, it was simply “okay”. There was nothing new, impressive about the performance.
As a whole this release is a bit weird. We have a pretty good song to kick it off but then we’re presented with something generic that might shoo away some listeners. If only they weren’t that “bright”, maybe the second track could have been something worth mentioning.
“Break it Down” is available for purchase on CDJAPAN for all overseas fans.
[…] [As previously reviewed] “Break it Down” is heavily rooted in synths, bass (disclaimer: for those that are sensitive to bass frequencies – be careful when listening to this song with headphones) and synthetic drums. This simple set up is enough to make this song one of the most interesting this unit has released so far. If this mid-tempo beat with some bright sprinkles on it aren’t enough to grab your attention than rest assured that the vocal performance will do the trick. Solid dance song that smells like summer. 4.5/5 […]
[…] [As previously reviewed] Changing things a little bit, “READY TO YOU!!” is a bright pop-rock song that strays a bit away from KiLLER KiNG‘s trademark pop sound. Rock elements mixed with synths is a formula we find in a lot of music nowadays. Some groups pull it off, others don’t. But when the synths are overly annoying and we get that feeling that we’ve already listened to this song before when we didn’t, something is off. And not even the rock elements are the saving grace for this group. It’s good to be consistent with music releases, following certain patterns or formulas but when that has been done, time and time again, and without fresh additions, it gets easily boring. That’s exactly what this song managed to deliver: a boring performance of a song that sounds the same as some of their previous ones. Nothing new here that is really worth mentioning. 3/5 […]