TRENDZ have turn into certainly one of my largest frustrations in Ok-pop. They’d such an excellent factor going with final 12 months’s mega-banger Go Up, however a piecemeal strategy to collaborators has resulted in music that feels haphazard and incongruous. New single Chameleon (카멜레온) would possibly as properly have come from a completely completely different group than Go Up or Vagabond or My Method.

In a approach, I assume the phrase “chameleon” describes this completely! The track is one more transformation for the group, depositing them on the planet of old-school hip-hop. It’s a well-trodden path for Ok-pop’s boy teams. We’ve heard a ton of this sound prior to now few weeks alone. And like a damaged document, I’ll say as soon as once more that any style could be revitalized if the basic parts of songwriting (melody, chords, beat) are robust.

Fairly than goal for a fully-realized manufacturing, Chameleon feels extra targeted on changing into an earworm. Its chanted hook is repeated early and sometimes to the purpose that it begins to grate even earlier than the observe has completed. It’s catchy, however “catchy” isn’t at all times a praise. I discover the refrain an obnoxious pay attention, which dampens all the things else swirling round it. There are some fascinating concepts embedded throughout the verses (that corrugated synth is cool), however total that is a straightforward skip.

Grade: C-