Bands have turn into all the trend in Ok-pop this 12 months and at the moment we now have the debut of yet one more one. hrtz.wav come from Mnet’s survival collection Steal Coronary heart Membership, guaranteeing a sure stage of promotion from one of many business’s main forces. I didn’t watch the collection, however actually famous the band’s masked drummer hagiwa. Shades of Sekai No Owari?

If solely hrtz.wav’s music could possibly be as fanciful and attention-grabbing as Sekai No Owari’s! Japan actually has the “quirky band” idea cornered. So a lot of Korea’s latest bands really feel overly smoothed of their edges within the hopes of interesting to a extra conservative Ok-pop market. Nineteen is actually easy-listening. It’s fairly hummable and polished — extra CNBLUE than Xdinary Heroes.

On this means, Nineteen is completely nice. When you’re in search of an simply digestible radio rock monitor you possibly can throw on within the background, this received’t disappoint. It doesn’t inform me something about hrtz.wav as a band, however I might see the monitor getting caught in my head with out even realizing it. Nonetheless, I choose a debut that grabs maintain and refuses to allow you to look away. Nineteen feels too conciliatory to matter, and in a market already flush with younger bands I’m unsure it’s going to stand out.

Grade: C