It’s been properly over a yr since we final heard from The Wind. Since then, their company has partnered with a brand new administration firm to shift the group’s sound with a watch on international markets. Sure, The Wind are following the trail that 99.9% of vibrant, melodic boy teams finally succumb to. They’ve ditched their outdated inventive group for brand spanking new blood (Block B’s Park Kyung and HYBE mainstay Peridot, to be actual). The factor is, their outdated sound wasn’t damaged. In reality, it was a refreshing oasis in an more and more generic trade. However, new single Celebration Like A Rock Star looks like an ill-fitting t-shirt.

Unsurprisingly given its composer, Celebration Like A Rock Star bears the hallmarks of a latter-day Block B observe. You possibly can hear these guys all around the observe and it might have labored higher if pushed by their experience on this style. As a lot as I’ve beloved The Wind’s work prior to now, their voices don’t match this materials in any respect. Reasonably than act as a cultured reinvention of their sound, the track comes throughout as rather more novice than anticipated. There’s potential in Rock Star‘s shout-along refrain, however the “edgy” manufacturing feels at odds with their pure attraction.

Including to their uphill battle, the group retains dropping its predominant vocalists. First, chief Shin Jaewon left and now Kim Hee Soo is on hiatus. You hear this lack of a vocal anchor all through Celebration Like A Rock Star, forcing the blokes to resort to rather more sing-talk than the melodically wealthy materials of years previous. All of it provides as much as an pointless reboot that misses each side that’s made their discography so fantastic.

Grade: C