AB6IX’s ‘5INALLY’ project has unfortunately been one of the most disappointing of the year so far. Although it gave us the phenomenal Rose, Scent, Kiss, the rest of the tracks are as faceless as they can be. And while Break Up is still as generic as they come, it’s probably my second favourite track on the album.
Nothing about Break Up reinvents the wheel. And much like More and Moondance, I can’t pinpoint anything unique or captivating about Youngmin’s musical preferences and strengths as a performer from this. The track opens with the kind of distorted ‘baby voice’ loop that we’ve seen way too much recently. It’s something that I don’t really vibe with at all, and something that I wish producers would stop shoehorning into most of their tracks. This leads to an incredibly murky opening verse, which lurches forward without any kind of foreseeable momentum. It feels overlong, and the slurry delivery doesn’t do it any favours.
Thankfully, the hook is much stronger, leading to a cathartic resolution that truly feels emotive. It’s probably the only moment of the track where we really get any glimpse of Youngmin as a performer. The post chorus ”break up is” hook on the other hand feels rather shoe horned in than a natural progression. It might be many peoples favourite moment, but it just comes off as rather cloying for me. This leads to a much stronger second verse, which showcases his prowess as a rapper. In fact, it would have been much more fascinating to see Youngmin tackle an entire track with this style. This kind of emotive hip hop hybrid would have been much more captivating than the rather generic RnB we got.
Verses: 7
Chorus: 8
Production: 7
Performance: 7
Final Rating: 7.25 / 10
KBopped 