It’s been an exciting few weeks for fans of Produce 101 alumni. A week ago we had former I.O.I member Kim Sejeong’s Plant, and now former Wanna One members Kang Daniel and Ong Seong Wu have released solo comebacks on back to back days. Unfortunatly, neither of those aforementioned tracks really left much of mark on me. And while the teasers for Gravity pointed towards somthing much more dynamic, it unfortunatly joins the same group as Plant in being utterly forgettable.
While in Wanna One, Seong Wu was always one of my faviourite members. In a group full of unique vocal timbres, his was always one of the most striking. And while his past two solo endevours havn’t made great use of this distinctive vocal tone, they’ve each been mildly memorable in their own way. This extends especially to the Lauv-esque We Belong, which was one of January’s best surprises. Unfortunatly, Gravity takes the most generic aspects of modern EDM into one pleasent 3 minute filler. The tracks biggest pitfall is that buzzkill of a hook. It completely halts momentum, placing Seong Wu’s vocals over a faceless, monotonous hook. I can appreciate the heavy bombast it’s going for, but it never quite reaches those heights.
That’s not to say that the entirety of Gravity is bad. While that buzzkill of a hook renders most the song rather bland, those atmosphere verses hold some real promise. The acoustic guitar loop that opens and concludes the track is especially smooth, providing just enough emotion to hook the listener into the track. This extends to the verses, which coast on a smooth, melancholic melody. Even better is the ascending pre-chorus, which builds up the drama for the unfortunatly bland hook. Given a production makeover, this could have been a real stunner. Unfortunatly, as it remains Gravity is a standard pop song with no unique calling card to really make it standout in an almost endless stream of music releases.
Verses: 8
Chorus: 6
Production: 7
Performance: 7
Final Rating: 7 / 10
KBopped 