While JO1 might be leading their comeback with the single OH-EH-OH, I knew from the moment I heard it that Go would also be a standout. It essentially acted as a pre-release and while I do love me the crazy rock and house influenced goodness of the title track, I think I like the sleek electronic dance beats of Go a tiny bit more.
When it comes down to personal tastes, Go is the song that hit me right off the bat. OH-EH-OH took a few listens to really sink its teeth into me but Go‘s incredibly stylish dance pop brew struck me immediately. Opening with a collage of distorted vocals and an edm backdrop that progressively gets louder, Go immediately helps grab the listeners attention. But just when you think it’s going to end up being another one of those moody boy group songs, Go hits you with a great funk laced dance beat. It actually recalls X1’s spectacular Flash from last year, a song which I wrote about just a few days ago as part of my “Retro Rewind” feature. And if you read that review, you know exactly how I feel about this kind of production. Sure, it’s not nearly as great as Flash but its got the same energy.
But where Go really soars is its fantastic chorus. It makes great use of the groups vocals and the soaring refrain that opens the chorus really helps imbue the hook with some needed anthemic heft. The production really revs up here allowing for a real stunner of a centrepiece that just soars. It combines a number of potent refrains to create one massive and insanely catchy hook that feels both effortlessly cool yet grandiose. This is the power of a great chorus and it easily makes up for some of the tracks misfires. Of which there are a few.
Chief amongst these is the tracks multiple trap breakdowns. Given the fact that almost every modern pop song includes one of these breakdowns, I’ve pretty much learnt to live with them. Had Go been released a year ago I probably would have been more harsh on it. But then again ONEUS’ Valkyrie had the same issue and that song ended up within my top 20 Kpop singles of 2019. So I guess it really comes down to whether I think the strengths outweigh the weaknesses. And in the case of Go, I think it more than succeeds on its strengths.
Verses: 8
Chorus: 9
Production: 9
Performance: 9
Final Rating: 8.75/10
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