As essentially the face of NCT, Taeyong’s solo debut has been a long time coming. We’ve seen glimpses through the years most notably with 2019’s laid back Long Flight but new single Shalala stands as his first official promoted solo venture. And while it perfectly suits the eccentric energy of its performer, Shalala veers far too heavily into quirk without the necessary substance to boot.
I’m going to be honest, I’ve never been the biggest fan of Taeyong’s vocals. He’s got an incredibly distinctive tone for sure and the impish delivery does bring plenty of character to every verse he delivers but it personally just doesn’t sound all that pleasant to the ear if I’m being honest. And in an effort to bring the madness and the quirk to his first solo outing, Taeyong ends up with a performance that kind of feels all over the place. It doesn’t help either that the hooks themselves lack substance, instead coming off as rapid fire moments that strive for ear worm status but just miss the mark. The constant warping could have been enthralling given a less obnoxious delivery but when it all comes together for one of the most bizarre bridges I’ve heard, I’m kind of over it.
Which is quite a shame because the baseline production for the track is genuinely pretty solid. The instrumentation, especially the percussion has some real meat on its bones, moving in interesting directions that deviate from the standard cookie cutter template of so many tracks in a similar vein. But in the end, an interesting instrumental production can only do so much, especially when the rest of the track comes across more grating than interesting. An unfortunate summary of what should have been something much more thrilling.
Verses: 6
Chorus: 4
Production: 7
Performance: 5
Final Rating: 5.5 / 10
KBopped 
Okay, hear me, am I the only one who likes Shalala? It is no masterpiece, but boy does Taeyong sell the hell out of it.
LikeLike