Song Review: NCT U – Baggy Jeans

At this point, I honestly cant tell where to draw the line between serious and novelty for these NCT tracks. The boys over at Neo Culture Technology have given us some absolute gems in the sphere of wacky, offbeat title tracks over the past few years, most notably curtsy of subunit 127. Songs like Kick It, Sticker and 2 Baddies all harnessed a chanted cacophony over equally mutilated beats to varying levels of success. New single Baggy Jeans is the latest to join those ranks and peddles a trend that’s honestly well past its welcome.

At this point, bar Dream, I don’t think there’s much differentiating the different NCT units. Gone are the lush vocal arrangements, daring instrumentals and magnetic hooks of past U tracks and instead in their place, is a rough, “hip-hop” adjacent track that feels as it’s been ripped right out of 127’s repertoire. But honestly I wouldn’t have cared much about this if the track itself was strong. Which unfortunately it’s not. Bar a few melodic highlights during the verses, Baggy Jeans is another unfortunate misfire in a long line of them. It’s predictable, grating and highlighted by a performance that though expectedly charismatic, does little to elevate any of the actual material on hand.

The chorus stands as the biggest offender, coming across as a muffled, mind numbing repetition of the title that instantly takes away any goodwill it had been building up until that point. I guess the gruff voice change and rubbery beat have some potential but the absolute grating nature of the hook leads to arguably one of the years least inviting centrepieces. It’s all a bit of a mess and though thats become par for the course with most recent NCT releases, I’d prefer that mess to have a little perfume on it.

Verses: 6

Chorus: 4

Production: 7

Performance: 7

Final Rating:  6 / 10