![]() Kick It is solid, but I wish the entire track had been as unhinged as its final moments. With these kinds of tracks, NCT 127 are at their best when they throw everything at the wall. The instrumental warps into a demented breakdown, kicking up a grimy funk. Just as Kick It’s bridge is about to segue into the final chorus, the song delivers the kind of musical madness I was hoping for. The second verse does a better job hitting us with unexpected aural exclamation points, though it could have embraced its inherent oddness even more. Thankfully, its guitar distortion backbone keeps things compelling. Its first verse subscribes too heavily to the kind of skeletal trap that everyone’s already doing. The song loses me a bit when it slows down. Its chorus is memorable from the very first listen, even if it relies more on energy and novelty than well-developed hooks. Still, I think Kick It is at its best when it goes over the top. Even the hip-hop verses feel needlessly aggressive, as if the guys would rather pummel us into submission than gradually draw us in. It’s a loud track, filled with chants about Bruce Lee and “new thangs,” and it’s more than a little silly. Kick It feels like a catchier, more approachable version of the style 127 built their name on. The song is a bit disappointing for those of us who adored the group’s more pop-minded material last year, but it also suits them so well. With this in mind, new single Kick It (영웅) fits right alongside past tracks like Simon Says and Cherry Bomb. Still, when I think of NCT 127, I immediately picture experimental soundscapes, hard-hitting hip-hop and atypical approaches. Both have secured plenty of fans under the NCT umbrella, showing a remarkable level of diversity when it comes to genre and style. ![]() This is the '60s, and although not quite how some may remember it, true to the spirit and talent of the time.Despite unlimited potential for new sub-units, NCT’s Korean promotion has largely boiled down to releases from either 127 or Dream. "Princes" and "Devils Side" truly do kick it, "Outcase" is absolutely incendiary, "8 O'clock" and "Let Me" sparkling pop fare, "Fighting"'s lethal, and "Manic"'s enough to drive one right over the edge. Who knows how that works live? But it makes for a rollicking album, and for all the Shakes' stylistic intricacies, in the end it's their melodies that are paramount, each one catchier than the next. But Shapiro refuses to be boxed in, because simultaneously that's him on lead guitar tossing out incendiary hard rock licks. On this track, Eliad Shapiro's keyboards absolutely shine as he slides from jazzy passages into champagne styling out through psychedelia and back again. ![]() "Stop Fighting" is more representative, a bouncy, infectious, pop-flecked number with a driving rhythm and subtle stylistic shifts. "Devil" slyly incorporates a melodic punk feel to its Brit beat sound, while "Manic Boogie" plays havoc with the decade's stylistic gradients, strewing a big-band tinge, a proggy guitar solo, a surf guitar riff, and a touch of hardcore and metal to a blues based boogie. Which is why the group feel perfectly comfortable on "Princes" combining a post-punk sound with a British Invasion-styled song, and lace it with a hard rock edge. ![]() In truth, for all the Shakes debt to the '60s, they know it only second-hand, even their parents were probably no more than children back then. That latter song, though, boasts a hard rock guitar solo the likes of which the Kinks themselves never played. The Small Faces left their imprint as well, notably on "8 O'clock" and "Devil's Side," while the Kinks get a bow on "Princes & Kings." At times the quartet wear their heroes on their sleeves, as on "Outcast," an homage to the Yardbirds. ![]() Well, you may not, but the Shake certainly do, and their debut album Kick It pays tribute to that halcyon age. celebrated an invading wave of foreigners and feted them like royalty. Remember those heady days of the mid-'60s? A time when girls wanted to be as thin as Twiggy not Kate Moss, when a Slicker was a lipstick, not a raincoat, Heaven Scent was a perfume not the waft of the second coming, and all of the U.S. ![]()
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