RIIZE – RIIZING

Track Listing

1. Siren
2. Impossible
3. 9 Days
4. Honestly
5. One Kiss

1. Siren

Interesting to start the mini-album with Siren since it’s the only place you could’ve hear Seunghan anywhere on the albuml but for whatever reason they edited it and took out Seunghan’s part.  Also interesting that it’s the first song RIIZE ever did, but it was only in a short version until a few months ago where they came back to it and extended it (without Seunghan of course).  I still think the first half is still pretty badass as it’s just edgy and urban and has a lot of wild spark about it.  Though when the ~eeny, meney, miney, moe~ from Shotaro kicks in then the song just starts to feel a little odd and then the tune feels maybe a little too cut n’ paste out as if they couldn’t really figure what to do except repeat and such.  To think it’s still only 2:30 in length though is kind of bizarre.

2. Impossible

So the next track is bolded because it was released digitally prior to the mini-album’s release though I didn’t review mostly because the single was this and “Siren” as the B-side, but the review would’ve immediately come out after my “Siren” review so it just felt unnecessary.  Onto the song itself, Impossible is probably my favorite of their songs since “Get A Guitar” as it focuses more on a house-style here.  The energy is fierce from beginning to end and I love that there’s a lot of equality when it comes to lines here (hey, I heard Anton quite a few times) but the song is mostly unison though due to the choruses basically.  It’s just a really fun song and gives a cool vibe honestly, best song of the mini-album!

3. 9 Days

Since the rest of the mini-album are new tracks, I was curious to see what they’d put out.  9 Days is kind of a simmer kind of track for me as it has some pretty interesting things going on but at the same time, the song just kind of feels a tad throwaway.  With RIIZE being so upbeat and seldom slower, this kind of mid-tempo track is kind of making it more like a B-side.  I do like hearing Shotaro, Sungchan, Anton, and Eunseok rapping though, it makes them kind of pop out in the song where Sohee and Wonbin pretty much sing.  Though Wonbin’s high tones are so I don’t know…strange to me…but eh.  Song is OK, and the choruses’ hooks are cute to say the least.

4. Honestly

Slowing it down a bit further with this R&B slow jam of a track, Honestly, is kind of interesting to me as I find the fact that the group is kind of just higher-pitched singers (minus Sungchan, but he too kind of sits on a higher tone than his normal rapping tone) is a little disheartening as I kind of miss that kind low tone from the group (probably was centered around Seunghan, I’m sure).  I do like Sohee, Anton, and Wonbin though, they seem to really vocally own it (though the auto-tune is a bit too much at times).  Not a great song TBH.

5. One Kiss

The mini-album ends with a song that kind of is a lighter “Memories” for me, but less memorable ironically.  I do like that all 6 members are getting lines and at first I was disappointed that Shotaro didn’t sing but rapped, but he did fix that up by the 2nd verse at least.  To me, the song is kind of in the same boat as “9 Days” where it’s OK, but I can definitely tell this wasn’t a track that had leading quality about it.  Eh…

Jeeze, RIIZE just has been kind of a mess since Seunghan’s hiatus.  RIIZING marks the first mini-album for the group and this is supposed to come out in June sometime, yet it came out digitally before May even hit which is kind absurd for a Kpop release if you ask me.  There might be more tracks added to the release in June, but if this is it, I’m not too impressed by RIIZING.  They really should’ve added the other tracks like “Memories”, “Get A Guitar”, “Talk Saxy” and “Love 119” to the release and just made an album (granted I’d still be kind of meh at the release, but at least all their releases would be together on one release).