The highest first day sales for a debut album,over 340k copies sold in 2 days, charting on the Itunes Worldwide album are a few of the many records X1's debut EP Quantum Leap managed to achieve.
The produce 101 group delivered exceptional numbers in the matter of days making everyone question: How good is this album???
Flash: The title track is your typical generic Kpop song. It has a catchy beat but the drop isn't the best. The rap is just ok,the best thing about the track is Seungwoo's high note at the end.
(You can listen to the song here)
Like Always: The lyrics are quite sweet. The beat used for the chorus is fun but the rap that follows is not good. Again the vocalists outdo the rappers. The song fails to be memorable, and that's an issue with the title track as well.
(You can listen to the song here)
I'm Here for You: A breath of fresh air after the first two songs. The instruments are played beautifully. The lyrics are really good, and they're sang so nicely by all members.The switch to rap happened so smoothly, and the rappers actually shine, they sound way better here than in the songs they tried to go 'hard' on. Dohyon and Hyeongjun were very good, and Yohan delivered his part really well.
Beautiful, memorable ballad that I see myself replaying quite a few times in the future.
(You can listen to the song here)
U Got It + Move: Here's the thing, both these songs are decently good (excluding the really bad pre-chorus in U Got It). You have two upbeat ,feel-good tracks. The problem is, the original ones are as good as well.
In case you didn't know, these two songs were already performed by Produce 101 contestants. In the originals, we had 6 members on each track, meaning here we have 5 additional people, but do we feel it? absolutely No. If you listen to the original and the new ones ( which are not really new) you'll feel like you're listening to the same song. If you bring a non-fan, they won't even notice the difference.
These are supposed to be X1 Versions of the tracks, but there's nothing to indicate that. A song sang by 11 people should not feel the same when its sang by 6 people only. We should feel something new, because we literally have 5 new people on the track.
(Listen to U Got It and Move) then compare with the originals which you can watch below:
MOVE
U GOT IT
Stand On: The intro is left for last because there isn't really much to talk about. It's there to set the mood for the EP. It lays in the middle, not the best but definitely not the worst on the mini album.
X1-MA: This one is only available on the physical version. I did see a live performance which in kpop makes the experience way different, so judging it would be unfair to the other songs.
(Explanation for this point in the NOTE below)
Quantum Leap Card:
*Score:5.8/10
*Label: Average*Best Song: I'm here for You
*Star of the Album: Seungwoo
*Final Thoughts: It's a decent EP. Not the best, but the good thing about it is that it shows potential. There is a group of talented people that can offer way better music, and hopefully they will.
*Listen to the Full Album: here
*Official Music Video of the Lead Single "FLASH":
Note:Unlike regular music, Kpop is more than just songs, the performance, the outfits and other things play a huge role in forming a wholesome experience. If I'm judging Rihanna, I'll focus on the music because that's the only thing I'll get, her standing next to mic, singing. In Kpop, you get so much more. Some may argue that the performance distract you from knowing how good the actual music is, but I feel like its part of the whole thing.
I watched FLASH live, and I liked it way better than I did just listening to the audio. But a good song is supposed to stand on its own, and sadly several songs on this EP fail to do so.
- If you made it this far, please feel free to share your thoughts Quantum Leap: Did you love it? what's your favourite song? Rating?
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