Song Review: A2O Lite – Neon

After leaving the agency he founded, SM Entertainment’s Lee Soo-man quickly began planning his next moves. This resulted in the founding of a new agency, A2O Entertainment, and some loosey singles from various A2O artists aimed toward global markets. Now, it’s time for him to throw his hat back in the K-pop ring with the double debut of A2O Lite and A2O Soul — female and male counterparts seeming to exist in an NCT-style universe. A2O Lite is the girl group under this new umbrella and debuts today with Neon. The track is brought to us by some familiar faces: Yoo Young-Jin (yay!!) and Dem Jointz. I’m much more interested in the former name, as we haven’t heard from him since the Soo-man/SM split. True to form, Neon has many touches of 2nd-gen K-pop, from its herky-jerky rhythm to the equally rhythmic melodies that take advantage of the Korean language’s natural charm. In between are touches of vocal layering that are classic Young-Jin. Boy, it’s nice to hear them again! While Neon can’t quite live up to something as incredible as SNSD’s The Boys, the very fact that it’s attempting to carry this baton is quite exciting. There’s a ton going on within Neon‘s seemingly repetitive nature...