Song Review: ARrC – SKIID

Despite emerging from a K-pop agency I have a lot of respect for, I’ve struggled to get into any of ARrC’s material so far. Their overall sound hasn’t been for me as most of the songs have relied on chanted or rapped hooks. Still, I try to approach each new comeback with a blank slate and I’ll happily admit that new single SKIID has its moments.

Those moments don’t appear right away. The song’s opening verse offers the sort of boisterous boy group rap I’ve grown tired of over the years. However, this quickly segues into an interesting moment of melodic interplay as the percussion becomes more unpredictable. At first, it’s unclear what segment of the song this is as the initial structure seems to be verse/pre-chorus/verse/pre-chorus, but the more often this refrain is repeated the more it becomes a proper chorus. Honestly, I want to hear the rest of that song instead of the one we have here.

This moment of jazzy, melodic excitement is surrounded by typical boy group bluster. I can do without the shouting and chanting that peppers so much of the track. It’s boring and does nothing to propel SKIID forward. The song earns points for its interesting structure and out-of-the-box arrangement, but this missed potential only makes much of the track more frustrating.

Grade: C+