Song Review: hrtz.wav – Nineteen

Bands have become all the rage in K-pop this year and today we have the debut of yet another one. hrtz.wav come from Mnet’s survival series Steal Heart Club, guaranteeing a certain level of promotion from one of the industry’s leading forces. I didn’t watch the series, but certainly noted the band’s masked drummer hagiwa. Shades of Sekai No Owari?

If only hrtz.wav’s music could be as fanciful and interesting as Sekai No Owari’s! Japan really has the “quirky band” concept cornered. So many of Korea’s recent bands feel overly smoothed of their edges in the hopes of appealing to a more conservative K-pop market. Nineteen is certainly easy-listening. It’s quite hummable and polished — more CNBLUE than Xdinary Heroes.

In this way, Nineteen is perfectly fine. If you’re looking for an easily digestible radio rock track you could throw on in the background, this won’t disappoint. It doesn’t tell me anything about hrtz.wav as a band, but I could see the track getting stuck in my head without even realizing it. Still, I prefer a debut that grabs hold and refuses to let you look away. Nineteen feels too conciliatory to matter, and in a market already flush with young bands I’m not sure it will stand out.

Grade: C