Song Review: Newbeat – JeLLo

It’s hard to believe it’s already been nearly eight years since Beat Interactive’s A.C.E made their hotpants-wearing debut. As with every established idol group, there are juniors waiting in the wings and the agency’s long-gestating Newbeat is set for their debut later this month. Before that, they’ve pre-released JeLLo as a taster.

“Taster” is an apt description because this music video runs a grand total of one minute and forty one seconds. The full song is a bit more generous at two minutes forty four (I’ll embed both below), but the music is largely one idea repeated over and over so the length doesn’t matter so much. A certain brand of K-pop boy groups are struggling to find ways to make this quirky retro hip-hop sound their own, but songs like JeLLo end up blending with similar efforts by KickFlip, 8TURN, ARrC and so many others.

The production here is interesting but I’m not sold on the hooks at all. I know they’re supposed to be stupid, but there’s a fine line between fun stupid and cloying stupid. This song leans toward the latter, and that’s down to its formulaic approach and overly shouty delivery. I hope Newbeat have better things planned for their debut because this isn’t doing much for me.

Grade: C