Song Review: Teen Top – Don’t Stop

With much of the music that’s been released this week, it feels like K-pop is doing a tribute to its own second generation. Now, we have the return of a group who actually debuted in the second gen. That’s right, Teen Top is back again with a new mini album and the promise another big EDM banger in the vein of their many early-2010s classics. The teasers for Don’t Stop lived up to their purpose, seemingly teasing a big drop that was never revealed. This convinced me that the song’s success would hinge on how great this drop is (or isn’t). However, Don’t Stop takes a slightly different approach, opting for an actual chorus underpinned by EDM bombast. This approach is much more exciting and much closer to what the group released back in their heyday. The song is refreshingly old-school in a way we just don’t hear much anymore in K-pop. With this said, I’m on the fence about Don’t Stop‘s overall effect. Nearly the entire track is delivered with this heavily chorused vocal effect, meant to sound like a crowd of thousands chanting along. In reality, it sounds overly processed (almost AI, actually) and weirdly distant, removing all character from Teen Top’s performance. These guys have u...