Song Review: YOUNITE – Bomba

I don’t know what’s happening over in YOUNITE world, but the promotion for Bomba is concerning. The song was released over a week ago to no fanfare and only now has a (performance) video. The group has yet to promote it on music shows. None of these developments bode well for the agency’s confidence in YOUNITE. As a longtime K-pop fan, I’ve been down this road many times before and I see warning signs popping up all over.

This could just be an overreaction, and I hope so because YOUNITE have some decent hip-hop in their discography. I still hold last year’s silly Geekin in high regard. Unfortunately, Bomba won’t be joining it on my playlist. The fun seems to have leaked out of this song, replaced by the perfunctory boy group bluster that mars so many tracks of this style. The rap is often shouted (and even worse, smothered in vocal effects) until it feels more like the guys are yelling at you. I don’t love to be yelled at (who does?) and it really affects my enjoyment of a track.

Bomba also struggles to find a hook worth revisiting. Its chorus goes from mumbling to errant fragments of melody. Neither extreme works well, and Bomba further devolves as we veer into some messy breakdowns late in the track. Overall, the song simply embraces the same brash energy throughout. This quickly grow monotonous and — at worst — exhausting.

Grade: D+