GOT7’s “If You Do” may be their best yet, but they feel capable of more

GOT7 has returned with “If You Do“, which is probably their best overall effort yet, but it still falls short of what they seem capable of.

I’ve always felt like GOT7 should be better than they are, and “If You Do” represents that feeling better than anything else they’ve released. The whole comeback is cohesive and nice enough and shows a bunch of promise, but it ultimately lacks the final punch to make an impact for me. The chorus is catchy and smooth, I enjoyed the visual concept, and the choreo is solid, but it took me a few watches to get even to that point because on the initial play-through nothing hooked me at all.

It’s weird because I can’t find much wrong with the group themselves, and some of their members even have star charisma (like Jackson and Mark‘s dad), but I’ve never listened to a GOT7 song or seen something GOT7 has done and remembered it as noteworthy. Good-enough, chill-and-relax songs are fine and dandy, but at some point they have to put out an earworm or something with the potential to make an impact on listeners, right? Not sure if it’s their overall concept that’s holding them back here or the songs they’re given, but regardless, I’m rarely moved to write … well … anything about them.

And I have to figure that lack of making the viewer feel anything is the problem with GOT7’s popularity. Sure, I haven’t liked their singles so far, but I also haven’t liked singles by WINNER or iKON, and yet they are seeing tons of success. Usually debuting a boy band on a major label is like printing money, so I have to think GOT7’s lack of immediate popularity has to do with an inability to make the general public feel anything for them.

Whether that eventually changes or not is up in the air, and all it takes is one song, but I don’t feel like this was it.