Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
N.Flying returned yesterday with “Hot Potato“, and I know it was yesterday because people were already yelling at me for not reviewing it just hours after it was released even though I’m in the middle of a rather significant project. Give me time to sleep, maybe? I was hoping I could give this a shit review just for that, but unfortunately I enjoyed it too much.
N.Flying are a rarity in that they’re a K-pop group where I enjoy their rapping because it works so perfectly with many of the guitar riffs in their rock sound. It always helps when they push the pace like on “Hot Potato”, where the verses don’t let up much, the build is just more and more and more energy, and the chorus is an even further explosion with a catchy refrain thrown in. That can be absolutely overwhelming at times, but this was expertly arranged so that there’s a ton of variety between harder rap and softer vocals even if the underlying beat remains, and that helps mitigate the constant assault.
N.Flying’s rap-rock hybrid is surprisingly unique in Korea, as I haven’t seen many others consistently utilize that. Sure, there’s pop-rock bands who will occasionally insert a rap, but doing it as often as N.Flying does helps them own a niche that I happen to enjoy. “Hot Potato” marks another success for them in that niche, and hopefully they’ll continue to help grow it.
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