[Review] WINNER get their individuality auto-tuned in “Everyday”, which represents a clear step back

WINNER had a stellar 2017 in terms of music, with “Really Really” being the crown jewel, but to start things off in 2018 they decided to switch things up a bit for their comeback with “Everyday“. Taking risk of doing so instead of just repeating what already found them success is admirable, but it’s a risk for a reason.

My expectations for this was admittedly rock bottom, as the combination of heavy auto-tune, taking inspiration from Post Malone, and describing the song as primarily trap was just a biggest red flag ever for my tastes. But hey, perhaps WINNER would make it work somehow, right? While they certainly seemed to do their best with the material, they were always fighting uphill.

“Everyday” basically auto-tunes any individuality out of the entire group causing them to largely blend together, whether it be the vocals or even sections of the rapping. Speaking of the devil, while Seunghoon is at times actually allowed to spit a bit (unsurprisingly the highlight), him and especially Mino were sidelined by getting assigned auto-tuned quasi-singing for half their time. Sometimes all that can be excused because the beat itself goes hard and that’s all anybody cares about* with songs like these, but it doesn’t even fulfill that requirement effectively.

*The popular refrain from fandoms/people who enjoy a song but can’t defend it as decent music usually goes something like, “Well not everything has to be like Mozart opparrr.” Ain’t nobody asking for Mozart, just not dog shit.

Deep down, I can see where there might be some potential in this if they ramp up the pacing even a tad, cut the auto-tune, and came up with a chorus that that doesn’t just warble “everyday” over and over. However, even aside from my personal issues with some of the choices, the effort is simply less chill and more boring for most of its runtime. My main hope is that this was just an experimental thing for WINNER to start 2018 and doesn’t represent the direction they’ll be taking things, because if not it’s gonna be a long year.

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