Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Following their solid but unspectacular debut with “Crown“, TXT have seemingly chosen to meme-ify themselves with “Cat & Dog” as their next promoted effort.
In theory I understand the choice as it’s an effort to showcase their youthful innocence while also adding a bit of quirky fun into the mix. If you’re somehow already a devoted fan of them, I could see the appeal. But as somebody who is decidedly nonpartisan about them, I found it more grating than endearing.
“Cat & Dog” is ostensibly a fun, hip-hop romp done by a fresh new boy band that’s meant to showcase their playful and cheerful nature to fans and the public. Since relatively brainless pop joy is right up my alley, in theory this is an effort that should appeal to me. But while the feel works, what isn’t to my taste is the decision to try to capture those feelings through drowning my ears in autotune and choppy trap rhythm. Anything about it I could’ve enjoyed is utterly smothered under distortion like Bartolo Colon‘s ass suffocating a tiny mammal.
It’s essentially a cute version of a song that’s been released by many self-declared serious, real Korean hep-hap artists, ones that I never end up covering because I find them remarkably grating and annoying. Meanwhile, the lyrical content of “Cat & Dog” is essentially a song version of the drama ‘Kimi Wa Petto‘, except apparently taken to literal lengths with the members actually barking like dogs at one point.
So I understand the concept of “Cat & Dog”, and the foundation of K-pop is unapologetically poppy fun, but nothing about this hits the right notes with me. “Cat & Dog” ends up feeling like the titular animals fighting next to my eardrums, as it was more irritating and repetitive than anything else. Honestly, this was an especially odd choice as a follow-up considering TXT’s debut has other efforts that are much stronger.
