Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
NCT 127 recently made their return with “2 Baddies“, and I had my expectations relatively low since their sound generally isn’t my thing. That said, they usually utilize elements that are at least intriguing, and “2 Baddies” does have stuff going for it. The zipper-y electronic beat is nasty and the nonsensical “TWO BADDIES TWO BADDIES ONE PORSCHE” chant is dumb but in a fun way that you could see absolutely destroying at a live event.
That said, over the course of the song and especially on repeat listens, its appeal started to wane. Honestly, it’s not as dynamic as they portray it and the cycling back to the same beat and chorus without any kind of growth kind of puts it into a rut. Like the first time I was on board with the hype, but the last time it sounds almost the same as every other time, it’s kinda like you’re just waiting for things to end.
Anyway, I don’t expect this song to go over well with the people who reply to these mainstream K-pop groups “reviews” on the site, as even coming from somebody who is basic dance-pop biased, I swear some of them would prefer if every song was some generic city pop snoozer. But I actually think there’s a lot more here to like than you’d usually expect, and there’s no overtly annoying element, so at least this time I can understand why one would get into it.
