Track Assessment: Hearts2Hearts – Focus

It’s exhausting to inform what Hearts2Hearts are aiming for throughout their debut 12 months. Are they the new-gen SNSD redux many people hoped for? Or, are they a moodier prospect with subdued sounds befitting Ok-pop’s present panorama? They are often each or course, however I’m craving a powerful musical id from the beginning. New title observe Focus takes them in a distinct course, fusing a contemporary aloofness with a banging home beat.

If I had been to level out one overriding Ok-pop pattern of 2025, it will be “speaking over a beat.” The business has all the time included rap, however what the ladies are doing through the refrain of Focus is rather more monotone and “catwalk runway prepared” in execution. Hooks like this have a tendency to age poorly for me as a result of there’s simply not a lot to latch onto. Fortunately, the whole lot round this refrain bursts with power, elevating an in any other case uninteresting tune with propulsive dancefloor drive.

This units up a irritating dichotomy. On one hand, I need to reward Focus‘s manufacturing. Certain, it doesn’t do something we haven’t heard 1,000,000 occasions in home music earlier than, however I like the fluidity of the groove and its sudden spikes of additional drama. Alternatively, the songwriters might have made this observe legendary had they opted for a sequence of memorable melodies somewhat than the subdued fragments now we have right here. General, it is a success… however a somewhat minor one when in comparison with a observe like RIIZE’s Inconceivable and even Hearts2Hearts’s personal Model from earlier this 12 months.

Grade: B