Since leaving RIIZE, Seunghan has re-debuted as the XngHan&Xoul project, releasing the upbeat Waste No Time last summer. That song showed a ton of potential but didn’t quite fulfill on its ambitions. Now, with new mini album Glow, he takes a deeper dive into club music and the sound feels more assured and exciting.
House music is really having a moment today. XngHan roughs up the template a bit with Glow, adding tropical flourishes and glitchy electro breakdowns during the chorus. In this way, the song feels almost like a taster platter of SM Entertainment’s history with dance music. I hear various eras of the agency, tied together into a quick-moving, no-filler track. Despite this diversity in sound, Glow occasionally flirts with a generic dance/DJ sound. Much of this is due to XngHan’s performance, which is quite straightforward throughout. I would have loved to hear a more dynamic vocal arrangement, whether that means bringing in backing vocals or simply layering his voice in key places.
With that said, I’m delighted to hear dance music at the forefront of K-pop again. Even better, Glow never relies on gimmicky catchphrase hooks. The song is fully sung, and even when the production upends the instrumental during the chorus, this spoken-word bit is deployed with a sense of urgent pace. It’s an explosion of energy through and through and makes you want to get up and dance.
Hooks
8
Production
9
Longevity
9
Bias
9
RATING
8.75