When I saw Roh Ji Hoon's debut teaser photos- the ones of him sitting on a couch with a girl wrapped around him, I was curious to see where this 'bad boy' concept would go. Cube Entertainment, the team behind envelope-pushing acts such as G.Na, 4minute, HyunA and Troublemaker, has had their share of hits and misses with sexy concepts, so this could have gone either way. Unfortunately, it was a bit of a miss, for one big reason- it feels like a boy band song, not a solo.
Look, I love boy bands, I really do. And Roh Ji Hoon has a great voice. However, "Punishment" (created by Brave Brothers) could have gone to Teen Top and it wouldn't sound all that different from how it sounds now, except it might have a rap break (see "To You", also by Brave Brothers). What makes Roh Ji Hoon's solo all that different from the "Lover Boy" by Cube's own BtoB, a seven member band? Soloists are dominating right now, so why take a perfectly good soloist and give him a song that sounds like it should belong to a group- doesn't that defeat the purpose?
All of that said, it's a decent song. I don't dislike it, I just feel like I've heard it three times already this year- the previously mentioned "To You" and "Lover Boy", as well as SISTAR's "Alone"- which, like "To You" and "Punishment", is by Brave Brothers. Kudos to Roh Ji Hoon himself- he seems a lot more confident on stage now than he did when he was on 'Birth of a Great Star', and his dancing has improved by leaps and bounds. Here's hoping Cube can figure out what to do with him as a soloist soon.
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