VICTON – 'CONTINUOUS'

Track List:

1. Nightmare

2. Howling *Title

3. All I Know

4. Petal

5. White Night

Boy band VICTON just dropped their newest EP ''Continuous.' It has four brand-new tracks, including the title track "Howling." This is their 6th mini album.

"Nightmare" did not start out very nightmarish. It wasn't until they hit the first chorus that it started to take on a more ominous tone. And that is what you hope for in a song titled "Nightmare." After that, they started leveraging urgent-sounding ad-libs and a sort of music box as a backing track. So it got better as time went on. "Howling" is the second entry in the ominously-titled/non-threatening song contest. That said, it's actually a pretty good-sounding title track. The raps come in pretty early and are sick. They even happen more than once through the song. I would have liked it better if the singer howled, though ;).

Initially sung to a guitar and snaps, "All I Know" has a lot of the whispery quality found in the vocals on the first two tracks. Still, that guitar drives it pretty well, including some of the breaks. They craft a pretty decent mid-tempo pop tune here. "Petal" is a pretty sweet love song. It ticks all the boxes it's supposed to: billowy vocals, emotional falsetto, and a looser tune that lets them stray from the metronome somewhat. It's a catchy tune, and I like the rap inspired bridge. The lone ballad on the EP is "White Night." It's a love song, of course, about a woman who makes the singer's nights not so dark. It's sappy, but I think that's the point. There's a vulnerable earnestness to the vocals that make this song pop.

Soft, contemplative...those are just a couple of words I would use to describe this album. And I think those words sum it up pretty well. The whispery vocals do a good job of maintaining all that. And the songs never get too wild. While they may not become known for club-banging hits, this is a comfortable niche for VICTON to fall into.

MV REVIEW

The boys of VICTON are ebon-clad pop princes in "Howling."

While the song may not have been entirely foreboding, the MV certainly has it's moments. Mostly in its individual shots -- one of them holding a glass of wine, another with a half-eaten tomato, and another filming something with a portable camcorder. Or fun things like a piano collapsing, and one of them falling backward off a cliff.

The environments are far from the original. We've seen boy bands surrounded by TVs and consoles before. Along with the background of slender pipes and steel behind them. There is one that I like, where it seems to be bathed in pinpricks of light. A fairyland of glowing lights, and it is dazzling.

The dancing is the main star of this video, and they do a great job there. Especially since it's kind of a softer song. Reaching out, stretching, all their movements in sync. It's fun to see.

It's the little details that make this video. Squeezing a tomato till the juices run, dancing into that light-filled circle, the piano collapsing -- all of these are interesting and dynamic, and definitely outside the box. There's no need to wonder if I enjoyed watching this -- I did.

Score

MV Relevance...........8

MV Production..........8

MV Concept..............8

MV SCORE: 8.0

Album Production.....8

Album Concept.........8

Tracklisting...............8

ALBUM SCORE: 8.0

OVERALL................8.0