One of a slew of baby idol groups to spring up in the past six months has unleashed their debut single. HALO, standing for Hexagon of Absolute Light and Organization (no, really, that’s what it means), is a six-member group of fresh-faced boys who, according to their agency AYIN Holdings (formerly known as C. Two Entertainment), is meant to “represent an idol group that always shines bright everywhere they go when all six members come together.” Under the tutelage of C-JeS’ sister label, the group hopes to make all the fangirls hot with their debut single “Fever.”
The MV starts with a beat heavy intro and member Inhaeng, the group’s obligatory rapper, declares, “We run this town.” Brassy words coming from a member of a group of baby-faced kids who claim their dream is to be “the One Direction of Korea.” Then we get an introductory dance break, taking place in a (surprise, surprise) neo-industrial dance space that unfortunately resembles a black box (and from the second verse on, we get that interspersed with its white counterpart). From there the boys take us through “a day in the life” in the city, to highlight their individual styles. Leader Ooon dances in a graffiti-lined alley; blond-haired Dino rides through the park on a Segway while listening to music; Inhaeng plays a little b-ball; Jaeyong spends time in the studio with his guitar; while Haechoon stays at the flat, cooking, composing, and playing with his kitten; and Yoondong, the group’s maknae, skateboards by the river.
[youtube http://youtu.be/dmZJTP-oSWo]It’s your typical music video, good enough for a rookie group’s debut, especially if the point is to introduce each member to the audience. The tune is catchy enough—a song about a boy catching feelings for a girl, and his heart starting to beat quickly. The lyrics are cutesy, nothing groundbreaking or at all original, but definitely universal enough to connect with anybody listening out for the rookie group. However, the simplistic song makes way for the choreo, which is also rather simple, but it gets the job done and allows us to see what the boys can do. Surprisingly, they’re pretty decent in terms of dancing, an asset that stands out a bit more than their vocals—but that’s sort of become part-and-parcel of all idol groups nowadays.
At the end of the day “Fever” is a typical song from a typical boy group. It’s neither better nor worse than anything that’s out there, so it leaves a somewhat lukewarm impression. HALO’s got the potential, but they’re pretty much swimming in an overcrowded kiddie pool with every other boy group on the market at the moment.
To be perfectly honest, when I heard C-JeS was moving into the idol industry I was excited, then a bit apprehensive. The industry itself has a very serious corruption problem, and the only people who suffer are the young men and women who are signed under the agencies. However, C-JeS seems to be the home for artists who want to take control of their careers and create work of which they can be proud. And though that’s not exactly par for the course as far as idols go, one has to feel at least a bit confident that despite this being very new territory for the expanding company, they will at least enlist practices that will help nurture their younger artists and not wear them down.
All that being said, let’s hope that the group can at least bring us more interesting music in the future that better displays the talent each member has. “Fever” is a cute song with a typical cute video, more interested in facial close-ups and showing off choreography. However, that’s about it. For now, this group easily gets lost in the fray of rookies with acceptable but ultimately subpar music.
Song: 3/5
MV: 2.75/5
