Got7 returns for their second comeback of the year with their latest track, “Breath.” The single is a prerelease for their upcoming album, Breath of Love: Last Piece. Earlier this year, Got7 released the album, Dye, which was their best selling album to date. The lead single, “Not By the Moon,” incorporated themes from Romeo and Juliet and depicted an elegant side of Got7.
However, Got7 returns to their more casual vibes and signature sound with “Breath.” As a prerelease, the song does little to create excitement for the upcoming album. The MV, in itself, lacks an overall bigger concept and is essentially just a billboard for their official comeback.
The concept of the MV is underwhelming but filled with Easter eggs giving us clues to the next track. In the beginning, the MV starts off more interesting by showing a gallery of paintings. In the back, you can see an empty frame that initially creates curiosity. The members walk through a street with items floating in the air, but after this point, the MV gets far less entertaining. For the rest of the MV, the members are set against blank walls, CGI’ed platforms, and a generic street setting.
While the items floating in the air may seem random it seems to all circle back around to the title. Art-wise it can be challenging to depict “air” and “breath.” However, the MV does its best to interpret it. The use of items floating around signify air and creates an initially whimsical tone that it does not keep throughout the MV. More consistently we see a cloth blowing in the wind and floating around the members. This ties back to the album artwork and also eventually fills the empty frame at the gallery. While the interpretation of air was decent, the rest of the MV seems almost inconsistent with the initial tone.
The gallery in itself is a segue to the MV of their official comeback. The recently released teasers show each member standing in the same room. The pictures on the wall are difficult to see because of a blurred effect but they do show scenes from the “Breath” MV. In the teasers, the members are also looking more luxurious perhaps implying that “Last Piece” will have a completely different tone from “Breath.”
The MV continues to make multiple references to their upcoming album and single. The train station shows “BOL” standing for the album title, Breath of Love. There are fliers on the subway and on a cake shop that show the title of the next track, “Last Piece.” The cake shop in itself could also be a reference to the song with its name, “A Piece of Cake.” However, it could also be referring to the brand of clothes Got7 is a fan of wearing. Either way, all together it helps build clues as to what we can expect from their official comeback.
Got7 has always had intricate and fun dance routines so it was disappointing to see they chose not to add choreography to this song. Instead, they had back-up dancers dressed in all black outfits randomly appear in bursts. The dancers were more interpretive and definitely kept their scenes less boring. They also aligned with the sudden back and forth use of night and day scenes.
The song starts off well and builds up to a whistle-chorus that is admittingly charming. However, the second chorus turns into a chant that is laid against too many sounds creating a messy mix. Overall, the song does not have any peaks or amazing moments that make it memorable. Like the MV, it has potential but leads to nothing that truly catches your interest. The lyrics are also fairly generic and repetitive:
You help me breathe
Deeper and deeper
You make me fly high
I feel it feel it
You help me breathe
As a prerelease, typically, the song is not supposed to be as hard-hitting as the title track. However, the song is still supposed to set up expectations for the entire comeback. In the last two comebacks, “You Calling my Name” and “Not By the Moon” showed a more sophisticated and suave side to Got7. “Breath,” however more laid-back, partially retro, and has more generic lyrics. Both concepts carried a concept of maturity but with completely different execution. Hopefully, “Breath” is just a bad selection for a prerelease, and the upcoming album and single brings more to Got7’s overall musical growth.
