Manifesto: Day 1 Review
Manifesto: Day 1 (2022)
the 4th part of my enhypen discography review! all grown up save for kiki, enhypen were ready to BOLDLY DECLARE WAR on the haters. i remember this being pretty controversial on release, if only because the group was dealing with scandals and 'piss the mic', as it became known, was a pretty massive departure from the sound people had come to expect from them.
Ranking system:
๐ - it's peak.
๐ - great song that made me feel something. could slot into a playlist.
๐ - would listen to it voluntarily, a few flaws that are either easy to overlook or a bit charming
๐ฅญ - had potential but the finished product is very flawed
๐ - not going to seek it out, but won't outright complain if i hear it.
๐ - it does absolutely nothing for me but isn't offensive
๐ - does absolutely nothing for me and is offensive
๐ - so bad that it almost wraps back around to good just bc i was laffing so much
๐ - special pathetic label for songs that were too pathetic for me to feel good about ranking
๐
- BOOOOOOOO TOMATOES TOMATOES
๐ WALK THE LINE
So we're still doing the breathing into the mic thing, but this time it's not Jake nor is it in english. oh nevermind jay's part is in english dfgdfhfgh. that super intense instrumental. is kiki's part in japanese? just a quick trilingual intro for yall. and don't even worry about missing out on jake's lisp cuz it's right there for you. the song part is fun.
๐ Future Perfect (Pass the Mic)
So the intro of this song always makes me laugh so hard. initially i only liked this song ironically but i think i stockholm syndrome'd myself into genuinely loving it dfgfthghj. they're just so dangerous!!! it's full of killing parts. jay: I GOT PUSH PUSHED. kiki: YEEEEAH. sunghoon's whole rap bit. heeseung: (bratty voice) GIMME THAT MIC! i mean if i'm real the production goes crazy. the real killing part is kiki goin LOOK AH ME. whenever i feel like ending it all i just remember LOOK AH ME and i feel better. CUZ WE'RE RULE BREAKAH! man this fuckin peak. like sometimes u just need a quick anthem like this.
๐ ParadoXXX Invasion
First of all, what's with the XXX in the title lol? Second of all, what's with this vibe lmfao is this their like, old school hip-hop concept EP? Sunoo with the hard autotune in the prechorus is hard as fuck. i wonder whose idea all this was...like were any of them riding hard for an EP concept like this? it's kinda goofball as fuck but at least it's catchy/fun. It's just such a hard turn in their discography, pass the mic followed by this? i'm just wondering what the decision-making process behind that was.
๐/๐ TFW
But don't worry, cuz we have more traditional boyband material right here. I mean I kinda prefer the vibes of the previous tracks if i'm real, but the production job here is great for what it is. kiki's verse is very cute. flubhoon saying it 'feels like cock' is a fucking legend. like it's cute, i can't decide if i'd listen to it voluntarily or not, so let's just put it somewhere between strawberry and orange. i think that for a cheesy sentimental boygroup song it's pretty good, i do think they need to fix the vocal mixing if they're gonna do more like this tho.
๐ฅญ SHOUT OUT
Yeah, speaking of vocal mixing...what's happening here? For a group with such consistently good production, the mixing on this track is actually horrible gdfghfghgh. Like I don't think it was supposed to sound like this!!! It's got this canned/metallic sound to it that's very distracting. jake apparently helped to write the song, good job buddy. the songwriting's actually fine, the melodies are fine, the structure is fine, I just really think there's a massive problem with the way the vocals for this were processed. shame, cuz it probably could've been pretty good otherwise.
๐ Foreshadow
Another soliloquy. Jake is breathing all over the mic again. they let kiki go on and on in japanese again, kinda fun to hear how his voice is like halfway through dropping lol. then there's a bit of a song at the end, which honestly should've been a full track, sounds very cool and has interesting production that incorporates guitars in a non-cheesy way! giving it an orange just cuz of the song bit!