H! TEEN is the first release of ‘The Wind’ following the departure of their excellent main vocalist Jaewon. I’m not going to lie, I’m quite saddened, for his singing seemed to have carried the spirit of one of the greatest main vocalists K-pop had ever witnessed, GFRIEND’s Yuju. For reference, just search ‘Yuju vocals’ in Youtube and the videos shall explain themselves. Her singing simply demonstrates the power of well-executed belts in elevating K-pop song climaxes to rarely traversed upon heights (especially in this generation of K-pp). Jaewon, while not to the same extent as Yuju, played the same role in The Wind’s first few releases, all of which were excellent. I was worried on how his absence would affect their following releases.
To an extent, I was right to be worried. ‘H! TEEN’ now sees the members relying a lot more on the exquisite production to ‘make’ the song while not bring in much their own skill and quirks to elevate it. Parts, such as the highest note in the chorus, display very obvious strain (to trained ears especially), which only makes me miss Jaewon’s presence. The song is still pitched rather high, and their mediocre skills only become more obvious because of it.
Regardless, within the limitations, they boys still do their best. Probably because of the awkward vowel in the chorus (‘e’, along with the difficult consonant ‘n’), it becomes more obvious, for the high note at the bridge which was put at a similar pitch sounds a lot more open and less tense (being at an a-e vowel). Additionally, the production saves it. The melodies are extremely well written, only growing stronger over time, and the instrumentals effectively sweep the listener up on an energy high that demands a replay and a second chance (which I gave in to). The inclusion of strings, especially in the song’s introduction always gives a song bonus songs in my book, and even better, they make a return in the chorus to support the boys, as if to give them support. It is a very valiant effort and undoubtedly effective.
However, I do think the song was forcibly ended, a similar criticism I gave to ‘Dash’, probably to adapt to streaming culture and the short video format. Repeated listens don’t make it much better. I think at least one more reptition of the repeated hook, ‘hi teen, hi teen, hi teen, etc.’ would have done the song a noticeable favour.
Overall, I think that ‘H! TEEN’ is the result The Wind making the best of their unfortunate situation and their effort definitely shows. It is clear evidence that their production team is easily one of K-pop’s current best.
Hooks – 9
Production – 10
Vocal Delivery – 8
Rap Delivery – 9
Overall – 9
K-pop Evaluated 
Leave a comment