Top Media has been having a few good years in a row here with Teen Top launching into high-style success, 100% debuting in a grand fashion and managing to keep their popularity up, and now with UP10TION's smashing arrival on the scene. Despite their rather interesting name, UP10TION's debut is so strikingly precise and on point and fantastic that the only comparison that comes to mind is Infinite's debut back in 2010. Sure other rookies have come out with perfect choreo since Infinite, but this is the first debut since Infinite that has really made me stop and go wow. And for good reason.
           In addition to the epic and on point choreo, the band's debut track is hella kickin'. It's beautifully spatialized and the audio elements compliment the visuals perfectly. There's a vibrant pulse of energy in the beat and the synths, which makes the vocals feel solid and smooth even in the verses where it's clear that some of the voices have room to develop as their careers progress. The vocals in the chorus are delightfully strong with a slide of smooth intensity that adds drama and releases the tension from the vamped-up verses perfectly. And it is just so impossibly catchy!
           Beyond that, all the shimmer effects and the scene switches and the camera work and editing in general are absolutely flawless. It adds a unique visual component and it takes just enough away from the choreo shots to leave a viewer aching for more, but not so much that that a viewer feels like they've been gypped on the treat that is watching these rookies dance. I'm still holing out for a real choreo vid, but I've been watching the Lives and the 1theK special feature, so the veiled look at the choreo is definitely doing it's job. This particular choreo is fantastic using established elements (like the ab-dance where members grab each other's shirts instead of their own) and is using them in a refreshingly new way. It involves all the members, utilizing varying levels of action, and effectively having the members flip between being high and being low without leaving any holes in the formations' overall picture, save for when important new music elements are being introduced. It's very well done.
            The release would probably get a 10 from me maybe a 9.5, but there is no internal story in the visuals, and there's really not much of a story in the lyrics either, so as much as I'd like to give it the highest score possible I am going to have to dock a few points. Also, I think it could have done better with introducing the members, especially since they have the little Tension Up! piece in the beginning. 10 people is a lot to keep track of, especially when we really only see a few of them at once for such brief instances that it's hard to learn how to differentiate between the members. Still, this is a fantastic debut and it deserves a ton of praise!

          For the most part, I found the mask thing to be pretty cool, how each member left their mask on until they had a line to sing. Unfortunately that did highlight the imbalance of roles and it forced some members to get dramatically less screen time than others in a way that wasn't really amenable to creating a sense of a successful debut. Also, the lack of names at the unmasking feels like a very tragically missed opportunity to me. Still, I do enjoy the aesthetic and the idea behind it.
           The voices are strong enough to be worth watching carefully in the future, and the track is catchy enough to make their debut rewarding to come across. The MV is very simple, but it doesn't feel cheap or cliche. The camera work, editing, and choreography all suit the track perfectly and feel like they've had an expert's touch involved. The puppetry concept is fantastic and it suits the energetic slide of the song very well. The dubstep break felt a bit unnecessary to me, but I've seen worse versions of something similar, so even though it may impact what playlists I put the track in, it's not a deal breaker for ruining a debut. Overall, it's a solid debut for a group that's worth watching. It's not my favorite, but it's really still filled with an impressive use of limited resources and great potential.

          Right off the bat I have to say that the thing I find most interesting here is that law enforcement is involved, and legal penalties are as well. Neither of those things make it into most music videos, particularly those depicting the stereotypical gangsta bad boy crew. The other interesting point is that they actually have a 'real' weapon. In most MVs the idea of a gun is alluded to through miming motions rather than a prop, and I've seen dramas where even knives are blurred out by the Censors... Those details made this a very interesting release, aside from the fact that it was an anticipated debut.
          Over all it lived up to my expectations. It is my firm belief that ALL debuts should have names attached to the members in the MV, so that was a tick in the right column. The track is catchy and well-produced, with an aggressive slide of energy bridging between the backing track and both the melodic-vocal and rap-vocal sections. The MV mixes generalized adorable tom-foolery in the drama-scenes with aggressive bad-assery in the Choreo, giving the new group a perfectly balanced image right from the get-go. The parkour was pretty sweet, though it was very clearly just to be impressive rather than to actually facilitate an escape. Most of it would have actually slowed a would-be escapee down... it was still pretty cool to watch though. Most of the Styling is gorgeous, there's a few outfits the gave me pause, but they're only on-screen for a few seconds, so it's nothing to be concerned about. The only other thing I have worries about is the fact that their voices aren't terribly strong in this. It could just be how this track frames their voices, but it really feels like their vocals are rather weak over all. They have potential, certainly, and I'll be keeping an eye on them, but the fact stand that I was definitely rather less than impressed with their vocals. I haven't listened to the rest of their release, so I may rescind my statement, but for now...
           The 'Special Cut' version was not my favorite bonus feature. It was very simple and all it really showed off was the fact that none of their cover-alls actually FIT them... But it was a unique extra I suppose.

          The thing that this whole concept reminds me of most is Infinite's Last Romeo and their whole Season 2 Album condensed into a single release. In some ways, that's fantastic. There's a beautiful mix of bright, synthy instrumental and piano lines, a fantastic chorus of vocal harmonies, and visuals that flip easily between bright and soft with a twist of aegyo to a dark drama of genuine angst; all of which definitely go on the plus side of things. Unfortunately, drawing on such an incredibly well-developed release by a group that's matured significantly from their debut means that there's inevitably, a sense of hollowed-out immaturity hugging the vocal lines of the members of Romeo. For a debut, this is pretty impressive, but it's not the strongest sound I've ever heard from rookies, which unfortunately reflects a bit poorly on them. These kids have great potential, but they're not power-house singers in the way that it feels like they should be for this concept to be pulled off.
        One thing that really bugs me about the MV is that it's in super-widescreen, so there's two lines of white around the active scenes in frame. The choreo is cute and it's well executed, but with so many glamour shots interrupting the choreo demonstrations... it's hard to tell if it's as frighteningly perfectly-in-sync as Infinite's. There's no real story in the visuals, so that's another tick-mark in the 'could be better column'. I love the track, even though it's not the profoundly impactful track it could be. The Chorus is fabulous and the raps and the bridge punch through with a great sense of intensity. It's well built, the mix and spatialization are lovely, keeping the vocals squarely in focus while the instrumental decorations bounce around without being too distracting. And over all it's a solid debut.

           Pocket Girls aren't exactly an idol group to take seriously, at least not yet. Like the girls of Nine Muses, these four started out in the modeling industry, only unlike Nine Muses, they still work there. It makes sense for them to perform at Motor Shows, because that's where they're known, but because they are known presences there, it feels more like the Motor Shows upgraded their modeling contracts rather than the ex-models graduated into Idol-ship.
          This release has a real MV, but I personally think it's rather dull and lifeless, particularly for having an EDM-based track as the ground-work behind it. In the real MV the choreography looks haphazard and rather sloppy, not to mention it fails to show how perfectly the choreo works with all four members. The one advantage of the real MV is that it manages to disguise the appearance of the world's least charismatic rapper... but for the entirety of the time aside from the ten seconds or so when the rapper is supposed to be the main focus, the choreo vid is far more interesting that the real MV. The track is fabulous bounce of EDM energy, that while not the best EDM-based kpop track I've ever heard, is definitely not the worst. It's quite catchy, almost annoyingly so (It got stuck in my head a few days after I first heard it and it wouldn't go away until I found the track again). So it's on point there.
          Over all, I do really enjoy this release, particularly the choero, which is both gorgeously sexy and fabulously fun to perform (and seriously impressive considering those heels).

          *Cries Hysterically* I was NOT prepared for that. Which is presumably why they did it. I was thinking 'oh, spring, another rookie girl group to watch, no biggie' and what I got was one of the most heart wrenching stories I've ever seen depicted in such a beautifully poignant way that the only option I was presented with was to bawl my eyes out for a solid minute and a half after the mv ended. What I liked best about this video is that we never see any parts related to the actual tone-defining instant. All we see is a vague, blurry newsreel, and that from far away, and we see the mom's hand fall and everything changes. Except the isolated tone of the track. The focus on the happy parts, the focus on the live lived rather than the loss is a beautiful depiction of grief that is rarely seen in dramatic contexts. I think it's wonderfully to see here.
          The track is lovely, catchy and sweet. The vocals are strong and their presence sits nicely among the instrumental elements. The harmonic utilization of the members is top-notch, rather than the forced harmonies of a lot of spring-releases and the plurality of voices complements the isolated feel on the vocals in the raps. The harmonic vocal lines also fill in the instrumental nicely. The backing lines are pretty sparse in this track, and repetitive, but that allows for the vocal fills to have room to expand and shift without feeling squeezed.
         My only concern is that it's not a very good debut video. None of the girls make any appearances at all, there's NO way to even know how many members there are from the video alone. It's also not a terribly catchy song and it's not the kind of video you send to your friends without a feels warning, or the kind people want to watch over and over and over again. It's beautiful, powerful even, but it's not catchy. It's not the kind of career kickstart that makes a real dent. And with the Light being the only track on the release, there aren't any other tracks to handle the catchy, viral aspect while the title track sticks to the gut-wrenching dramatics of grief. Which is tragic because these girls have the potential to be awesome.  The group has been pulling a lot of extra promotions with dance covers and #hashtag epicness for 1theK, but it's not enough to make them a household name. The most eyecatching part of their get-up is the fact that they made serious covers of the guys' songs, rather than sexy "female-interpretations" they threw the actual choreo straight. Their debut track shows off nothing of that impressive and carefully crafted image. So while this is a FANTASTIC release, it's not actually a good debut. If it were a follow-up or a later release for an established group, I'd be giving this at least a 9 without any hint of hesitation. As is...

The post-apocalyptic style is fabulous (definitely bridging on the end of far too common, but still, it's not yet as overly common as the straight up fake gangster).  I was genuinely excited for this debut. And it started off so well! The teasers and the first 30 seconds of the MV have SO MUCH PROMISE in them, the potential here was absolutely amazing! The 1st teaser shows off some smokin' hot bodies and some fantastic skills. It also advertises a big budget for epic editing and hella hot CG that promised to carry over into the full track and the main MV. The 2nd teaser was also exciting, being that all of the epic promise of the first teaser was built upon and filled out with unique powers, distinct features and faces and some kick-ass choreography. It was a bit worrisome, showing the post-apocalyptic wasteland poorly constructed around them with a green screen, but I was certain that it wouldn't be a major feature in the full MV. The track still sounded pretty kickin' and I was pumped to hear the whole thing.

And then the release arrived and I was thrilled. The eerie intro, the fabulous CG of crows transforming into band members, the low-pass intro building up building up as the choreography flashed to shots from the teaser. And then the lyrics dropped in... they're not bad, though the vocals need a lot of work to really be impressive (at least two of the members weren't even singing in the key that their voice suits and it sounded strained), but they're not engaging in the way I hoped they would be. The vocals are flat and the smoothe slides just sound sloppy against the gritty backdrop. And the pre-chorus jumps jarringly into a new rhythm for a measure or two before falling back into the drone-like hum of the rest of it. It's not a bad song, but it's certainly not the epic earworm that I was hoping for. It's a good enough debut track, but it's nothing that's changed the game for rookies (while it easily could have been). That's the part that rubs me so wrong... this could have been so good, incredibly good, and it's just not. It's okay.

As for the MV, the choreography is pathetic. It's beyond lazily designed. Whoever they got to choreograph this should be fired, or at least reassigned. Seriously. I don't say that very often, because it's never wise to wish someone out of a job, but this is just awful. The choreographer simply failed to do their job. These guys are SO capable ... as dancers, as martial artists, as stunt men ... and this routine is so simple that even I can do most of the moves (especially those in the chorus). And beyond that, it doesn't even look cool. I'd understand if there was camera pandering and moves designed mainly to make them look good, but this routine doesn't even do that much! It's absolutely tragic and I weep for them for having to sit quietly while it was decided on for them. Not enough time was spent showing the members individually, there wasn't enough in their styling to delineate them in the group shots, the thin excuse for a story setting is confusing at best though it holds some intoxicating potential if (by some miracle) it gets flushed out in a follow-up, and the lyrics aren't connected concretely to anything and they really have nothing to do with the visuals (which are rather inconsistent and nonsensical anyway). I like these rookies, and I'll be keeping my eye on them, but this release could have been so much more than it turned out to be...