During the pandemic, K-pop groups struggled to promote their albums, but Victon was able to push through their difficulties and win their first bonsang (major prize) at the Soribada Best K-Music Awards in 2020, alongside popular groups such as BTS and TWICE.

After a former member was arrested for a DUI, Victon is returning with their eighth EP, ironically called “Choice.” For the first time since their debut, they broke 100,000 album sales in the first week of its release. 

The album’s title track, “Virus” is a song about love. This is a common theme of the EP and unfortunately, one that keeps being repeated over, and over, and over. The lyric, “I can go, even if it hurts, it will be you” is similar to a line in Seventeen’s “Fear,” “The love I want to give you is hurting me even more.” The content of both songs are about unconditionally loving someone even though it hurts. Although the instrumentation and vocals are vastly different, the meaning behind each song is the same. Being the main song of this album, “Virus” was supposed to stand out the most, but it lacks unique features that would make it prominent compared to the other songs. 

Luckily, “Time Chaser” switches up the subject matter with a song about wanting to tell their past self about pushing through the hard times in their life. Throughout the song, the drums and guitar are dominant, overpowering the vocals. It’s hard to focus on one aspect of the song when all of the components of the song clash together and make the song messy and disorganized.

“Alive,” though another love song, is my favorite track on the album. It’s catchy and is the type of song I’d expect Victon to release as a title track. Rather than fitting into their usual style of music, “Alive” is upbeat and creates an authentic invigorating feeling. When I first listened to the track, it sounded a lot like an NCT127 song, which is what grabbed my attention. As an avid listener of NCT, I enjoyed how this song encompassed many of the same features, such as the change in the beat from the pre chorus to chorus. The placement of the rap in the beginning and middle of the song kept me pleasantly on my toes.

As the EP continues, “Better Place” is much cuter and refreshing compared to the other songs. It’s lighthearted and is about finding happiness in a “better place,” thus the title of the song. Giving off a tropical and summery vibe, it gives the listeners a break from the overwhelming instrumentals of the previous tracks. At the end of the song, all of the members chant the lyrics “we are, we are,” reminiscent of the feeling of sitting around a campfire and singing songs together.

The last song on the album, “Feels Good,” is … another love song. Once again, it’s cliché, but the song itself is satisfying to listen to. In contrast to the previous tracks, the song has a light and sweet melody with a catchy rhythm. It repeatedly uses the lyrics “Baby we feels good” at the end of each chorus, and is the most memorable part of the song.

The instrumentation and vocals of K-pop songs are what I enjoy more than the lyrics themselves. Since I don’t understand Korean, I focus more on these aspects than trying to figure out the meaning of the song itself. Although there were a couple songs I liked, the others didn’t have anything that stood out to me enough to be memorable.

As a whole, the album’s subject matter is repetitive. Although the beats for each track differ in style, the meaning behind more than half of the songs overlap. I don’t have a problem with the repetition of the cliché K-pop love song, as long as the group is able to make each song distinguishable from each other, but this wasn’t the case for Victon.