Review: ONF - Ugly Dance

ONF surprised no one with the quality of Beautiful Beautiful. After all, if you had followed them for a while, you would know that they stick near-exclusively with Hwang Hyun as a producer. This leads to consistency and slow growth. Even then, Beautiful Beautiful has grown to be more than a song, it has grown to be a moment of music. From the a cappella, to the electric guitar, to the amazing vocal performance, it has become one of the songs to beat this year. It garnered near-universal praise across the whole K-Pop fandom and basically universal praise with critics. Surprising humanity could agree on something in this era. But if it had to be something, Beautiful Beautiful would certainly be one of the most likely.

And thus, with all the success and praise, ONF have released a repackage of their first album. The new single Ugly Dance has a lot to live up to, which nearly no track could do. Does Ugly Dance live up to expectations? No, not at all, really. Is it a solid single in its own right? Certainly.

The song opens with a remixed, brass edition of the "Rum Pum Pum" hook from Beautiful Beautiful, before jumping into a minimalist hip-house beat. This is actually the chorus, which I'll talk about in a minute.

The verses have a smooth, playful, and jumpy groove. The vocalists don't really get any moment to show what they are capable of, but that is not really an issue, all of them (especially Hyojin) have shown their capabilities several times already. The beat has some Latin influences and bobs around pleasantly. It all culminates in the pre-chorus, where Hwang Hyun shows a bit of his arrangement skill.

Then, the chorus comes. At heart, it is extremely simplistic, but that is its charm. It is loose and playful, a perfect contrast to Beautiful Beautiful's massive chorus (Oh gosh, I called Beautiful Beautiful massive again, it continues!). The only real issue here is the immature "1 and 2 and 3 and" hook, which is painfully childish. Soon, this leads into a denser arrangement, culminating with an army of synth strings. It is gorgeous, and amazing how Hwang Hyun could add depth to something so simple.

The second verse is basically the first, just with a more loose feel. There is an electric keyboard adding some dynamism. Another great moment here is E-Tion calling back to Beautiful Beautiful. I failed to mention this when I first talked about the verses, but I love the call-and-response, it fleshes out the piece a little more. Another great thing here is that the pre-chorus adds the extra arrangement from the first chorus, and the chorus now instantly goes straight to the synth strings. Now, with the group singing the "1 and 2 and 3 and" hook, it feels a lot more serious.

The bridge is driven by a cascading harp. MK and Hyojin get to show some vocal prowess, particularly Hyojin into his brief cameo. Before leading into the final chorus, Wyatt repeats an extended version of his rap from earlier on in the song. His deep voice adds a level of contrast as always.

Now, the final chorus concludes the song. Once again, we start with the synths string section, just extended.  This being a more minimalist song, we end with the childish "1 and 2 and 3 and" along with the minimalist beat. But Hwang Hyun smoothly made the transition, and it feels only natural.

The lyrics are just as free-flowing as the beat. They are about being yourself and not following trends. At the same time, it has the tongue-in-cheek humor to occasionally make fun of the K-Pop industry "I am tired of love songs, they all sound the same". In a way, it is about having fun, an ONF speciality.

Compared to ONF's previous works, this is certainly disappointing, but ONF and Hwang Hyun know how to turn a mediocre song into something amazing. I often like to claim that a tune is more important than arrangement, and I still hold it as true. Despite this, Ugly Dance shows what a good arrangement can do.

Rating: 8.5/10

Image Source: The Bias List