Album Review - Our: YouthTeen by The Wind (2024)

BFRIEND returns! This is the first release by The Wind since last summer, and since losing former member and main vocalist Jaewon, so I'm interested to see how they cope without him. The teasers sounded pretty good, so let's dive in!

1. Hi-Teen - I think this is a nice, fun dance song! The only thing is that it doesn't really make me actively want to dance---I believe The Bias List said this or something similar, but Jaewon's voice really would've lent this song that quality---I miss OT7!


2. Heart Fluttering - This continues directly in their "Christian horse boy" (look it up if you're very befuddled) tradition the best out of the tracks here, which, considering that I adore that genre, would've been enough to make it my favourite track off the album by default---except for one little thing. WHERE is the bridge?!? "With Us" on their debut EP did something vaguely similar in replacing the 2nd verser witha pre-chorus and then having an instrumental bit for a bridge, but at least that's interesting and followed by a proper, amazingly final-chorus-y final chorus! This song feels not different, but incomplete, its wings clipped to appeal to Tik Tok attention spans or something. I am very disappointed! This song had so much more potential. And so instead of an easy five stars, this song gets four stars, barely and indifferently.


3. Friendship: The instrumental reminds me of a Verivery b-side circa the Face It series. It's quite a good song overall! Its strength is bolstered by the different vibe of the second chorus and the unexpected, but not unwelcome, pre-bridge rap verse. The final chorus is also quite welldone---if they can do it here, why not on the previous song?---with a nice amount of ad-libs, etc.


4. Happy BDay - I really like pop-rock sounds and 8-bit synths, and fun refrains, so I really like this song! 8-bit synths combined with pop-rock guitars and drums---that's something I wouldn't've thought of myself, but I wish I had. And the "lalalas" add a fun, somewhat danceable aspect as well. I think the members' voices go especially well with this sogn! This is my positive standout track from this album.

Overall, this album was good, but Jaewon's voice and an actual bridge of Heart Fluttering would have taken it beyond good to great. 3.5 "las" out of 5!