Album Review - Series 'O': Round 3 - Whole by Verivery (2022)

Hey and welcome to my review of Verivery's first full album, Series 'O': Round 3 - Whole! This is a really good album with a great array of musical styles! Both O and Our Spring were previously released as the digital single Series 'O': Round 0 - Who earlier in 2022, so I've copied my comments on those songs from my prior review of that single into this review more or less exactly (I changed a few wordings to fit this review). Enjoy!

1. Moment - a great mood setter for the album! However, it's not a super memorable track when standing on its own.


2. Undercover - Amazing!! When I first heard it, Minchan's deep part absolutely sent me out of my mind. I really love the gospel-sounding intro and the "hi hola hola" part gets stuck in my head so much. Though I must admit that I didn't expect a boxing-themed style and music video for a song called Undercover.


3. Coming Over - Yongseung's voice fits so well in the intro! And his voice and Dongheon's rap fit so well with the song in general. One of the better "noise music" boy group songs that I've heard recently.


4. Wish U Were Here - a great brighter track! This is one of the first brighter tracks they've done in the past couple of years, so it's a welcome return. It's a kind of mood-lifting song for me, but more subtly than other mood-lifting songs.


5. Candle - Another great Verivery ballad! The intro of this, and the song too, gives me somewhat retro vibes, but not as all-in retro as their first couple of albums or other songs like As If It's Your Last by Blackpink. Anyways, this is a really nice chill, ballad from Verivery!


6. O - O, the digital single Series 'O': Round 0 - Who's title track, is a very different direction musically for Verivery, and as always, they pull it off very well! It's a more "chill"-sounding song, per se, but its lyrics talk of mental health issues and that kind of stuff. And the music video is absolutely a work of art! I love this so much. It's very catchy, and Kangmin's part is absolutely so ear-wormy, if that's a word.


7. Fallin' - This song was teased on the CD version of their last album back in August, so we've waited a long time for this, and it didn't disappoint! This is the best "noise" boy group song I've heard in quite a while!


8. Childhood - I love Wish U Were Here and Velocity, but this is easily the best bright song on this album! Everything about it is amazing, and the song reminds me of a cool summer breeze, and a party on a summer night. It also has a certain nostalgic quality to it that I can't quite pinpoint, but I feel like the chorus is probably reminiscent musically of music my mother listened to when I was young or something.


9. Emotion - I can't decide if this is chill or upbeat, but I'm leaning towards upbeat. Anyways, I quite like this song! My favourite part is the little drum thing around the beat, which reminds me of a marching band for some reason. Overall, a pretty good song.


10. Velocity - This is a remaster of a song from their Soundcloud, and it's one of my favourite of their soundcloud songs, so it's a welcome inclusion on this album! I really love this song! It's pretty bright in my opinion, but it sounds different than any other song that Verivery have done.


11. Our Spring - This song was also previously released on the single Series 'O': Round 0 - Who, and at that time we hadn't had a new Verivery ballad since the masterpiece So Gravity on their Face Us EP in 2020, so their return to ballads was very welcome. (As you can tell by my review of Candle, I love Verivery's ballads.) Our Spring is a lovely, soft ballad that talks about unrequited love. It's very much the type of song where all the members' voices just calm you down, like free therapy or something. It's really great!


12. Fine - This was the unexpected standout track on this album for me! At the beginning, I was expecting a slower song, but once the chorus hit, something just clicked and I started loving this song. This and Childhood are probably my favourite new songs off this album! I love this song so much. And the last few seconds close out the album really well!