[Single Review] Beast are back with the interestingly crafted "Shadow"

K-Pop in general has a short shelf life. Songs are designed that way, promotion cycles last a few weeks, lead (and often only) singles have super catchy hooks. If I like a song I'll generally play in on repeat for a month or so after which it enters the abyss of my itunes library that isn't in my recently added playlist. 

From the first play I can normally tell if a song is going to be on repeat. Not in this case. The first time I heard "Shadow" I was quite unimpressed. I thought sure it's nice but where's that super catchy hook that Beast normally have? I finished the first play thinking.. great.. but I don't particularly want to play it again. 

But I did. 

Slowly I started to realise that the chorus melody is in fact very interesting and crafted so well. Yoseob's vocals are allowed to shine by the production. I think this marks the first time rapper Junhyung has written and produced a title track for Beast and he really shows his talents. My favourite part of the song is also his second rap verse. The vocal modifications make something interesting. This song slowly infect itself into your head and I think it may in fact be one of the best things Beast have ever done, second only to Fiction, but I don't think they will ever top that. 

The whole thing also feels very Breath/Fiction era Beast which is good because that's Beast at the best. Beautiful Night was fun and all but this is better. They show off their dark charisma with some interesting imagery. What do you think? Comment below! 

Score: 8.5/10