It’s always exciting when a new group debuts under a major agency, and CORTIS have a big legacy to live up to. GO! is technically a pre-release, so we can’t call it their official debut yet, but it offers a glimpse of Big Hit’s first new boy group since TXT’s debut in 2019. Information about the guys has highlighted their self-producing approach, which includes input on every facet of their work — from song to music video. Members have already played a part in past Big Hit tracks.
This has been a very strong year for debut boy groups, so GO! has much to live up to on that front as well. Within that context, I’d put GO! all the way at the bottom of the pack. This is quite shocking from an agency as huge and influential as Big Hit, but the song confirms all the worries I had as information about CORTIS began to dribble out. I fear this debut may mark the start of a sort of “post-K-pop” era, as GO! carries absolutely no hallmarks of the genre I first fell in love with. Instead, this track feels targeted specifically to Western markets with its swaggy, slurred delivery and absence of any sort of virtuosic performance style.
The thing is, self-composing a song doesn’t automatically make you a “genius,” as many K-pop fans like to claim. Anyone can write a song. That doesn’t mean it’ll be a good song! If GO! is an indication of CORTIS’s self-producing style, we may need to go back to the drawing board. The instrumental regurgitates bad samples we’ve heard a million times before, the vocals are smothered with ugly effects and the melody is a flat-line of disengaged nothingness, propped up with incessant posturing that feels utterly exhausting. This might all be forgivable with a well-conceived song driving the vibes, but like so many recent tracks GO! has about one-and-a-half ideas repeated over and over with no sense of growth or personality.
I guess this might be what Generation MZ is looking for in music and CORTIS may find a niche within that subset of listeners, but after such a long wait between Big Hit debuts, I find this song borderline insulting and a very worrisome harbinger for their career. It’s certainly the worst “first taste” of an artist the agency has ever given us.
| Hooks | 6 |
| Production | 6 |
| Longevity | 7 |
| Bias | 5 |
| RATING | 6 |
