Atom Boyz Debut Singles

[adevyish]

Okay since all the Atom Boyz groups that are going to debut have songs out — or so I think!¹ — here’s my ranking of their debut songs.²

1. FEniX / Fire Fighter — Great hook, styling throwback to the early 00s, no notes.
2. U:NUS / U & US — I like the bones of this song, but 2013 called and they want their Macklemore opening and lite trance production back. This song is fully written by the members³ which is impressive for any boyband in their first year.
3. Ozone / O.A.O — Recent-ish EDM production over an upbeat, hopeful-yet-generic pop melody. Not my fave but Sony is clearly gunning for widest GP appeal. (I like their second single Unicorn better, but I suspect that song was too much like Dynamite-era BTS to serve as a lead single.)
4. VERA / Playboyz feat. Karencici — I like the lyrical and visual concept but tryhard dark rap pop is my least favourite genre of boyband song. The things I put up with for my biases.
5. AcQUA / AcQUArius — Either pick cute with sparkles or pick tryhard with bass drops, not both. I know their USP is that they can do both concepts, but not like this.

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¹ Saturn is still promoting as a group. Members Elvis and mood-maker Marvin are also part of the MC rotation for Atom Boyz’s Youtube bonus series spin-offs.

A bit of Atom Boyz backstory: six of the contestants were in a trainee group together called EMB. Summer, Tin, and Andrew were assigned to Earth and debuted as Ozone. Keith, Lany, and Marvin were assigned to Saturn; only Keith survived Saturn’s elimination and he debuted as part of FEniX. Lany is a stan attractor; I am still confounded as to why he was eliminated and not reassigned.

Of the other Saturn members, Elvis was reassigned to Uranus and was part of the winning Uranus team. Technically, he won a debut!

² Excluding Atlantix songs, there’s also two solo releases that I know of:

• Bobby / Whatever You Say — Disco by way of K-pop. The best VERA release.
• Fan / My Way — Yet another tryhard song.

³ Kidz is not debuting with the group. He has, however, appeared at some events with the group now called U:NUS since November; news reports say his Atom Boyz contract runs through January. (Given that Taiwanese corporations run on the lunar calendar and the U:NUS debut showcase is on Jan 23, or 1月2日 of the lunar calendar, I suspect his contract actually goes to the end of the lunar year, i.e. Jan 21.)