Amp Up with SEVENTEEN’s Attacca
The latest step in their journey towards being a frontrunner on K-Pop’s global scale, SEVENTEEN has made a comeback in the form of the spunky, pop-punk-influenced Attacca. Defined by Merriam Webster as the musical term that signals the start of a new movement without pause—quite literally, “to attack”—Attacca and its title track “Rock with you” are sure to launch the boy group to new heights in the raddest of ways.
“Rock with you,” the Stuff of Pop-Punk Dreams
Over the years, SEVENTEEN has done it all. Mastering everything from cute concepts to club anthems to performances more than fitting of a Broadway stage, it felt like there was little left for the boy group to conquer. Enter “Rock with you,” a 2000s rock-inspired track filled with guitars and a driving beat sure to bring on the nostalgia for any 20 or 30-something. With a production team including the likes of Jordan Witzigreuter (formerly The Ready Set) and Cameron Walker alongside in-house staples Bumzu and SEVENTEEN’s token producer Woozi, the song is something we haven’t really heard from the group before.
Co-written by Woozi, Vernon, and Joshua, “Rock with you” is a track about the bursting feeling of being in love. It starts out on the heavier side, with Joshua’s lower register set against a gritty guitar riff before drifting into Jeonghan’s fluid vocals. The song eventually gains speed with Mingyu’s entrance before dialing back into a melodic pre-chorus courtesy of DK and The8.
At first, the chorus of “Rock with you” is more subdued than you’d expect, but it quickly picks up with a call-and-response between Dino and Vernon’s repeated “baby hold on” lines in what is easily one of the most memorable moments on the entire album. The rapper’s vocals—yes, vocals from the group’s main rapper—fit the tone of the song perfectly, eagerly inviting listeners into the second half of the song. Wonwoo and Jun carry the second verse, and Seungkwan and Vernon lead things back into the second chorus, packed with plenty of starpower thanks to Hoshi. Joshua and Jeonghan’s voices blend together in the second half of the chorus, but things take another melodic turn with DK’s entrance in the bridge before stripping away to a simple guitar line as S.Coups solemnly sings “won’t let them break your heart.” As many of SEVENTEEN’s most hard-hitting tracks tend to do, Woozi leads in the final chorus with powerful ad-libs that end in a quiet declaration from Wonwoo “I wanna stay with you,” that rings with finality as the song comes to an abrupt end.
Although the song could arguably have had more guitar to live up to the source material behind its inspiration, I think the sound fits the group perfectly. The guitars are definitely there, but never in a way that overpowers the vocals. Also, no matter what inspiration they’re pulling from, SEVENTEEN is still a K-Pop group at the end of the day, and in my opinion, they blended their pop sound with their Western rock influences seamlessly. The song offers the right amount of push and pull between quiet and more powerful moments, aided all the while by passionate ad-libs that give the song that extra melodic edge. It’s the kind of track that gets better with each listen, allowing the listener to discover something new each time they press repeat. And personally speaking, I will be pressing repeat for quite some time to come.
The Music Video
On its own, “Rock with you” is solid enough to not have any glaring holes; yet, just one watch of the music video feels like having found the missing piece for the track. In a vibrant display of color that matches the energy behind the music, the video switches between following the members in various everyday shots—made all the more exciting by having fallen in love—and intense shots of choreography that showcase SEVENTEEN’s signature, mind-blowing synchronization. After a downright necessary shot of all 13 members headbanging, the video ends with the group performing on stage with a cosmos-like setting that only makes the anticipation for live performances soar even higher.
Just like the song, the music video for “Rock with you” moves fast, but every second that passes is more enjoyable than the last without ever feeling too rushed. Each member is given his time to shine—notably Mingyu in the beginning, Hoshi in the chorus, S.Coups in the bridge, and Vernon and Dino honestly throughout the entire video. For Carats, “Rock with you” is a technicolor celebration of love with their 13 favorite boys; and for casual fans or first-time listeners, it’s a high-speed chase from start to finish filled with plenty of passion that will have you wanting to dive into the SEVENTEEN archives.
Attacca: The Next Movement
In a move fitting of its title, Attacca wastes no time picking up where June’s Your Choice left off. The first song “To you” is another passionate pop song that starts off bright with Jeonghan’s vocals. The song has a surprisingly subtle build to the two-part chorus (a classic Woozi move) where the vocals start to grow, giving listeners a taste of just what to expect from Attacca. Non-vocal unit members like Mingyu, The8, and Dino positively sparkle in the chorus, as do Wonwoo and Hoshi in the second pre-chorus. While fans may know the vocalists from the rappers in the group, first-time listeners will likely have no idea of who is who and be pleasantly surprised should they look up each members’ roles later on. This isn’t to say the vocalists don’t have their moments of course; while it’s not shocking to hear DK and Seungkwan stun with their vocals in the bridge, the lead-in vocals from Joshua are less reserved than usual, making for a jaw-dropping, powerful delivery we don’t often get to hear from the vocalist. Adding all these components together sets the fast-paced tone for the album, but more importantly sets the caliber of talent.
Following “Rock with you” is the '90s pop-influenced “Crush” in which SEVENTEEN emphatically declares they have a crush. The synths lead the beat in this dance cut, resulting in one of the group’s sleekest live performances during their comeback special, pulling from Michael Jackson’s style as they dance in monotone suits with wide-brimmed hats (regrettably, there’s not yet an official video). While “Crush” boasts less vocal stand outs than its predecessors, it’s nice to see performance team leader Hoshi get one of the star moments towards the end of the song, usually reserved for vocalists.
“PANG!” starts off the unit tracks, with the performance team delivering one of the group’s more experimental tracks over the years. While the somewhat off-kilter song has spawned discourse among the fandom, the relaxed beat suits the performance team perfectly. It’s a sound we haven’t heard from them yet that stays more calm without drifting into ballad territory like “247” or the cutesy realm like “Swimming Fool.” That being said, the song certainly does have its cute moments; after all, it’s hard not to feel a little giddy when Jun playfully sings, “I’m a balloon.” The cherry on top is that the track was composed in part by maknae Dino.
The vocal team is up next with another rock-influenced song “Imperfect love,” which is one of the few times we’ve heard live drums on a track. DK starts off the song with his beautiful, clear vocals and the sound expands as Jeonghan leads into the pre-chorus. As is typical for most vocal unit songs, the track was composed by SEVENTEEN’s longtime production trifecta: vocal team leader Woozi, Bumzu, and PRISMFILTER. Even without knowing the credits, the surplus of surging ad-libs behind the main vocals just sounds like a signature romantic Woozi production.
Just from the few seconds teased in the highlight medley, fans knew the hip-hop unit’s “I can’t run away” was going to be a high point on the album. Trading in their hard-hitting raps for soft vocals, members S.Coups, Wonwoo, Mingyu, and Vernon round out the unit portion of the album with this poignant song about heartbreak. Vernon’s falsettos leading into the chorus led by Mingyu are mesmerizing, especially for someone who has poked fun at his own singing voice on more than one occasion. S.Coups gets the same star treatment before the second chorus, but it’s Wonwoo’s belting throughout the rest of the song that is quite literally jaw-dropping. The rapper has always had a distinct tone, being the deepest voice in the group, but his vocal skills have improved immensely over the last year. Overall, “I can’t run away” has some of the most beautiful vocals in the album, which is a little unfair for the rest of the K-Pop industry given that the song is sung by the group’s rappers. Considering that SEVENTEEN is a group so solidly split up into units based on their prime talents, it’s a little ironic (and almost scary) just how well-rounded each member of SEVENTEEN has become at this point.
The album ends in a tongue-in-cheek all-English track from the group’s two fluent speakers Joshua and Vernon, “2 MINUS 1.” Released only on digital platforms, the song is the crowning moment of the pop-punk flavor that saturates the whole album, perhaps in thanks to co-composer Joshua who most definitely lived through a mid-2000s pop-rock phase while growing up in the U.S. Leading up to the release of the album, Vernon (who also partook in the composition and writing) teased various Western pop-punk songs on the group’s social media channels, leaving fans to wonder if he was trying to hint at what was to come. The song shifts between darker verses and bright, poppy choruses, lending itself particularly well to Vernon’s voice (which makes so much sense in retrospect). Joshua also gets to explore his vocal range in the track, letting things get a little gritty as he sings along driving guitars. This makes his standard falsetto in the bridge all the more striking, evoking memories of bands like Panic! At The Disco. Interestingly enough, the song is almost entirely crafted by the SEVENTEEN members, an atypical move for an English release from a K-Pop group. English tracks tend to be waterlogged in Western producers, drowning out the original feel of the group that sings them, but that’s not the case with this first English song from SEVENTEEN. If anything, “2 MINUS 1” sees Vernon and Joshua absolutely thriving, in a way that feels both like a natural follow-up to their previous duet “ROCKET" and like a step in a brand new direction.
Attacca is a testament to SEVENTEEN’s ever-expanding talent. SEVENTEEN is a group made up of 13 renaissance men: there seems to be nothing they can’t do at this point. From delivering one of their most unexpected concepts yet to expanding their self-produced repertoire to blurring the lines between what it means to be a dancer or a rapper or a vocalist, SEVENTEEN truly seems to be in a league of their own.