WAKE UP

Honestly, I like this less than Dark & Wild, which surprises me because I expected the opposite—it just feels way less edgy and impactful. It’s also weird that it doesn’t include all the same tracks and instead pulls from earlier EPs, which I did enjoy more than their debut, but it ends up feeling like a weird mismatch. I already liked the Korean versions of songs like “Jump” and “No More Dream,” so these Japanese versions feel unnecessary to me—I don’t see myself going back to them, especially since the lyrics don’t hit as hard when I don’t understand them anyway. Even comparing “Jump” specifically, I found the chorus way stronger in the Korean version. “Just One Day” is the same story. Tracks like “Line” just feel like recycled material I didn’t care for the first time, so hearing them again in a different language doesn’t help. Overall, this project just didn’t do much for me.