ZB1's 6th EP
Not to mention, Gunwook is a writer and producer for one of the songs. A member getting to contribute to the group's releases three years into their career is sort of not the norm. Depending on who you ask about artist contributions and such, but that's beside the point. Also, the title track that released back on the 18th was called "Top 5"...my god. Even worse, was "Top 5" being 2:27 in length, sweet merciful fuck.
Ascend- started off in the midst of what was often mislabeled as a disbandment. Since labels and executive figures want to maximize how much hype or "buzz" to squeeze from a fanbase, no word on ZB1's future from late 2025 into earlier this year 2026 was made until before their "farewell concerts". Things were pieced together from Matthew and Gunwook gaining exclusive contracts with WK1 from MNH and Jellyfish, and then a leak of the farewell concert in Seoul to the announcement that ZB1 is continuing as 5.
Let's get into Ascend- and how it did the group mostly right.
Let's get this out of the way one last time. Brands and names take way longer to claim and copyright than anyone, especially the label executives, want. Any change to the group name or the brand would take too much time for the labels when, let's be real, they just want to get this shit moving again. And despite what little promo the group is afforded, the name stuck for close to three years when the group change happened. Sentimentality means fuck all to the executives when there's business at hand. But speaking of business at hand...
"Top 5" once it was released, a day before Ascend-, felt different than the promo which began circulating on the 13th. Here's what happened. Early in the morning of the 13th, accounts on Instagram began using a preview of "Top 5" overlaid with the group's picture on it. This is the time worth mentioning who had a hand in the EP besides the usual suspects in 153/Joombas, Jamfactory and Galactika.
The intro and "Top 5" had hands from Jeremy Dussolliet (Kinetics), Tim Sommers (One Love) & Naebird who both had a hand with Madison Beer's latest album, locket and the first charting single in Madison's career, "bittersweet". One Love also made "Beat It Up" by NCT Dream. no2zcat had a hand in "The Chase" and Ben Samama had a hand in aespa's "Rich Man" and a TXT solo track, "Bird of Night" by Taehyun. However, there's two tracks by Wonho that spelled out what the title track sounded like.
Kinetics and One Love also made "Beautiful" and "If You Wanna" for Wonho's Syndrome album. Emphasis on "If You Wanna" because "Top 5" sounds damn near the same. To be fair to the producers, at least you happened into a sound that the internet describes as late 90s/early 00s R&B. Of course what the internet means is R&B flavored pop music from 2003 to 2008, much like what FLO based their sound off of from The Lead to Access All Areas.
"Top 5" itself is a banger. That of course renders the decision to make it 2:27 a fucking headache. Some notable gripes about the song include the title being off and that even in a 2:27 song, just a scoche of laziness happened with the lyrics. "Well what sounds lazy in it?" you ask, well the fact that these are considered lyrics:
"Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh/ Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh"
Fun fact: that bit occurs TWICE. A song that goddamn short and there's still not even a full attempt at writing? Fuck all the way off. The stylistic switch by the way was not an issue as there was still identity to the group. The problem is that the effort was just not there.
As for the song title, it's probably splitting hairs as to what it should be called. It's called "Top 5", hey whatever fine. Rebrand announcement in a song title isn't anything new; just ask Sugababes fans about "Change" with the 3.0 lineup. Considering what gets repeated in the song "Top 5" could've easily been called "Last Night" or "Make Me Feel Like".
"Top 5"/"Last Night" does feel slightly more punchy and complete than most songs with a microwavable TikPop length. Then again, the problem with the song's structure is that it was made for some tacky dance challenge in mind. Nothing sounds like a chorus, just the "dance challenge" portion. However, Taerae and Hanbin each get to shine on what could be a post-chorus. The fact they trade off with each other both times helps the listener feel like a 2 minute song feels complete. Well, "better made" than most others.
The biggest strength of ZB1 is the fact that they're all singers. Of course that wasn't utilized to its fullest potential on "Top 5", but of what vocals we did get, Jiwoong showed fantastic contrast between syrupy vocals and a "technically not rapping but definitely not singing but still pleasing" part of the song. Gunwook got to show off slightly more rapping ability than previous ZB1 songs permitted. Hanbin continues to showcase his disciplined and adept mid-range vocals. Matthew kind of got a raw deal, but from the 1:57 to 2:05 mark (8 seconds), his vocals do come through. Taerae again shined the brightest, but a member should not be having a highlight of their career coming from a 2:27 song.
The most unique part of Ascend- is "Customize", a song that a member of the group wrote and produced for the EP. At the age of 21, Gunwook in three years got something most artists/idols/singing, dancing KPOP people, don't get in any amount of time for their career. Not to mention, "Customize" was premiered at KCON Japan on May 10th...ahead of the title track.
Looks are deceiving when it comes to Gunwook and his appeal and it's something that's been following him since Boys Planet. It's not like his original non-commercial released songs "Placebo" and "Day After Day" were any indication as to what he could do here. Shit, not even the songs he covered on ZB1's official YouTube channel indicated what this song was gonna end up sounding like. His taste in covers is vast if entirely questionable in some places like covering Post Malone, ranging from "Get You" by Daniel Caesar and Kali Uchis to "Is This Love?" by XG.
"Customize" does show that Gunwook's ear gravitated to pop-rock the day he did the "Tomboy" stage on Boys Planet. It also shows his observant nature as this was clearly made with the members in mind. It's also an outlier on a 6 track EP not counting the intro. Ascend- mainly gives off R&B flavored pop, but "Customize" does remind certain listeners that the early 00s was also a playground for pop-rock flavored numbers.
What "Customize" needed to be was a bit bolder in its production. Arena rock might be beyond a 21 year-old's frame of reference, but there's certain stage elements that can be evoked through production. A screeching guitar outro, "punchier" vocals when they do come up, or maybe with how rock flavored it ended up being, maybe put as the closer to help with sequencing. Yeah we'll get there.
The remaining tracks "V for Vision", "Exotic", "Changes" (and here I thought the Sugababes 3.0 reference was a bit out there) and "Zero to Hundred" do right by the group. However, there's certain things within each track that spells out what Ascend- got right and what's considered trendy for the sake of being trendy.
"V for Vision" is a step in the right direction sound wise, but shines in the chorus. The verses feel a bit remedial, like 2008/2009 club music that gets played at a high school prom in the States. It is again when the group sings that things get good. This in part ties into what the internet thinks a certain genre is, versus what it actually invokes. 90s/00s R&B or R&B flavored pop music has far more vocal directions than what KPOP directs the group or artist in question. It's also a genre that does not lend itself toward being reduced for sub-3:00 runtimes, just for the sake of "streaming optimization"/being a hit on streaming or more bluntly, something those damn TikTok people might like.
"Exotic" is a dance banger that should not be under three fucking minutes. Even with the slight non-sung elements (like that damn "one time for the one time" style chant) that snuck its way in the song, this is for those who loved "SWEAT" from You had me at Hello. Because it's closer...not by much...but still closer to 3:00 in its runtime, perhaps this should've been the comeback track.
"Changes" thankfully changes things for the best as it's A) LONGER THAN 3:00 even if it's 3:12 and B) shows off Vocalbaseone. Jiwoong's syrupy vocals opening the song was the perfect move. In terms of sequencing, this could have been the closing track. It's not like a lynchpin ballad closing out a "90s/00s R&B" album was uncommon.
"Zero to Hundred" just from the title alone should've been the opener to Ascend- which by this point reveals how useless the intro actually was. I mean Youth in the Shade had "Back to Zerobase", and "Zero to Hundred" would've acted as a better primer for what was to come, but again...you know, make a "Top 5" and all. As for the song itself, I sort of get why it's the closer (not a "downer" moment) but again, this is the energy the group needed to reintroduce themselves in the beginning.
There's no honest way of resequencing the EP that makes better sense other than scrapping the intro and just having "Zero to Hundred" as the opener.
As for Ascend- and ZB1 charting in the U.S. again, it could very well happen. However, temper your expectations now. We'll be lucky if this EP breaks the Top 20. The release isn't as scattershot as Blue Paradise was but it's not the fever pitch of Never Say Never. Temper expectations now but Ascend- could give the group another charting placement in the States. It might not be high, but it will be notable progress.
Overall, Ascend- is the release this group needed but somewhat got shortchanged on. Emphasis on short. I do not care nor make concessions for the modern music landscape. Short songs for a group that can actually sing is criminal, especially when a member is given the greenlight to write, compose and arrange a song. As with any release, imperfect or not, the highlights speak louder than merely the single. And in this EP's case, there's not a lot of moments it gets to speak loudly but when it's right, it's right.
Highlights:
- "Changes" 🏆
- "Exotic" 🥇
- "Customize" symbolically as Gunwook's first commercial release does show promise.
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