Outsiders in K-Pop? WayV Relishes in the Freedom

Chinese idols rarely find the same success as their Korean counterparts. With “On My Youth”, WayV navigate their own lane.

It’s easy to feel like an underdog when you’re a WayV fan.

The group has never had the easiest time in K-Pop, notably because they are Chinese idols promoting in a country that has faced allegations of discrimination against Chinese citizens. But the most dangerous problems began in late 2021 when Lucas, the group’s rapper, went on an extended hiatus and group activities were suspended. “Phantom”, their 4th mini-album was released last year but the comeback didn’t feel like a true return to form. WINWIN, another rapper in the group, had a tight schedule to manage and could only promote with the group for a week. Lucas’ future in the group was still uncertain. It would be another eight months before Lucas announced that he would officially leave WayV, but whatever momentum the group had achieved felt hijacked by the scandal.

When WayV performed at KCON this year - incredibly, their first ever North American performance - there was a glimmer of hope that a new project was on the horizon. And finally, this week, it has arrived: “On My Youth”, the second full album of WayV’s career. It’s long overdue, and finally has the potential to usher a new era in for WayV, one that is not marred by their ex-members’ actions or by long breaks in between releases. 

“On My Youth” has a near-perfect precedent to follow: The group’s first album “Awaken the World” is one of the strongest pop releases of 2020. But the boys come close, if not surpass, their stellar debut album. “On My Youth” is a confident, thrilling album that emphasizes how much of an all-star team WayV is. They have two  of the best vocalists in NCT (WayV is a subunit of NCT) with Xiaojun and Kun, while their rap line is arguably one of the hardest hitting. Perhaps only Mark Lee can spit bars quicker and more adeptly than YangYang, the group’s fierce 23 year-old lead rapper. 

WayV is known for their big pop tracks: They are a boyband with a capital “B” and If you need proof, look no further than “Turn Back Time”, a song that absolutely explodes in the chorus. But the title track of this album is actually a slow burner. Here, the group takes a rare position in the K-Pop-adjacent realm as the boys call themselves the problem. “All those highs I stole from you/ It was really out of control/ But I want you to know the truth,” Kun sings in the pre-chorus. “Blame it on my youth,” Ten sings in his sorry-not-sorry defense, his voice rising to a falsetto that the instrumental mimics. This is a wiry song that sounds genuinely different for WayV, both because of it’s focus on vocals and because of the subject matter.

Things start to pick up with the one-two punch of “Poppin Love” and “Ain’t No Thang”, two songs that demonstrate why WayV have such strong harmonies. Poppin’ Love” particularly benefits from a key switch a little over two minutes into the song that Hendry and YangYang highlight with their rapping. ‘Ain’t No Thang” (unfortunate title aside) also has one of the most lush beats you’ll hear on any track in WayV’s discography. Their voices literally glide over the production.

WayV has never shied away from singing about mature (dare I say, age appropriate) topics in their music, and euphoria of love and the physical pleasure of love are the main themes of “On My Youth”. “When I’m with you, I feel off my face,” Kun admits in “Poppin’ Love”. “I’ll give it to you,” Xiaojun sings in a tongue in cheek moment of “Ain’t No Thing”. Then asks, “Ready?” 

Perhaps one of the reasons WayV has grown such a large international fanbase is that they are one of the few groups at SM who can sing openly about sex. At KCON, when the group sang “Love Talk”, the arena erupted shouting the song’s most risque lyrics, “Touch me/ Tease Me/ Feel me up.” 

Sex is ever-present on “On My Youth”, but never as bluntly as with album highlight “RODEO” performed by the group's rapline, Hendry WINWIN and YangYang. The beat is absolutely nasty but wait until you hear the lyrics. “From the window to the world,” Hendry raps in a sly reference to a filthy line from Lil’ Jon’s “Get Low”. But the song really lifts off at the chorus: “Make your head spin like a rodeo,” YangYang whispers ver an absolutely nasty beat drop.

But on first listen of “RODEO”, you will hear a different line, a clever phonetics error that I believe is intentional: “Make your ass spin like a rodeo.” It’s shocking but not out of step from a group who have always been given more of freedom to act their age. “No stress, I’m trying to please ya,” YangYang flexes in the second verse. “I play the lead/ The leader who breaks the rules.” 

It’s notable that “On My Youth” is largely produced by LDN Noise, a British songwriting and production duo whose work for SM’s SHINee (“View”) and f(x) (“4 Walls”) would become career-defining. LDN Noise’s contributions are arguably some of the group’s greatest: “RODEO”, “Ain’t No Thang”, “INVINCIBLE” and “MOONLIGHT”, which has one of the grandest openings of any song on this album. And it’s poignant, fitting even, that WayV have joined a class of performers who never fully fit into the idol system through their work with LDN Noise.

If there are any low points on this album it is, regrettably, with the vocal unit’s track “Lighthouse”. This is a track that is both conventional and safe, which is disappointing after an album of heavy experimentation. It also does not come close to demonstrating the vocal lines’ strengths as performers: A ballad isn’t necessarily to do this because Ten, Kun, and Xiaojun serve hardest on pop tracks. 

If this sounds like an unfair criticism of WayV, know that they’ve never been a group who play things safe. Perhaps this is because WayV hasn’t been given the luxury to coast like their K-Pop colleagues. They have always had to work harder and fight for more to stay afloat. Though they are members of NCT, the group has always existed as outsiders thanks to their Mandarin lyrics and Chinese identites. But maybe they use this to their advantage on “On My Youth”. Free of the burdens of being K-Pop darlings, WayV has released one of the finest albums of the year.