Here are my credentials (one last time): I actually don’t know much about Monsta X, but they’ve been on my list to cover for a while. I know a bit about the members—having covered Joohoney in my solo rankings series-–but pretty surface level things. I also have a friend who’s a huge fan of them (love you, Faith!), and so I elbowed her into letting me include some of her thoughts too. Let’s get into it!

(Part One) (Part Two) (Part Three)

EP #10: No Limit

There are songs that commit to their aesthetics / inspirations 100%, and then there’s songs like Rush Hour. Gay cowboys. That’s the vibe. It reminded me a lot of ATEEZ’s Wonderland. Opening with a whistling hook straight out of a Western, the song itself is fairly standard for Monsta X, a pinch of noise music, a dash of harmony, and a heavy dose of EDM mixed with pop. I really liked the final chorus with its added embellishments (as I’m wont to do, you’ve probably noticed by now), but the other choruses felt a little like they were missing something. Also I appreciated that the hook didn’t just open the song but was present throughout, which often isn’t true in kpop.

I think Faith put it best when she said, “Like Gambler, you can always tell when Honey produces something because he utilizes the line distribution to its fullest and combines different genres that should not work but do.”

From the EP, I enjoyed the creeping, sensual feel of Got Me In Chains, the acoustic I Got Love, and the desperate, dramatic Mercy, which was my hidden gem. “NO LIMIT album is a powerhouse despite being the first without Shownu [since] he was enlisted at the time,” Faith noted to me. I don’t think I liked it as much as she does, but I did think it was good.

Single #1: Kiss Or Death

I think we all have a song or two, that, no matter the intended meaning, connected deeply with us in some way because it just happened to catapult into our life at the right moment. For me that song is Bible by the metal band Ghost, despite not being at all Christian. For Faith it’s Kiss Or Death, which I wasn’t originally doing to review in this deep dive, actually, because this monster—pun very much intended—of a deep dive turned into a four parter. But then she told me of how much this track means to her, and so I decided to add it at the last minute.

As for my thoughts on the song itself, it feels like a Monsta X song from their earliest years but with far more polish and more mature vocals than they had back then, marrying EDM with synth. It doesn’t rank among my favorites of theirs, but it’s still nice to listen to. And the MV is a lot of fun, combining this very vintage, Murder-On-The-Orient-Express aesthetic with a very futuristic, Interstellar one. I’m sure a Monbebe could say better than me what the actual mystery is, but for now, I’ll just have to live in suspense.

Album #5: The Dreaming

One Day is, no cap, a lovely song, but I was completely surprised to hear it as a title track from Monsta X. Not only is it in English, but the lyrics are full of regret and a sense of all-consuming nostalgia that I honestly really liked. The vocals are at some of their best here, while the MV is so gloriously dramatic that you expect Jooheon to just appear out of nowhere, head in his hands—-oh, there he is. Nevermind. Funnily enough, after she’d finished giving her thoughts on other releases, Faith said, “Oh—I completely forgot about One Day!”, so apparently my thoughts are not universal.

From the album, the second all in English, I enjoyed the expansive, synthy sound of Whispers In The Dark, the jazzy interpolations and witty lyrics of About Last Night, and the haunting vocals of The Dreaming. Also, Blow Your Mind is another in a long line of their songs that makes me laugh because it doesn’t even bother with innuendo and instead goes “Come on, let’s get it on!” My hidden gem was the percussive, acoustic You Problem with its teasing lyrics and great moments of falsetto, and I’m pretty sure it’s Faith’s favorite too. I really loved this album; it may be my favorite of theirs.

EP #11: Shape Of Love

Love has a maximalistic, throw-everything-at-the-wall 90’s sound, with an irreverent tone to boot. The song mixes R & B and hip-hop, with a background instrumental that mixes piano and brass in a way that I wouldn’t have assumed would work, but really does. “Love has a Blackstreet feel to it that a lot of our Noir Monbebes went crazy for. The louis vutton outfits, all the gold, and smooth choreo,” Faith said.

I, in my teenage ignorance, asked if she meant Backstreet, as in the Backstreet Boys, and she explained that no, she didn’t. If you, like me, don’t know what the hell I’m talking about, Blackstreet are an African-American R & B group that have been making music since the 90s, and Faith was right; the song is very much inspired by their very smooth sound and mixing of new jack swing and soul, in a way that feels much more respectful and genuine than what they went for in Trespass. So, good for them! If you want to read more about Blackstreet, here’s a really good article I found that interviewed them just last year.

From the EP, I enjoyed the dance-floor ready Burning Up, the backing strings of Wildfire, and the catchy chorus of 사랑한다 (I Love You). It’s very different from The Dreaming, but still strong, leaning more on the R & B and hip-hop influences of the title with a hefty dose of synth thrown in. “It’s [got this] R&B west coast from the 90s vibe,” Faith commented.

EP #12: Reason

The incredible electric guitar riff that opens Beautiful Liar may make you think that you’re in for a bombastic first verse to keep you on your toes. But instead, the verses tiptoe along just on the edge of leaning into something more, while the build-up to the chorus is one of the best in their songs, at least by my opinion. The pay-off is a bit disappointing with so much to live up to, but I still enjoyed it a lot; the chorus takes a middle path between the more understated verses and the pre-chorus that’s slowly grown on me the more I listen to it.

“REASON was the third album without Shownu and before Minhyuk and [Jooheon] enlisted; It was the first time ever that Lee Minhyuk actually used a gym,” Faith said, likely laughing on her side of our text chain. From the EP, I enjoyed the horror movie esque edge of Daydream, and the return of the Wild West country influences in Lone Ranger, my hidden gem.

EP #13: The X

I admit it. I chuckled at the “incomingggg!!” opening of N The Front. And then was promptly distracted by whatever the hell was going on in the MV, which somehow managed to include a kidnapping, children doing taekwondo, and Shownu…sexily riding a mechanical bull in a hospital room? Okay. You’ve got to admire the range. Like with almost every Monsta X song, there are parts I liked and parts I didn’t. I loved the beat (you know a song has a great beat when you start bopping your head from the beginning) and of course the harmonizing, but the more trap and hip-hop heavy aspects weren’t really for me, especially in the chorus, where it felt like they killed some of the momentum. I’ve never been an anti-drop fan, and this song doesn’t change my mind. On the whole, though, I think it’s a good song (That bridge? Slaps.), and I’m sure it’d be electric in a life performance.

“I love the song, and [I love] the deeper layers in the MV,” Faith told me, noting specifically the commentary on growing up too early when striving for perfection (the kids and birthday cake) versus the idea that “life ends when you turn 25”, as she put it (the older woman in the hospital bed). I’m tempted to put all of her comments in here, but that would be a review in and of itself, so do yourself a favor and go watch the MV on your own.

From the EP, I enjoyed the jaunty piano of Savior, the surprisingly gentle Fire & Ice, and the vocal-driven, undeniably catchy (lol) Catch Me Now, my hidden gem. While not every song is my style, on the whole it’s quite strong, and I can appreciate how true to Monsta X’s sound it is.

Verdict: TL;DR

I’m glad I did this! Like I said, Monsta X have been on my list to cover basically since I started this blog, and honestly I’m happy I waited, because this way I got to cover them with Faith. Obviously big thanks to her, someone who has an actual career and a life, for taking time out of her day to give me paragraphs worth of opinions on Monsta X and for very patiently explaining how to tell the members apart for the umpteenth time. (“Is that…Minhyuk?” “…No.”)

On her recommendation, I watched a couple key performances, an episode of a radio show with Wonho and Jooheon, an episode of Monmukgo, and, as shown above, an episode of We Bear Bears that features the members playing themselves as hilarity ensues. Go watch it! Though I can’t consider myself a Monbebe, I can certainly consider myself a fan.

My Top 5 songs are Thriller, Gambler, She’s The One, Fighter, and Whispers In The Dark, with Beautiful Liar and N The Front as honorable mentions. Monsta X gets an 8.75 out of 10 from me. Though they’ve delved into many different sounds, I confess I’m not the biggest fan of one of their most crucial ones: the very 2010s bombastic hip-hop / EDM. While I do like it in some circumstances, and they do it as well as you really could, it’s just not the kind of music that’s for me. That being said, I really enjoyed this deep dive, not only because Faith came along but because they have such a diverse body of work and such strong albums. If we’re looking holistically and not judging based on opinion, I think they have one of the strongest discographies of the 3rd gen. I hope any Monbebes reading aren’t too disappointed that I haven’t been converted, but who knows? There’s still time.

Next time, we’re onto a girl group that’s also been on my list since the dawn of time and a soloist that I’m so excited to cover. Tschüss!