Review: Thrilling Production Helps Make Boyfriend's 'Bounce' The K-Pop Boy Band's Most Exciting Single Yet [AUDIO]

Since debuting in 2011, the six-man boy band Boyfriend have had major chart success by giving highly funkified hip-hop grooves the K-pop treatment.

If you accept this as an accurate representation of the formula that the group has been executing to perfection, than the group's new single "Bounce," released Monday as part of the group's fourth EP, has to be best example so far of Boyfriend's particular brand of Korean dance music.

With a stabbing horn riff reminiscent of classic '90s hip-hop, or more recently Jay-Z's Menahan Street Band sample in his 2007 seminal hit "Roc Boys (And The Winner Is)," melting into a somber keyboard figure recalling '80s electro acts like Pet Shop Boys or Tears For Fears, the production on "Bounce" packs a punch.

Though the vocalists are not breaking much new ground vocally, (even the title "Bounce" seems a bit surprising considering Korean pop icon Cho Yong Pil had a number one hit with the same title in 2013), you cannot deny the earnestness in their voices.

To keep it 100, one criticism that could be lofted in the group's direction is that the singers in Boyfriend, though clearly extremely gifted and skilled, seem to have not yet achieved the confidence to really let loose in the studio. But, where they do seem to achieve the level of fire breathing on the mic displayed by more seasoned recording acts is in their rapping.

When one of these six guys lets loose with some rhymes, you can't help be reminded of not only how skilled they are as MCs, but how the musical backdrop on "Bounce," as it is with many of their songs, is at its core, a great hip-hop beat.

While 1990s innovators like Mary J. Blige and Faith Evans married hip-hop to R&B indelibly by singing over what could by most standards be considered hip-hop beats, they found a balance though their talent, a balance between hooks, verses and guest rappers.

While there is no doubt this band has the talent and skill, they could get a lot more balance by adding more verses of rapping.

Listen to "Bounce" the new single by K-pop boy band Boyfriend RIGHT HERE

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Boyfriend
Bounce
Boyfriend In Wonderland
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