&team: The First Howling: Now Comeback In-depth Review

Hello everyone, and welcome back to another review! For this review, we’ll dive deep into &team’s first full album titled, The First Howling: Now. We’ll analyze the title track music video, “War Cry,” and their second promotional music video for the album, “Dropkick.” Before I get into the review, I want to take a look back at who &team is, as I realize it’s important to discuss these bands before going into their music. I mention the members’ names in my discussions, and I realize many people might not know who I’m talking about. With all that said, let’s get into &team.

How &team was formed

&team is a group under Hybe Japan’s label, the first Japanese boy group under Hybe. Initially, the group had four members; EJ, Taki, K, and Nicholas from their other competition show I-Land (which formed Enhypen). The rest of the members were formed on a television series called “&Audition: The Howling,” and were put to the test under many criteria and challenges. This show was unique in its judging system because if the trainees didn’t fill their moon by the end of the show, they wouldn’t be able to debut. Luckily, they successfully filled their moon, and the viewers voted in the final members of &team.

Basic Info

Debut Date: December 7th, 2022

Debut song: Under the Skin

Concept: Werewolves (Their storyline includes a webtoon and music videos and is heavily aligned with the group Enhypen).

Fandom Name: LUNÉ

Number of Members: 9

Members

EJ (Leader, born 09/7/2002)

Fuma (Sub-leader, born 06/29/1998)

K (born 10/21/1997)

Nicholas (born 07/9/2002)

Taki (born 05/4/2005)

Yuma (born 02/7/2004)

Jo (born 07/8/2004)

Harua (born 05/1/2005)

Maki (born 02/172006)

My bias line: Nicholas, EJ, and Fuma

War Cry MV and Song in Review

Release Date: Nov. 15th, 2023

A nod to emo punk rock, “War Cry,” took my heart by storm. As soon as this music video starts—with all of the members in dance formation in an abandoned building and Nicholas front and center with his sick rap beats—I knew I was going to fall in love with this song.

The song itself has that classic emo-punk rock genre that I love-- a genre we are used to seeing with &team by now. This type of music fits their Werewolf concept beautifully because a lot of themes in their songs are about feeling like an outsider in their normal life. They feel pushed, shoved, and bullied to the point of breaking because of who they are. All of these themes suit this genre perfectly, so I wasn’t surprised to hear this type of sound from &team. But for some reason, the quality of this song and the power of their vocals hit me differently. I was immediately hooked from the start, and even though the song itself is on the shorter side, I fell in love with this title track. It’s a track that is all about the boys finally coming together as one pack, and the “War Cry” is their call to become one. “War Cry" is a song that showcases their vocals in a new light, as we get amazing falsetto vocals to mimic their howling and intense rapping. Normally, with &team, most of the rap lines come from Nicholas and EJ, but this time we got them from multiple members, which was great to see. We got to see more of a range with their vocals, and I hope in the future we get to see a behind-the-scenes recording from them. I would love to see how they record their songs and hear their natural voice before mixing since their vocals have improved so much since The Howling.

The music video for “War Cry” matched the song to perfection, from grunge-rock styling to a simple color story of sharp red, white, black, and blue. Most of their videos are produced or created by a studio called DIGIPEDI, under the direction of Seong Wonmo. Seong Wonmo has a beautiful style of directing, filming, and editing, and to me, they are the perfect duo. Their music videos together have been some of the most stunning music videos I’ve seen since getting into K-pop, even though &team is a Japanese group. You can tell the differences between J-pop and K-pop music videos from the editing to the story.

From the beginning, most of their title track music videos have been very heavy on the storyline, and they usually promote a b-side track with more of a performance-style video. But they did a little something different with “War Cry,” which focused more on the performance and lyrics as the form of the storyline. Even though this was something different from &team, I still enjoyed the music video because it was edited so beautifully and still felt very &team. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed both the music video and song for “War Cry.” I still think “Firework” is my favorite music video from them, but I still enjoyed this comeback and have been listening to it non-stop since it came out.

Dropkick MV and Song in Review

Release Date: Nov. 29th, 2023

“Dropkick” is a completely different beast than “War Cry" in both the music video and sound. This song was produced by Ryan Tedder, who has been making headway in producing many great K-pop tracks and is now moving into J-pop. It has more of that pop quality, but again, it isn’t something we aren’t used to seeing from &team. This group likes to play with genres, but I feel that they have two sides to them: emo-punk rock and up-tempo pop songs. “Dropkick” is that classic pop song, whereas “War Cry” is your classic emo-punk rock song. But, both songs have a similar meaning in terms of storyline. “War Cry” is about finally coming together as one pack, and “Dropkick” is a song about the pack promising to never leave each other. It is a song that is easy to listen to and one that will get you dancing, with that bit of catchy Ryan Tedder flavor mixed in.

The music video is again very simple and showcases more of their dancing rather than their storyline. The only bit of storyline we get is that &team is on a rugby team together, also called “Nightball” in &team world. There are two main sets, which are the "Nightball" field and a car wash setting. To me, the car wash set was a bit random but still fun as we got to see more of their perfectly synchronized dancing. The styling was even brighter than what we’re used to seeing from them, as they wore their “Nightball” outfits and fun, bright 90s styling at the car wash. When looking at the director of this music video (Kim Intae @AFF_1844), as it is not directed by Digipedi, you can tell the differences in directing style. All in all, this was a bright and fun pop music video, which is something we don’t get too often with a b-side track MV from this group.

Other Songs on the Album; The First Howling: Now

Release Date: 11/15/2023

This full-length album is a collection of their entire discography plus four new songs in total, so I won’t get into too much detail with each song. I will briefly describe some of my favorite tracks, along with the new songs, and bold and star them to indicate my favorites.

Songs in Order:

New Songs:

チンチャおかしい (Really Crazy) -- A cute, easy-listening track that has a bit of a disco feel to the melody. Despite the title of this song, I wasn’t too crazy about it when I first heard it. But I liked that they had two softer pop songs to add to the hard-hitting title tracks.

規格外 (ALIEN) -- A vibey pop song, one that you could listen to on a drive to the beach. This is more chill than the other new releases on this album. But, it pairs well with the other two hard-hitting tracks at the start of the album.

Older Songs:

*Firework -- Probably one of my favorite music videos and songs from &team. When this song came out, I instantly fell in love with this 80s synth-pop song. The music video is stunning and the dance is spectacular, if you don’t believe me watch both the original music video and the Korean vers. performance video (which I will provide here at the end of this post). While I’ve been an &team fan since the beginning, this song proved to me why I stan them.

*Road Not Taken -- Another song that stole my heart but matches more of the vibe of “War Cry.” It showcases that 90s emo-grunge vibe that they do so well but is slower in melody. Another beautiful performance video and one of the best dances I’ve seen from a group when I thought that was Firework.

月が綺麗ですね (The moon is beautiful)

Blind Love

*Under the skin -- This was probably the most beautiful debut song and music video I have seen from a group in a long time. I didn’t know what to expect when they released this debut and was honestly floored. It has the vibe of emo-grunge pop and angst mixed with an effortless storyline. Again, this was their debut and they continue to put out great songs that almost top this one.

*Scent of you -- A fun performance song with a bit of 90s funk and R&B. This was a great performance video to come off of “Under the skin” with a completely different vibe but still showcases their amazing dance style.

バズ恋 (BUZZ LOVE)

War Cry (Korean vers.)

Firework (Korean vers.)

Scent of you (Korean vers.)

These last couple of songs were original songs from &audition: the howling that they made into &team versions

The Final Countdown (&team vers.)

Melody (&team vers.)

*Running with the Pack (&team vers.) -- Another fun song that showcases their rock side, it has a hard-hitting beat mixed with perfect vocals and fun rap lines.

All in all, I have grown to love &team even more so than when I first started watching their pre-debut. Even though they have only been together for a year, they continue to put out great music and stunning music videos to match. I have always said that I still feel like they’re vastly underrated and that more people should pay attention to them. They have some of the best title tracks out there, but I still feel like they aren’t a band that gets talked about a lot on Youtube. However, they are fast becoming one of my favorite groups, and I guess you could technically say that they are an ult. group since they are considered to be J-pop and not K-pop. I think because I have been with this band since the very beginning, they hold a special place in my heart. I am so proud of them and can’t wait to see what the future holds for them. They recently announced their first Asia tour and I hope that means they’ll be coming to the States sometime next year.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this in-depth review of &team, and happy first anniversary to &team! I have ordered this album, but it won’t be coming until January because it’s really hard to get J-pop albums in the States. Look forward to an unboxing on my socials as soon as it arrives. For my next blog, look forward to an in-depth review of Enhypen’s mini album, Orange Blood.

Thank you for reading!

Music Videos and Dance Practices to Watch