ONE OK ROCK ‘Taking Off’ Song Review

You know what? I kinda liked this track, is that a bad thing? Well I hope not at least. Going into my first listen, it’s safe to say I knew not one thing about the group ONE OK ROCK, but now I want to listen to a little more, is that a bad thing too? Again, I hope not. Is this track amazing? No, not really, but the fundamentals are well executed and I liked some of the ideas being thrown about here; they’re like a Japanese, ‘roided up version of As It Is. Weird stuff…

Production wise the track is solid enough for me not to be too critical. The guitar tones are the driving force for this track to me, they seem pretty well balanced in the mix with a sweet ass distortion. The bass is a little thin but it’s strong enough to cover the low end fairly well. The drums are a little thin too, but again they cover enough of the spectrum for me to be happy. The snare in particular sounded really well mixed so that’s always a plus. The vocals however are a touch over produced for me; it made listening to the individual words very difficult. This could be fault of the singer but I kind of think the production is just as much to blame.

Musicality wise the song is functional, but strangely catchy. The guitars have this epic sound in the chorus with some great harmonies being introduced to bolster the stereo field. The drums have some tasty fills too, with some transitions really hitting me hard; that’s what I want to hear from a rock track yes indeedy. The bass is largely strummed which is a little dull but then hundreds of groups do this and I can’t fault them individually if that’s just their thing. The vocal performance is both very strong and a little nullified at the same time. Although they are powerful and showcase a good range, but the diction of each word is almost non-existent; I must of made out like three words throughout the track. The form of the song is the biggest irritant to me. This track was crying out for a huge bridge to build to a massive climax, but we got neither. We got the stereotypical ‘hush’ time bridge where the instrumentation thins right down just for the vocalist to continue singing the chorus; I hate this approach and it needs to stop, what happened to guitar solos my dudes!

Lyrically the song is pretty weak and cliche but they never get too annoying. It would of been nice to hear some more intelligent phrasing, especially in the big old chorus, but unfortunately we can’t always have what we want. I will say the vocal melody is catchy though; the way the words are delivered sticks true in my head.

Overall then, this track isn’t that great, heck it’s not even that good, but it is catchy. It might resonate with others far stronger, but then it might hit all the wrong strings with a different crowd too; it’s very much a subjective track. I personally thought it was okay, but I can see why others might hate it. I’d say, listen to it yourself and see what you think, that’s usually the best approach.

5/10 – Pretty good, pretty bad, pretty okay, difficult to sum up really.