Earth, Wind & Fire

Earth, Wind & Fire borrows a legendary funk band's name as a mood signal and then does something wilier than pastiche: it channels that band's buoyancy through Korean rap-pop economy rather than horn-section maximalism. The groove is springy and percussive, built on a bright clipped guitar riff, hand-claps placed just off the grid, and a bassline that struts more than it grooves, with retro synth stabs punctuating rather than dominating. The vocal approach is playful and elastic — rap verses delivered with a grinning cadence and rhythmic hiccups, the hook chanted communally so it feels like a crowd rather than a soloist. Emotionally this is the sunny counterweight to the group's melancholy side: infatuation as elemental force, a lover described in cosmic terms with tongue firmly in cheek, the hyperbole itself part of the joke and part of the sincerity. HOW? was the album where BOYNEXTDOOR proved their range beyond the wistful-boy register, and this is its proof of athleticism. It belongs to bright mornings, the first genuinely warm day of spring, or any moment you need three minutes of unembarrassed buoyancy.