Home;Run

"HOME;RUN" is SEVENTEEN putting on a big band's clothes and finding they fit. The arrangement is a swing-jazz pastiche done with genuine affection: blaring horn section, walking bassline, brushed shuffle rhythm, a whole retro architecture that a K-pop group of this size can easily turn into costume drama but here plays as an act of joy. The baseball metaphor doubles as the emotional argument — you're going to swing, you might strike out, but the point is stepping up to the plate — which in late 2020 read as a very specific kind of consolation, offered to a listener stuck at home and running out of reasons to try. Vocally the track rewards the group's range: Seungkwan and DK go full brassy showman, Hoshi sells the theatrical bravado, and the rappers adapt to the swing feel with a jaunty, almost vaudevillian phrasing rather than fighting it. The production keeps the horns bright and forward and the low end warm, so it feels live-band rather than sampled. It's the sound of a room where everyone is dressed up with nowhere to go and decides to dance anyway. Best for the moment you're pulling yourself out of a slump — cleaning, cooking, deciding to leave the house after all.