If you ever find yourself at a party standing near the mixers, and one remarkably trusting DJ invites you to change up his setlist, P1Harmony have got you covered. The six-member boyband have kept crowds riled up at festivals with their vibrant, energy-pumped music, as well as helping to establish some of the staple sounds of 4th Gen K-pop. Their latest mini-album, HARMONY: ALL IN, is filled with the group’s tried and true formula: intoxicating EDM and R&B goodness.
Having already collaborated with British band New Hope Club and American singer-songwriter Pink Sweat$, P1Harmony are making themselves known across the world. The boys received acknowledgement from the GRAMMYs recently when their name was on the list as one of the groups to watch in 2023. Their hits ‘Do It Like This’, ‘Back Down’ and ‘Doom Du Doom’ have amassed millions of streams and views, thanks to their unwavering talents and fiery performances. Besides selling out two US tours, the sextet have attended several huge overseas K-pop festivals in the last year, and, according to the volume of screams in the arenas, were the main event for many frenzied fans.
HARMONY: ALL IN is the third in their “HARMONY” series, in contrast to their first three mini albums, which were all named after “DISHARMONY”: appropriately following a theme of finding courage in a disharmonious world. Interestingly, they’re the only group to be introduced with a feature film during their debut (P1H: The Beginning of a New World), which showed off the members as six heroes fighting a virus to save the world. A deeper look into the lore of P1Harmony shines a new light on the meaning of their lyrics, and leads one to be curious about where they’re going next with the themes.
‘Jump’ is the newest addition to join P1Harmony’s line of addictive, dance-inducing title tracks. If the entire mini album can be likened to a party, then ‘Jump’ is the fever that gets even the shyest of dancers off their seats. The bassy, house-influenced beat in the chorus is hypnotic, commanding listeners to jump (or at the very least nod their head along.) It ends before you’ve had enough, and will undoubtedly be a hit with the crowd at concerts. The following track on the album ‘Love Me For Me’, then, is the perfect song to sober up to; the boys repeat ‘Nobody can love me like I do’ to a cheery piano melody in this self-love anthem.
‘New Classic’ and ‘Heartbeat Drum’ are the noisier, rap heavy siblings of ‘Jump’, which pick up where it left off. The former includes a gritty dubstep beat drop near the end, presumably giving the boys room for a show-stopping dance break when they unleash it on the stage in upcoming festivals and tours. ‘Heartbeat Drum’ is where the rappers really shine; when the members aren’t chanting along to a fully English chorus or encouraging you to ‘Unleash your human nature’, they’re spitting the most glorious verses you’ve ever heard. It’s pure, beautiful madness. By the time you’re at the final chorus, it feels well earned.
To give listeners a breather from the energetic anthems, P1Harmony reminds us all of their vocal skills in mellow tracks ‘More Than Words’ and ‘I Am You’. It’s a chance to truly show off their clear-as-water voices, and the transitions between chest voice and falsetto are seamlessly smooth. Both songs are romantic and easy on the ears, and ‘I Am You’ puts the harmony in P1Harmony, which is exactly why these tracks are the cooling ice floating atop the Long Island iced tea of K-pop albums. In short, HARMONY: ALL IN has got everything.
