Quick Reviews: NewJeans does Imagine Dragons for League Of Legends anthem “GODS”
When NewJeans were announced as the artist doing the League Of Legends Worlds 2023 Anthem, I had to laugh a bit imagining like Faker walking out to a club beat with mellow vocal stylings over it like he was shuffling along outside on a bright Spring day instead of heading into the arena for an epic competition. That said, it did make me curious as to how NewJeans would handle going against type in an anthemic song, and “GODS” provided something of an answer. If you’re familiar with League Of Legends anthems by now, then “GODS” won’t have many surprises for you, as it’s one of those epic tracks that seems almost generically produced to be epic, thus making it not as epic. The pounding beat and some snare were fine enough, but I wish it pulled something from NewJeans’ sound and upped the tempo or snare involvement or made the choir chanting a regular thing to break the monotony a bit. Anything but making them do a sound that was relatively anonymous. In the end, “GODS” is very much like NewJeans does Imagine Dragons, and they do acquit themselves better than I expected vocally even if they’re clearly shoehorned into this track due to their popularity more than necessarily actually being an appropriate fit for it. More disappointed in the production choices regarding tempo and the lack of a catchy hook than anything else. Honestly, more than the song itself, the narrative of the animation involving Deft and Faker’s journey over the years, with DRX’s David taking down T1’s Goliath last year, was the far more interesting thing about this release. [embedded content]
ChinaGoSmart CGS 
When NewJeans were announced as the artist doing the League Of Legends Worlds 2023 Anthem, I had to laugh a bit imagining like Faker walking out to a club beat with mellow vocal stylings over it like he was shuffling along outside on a bright Spring day instead of heading into the arena for an epic competition. That said, it did make me curious as to how NewJeans would handle going against type in an anthemic song, and “GODS” provided something of an answer.
If you’re familiar with League Of Legends anthems by now, then “GODS” won’t have many surprises for you, as it’s one of those epic tracks that seems almost generically produced to be epic, thus making it not as epic. The pounding beat and some snare were fine enough, but I wish it pulled something from NewJeans’ sound and upped the tempo or snare involvement or made the choir chanting a regular thing to break the monotony a bit. Anything but making them do a sound that was relatively anonymous.
In the end, “GODS” is very much like NewJeans does Imagine Dragons, and they do acquit themselves better than I expected vocally even if they’re clearly shoehorned into this track due to their popularity more than necessarily actually being an appropriate fit for it. More disappointed in the production choices regarding tempo and the lack of a catchy hook than anything else.
Honestly, more than the song itself, the narrative of the animation involving Deft and Faker’s journey over the years, with DRX’s David taking down T1’s Goliath last year, was the far more interesting thing about this release.
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