CLOSE YOUR EYES took a track called “SOB,” invited Grammy-winning producer Imanbek onto an awards stage, added forty-two dancers, and behaved as if rookie scale limits were merely a rumor.
Performance: 2025 Korea Grand Music Awards
Artist: CLOSE YOUR EYES with Imanbek
What I watched: Official KGMA mega-crew performance video
The performance
My actual first reaction
First thought: Oh, they brought a nightclub evacuation drill to an awards show.
Sound check: Fast, dark EDM with a beat that never waits for permission.
The moment I leaned in: The full crew hits and the stage suddenly looks too small.
The side-eye: Forty-two dancers can make seven members disappear if the camera gets lazy. It occasionally does.
Current status: Added. This is gym music for people who hate the gym.
Song first: the beat is doing most of the flirting
“SOB” does not waste time pretending it came to confess its feelings. Imanbek builds it for motion. The bass arrives early, the synths stay sharp, and the chorus works because it can survive inside a crowd. This is not a vocal showcase. It is a pressure test.
That choice fits CLOSE YOUR EYES better than I expected. Their earlier material leaned dreamy, sentimental, and polished. “SOB” drags them into a darker room and asks whether their identity survives the lighting change. Mostly, yes. The younger voices keep a little brightness in the track, while Minwook gives the delivery enough bite to stop the production from swallowing everybody.
The song is repetitive. That is a feature until it becomes a complaint. The hook is built to hit in a venue, not reward ten pages of lyric analysis. I wanted one more melodic turn before the final push. I also replayed it immediately, so clearly the complaint did not save me.
Then the video: forty-two dancers and zero fear of clutter
This is a performance film rather than a story-driven music video, and it knows exactly what it has. Imanbek stays visible as a live DJ presence. The members work through rings, lines, and walls of dancers. The camera keeps trying to turn bodies into architecture.
The best moments happen when the mega crew supports the seven-member shape. The weaker moments happen when scale becomes the only idea. I know there are forty-two dancers. You do not have to remind me every eight seconds. Give the members a cleaner close-up, then unleash the crowd again.
Jang Yeojun looks especially comfortable in this kind of physical performance. Kenshin also deserves attention because he participated in choreography, while Minwook contributed lyrics. Those details matter. The group was not dropped into a producer’s concept and told to look expensive. They helped build the thing.
RaeRae verdict
The track is better as an event than as a headphone dissertation. That is fine. K-pop is audiovisual, and “SOB” understands the assignment. I wanted a little more song. I got a whole lot of stage. The stage won.
Replay: High
Best use: Night driving, cardio, and dramatic exits from rooms where nobody was bothering you.
Biggest complaint: Let the seven members own the frame before the forty-two dancers repossess it.
Keep digging
Meet CLOSE YOUR EYES, then read the pre-debut contract fight and the Jang Yeojun rumor clarification.