X

ONEUS lost its main vocalist to military service, found a bass line with suspicious confidence, and decided the correct response was to make Xion impossible to ignore.

RaeRae Reacts: X is bright funk-pop with new-wave edges, a chorus that arrives before you finish sitting down, and a four-member music video that never asks us to pretend Seoho is not missing.

What X is actually saying

The album title 5x combines the five members with an unknown variable. RBW’s official album description treats that variable as open space: strength, delicacy, experimentation, or whatever else the members decide to place inside it. The title track takes the idea and makes it flirtier. The speaker is drawn toward somebody who cannot be solved cleanly, so the uncertainty becomes the attraction.

This is not algebra with cheekbones. X is the person who keeps slipping out of the answer box. The lyrics keep returning to curiosity, being pulled closer, and wanting to discover what is behind the next expression. That is why the cyclical chorus works even when it irritates me a little. The song is designed to keep approaching the same mystery from another angle.

The song: bass first, drama in controlled doses

X opens with the chorus because patience was apparently cancelled. The bass riff does most of the personality work. It is rubbery, clean, and slightly smug. Guitar and percussion keep the track moving without stuffing every space. This matters because ONEUS can become extremely ornate when left near velvet, moonlight, or historical robes. Here, the production makes them survive on timing.

The pre-chorus is where the old ONEUS drama peeks through. The melody stretches, the harmony tightens, and the song briefly remembers that these men know how to stare into fate. Then the chorus returns to its little circular strut. I like the contrast. I also wanted one additional bridge or vocal escalation before the exit. At two minutes and fifty-one seconds, X leaves before anybody can accuse it of becoming complicated.

Keonhee carries the clean vocal center. Leedo’s singing voice remains one of K-pop’s best identity pranks because his soft melody sounds nothing like the basement-level rap tone people expect. Hwanwoong brings snap and rhythmic attack. Xion supplies the surprise. His tone is still lighter than the group’s main vocal line, but the placement is confident and the performance does not treat him like a decorative maknae.

The four-member question

Seoho enlisted in February 2025. He is not a minor texture in ONEUS. He is one of the voices that normally makes a chorus feel expensive. Fans were right to worry about the hole.

X does not imitate him. That was the correct decision. The producers wrote around the promoting four instead of assigning someone a fake Seoho job. Keonhee gets room to stabilize the vocals. Leedo moves between his two registers. Hwanwoong attacks rhythm. Xion receives enough responsibility to prove that his improvement was not imaginary. The absence is real, but the arrangement does not spend three minutes apologizing for it.

The music video: cool office, strange equation, excellent posture

The visual concept keeps the clean, graphic confidence of the song. ONEUS moves through controlled spaces, sharp styling, props that suggest calculation, and frames organized around the X motif. Lines cross. Bodies mirror. The camera repeatedly divides and recombines the four-member formation. The missing fifth space is not announced with a memorial candle, but the geometry lets you feel that the team has been rearranged.

This is also a Xion showcase whether the production meeting called it one or not. He is photographed like a member with narrative weight. Close-ups linger. His expressions land. The styling gives him enough edge to hold the frame without turning him into a different person. Years of visible growth finally receive adult lighting.

Hwanwoong predictably understands every camera position. Leedo sells the relaxed groove without underperforming it. Keonhee looks like the man responsible for keeping the melody and the office functional. Together, they avoid the biggest danger of a bright concept: nobody starts mugging as proof that the song is fun.

Easter eggs and small surprises

• The title math: 5x was built around five members multiplied by an unknown value, but the title promotion visually featured four because Seoho was serving. The concept accidentally gained a second equation.
• The repeating formations: mirrored poses and crossing lines turn X into both a letter and a traffic pattern. The members keep meeting at the center before separating again.
• Xion’s placement: the youngest member is not parked at the edge. His position keeps answering the era’s unspoken question about who would absorb more visibility.
• The lack of subtitles: international fans immediately complained that the official upload did not restore consistent English subtitles. The global audience should not need a scavenger hunt for a title track’s meaning in 2025.
• The album still remembers five: Seoho can be heard on Love Me or Loser, even though X and its promotions were constructed around the available four.

Where the criticism is fair

Some listeners said X could have been released by another smaller fourth or fifth-generation boy group. I understand the complaint. The groove is fashionable, the arrangement is lean, and the chorus does not carry the unmistakable traditional or theatrical stamp of Luna, Lit, or Same Scent.

My counterargument is less romantic. A group identity cannot survive by repeating its most recognizable costume. X sounds like ONEUS because of the vocal distribution, performance precision, and the way drama leaks into the pre-chorus even when the bass wants a casual afternoon. Still, I would not hand this song to a stranger as the only explanation of ONEUS. It is a successful side road, not the capital city.

RaeRae verdict

X is light on its feet, properly produced, and smarter about Seoho’s absence than I expected. The chorus is catchy enough to become mildly annoying, which is often the admission price for replay value. It needed one more musical surprise. It did not need another minute of filler.

Most importantly, this comeback lets the promoting four look like a functioning unit instead of a group waiting for the real lineup to return. Xion wins the era. Hwanwoong keeps the stage sharp. Keonhee protects the vocal spine. Leedo continues being two men in one throat.

Keep digging

Start with the full ONEUS group profile. Then meet Seoho, Leedo, Keonhee, Hwanwoong, and Xion. Related news and contract updates are collected through the ONEUS tag.

Receipts: ONEUS Japan official site · Bugs album credits · Official 5x album description via Yes24 · OSEN track list report