Picheolin’s ‘Let’s Play’ Review: SEVENTEEN’s Dino is Vigorous With Debut But Limits It With 90s Music Approach

SEVENTEEN, the popular K-Pop boy group, has managed to keep its solo member debuts to a minimum, opting for multiple permutations of duo releases instead. So when one of its singers decides to make his way into the competitive music scene with an individual release, the expectations are high. The youngest one from the team, Dino (real name Lee Chan), has chosen to go ahead with the moniker Picheolin (Korean pun on the word "featuring") and dropped an album named “GilBOARD”. He spins the expectations to present a 

The title track, “Let's Play (prod. Hitchhiker),” takes to reinterpreting 1990s Korean street music and the traditional Korean feeling of "heung" (joy and excitement), presenting it in a joyous clip. Here, the lead star of the video goes around breaking a leg with the older generation, willing to target a different audience than the usual for his team. 

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It’s commendable for the 27-year-old to take on a challenge with this release as he abandons the typical fashion of content expected from a K-Pop star. Instead, he embraces his alter ego of Picheolin with dedication, charging ahead with flashy outfits and music that is far from reminiscent of any of his peers. 

That’s all the praise one can begin to heap on the new song, as despite being exploratory in its nature, there’s little that anyone from the world outside of its inspiration can enjoy. The beat comes off as more abrupt than experimental, making it difficult for the listener to keep track of. 

There are callbacks to SEVENTEEN’s performances and inside jokes which will appeal to Carats (fandom name), but a wider audience relevance seems unlikely with this release. Which, if thought about, seems alright for the singer himself as he takes on a new approach with this release. Marking his debut, Dino may wish to target K-Pop’s untapped audience via his new music, one that has seen results with ballad and trop singer Lim Young Woong.