CORTIS – MARTIN, JAMES, JUHOON, SEONGHYEON, and KEONHO – arrive restless, loud, and with zero interest in being tidy. COLOR OUTSIDE THE LINES, their debut EP – and the first boy band launch from BIGHIT MUSIC in six years – doesn’t smooth itself into the usual K-pop polish. Instead, it leans into edges: five teenagers chasing instincts in real time, throwing thrift-shop grit against haute couture ambition, scribbling ideas that sound half-born and half-genius, like a broadcast from the middle of figuring it out.

The chaos has intention, though. “We put a lot of thought into the direction of our sound,” JUHOON tells us. Every detail was fair game: the lyrics, the choreography, even the colour scheme of the LP sleeve. That might sound obsessive, but it’s what gives the record its bite. Five sets of opinions could have cancelled each other out; instead, the friction kept the songs alive, every choice landing like it mattered.

Even their name – a direct lift from “Color Outside the Lines” – is less slogan than method. For them it means throwing out the idea that pop has to be sleek or linear, and seeing what happens when you run with the reckless version of a thought. It’s what lets thrifted jeans stand on the same pedestal as Cheongdam couture. It’s what makes a scrappy guitar riff bleed into a rap verse, unbothered if the edges line up.

Take “What You Want,” the lead single. It doesn’t open the door politely – it barges in with psychedelic guitar and boom-bap drums, its shouts half-hook, half-chaos. Teezo Touchdown’s fingerprints are there too, bending the track toward excess, but never in a way that feels borrowed. Unruly by design, it’s a debut single that sounds like it’s daring you to say it’s too much.

“FaSHioN” plays the brat. One moment it’s obsessed with flea-market racks in Dongmyo, the next it’s fantasising about Met Gala flashbulbs. It’s tongue-in-cheek, but it’s also dead serious – a manifesto that thrift finds can flex harder than a runway fit if you wear them with conviction. In a genre that often aims at glossy aspiration, CORTIS turn the hierarchy inside out.

“GO!” is the adrenaline hit, a song that seems to sprint faster than its own production, refusing to breathe. Its shouted lines – “I’m on the new shit” – are less chorus than dare. By contrast, “JoyRide” slides into breezier alt-rock, giving a glimpse of the group in cruise mode, while “Lullaby” drifts off into woozy psychedelia. Ending the project without resolution feels deliberate: they’d rather leave threads dangling than tie them into something neat.

Put together, the EP plays like a portrait of identity not yet settled, and not planning to be. The five voices don’t merge into one shade; they bounce off each other. That’s the gamble, and the thrill, of CORTIS’ debut: the refusal to present themselves finished.