Wonho – Syndrome

Five Years In: A Full-Length Arrival

Released October 31, 2025

Reviewed by Vera Von Monika

Five years into his solo career, Wonho releases Syndrome - his first full-length album and a definitive statement of artistic maturity. After leaving MONSTA X in 2019 and steadily building his solo identity through EPs and singles, this album feels like both arrival and consolidation: a cohesive body of work that traces the emotional arc of love through three distinct phases - ONSET (the pulse of beginning), FEVER (surging heat), and FALLOUT (its reverberations).

The album opens with if you wanna, the title track and a pop/R&B statement of intent. Built on resilient bass, tight drums, and synths that create a clean, minimal groove, the track delivers its message with disarming directness: “If you want, let’s get closer now.” There’s no rush, no excess. Instead, Wonho builds an atmosphere - intimate, textured, and emotionally intentional - letting his voice guide the entire mood with understated sensuality. The restraint itself feels like a declaration, as if he’s speaking in low tones meant only for the listener.

Fun follows with lightness and ease, a brief moment of levity before Maniac arrives - a sharp contrast and one of the album’s most vibrant moments. There’s playful boldness here, a willingness to stretch his clean-cut image and step into something more unexpected. It’s energetic without losing refinement, a reminder that his artistic curiosity is very much alive.

As the album slips into its reflective core, DND unfolds like a soft exhale, while Scissors cuts through with emotional precision. At The Time leans into clarity rather than melodrama, allowing nostalgia to surface without indulgence.

The production remains crisp, almost cinematic, highlighting both the warmth of his vocals and the deliberate pacing of the album’s emotional progression.

Better Than Me - a pre-release single from June 2025 - introduces a different texture: a modern pop structure wrapped in early-2000s sentiment. It’s familiar but never derivative, polished without losing sincerity. Beautiful offers a moment of affirmation before Good Liar, another pre-release from October, emerges as the album’s emotional anchor. There’s vulnerability in his delivery, a raw, wounded honesty that feels both exposed and meticulously controlled. This is the FALLOUT phase made tangible.

On Top Of The World closes the album with quiet resilience - a full-circle return to confidence after navigating love’s complexities. It’s neither triumphant nor defeated, just steady, grounded, and certain.

What ties Syndrome together is authorship. Wonho’s involvement in writing and composing doesn’t just appear in the credits - it’s audible in the cohesion of the record. This is not an album trying to impress through force. It’s crafted with intention, shaped by someone who knows exactly what he wants to say and how he wants to sound at this moment. After five years of singles and EPs, this full-length arrival feels earned, not rushed.

The result is a record that refuses to be loud for the sake of being heard. Instead, it draws you in slowly, with a sincerity that lingers long after the last track ends. Syndrome is a mature step: confident, self-aware, and quietly powerful. It shows an artist who doesn’t chase momentum, he creates it.

Rating: ★★★★½ (4.5/5) - intimate, cohesive, and fully realised.