Author: Zephyr

EXO — Tempo

EXO — Tempo

by Zephyr ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

 

 

Okay, so I know I said that this post would be about Stray Kids’ comeback, but EXO literally dropped their music video several hours ago and I’m going to give this priority. The review for ‘I Am YOU’ will be postponed to next week. For now, let’s get into a little background for the boy group!

EXO is a nine member boy group that debuted back in 2012. The original line up had 12 members, six in the Korean subunit and six in the Chinese, but due to a number of issues that I will not be covering them in this review, three members left the group and are now pursuing solo careers. The members that remain are D.O., Lay, Xiumin, Chanyeol, Sehun, Suho, Baekhyun, Chen, and Kai. Over the years, they have accumulated a pretty large (and passionate) fanbase through endless hard work, which is prominent in their performances. The media has gone as far as labelling them as kings of K-Pop, which is understandable. The boys have top-notch choreography, strong vocalists, and catchy raps—although for EXO, I think their vocals are a bigger strength compared to their rap.

I don’t follow them avidly or even regularly, but I do stay tuned for their comebacks, because more often than not they manage to surprise me with their creativity and concepts. Up until now, I think the most memorable comebacks I’ve tuned into include ‘Monster’ and ‘Ko Ko Bop’, and my biases (again, I’m not too passionate about them, but I have figured out my favorite members) are D.O. and Baekhyun purely based on their vocals. Anyway, onto the review!

 

Lyrics

I won’t include the lyrics this time, because English lyrics aren’t even on sites yet, but they are included as video captions, so I’m going based off those. Basically, the premise for this song is about the music of attraction, how a guy is so head over heels for this girl and her melody, and he has enough confidence in his own ability to draw her to let the world know not to mess up his tempo. He’s saying that the pace of their attraction is perfect and unique, that it can’t be found anywhere else, nor will the girl find anyone like him anywhere so she should take advantage of that attraction and be with him.

Frankly, I don’t find anything that really stands out about the lyrics. It’s a typical K-Pop love song and there’s nothing wrong with that; I do like the concept of explaining attraction and relationships in musical terms, because the development of relationships do follow a rhythm (sometimes nice, sometimes messy) and it was fine, simply put. For favorite lyrics though, I was able to pick one: “Look around, the Great Gatsby that’s watching you in the crowd”. I can always appreciate a reference to literary classics, and that line is no exception. Although seeing as Gatsby doesn’t have all that happy of an ending, they might want to reconsider that reference, just a thought.

 

Aesthetics

The aesthetics in this music video confused me a little bit, because I couldn’t really tell how any of it ties into their song. I suspect it was meant to encapsulate the album as a whole rather than just the title track, but the motorcycle visuals go over my head. I can’t say I understand the point of it, and that’s not meant to sound biased against EXO. There’s plenty of times with K-Pop artists that I have no clue what they’re go for.

All the different scenes were interesting and very disconnected from one another, but cool nevertheless. My favorite scene would be the interrogation room with Chanyeol; I like the setup of that particular room and I also appreciated the fact that they had Kai with an instrument, since the song is mostly about explaining the pace of relationships using musical terminology.

Fashion for this music video was great; every member looks stunning and I’m sure sticking Kai in a crop top had a more than a few fans swooning. I think Chanyeol’s look stood out the most for me since they added the blue contacts (I was caught off guard more than I care to admit, but he looks beautiful). As for choreography, it was good as always. EXO typically has stellar choreography, so I don’t have much to say about it coz nothing’s new. It’s good stuff as always.

 

Sound

Okay, so when I heard this song, it managed to confuse me more than the music video. The first verse began so abruptly, and felt incredibly disconnected from the rest of the song. It struck me as a bit messy sounding (I’ve listened to the song numerous times to really develop my thoughts, so none of these opinions are based on a first time listen). Once we hit the chorus, I felt more of a flow. The chorus itself is catchy and alright, but the deep voice effect they used later on was unsettling to listen to and throws off the feel of the song.

I really liked Sehun and Chanyeol’s parts, because they flowed well and after having listened to the track over and over, they stood out to me the most. I actually can’t stress how much I enjoy Chanyeol’s part; it fit the song perfectly, in my opinion. His flow, his voice, everything about that portion of the song was perfect for me.

The bridge is also a part I’d like to draw attention to as it slowed the track down and stripped away all instrumentals, replacing them with EXO’s a cappella skills (which was amazing, by the way). Their vocals are phenomenal, that really goes without saying. There needs to be more a cappella involved in K-Pop, so I think incorporating that section into the song was a brilliant touch.

 

 

Overall, I have mixed feelings about this comeback, but I do plan on listening to the rest of the album. Generally, with EXO albums, I tend to like their title tracks most, but there have been other songs off their albums that stand out to me, so I hope I can find one that stands out to me. Keep in mind that my opinions weren’t meant to offend anyone; these are just my honest thoughts and I tried to make sure I pointed out the things I felt they did well rather than nit-picking on what I didn’t like. With ‘Tempo’, there are aspects I really enjoy, however I also feel that there are elements of it that could have been better. It’s not my favorite comeback of theirs, but I’m sure the fandom is beyond excited for what they’ve released, so a big thumbs up to EXO for their effort and I’ll see them for their next comeback.

 

Thanks for reading!

— Zephyr

LAY — NAMANANA

LAY — NAMANANA

by Zephyr ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

 

 

Morning, everyone! Well, it’s morning for me; it might be different for some of you, but anyway. Today we’ll be jumping into my review of Lay’s solo song, ‘Namanana’. But as per usual, a little bit of background on the artist first.

Lay, a.k.a. Zhang Yixing, is a member of the boy group EXO. The group consists of two subunits, Korean and Chinese, with a total of nine members. Lay belongs to the latter group, but along with other members, he does branch off to release solo works, as well as act in various films and TV shows. As of right now, the musician has released two studio albums, nine singles, and two EPs. Namanana—his second studio album—was released October 19th, and serves as his official debut in the United States. The album contains 22 songs, 11 in Chinese and then the same 11 songs in English. Upon release, it debuted as the fifth album on the iTunes and charted in 41 countries.

So without further ado, let’s go into his main single and see what we have.

 

Lyrics

I decided to read the lyrics before actually listening to the song, and it kinda came as a shock to me. I feel like K-Pop songs don’t go for motivational lyrics often; they’re typically love songs, songs about how great the artist is and how hard they work, or those self-empowering ones where the artists express their independence and diss others. Those last ones are usually my favorites, it’s always funny to see how aggressive some musicians get.

Anyway, Lay chose to do a song with a more motivational ring to it. The song essentially talks about how we ought to keep going even when times get difficult, that there will always be hindrances, and we can’t let those get to us. He urges the listener to follow their dreams (it’s a bit wishy washy, I wanted to laugh), and that if they always give it their all, things will work out.

Now, I appreciate the message. I think it’s great that Lay made a song like this, one of encouragement and uplifting thoughts, but there’s one line that had me chuckling harder than I intended: “I’m hot like wasabi”. Of all similes to come up with, he could’ve compared himself to anything, yet he chooses to compare himself to the spiciness of wasabi. Nobody talks like that; I can’t even imagine someone having enough confidence to say that they’re as hot as wasabi and walk away with all coolness intact. Then again, nobody walks around saying ‘namanana’, and I mean, wasabi definitely gets his point across. It’s just that that line in particular is on the same level as BTS’ ‘Mic Drop’ line, “Just so fizzy, we’re like cola”. I don’t quite know what’s up with these food-based similes in lyrics, but I’m not complaining. They crack me up; it’s just another level of utilizing figurative language.

It’s just the start of me chuckling while analyzing the song. As I began listening to it, I found more things that amused me and we’ll get into that right after discussing the overall aesthetic of the music video.

 

Aesthetics

The video is pretty interesting, opening up with Lay sleeping on a bed in the back of a truck amongst piles of miscellaneous rubbish like packages, lamps, chairs, a fax machine, and chocolate bars. What gets me is that he’s got the chocolate under his pillow. He’s traveling in a desert during the day with chocolate bars under his pillow, that’s a sticky mess just begging to happen. But I’m sure he’s not too invested in the candy, seeing as there’s a flying ship above him. There’s clearly far more important things to worry about.

I can’t tell if I’ve made it obvious enough, but the music video has spectacularly little to do with the song itself. Maybe they were going for the idea that Lay has all these difficult missions to overcome and he’s busy being awesome, delivering this one specific package (or protecting it, I don’t know), which somehow ties in with the whole ‘keep running and doing your best, you’ll get through your difficult times’ concept. Honestly, I think most difficulties relevant to the fans involve not having enough money to keep up with their favorite K-Pop artists, maintaining their grades, and not getting involved in fan feuds on Twitter. I’ve never had to deal with that last one, but I always hear that that’s a big source of toxicity for these fandoms.

Of course, the action driven scenes are punctuated with colorful scenes of fun choreography—and I’m not being sarcastic there, the choreo is great—one even taking place in pink water. I can’t say his missions are very relatable, but it’s stimulating and creative for sure. The scenery correlates a bit to the vibes of the song itself, which I’m going to get into now coz it messed with my mind.

 

Sound

The song has some sort of aerophone backbone that continues throughout the whole piece, and I think it does well for the verses, but for the pre-choruses and chorus itself I can’t help thinking that it sounds a bit messy. Taking out that flute bit during the chorus wouldn’t really harm the song, frankly, and as I listened, I spent a while trying to figure out whether that actually added to the song or not. It doesn’t. But Lay’s vocals are lovely and hearing the English caught me off guard a bit, since I did the research on the album after looking into the song, but it was a pretty cool surprise.

The rhythm is fun and catchy, but after a certain point, I became convinced that this song is a K-Pop twist on a mash up of ‘Bet On Me’ and ‘What Time Is It’ from High School Musical 2. Combined with the choreography, lyrics, and everything, I swear ‘Namanana’ stands a chance at finding itself on an HSM soundtrack, because the song has very similar vibes to the much-loved DCOM tunes, and as of right now, I’m still trying to figure out if that enhances the song for me or makes it come off as slightly unoriginal. I still think it’s a decent song, but I probably won’t go out of my way to listen to it.

 

Thursday will see the review of Stray Kid’s ‘I Am YOU’, so thanks for reading and until next time! Also, I’m smooth like edamame beans.

Just joking, I wanted to try my hand at the similes, but you see what I mean? Nobody talks like that; I think I’d lose all my friends if I made that statement. But I had to try anyway.

—Zephyr

 

 

 

RM — forever rain

RM — forever rain

by Zephyr ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

 

 

Hi everyone!

Today, I’ll be reviewing RM’s ‘forever rain’ and let me just say, I’ve been incredibly excited to write up a post for this track. It’s obvious that lyrics play an important role in my opinion of the song, and RM typically has lyrics that are worth having a conversation about. He’s poetic and reflective, a feature I genuinely look forward to whenever I listen to his music. But before getting into my admiration for the guy and this track, let’s go into some background.

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RM, a.k.a Kim Namjoon, is the 24 year old leader of the seven member boy group, BTS. He is the most involved of the members in terms of musical contribution, having over 100 songs linked to his name. Aside from doing the main songwriting and composing for BTS, RM has released solo works and collaborations, and his style is notably different from the overall BTS sound. RM’s individual pieces cater more to his personal image and taste, mixing mellow and introspective tracks with those containing hard-hitting rap meant to pump someone up rather than sit in deep reflection.

His first mixtape, RM, was released back in 2015, and after an eventful three years, the artist has given us mono, a mixtape showcasing RM’s maturation from his 2015 year old self and allowing for a more intimate peek at the workings of his mind. The seven track release has a consistent theme of loneliness, its tunes carrying vibes of calm yearning and sadness, yet it somehow possesses a soothing effect. RM refers to it as more of a playlist, and it’s been the first one up for a commercial release.

I could go on about RM and just his works alone, but before I get too carried away, let’s dive into the review.

 

Lyrics

Wistful. That’s the best way to sum up the message of this song. From the very first line, RM expresses his desire to have someone care about him, for someone to reach out to him and give him a safe haven, because all he seems to get from others is judgment. As an artist and a K-Pop group leader, RM has conveyed this emotion before, the fear of constantly being judged by others and criticized, which ‘forever rain’ elaborates on.

When it rains, he feels a sense of protection—it’s his shelter, in a way, hiding him from the opinions of others since people are under umbrellas and minding their own business on such gloomy days. He yearns for the rain for the feeling it gives him, the feeling that someone is crying for him and sensing his pain, the feeling that he doesn’t need to keep running. RM wants to slow down, breathe slowly, walk slowly, think slowly, because all he does in his day to day life is run around. It’s non-stop, with little time for introspection, but those moments of self-reflection are what comfort RM, and that’s what he finds in the rain.

But it isn’t that he wishes to be alone. It almost sounds like RM yearns for a friend to confide his inner thoughts to, the implications coming from lyrics such as “when it rains I get a little feeling that I do have a friend” and I’m not lonely when you’re pouring”. These lines are powerful, because having spent several years in the public eye, it must be difficult for RM to find that balance between being himself and being what the masses want him to be. He may often feel that he has to behave one way to get the love and approval of others, so when he really wants to sit down and discuss thoughts that Kim Namjoon (rather than RM) has, he finds that there’s not as many people around. So he confides in the rain, which asks him how he is as it slides down his window, and he replies with an answer that allows his fans a glimpse at how dark his inner thoughts can really be.

Despite the massive successes RM and BTS have been experiencing lately, the artist is still prone to depression and sadness, which isn’t unusual by any means. After all, he’s still very human, and I think that’s what this song is about. It serves as a reminder to his fans (and the world) that he is painfully human, and he feels crestfallen, depressed, and alone, regardless of his achievements. With heart-wrenching lines such as “I don’t live because I can’t die, but I’m chained to something” and “Would someone welcome me, maybe embrace my weary body”, RM puts his exhaustion out there. He wants the rain to last forever, even though he knows that nothing is forever, because rain is the only friend that gives him solace. Having nobody around to hold him in his fatigued state, he turns to the rain, and instead, pours his heart out there. The reality of his loneliness is heartbreaking, and to put out a track that demonstrates his vulnerability is pretty brave, in my opinion.

K-Pop often markets their musicians as perfect people without any problems whatsoever, but it’s far from that. Underneath the industry’s glittery veil of big budget music videos, synchronized dance moves, and high fashion lie darknesses like those of RM. But these artists don’t talk about it as often to protect their image, and that is why I applaud RM for stepping out once again and allowing the world, the industry, and his own fans to see that he’s as human as can be. He feels pain, emptiness, loneliness, and lethargy just like any ordinary person might, allowing his audiences to connect to him on a deep and personal level. It goes to show that success by no means can buy happiness, and I think that’s RM’s personal battle. He’s hugely successful and within this, he walks forward to find a balance between work and play in a way that will leave him with more smiles than tears.

 

Aesthetics

There’s not as much to talk about with the aesthetics of this music video as it’s very raw and stripped back. There’s no sparkle factor, and rightfully so. Given the subject matter, I think it’d be rather unfitting to have a big dance number in over the top outfits. But the color scheme fits the theme of the mixtape, with the monochromatic animations adding another layer of depth to the song.

The art style is interesting, straying far from being cute or adorable. Rather, the texture of it does a good job of emphasizing flaws. It’s not meant to highlight the beauty of humanity at all; people are drawn as deformed, with the protagonist being faceless and subdued. My interpretation is that he talks about how rain hides his sad face, so he’s drawn without facial features as a result of that, while the other people are shown as monsters—not because they’re ugly, but because of their judgments of him, how he views them. People who care to do more harm than good hiding under their umbrellas.

I love how simple yet entirely complex the whole video is, and I recommend watching it with the closed captions on. It’s artistic, creative, and beautifully fitting for the concept of the song in a sad way.

 

Sound

The piano intro paired with the slow ticking of the clock does a brilliant job setting up the atmosphere of the song. It prepares the listener for a song that’s more on the gentler side of RM’s music. As RM quietly takes us through the song with rap that’s slow and steady, we can sense that this is a song with far deeper meaning than others without having to look up the lyrics. The piano comes and goes throughout the whole song, always present for the chorus, its melancholy notes providing a backbone for the piece. In the chorus and bridge, a guitar is added to RM’s faded vocals to further amplify those feelings of loneliness and yearning, which it successfully does.

The song is ideal for listening to on a rainy day, and it honestly gives something to connect to when anyone is experiencing those moments of sadness and they want to feel less alone in their struggles. It’s beautiful and raw, and I’m really proud of RM for talking about issues that he faces rather than maintaining a facade where he pretends that he’s always okay when he truly isn’t.

 

I love this song so much, and I love the rest of the mixtape as well. My favorite tracks thus far are ‘tokyo’ and ‘forever rain’, but I need to give it more listens to see if other ones stand out to me. It’s also really cool that RM’s been releasing lyric videos to accompany the songs; I totally recommend checking those out.

Next time, I’ll review Lay’s ‘NAMANANA’ and if you have any recommendations, let me know. Thanks for reading!

 

—Zephyr

Weki Meki — Crush

Weki Meki — Crush

by Zephyr ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

 

 

Alrighty, it is time to dig into ‘Crush’ by Weki Meki, released on October 11th. I’m going to be a bit blunt here and say that from what I’d anticipated based on the first 15 seconds of the music video, the song itself was a letdown. But before I elaborate as to why the track didn’t suit my fancy, let’s get a bit of background information on this particular group.

Now, I’d never heard of Weki Meki, and it’s because they’re a relatively new group. I tend not to keep up with those. Formed by Fantagio Entertainment, a development company for rookie musicians, the girl group debuted in August of 2017. There are eight members: Suyeon, Elly, Yoojung, Doyeon, Sei, Lua, Rina, and Lucy. Their first album dropped October 11th, consisting of three tracks, ‘Crush’ being one of them. So without further ado, here’s my opinion of the group’s latest comeback.

Lyrics

In the last post, I talked about how the lyrics of ‘Love Bomb’ encapsulates the adorable and innocent side of having a crush or being in love with someone. Well, ‘Crush’ focuses on the exact opposite. Rather than emphasizing the fun of being hopelessly smitten, Weki Meki deals with the frustration and impatience that accompanies such feelings of affection. They’re not particularly moving or deep, but relatable for sure.

The girls sing about having their pride hurt, the sleepless nights that follow due to overthinking, the ‘should I or should I not’ indecisiveness, and they ask the one question that many might find themselves asking when they’re in a similar situation: “what do I do?” Lyrically, the song gives off subtle vibes of irritation, uncertainty, and yearning. There was fairly decent line distribution from what I saw, but I will say that Lucy in particular needs more solo lines in the future.

 

Aesthetics

The music video itself reminded me very much of the girl group, BlackPink, due to their heavy use of the color scheme. If judged separately from the music itself, I’d say that it was a cool video, but I can’t help thinking that it’s incredibly disconnected from the message.

Nothing in the video really corresponds to the message that the lyrics are trying to send. There’s no hint of the same feelings, and having darker backgrounds, guns, and leather jackets doesn’t automatically mean it properly captures the darker side of being in love. Sure, it’s visually stimulating, but it fails to deliver what I’d personally expected. The girls themselves are dressed like badasses, but then they break out into adorable pouts, which undermines the whole hardcore aesthetic they have in the first place, if anything. It all strikes me as mildly contradicting. Even the choreography, though well performed, puts too much of a sweet and light hearted twist to the words.

 

Sound

While I like the actual lyrics of the song, the music was a big disappointment. There wasn’t anything that set ‘Crush’ apart from any other run-of-the-mill K-Pop song. I expected more from watching the start of the music video, something more hard-hitting and powerful in sound. Instead, as I was listening to them sing, I was reminded of older girl groups. I swear the chorus sounds familiar, and overall, it gives me old K-Pop vibes. It’s boring. The song is catchy, no doubt, but there’s something pretty formulaic about the melody. In fact, compare just the electronic backgrounds for ‘Sugar Free’ by T-ARA to this song. Weki Meki’s new track sounds pretty similar in terms of beats, just higher in pitch. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I can confidently say the song is reminiscent of 2012-2013 K-Pop for me.

I mean, the vocals and rap parts were fine, but they weren’t anything jaw-droppingly good or extraordinary; I’m merely bothered by the fact that nothing stands out to me as special. It almost feels like the people who wrote the song just listened to what has worked in the past for K-Pop and mashed sounds together to create a pop tune that’s generic enough to make people like it without straight up copying another group’s concept, if that makes sense at all. In some places, I would even argue that the synth/electronic sounds are too heavy and it clashes a tad bit with the singers, making it tiring to listen to after a couple times.

 

The comeback was subpar in my eyes, and I probably won’t stay tuned for whatever the group has in store. However, if the girls do manage to toss aside the formula and go for something a bit more original, I’ll take a peek. Let me know your thoughts on this song and if you have any songs you’d like for me to review! I’ll post again on Thursday with my review of RM’s ‘forever rain’.

Thanks for reading,

—Zephyr

fromis_9 — Love Bomb

fromis_9 — Love Bomb

by Zephyr ♥ 1 Comment

 

I’m going to start off by saying that this song took me by surprise. Girl group comebacks are often pretty hit or miss for me, mainly because the whole ‘cutesy’ appeal doesn’t sit well with me. I get why it sells and everything, but there’s something about seeing a bunch of grown up girls acting overly adorable that makes me cringe a bit. The same goes for boy groups, so it’s not a gender based thing; I just can’t really stand the ‘act adorable in a really childish way’ angle most of the time. There have been exceptions, particularly with the group, APink, but I can’t really explain what it is about them that won me over. Might be Yoon Bomi; she’s too cute for me to handle. But back to this group.

So when I first began listening to ‘Love Bomb’, released October 10th of 2018, I could feel myself getting ready to dislike it. But before going into how my mind changed, let me provide a bit of background for the nine member group, fromis_9.

I’d never heard of the group before, so going in, I wasn’t sure how big their fanbase was. But it turns out that the group is brand new, having debuted in January of this year, which made the fact that they already garnered 4+ million views on this recent comeback pretty impressive in my eyes. They are the product of a show designed to put together a new girl group, Idol School, and their first EP features six tracks.

What I didn’t realize until after I’d done my research was that the name, fromis_9, actually does have a significance behind it, although it doesn’t hit you right away. The word ‘fromis’ when pronounced using Korean sounds like ‘promise’. The Korean alphabet doesn’t have an equivalent for the letter ‘f’ so their ‘f’ sounds are more like a ‘p’; it’s quirky (and sweet), and the word promise was chosen to coincide with the group message that they promise to be the best girl group out there. And, it may not need to be stated, but the 9 stands for the total number of members. They include (from oldest to youngest): Lee Saerom, Song Hayoung, Jang Gyuri, Park Jiwon, Roh Jisun, Lee Seoyeon, Lee Chaeyoung, Lee Nakyung, and Baek Jiheon. Thus, we get fromis_9. No explanation for that underscore. Maybe they were going for something aesthetic, I don’t know.

Now we can dive into the song.

Lyrics

The lyrics for the song weren’t anything hard-hitting or exceptional, although I reckon that’s not what the lyricists were going for anyway with this track. It’s more to illustrate what having a crush is like, and the crush stage is typically filled with innocence, a puppy-like admiration, and youthful glee. Sure, there’s quite a bit of annoyance and uncertainty as well, but that’s for some other song. ‘Love Bomb’ shines light only on the positives of being twitterpated.

Basically, the song talks about a girl in love, who has a love bomb directed towards someone, because she is overflowing with love and affection. She asks that they accept her so that she can surprise them with her explosion of love and fill their heart with her adoration. It’s not the most meaningful of songs, but I appreciate the attempts at being picturesque through imagery such as “a mysterious cloud spreads out” and the idea that the love bomb will shine on them under the moonlight. Simply put, it’s cute, and that’s what they were aiming for.

After reading the translation, I gathered that this song is more about the sound itself rather than the meaning, because it fails to present anything particularly deep or moving, but I think it’s fitting for the message they’re trying to send about the excitation and thrill of having a crush, and wanting to share feelings of affection with the other person. It does a good job of capturing those emotions, so I’d say the group achieved their goal with this one.

 

Aesthetics

I absolutely loved the creativity and consistency in theme for the music video. There have been many occasions where I’ll watch a K-Pop music video and the visuals have literally nothing to do with the song or message, it’s as if that art is going off to give a message of its own. But here, the group stuck with the concept and it’s amazingly done. Go watch the music video, it’s great fun.

The headbands shaped like candles are an awesome way to portray how the girls are love bombs themselves, and every single setting they use incorporate images of explosives (bowling with sticks of dynamite as pins, birthday cakes with sparkler-like candles, arcade style games surrounded by T.N.T, etc), tying in the music video together nicely. My favorite setting would have to be the pastel floral room, just because I’m a sucker for both those things—if you can’t tell from the layout of my blog—and it was a nice break from all the other intense/stimulating use of color for the visuals.

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I mean…tell me that’s not nice to look at. Even if none of the patterns match, there’s something soothing about that scene.

There’s heavy use of red, which typically shows up a lot in more sensual music videos, but they pull it off in a fun and charming way, demonstrating the passion of love as well as coordinating with the color of a love bomb itself (and it would only make sense for that to be red). The addition of animations adds a youthful vibe, portraying young love and affection as childish and innocent, which I was a big fan of.

For the choreography, I had to go watch the dance practice in order to have an opinion about it. Overall, I’d say it’s not powerful or intense, but that’s simply the sensible way to go about it with such a track. It matches the song well with the little point dances during the chorus (making the heart with their hands and all), and the girls are very disciplined in their dancing. They follow through on one of the wow factors that K-Pop has, which is practically flawless synchronization and sharp movements. There’s a level of theatrics involved in the choreography, continuing on with that youthful theme I mentioned, and I enjoyed just seeing them perform without any special effects.

 

Sound

At the start of the post, I discussed how I dislike the cutesy appeal, and to be honest, the first 30 seconds of the song did not make a good impression. It bothers me when these teenage or adult girls use high pitched voices in their singing, coz it’s just like listening to little kids sing. I know that cutesy-ness has its appeal for the targeted demographic, but I tend to prefer it when girl groups take a more age appropriate route. So I wasn’t a big fan of the intro and first verse.

However, the chorus of this song is a bop, and it turned the whole song around for me. It’s catchy, fun, cheerful, and you’ll find yourself tapping your foot whether you like it or not. It made me smile, which is a positive; I can’t get enough of the chorus.

The second verse incorporates a bit of rap, a nice change that mixes well with the vocals. From the chorus onward, I actually enjoyed the song, minus the throwback to the intro that followed the bridge section since it returns briefly to the overly cutesy sound. That bit made me cringe a little. All in all though, it’s a lively tune, filled with energy and bubblegum pop vibes, and I’m sure it can be a good pick me up after a rough day.

 

I’m pretty satisfied with the song and the group, quite frankly. They have a lot of potential and it will be really interesting to see them mature, then go in different directions with their music. I won’t go ahead and say they’re underrated, because there’s just not enough material out by them for me to form that opinion, but I’ll definitely keep an eye out for future comebacks.

Hope you enjoyed reading, and let me know what you think of this song! If there’s any particular track you’d like me to review, simply comment to let me know! Next post will review Weki Meki’s ‘Crush’.

 

Have a nice day/night,

— Zephyr

NCT 127 — Regular (English & Korean)

NCT 127 — Regular (English & Korean)

by Zephyr ♥ 1 Comment

 

 

Hi everyone!

I spent quite a while trying to figure out what song I ought to focus on for the first post, and due to their unique move with the most recent comeback, I chose to review both versions of NCT 127’s new single, “Regular”. Below is the link for the English in case you haven’t seen it and would like to avoid being lost while reading.

But for those who don’t know too much about NCT 127, I’ll present a bit of background. NCT 127 is a sub-unit of the SM Entertainment boy group, NCT. The letters stand for Neo Culture Technology and the 127 represents the longitudinal coordinate of Seoul. Appropriate, seeing as they are the Seoul based unit.

The group has 10 members: Johnny, Winwin, Yuta, Mark, Taeyong, Doyoung, Haechan, Jaehyun, Taeil, Johnny, and the newest addition as of September 17th, Jungwoo. Now, to be entirely honest, I still can’t match names and faces yet other than Mark and Taeyong—mainly because of their prominence throughout most NCT songs thus far.

But onto the actual review itself.

Lyrics

I’m someone who prioritizes lyrics over sound when it comes to music, so the first thing I did was compare the English lyrics and the translated lyrics. I’ll link them below in case anyone would like to read them:

It became clear to me quickly which I preferred. While both sets of lyrics send a message of how hard the boys have worked to get where they are and how they’ll continue working until they’re satisfied, the Korean lyrics go about it in a less braggadocious way. It makes sense that the boys are expressing their sense of pride in how well they’re doing, but somehow the English version manages to make it sound far more boastful, whereas the Korean maintains the idea that even though they’re doing well, they’ll continue trying their hardest to surpass their limits. There’s a subtle hint of humbleness, which I honestly think the English version lacks.

The words have a better flow when sung in Korean; the English lyrics are not quite as clever and clear (still not sure how “drippin’, water faucet” ties in with anything at all), but considering the fact that they totally ventured out of their comfort zone by doing an English version, it’s a solid attempt. I personally feel that the Korean lyrics do a better job in conveying the message of the song and my favorite line has to be “Stars in the city, in front of the CT, there’s an N. We don’t chase after wons, be the one one one”. This line caught my attention due to the word play: they talk about being stars in the city and incorporate their group name into the lyrics, tying it in with the word city; the boys then go on to talk about how they focus on being number one rather than working for the sake of wons (Korean currency), which I thought was an incredibly cool.

As a last thought, I was skimming through line divisions to see how many lines each member got, and I think there are a few members that got no more than 1-3 lines by themselves. It’s hard to ensure that everyone gets an equal share with a group this large, and more often than not, parts are distributed based on whose voice suits them best, but I do hope that in future singles, other members will have more solo lines.

That pretty much sums up my thoughts on the lyrics themselves, now for the visuals.

 

Aesthetics

Honestly, I have nothing bad to say about the music videos, which isn’t unusual when it comes to K-Pop visuals. As can be expected, the colors are vibrant and captivating, the fashion attractive and flattering, and the choreography suits the song very well. It didn’t come across as too powerful or too laid back, which I appreciate coz I think I pay more attention to choreography than anything else when it comes to visuals.

The scenes of the members on the streets strike me as pretty powerful just because they make such a point of emphasizing how successful they are, so seeing them walk and dance throughout the streets of Korea almost pounds in the idea that they own the place, they have that much influence. I like the tiger walking alongside Mark—it showcases their confidence, because the tiger is a symbol of courage and power in Korea, so the fact that they integrated symbols of their nation in was a nice touch, in my opinion. My only note is that it would have been helpful to have subtitles for the Korean video, not just the English, but minor details. Overall, a top-notch job for the music videos.

 

Sound

The song is catchy without a doubt. In the grand scheme of NCT 127 singles that I’ve heard (Fire Truck, Cherry Bomb, Limitless, and Chain), I’d say ‘Regular’ has definitely made the best impression on me. It’s not overwhelming to listen to, it sticks in your head but not so much in an annoying way (for me, at least), and the flow of the song was great. There weren’t any parts that I found to be choppy; the rappers had a slower flow for this track and appropriately so, and the vocals sounded smooth. The only thing I’m iffy on is the ‘brrah’ that comes in during the chorus, but it’s not a big enough negative to make me dislike the song as a whole. Although, I will say that I prefer the Korean version to the English one.

 

To be honest, this comeback makes me a bit more excited for future NCT 127 albums, because I’ve never followed them consistently to begin with and this song has the potential to change my mind. I applaud them for releasing the track in English first, that’s a pretty progressive move for K-Pop and I’m totally in support of it. I hope that this was an interesting read and thanks for the support! If there’s any requests for which song I should cover next, feel free to comment and let me know what your thoughts on the song are!

 

Until next time,

—Zephyr