Because I wasn’t watching YouTube (or other short-form streaming video) during most of the month of March, I had no way to access the ‘Wakey Wakey’ video when it was first released. And because for whatever reason SM Entertainment/Avex records (SM’s proxy in Japan) didn’t release the whole album until later…I didn’t have access it on Spotify until like, last week.
Okay, great.
“But now that it’s on Spotify,” you ask, “why don’t you review it? Even without the video! You did that with Chen’s solo album a while back.”
Real answer:
Once I finally found it, I listened to ‘Wakey Wakey’ (or W2, as I’ll call it in the rest of this post). Then I listened to it again. And just now, I gave it a third chance.
I think you know where I’m going with this.
W2 is not my cup of tea. Which is a shame, because with a name like ‘Wakey Wakey’ it would be really fun if it were the kind of song that you could blast in the mornings with a cup of coffee.
This song reminds me of ‘Regular’ crossed with Hitchhiker x Taeyong’s ‘Around’ with a little sprinkling of ‘Chain’ on top. Unlike ‘Around,’ though, which has a delightful sense of humor and makes me laugh every single time, W2 is just…relentless.
The same tight melodic range (read: NO melodic range) of ‘Regular’ combined with the high synth sample? No thank you.
One of the hard parts of being a fan of a group while they’re actively building a sound and a fanbase is that they’re going to keep exploring. What you initially liked about them may not be where they ultimately end up.
There’s a beauty in staying open, and giving a young group the space to grow and explore. That’s what I tell myself, at least.
Chen’s solo album flows like cool water. It’s a clean break from the EXO R&B vibes—Chen continues exploring his own musical personality with his first mini album, April, and a flower.
Our ‘Nature Boy‘ comes through with simple arrangements, focused mostly on piano and vocals. He wrote the lyrics for one of my favorite EXO songs, ‘Lights Out,’ and again contributed lyrics to ‘Flower’ on this album.
Chen shines in this arena. He’s at his best in songs like ‘Nosedive,’ with a focus on rest and refreshment.
I wouldn’t exactly call April, and a Flower an album of lullabyes, but it is a very easy album to listen to. ‘Lights Out’ was my go-to sleepytime music for a few months, and this mini-album is just the thing to put in your ears when you’re tired and worn down.
For a few minutes, you can run with Chen’s voice over sunlit, grassy fields with the wind gently blowing your hair.
Part of me was scared that this mini-album would be full of overwrought, cheesy ballads—but it is not. A+++ for keeping the arrangements sparse, keeping with the spare and natural visual aesthetic.
This mini-album’s biggest weakness is the flipside of its strengths. The songs flow a little too easily. They don’t stick in my head, but slide through in a moment of peacefulness that I can’t remember five minutes later.
I’m not sure that I would remember the title track, ‘Beautiful Goodbye,’ if I heard it out of context.
That said, the album has a great shape, building from lighter songs through an ~emotional journey~ to more impactful songs at the end.
On ‘Sorry Not Sorry,’ I’m happy to hear a descant above Chen’s vocal line. He usually takes care of high notes and descants in EXO’s material, so it’s nice hearing him get to take the melody for once, with the string sections getting the harmony.
I could swear that Chen is channeling Big Bang’s Taeyang on ‘Love Words.’ The song is great—perfect execution of drums in a ballad—but it gives me such Taeyang vibes. Maybe that’s the influence of the songs’s composer, Kenzie.
My favorite song on the album is ‘Portrait of You.’ It’s cinematic. It’s emotional. The melody moves through so many different textures and sections—the piano is a voice, not just accompaniment. (But this is expected: it was written by the brilliant Andreas Johansson.)
Such a perfect ending. I’d drift off to sleep to that song anytime.
Overall, I think this is a very Chen album, which is a good thing—though I wish that somehow they had worked enough hooks in amongst the calm to help me grab onto the songs. It’s good for him to differentiate himself from all the hype that surrounds EXO—and this album is about as opposite as you could get from that.
I have a feeling this will grow on me. It’ll definitely have a place in my earbuds the next time I need an oasis of calm.
EXO vocalist Chen (Kim Jong Dae) is coming out with a solo album this April.
It’s about time.
“Nosedive,” his collaboration with Dynamic Duo, was my favorite song of 2017.
“Lights Out,” the song he wrote on EXO’s winter album Universe, is a beautiful and moving endcap to a day. And like I wished in that past review, I’m glad to see that we get more of singer/songwriter Chen.
The man knows how to communicate through song.
I’m excited to see how this album shapes up, especially with the title “April, and a Flower” with that promo image. (Check the strategically placed lens flare.)
The moodiness of the image (love all the noise from the ISO) and the poetic treatment of the text in this teaser give me hope that this won’t be a purely saccharine spring ballad release.
But we won’t know for another week.
One thing the k-pop industry does right: sweet anticipation.
Tomorrow is the launch of a project I’ve been working on for months.
There will be no fanfare. There’s no event or afterparty.
Just…me doing work.
I’m trying to steel myself for the letdown that always happens when I get to the end of a project, which I know will be exacerbated since there’s no event or end product to feel satisfied over.
It’s funny how things that take up so much mental energy in our heads end up being pretty much nothing.
Anyway, here’s a famcazing Korean music video featuring the best guitar-cameo I’ve seen in a long time.
This is, perhaps, not the reaction they wanted to engineer.
But it’s the reaction they got.
Taemin’s new single, “Want,” expands the theme of Dark 80s. It’s delicious. The video is lush, complex, and visually pleasing—obviously showcasing Taemin’s physical beauty and otherworldly skill in dance.
What I find curious is how my reaction changed.
Yesterday, when the video was first released, I watched it. It’s sexy (can’t deny it). The beat and the lyrics work in tandem to, well, basically to seduce. Add that dance on top of it? It’s an incantation that’s nearly impossible to break.
Today, I decided to put in headphones, close my eyes, and listen. No visuals, no choreography, just the audio. “Want” isn’t the most musically complex song in the world, but it’s lovely to listen to. There are just enough aural easter eggs to keep things interesting through a hypnotic beat and bass line. The engineers did a good job of keeping the instrumental at a different timbre than Taemin’s voice, helping it to stand out. He’s not the strongest singer in the world, but well suited to this type of song.
My reaction? Nostalgia.
Pure utter longing for a time in music that I didn’t know—the 80s and early 90s. Back when synths and recordings were analog, and the bass riffs were played by human beings instead of a digital sample.
When musical recordings were fuzzier, not as sharp and bright as they are now.
I want to find a club with zero lasers and an analog turntable.
(They certainly don’t exist in my part of the world.)
Just when you thought he couldn’t look even more like an anime character…
Taeyong of NCT at the 2019 Idol Star Athletic Championship
He goes and matches himself to the field and the NCT lightstick. SMH.
My eyes are happy to look at the reds and greens and neon yellows, all nicely saturated and balanced. Even the vaguely repeating stripes of the track and his tracksuit scream harmony. This picture is so complete. There’s nothing superfluous or distracting, simply great content. And you can imagine him skipping along, hair bouncing.
“Lean In” is not fundamentally a feminist manifesto. It is a road map for operating within the existing system, perhaps changing it at the margins to make it easier for other women to, well, operate within the system. Sandberg does not spend much time asking whether the system is so screwed up that pushing against it might be the better route toward meaningful change.
Landver believes that the next big lifestyle brand—the next Tory Burch or Martha Stewart, say — will be founded by an influencer. Or several, actually. “As opposed to looking at one big hundred million-dollar brand, we’re looking at building many ten million dollar brands,” says Landver. “I say longtail five times a day. The future is going to be many more small brands focused on smaller segments.”
» Further proof that SM Entertainment’s audio engineers are the real MVPs
Mark is the best rapper in SM Entertainment. He writes most of his own lyrics, and tends to play around with rhythm. His voice isn’t overly resonant, which is not as much of a problem as it sounds—helps him stand out against smooth vocals.
Haechan is not a rapper, even though he had a rap line in “We Go Up.” I used to describe his voice as fuzzy, but lately it’s not as rough—Haechan has refined his singing technique to a smooth velvety texture.
Taeil, on the other hand, has a smooth, piercing voice. If we continue the fabric metaphor, Taeil’s voice is a light, cool silk. He has tremendous flexibility and range.
Complimentary charisma
I’l use the word “charisma” because it’s used so often in Korean-English translations. What I like about Mark, Haechan, and Taeil together is that like their voices, they bring a complimentary set of strengths to the table.
Mark I often describe as “workmanlike.” He has an incredible work ethic (literally been in all NCT comebacks with the exception of “Baby Don’t Stop” and songs with the vocal line only), and a drive to improve. In 2018, his dancing has gone from merely adequate to wait, is that Mark?. He once got a dance feature at an awards show, even though his official position in NCT has nothing to do with dance. He will make sure things get done.
Almost on the opposite side of the spectrum, Haechan is a performer. He will take any opportunity to make a joke or do something extra. You will always be entertained when he’s around. Where Mark can sometimes be overly serious and focused, Haechan lightens the mood—but he’s deadly serious about performing. Watching his slow transformation into Michael Jackson (1, 2) is fascinating, as he’s obviously studying and applying what he sees.
Because Taeil is so quiet, he’s harder to figure out. But given that he plays piano and guitar, and given that if he weren’t an idol he would have gone to University for music, I feel safe in saying that he is an artistry guy.
A sense of humor
It may not be apparent when you first get to know NCT, because Taeil is so quiet in interviews, but all three dudes have a great sense of humor. Haechan (his stage name literally means “Full Sun”) is the most obvious, because he’s always the class clown. Taeil doesn’t often joke around on camera, but his playful sense of humor still shows through occasionally—like in his feature during promotions for “Touch.” Mark is less of an instigator, but is more than willing to play along with jokes and gives great reactions. My favorite example of this is Haechan and Mark’s surprise game of Rock Paper Scissors during promotions for “My First and My Last.” (Haechan’s reaction is real, btw.)
Now humor doesn’t often factor into a comeback song, but it is an indicator of how a team will perform together. Even based on these random Insta photos, these three work together just fine.
To sum up, a Mark/Haechan/Taeil subunit would be a winning combination of looks, musical balance, charisma, and teamwork. And they already have promo photos!
K-pop idols are already some weird combination of trading cards (for the stats and modular personalities) and paper dolls (for the fashion), so I don’t think it’s all that weird indulging in some fantasy football-inspired dreams here.
So if you’re a SM Entertainment rep randomly trolling the internet looking for ideas, consider this one.
Like many fans around the world, I had November 2 marked on my calendar—finally, an EXO comeback. It had been over a year since the last full album release.
With that immense and quietly building space of expectation, new music would be 1. immediately welcomed by EXO-Ls worldwide, but 2. with a group at the top of its game, eventually there will be a below-average release. No pressure.
With Don’t Mess Up My Tempo, EXO pulled it off…mostly.
Tempo
Tempo feels comfortably EXO. It’s fun in the vein of “Call Me Baby.” The chorus is singable. The sound engineering and f(x) are incredible. The harmonies are on point—specifically the bit where Xiumin and Sehum sing and rap octaves over each other, and of course the a capella section. This is a song that knows the best of EXO and how to present it to its fullest, morphing and reprising itself through funky descending bass lines and soaring vocals.
As the members grow as artists/performers and head into their late 20s (Sehun, the youngest member, is currently 24 years old), they’ve transitioned from a young group in search of a sound to a self-assured group who knows their strengths. If you were wondering which group reigns as the VOCAL KINGS of k-pop, this is your receipt.
I will not be surprised when a bunch of other acts come out with a capella tracks next year.
The music video isn’t super-innovative but the glitchy light effects are really cool, like the boys are holograms. Chanyeol shines with his blue contacts (I picked a good bias).
Sign
I don’t recall grotty bass lines (reminiscent of NCT 127’s “Limitless”) being a popular back then, but this song reminds me of an alternate-universe Korean version of an early 2000s boy band song. (Maybe it’s the “bye bye bye” part?) We don’t deserve Baekhyun and his vocals.
Fun fact: I keep mishearing one of the lyrics as “Honestly, pikachu”
Ooh-La-La-La
This is a song that makes you really appreciate SM’s sound engineers. It’s such ear candy—from the subtle pop of a record-player effect to the way that the layers of sound are so airily pieced together. The guitar riff is beautiful, almost “island feeling,” like you could play it on a ukelele and sing on a beach and it would sound just as good. Otherwise it’s a simple song; I want to hate it because it verges on saccharine but I also kind of love it. Like a popsicle on a hot summer day, but that’s French themed with a big whiff of fresh island air.
Gravity
“Gravity” is the song that “Power” wanted to be. I’m loving 80s club feel to this one, with the sample from “Power” in the intro, and the powerful yet funky bass line (SM is really good at those). Lyrically, I love the interplay between Korean and English; the chorus creates a rhyming pattern in Korean that begs for a declarative singing of “GRAVITY” to round it out—but instead of giving us the relief in the first round, they build anticipation through a full seven lines before finally giving us the payoff. It’s great—I haven’t had a song keep me on the edge of my seat lyrically like this before. Especially since most of the lyrics are in another language!
With You
EXO would like to float over fluffy white clouds with you. It’s ballad with undertones of traditional Korean music. Sweet, but not particularly memorable.
24/7
Love it or hate it, this song builds from a distinctive whistle to a very Motown-ish throwback (disclaimer: I’m not a Motown expert). I’m not a fan of full-on falsetto songs (with the exception of Big Bang’s “Cafe“), but this one is really well executed. The call-and-response structure is interesting, and the vocals are on point.
Bad Dream
If any of the songs on this album grew on me, it’s this one. I went from “okay I kind of like this one” to “obsessively listening on repeat” in less than an hour. This song is all over the place musically, somehow combining a bouncy synth, gorgeous guitar riffs (but not enough of them!), a dolphin-like pealing sound, and an absolutely beautiful-yet-rough moving bass line that reminds me of something that I can’t quite place. The vocals shine on this one, with more technical acrobatics a la “Stay” from last year’s winter album.
Damage
HYPE.
Sehun’s E-X-O is back.
It’s a jam.
Smile On My Face
One of EXO’s b-side staples is the R&B ballad. Most fans love them. This incarnation is very soothing, and Chen’s harmonies are heavenly. Moving on.
Oasis
Like “Been Through” from last year’s winter album, I bet that “Oasis” will be a popular track on the album with American fans. To me, it sounds more like Western pop than k-pop. It’s not a bad song at all–the melody is gorgeous–it just feels like anthemic indie pop.
Overall: Don’t mess up a good thing
This album feels sonically cohesive, and darker than The War (which would make sense, considering that this is an autumn album). SM is good at matching album “tones” to the season, as you can see in the differences between Red Velvet’s summer vs fall releases.
With this album, there are no surprises. EXO has dialed in their sound. It’s like they’re now a “middle aged” group instead of a hungry young wolfpack. I’m glad they’re making cohesive albums now instead of random collections of singles, but on the flip side there were no songs that catch me by surprise, no “Forever” or “El Dorado.”
When I first listened to The War last summer I was immediately and utterly obsessed with “Forever.” It grabbed me in a way that few songs do. None of the songs on DMWMT have grabbed me in that way, with the possible exception of “Bad Dream.”
I like this album, but I don’t LOVE it. Like…there’s nothing wrong with this album but I’m also not obsessed with it. It’s clean. It’s well balanced. It shows off EXO’s skills in a variety of ways. But I honestly can’t see myself listening to it much, other than picking off a few favorites to add to my epic EXO playlist.
It says something that I listened to NCT 127’s Regular-Irregular again before I settled down to write this review.
[Update: I’ve been listening to this album on repeat. Oops! It’s great, the end.]
It may be relevant to note that I’ve always preferred the young, exploratory phase of a musician’s existence over the polished and complete work that tends to be produced later on.
When I sat down for my first listen to NCT 127’s first full album, Regular-Irregular, I got about 30 seconds into the first song and paused. What was a hearing? Did this song sound suspiciously like EXO’s “Unfair”? (Yes it did.)
I was concerned. In fact I was so concerned that I quit Spotify and walked away.
It wasn’t until later that I gave the album a fair shot. But, like other books that I started a few times before getting invested in their plot and characters, Regular-Irregular just needed a little bit of time.
Unlike many k-pop albums, Regular-Irregular is arranged around a concept. The “dreamlike” concept has been with NCT the whole way through, so that’s nothing new, but I was not expecting 127 to come out of the gate with a fully-formed concept like this. It took EXO years of “singles” albums to refine a sound that worked for them enough to build a whole album around it.
This album is fantastic. It takes everything great about NCT 127 and remixes it into something new and utterly fun to listen to.
The first section is “Regular,” in which most of the songs sound like much of NCT 127’s earlier mini-albums. There’s the rap track (City 127), the bright pop song (Replay/PM 01:27), and the ballad (Knock On). None of these are unfamiliar, and once I pushed past my initial reluctance to the first track I breathed a sigh of relief. This is the NCT 127 that I know and love. Good rapping, smooth vocal harmonies. They’re good songs with some interesting moments, but nothing overly memorable.
Then we come to “No Longer.” This is the gem of the album. It’s a ballad, but in the style of an EXO winter album: the exact opposite of what NCT 127 usually does. (Seriously it would fit in perfectly with Universe.) The instrumental is acoustic, rather than synth-heavy. There is no urban or rap influence anywhere. This is a song that gives the vocalists time to shine, and they take advantage of it—especially Haechan. It immediately rocketed onto my unofficial list of k-pop songs to fall asleep to, it’s that soothing and complex and delicious.
Now that you’ve floated off into the land of vocal harmonies and upright bass, it’s time for the turn. This album is helpfully bisected by an “Interlude” that takes us from a sedate, classical beginning (regular) to a dark, distorted ending (irregular) with spoken-word poetryish stuff in between. Parts of this piece sound a horror movie, so I’m never sure if the IRREGULAR part of the album is supposed to be merely dreamlike or more like a nightmare. It’s a little bit unsettling, I won’t lie.
The journey is worth it, because it takes us to another of my favorite songs on the album: “My Van.” It’s very playful and all over the place, overscored by a metallic chiming synth and underscored by very deep distorted voices. This is another song designed to showcase rapping, giving some of the other members a chance to chime in even though Mark and Taeyong dominate. That’s okay though, they’re really good at it. (And Mark finally got his turn at vocal fry with a very well placed “Ahhhhhh yeah.”)
The second half of Regular-Irregular follows the same structure as the first. After the rap track (My Van), we get the bright upbeat pop song (Come Back), and the ballad (Fly Away With Me). Unlike the first half, however, these songs are more sonically interesting to me. Maybe it’s the distortion, maybe it’s a willingness to use chords that aren’t “regular,” but they’re very satisfying songs for someone like me who is a complete sucker for complex pop music. I particularly like “Fly Away With Me,” which is somehow light and heavy at the same time, with a four-on-the-flour beat that somehow never gets old.
If you’re more interested in the chords and rhythms, I highly recommend React to the K’s “First Listen” video, where Umu and Kevin react to and break down the album.
Technically “Fly Away With Me” is the last song on the album but much like “No Longer” was a complete left field surprise, we get a bonus track in the form of “Run Back 2 U.” If you need some NCT nostalgia, this is an expanded version of “Bassbot,” a dance video they released as undebuted rookies. It’s a gonzo song that jumps all over the place, has a female vocal sample, and ends abruptly—but I really like it. Something about k-pop has given me the ability to love and appreciate these songs that are just completely all over the place.
At this point, if you’re at all familiar with the album you might be wondering why I haven’t talked about the title tracks—the English and Korean versions of “Regular.” The short answer is, I don’t like it.
The long answer is a bit more nuanced. “Regular” reminds me a lot of the Twice song “Likey.” They are both very understated, and seem designed more to be played in shopping malls (and sound good) than for fans at concerts or at home streaming with headphones. Both songs are earworms, full of ear candy—Twice’s in audio effects, NCT 127’s in vocal color, think “splash” and “brrrrah.” It seems to me that SM Entertainment is more interested in laying the groundwork for future NCT 127 recognition than they are in providing a song that is immediately interesting to listen to. I respect that decision, even though I dislike the song. “Likey” grew on me. “Regular” has not.
With that said, I’m super-happy with Regular-Irregular as a concept and as an album. I like the back half a lot better than the front half—usually I start with “No Longer” (because I’m addicted) and carry through to the end—but it’s still a solid album from front to back. There are no bad songs, and it will integrate well into an all-NCT 127 playlist. (Except for maybe “Interlude” but that’s okay.)
Highly recommend, will be listening to on repeat, etc.
I want to escape into a misty forest at dawn and run toward the light that spills through the trees. I want to cloak myself in velvet and swim into a glittering nebula. I want to discover the truth of God and the universe.
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