i was going to put my thoughts on txt's comeback and new album 7th year: a moment of stillness in the thorns on twitter but i really want to stop using twitter for that sort of thing. i've been thinking of making a "log" section on here recently for that reason so i don't default to twitter but i haven't been able to work on it because of my arm... but it's feeling better today and i want to at least do the not using twitter part so i'm gonna put my review here in my diary for now and then move them over to the log later when i make it.
i haven't been keeping up with txt much recently x_x partly bc constant social media updates are usually impossible for me to keep up with anyways and that feeling of always feeling behind is eternal, and then partly because i had decided to finally start boycotting hybe just a few weeks before the situation with enhypen (that is currently taking up most of my mental space) happened which means interacting with their promotions less anyways. which reminds me: i did not stream this video on youtube! sarita downloaded it and we watched it on the couch as is our ritual from my laptop plugged into our tv!!!!!!! it's a shame because i'm a fan of the kind of 2000s visual kei (lite because it's south korea) vibes i am getting from this album somehow. i do want to take more time with the concept photos and draw some fanart when i have time :') "when i have time" is another eternal feeling.. but i'm optimistic. i will say one of the concepts (i can't remember the names rn) doesn't fit with the album as much as the other three in my opinion but it has potentially the beomgyu and huening kai looks i like the most... it's the bleached out looking one where they're in front of the cars and have the random foods and stuff. maybe not my favourite in final execution (like the washed out colours and the setting) but i love how everyone looks and i love huening kai's denim scarf and kind of modern the little prince look in it. i also really want to think more about the anxiety themes and how they've correlated that to thorns and also the fake merchendise they were using as part of their promotions. providing kitschy advice on how to deal with anxiety is interesting. i think it's a pretty common formula to aim promotions as a kind of thing a "reader" (so a fan) can "adopt" into their life like advice or a product because ultimately kpop is a product so that format is not extremely unique, but it is fun and i do like it. and i love this toxic pink they're using for everything, i want to think about connections to that too. i think i'm interested in anxiety being the theme too of course because i have a lot of it.. and it's a really interesting angle for an album commemorating their seventh year as a group. especially because i would say that txt is one of the only stable pillars (for me) amongst all the chaos going on in kpop right now. definitely for me personally. like i've just been saying this as a joke mostly bc my understanding of other groups is limited anyways but to put it generally the kpop world is on fire. where hybe is concerned with their groups currently, txt is as always just doing their own weird little thing. they always feel like such a constant to me. untouched or something from outside troubles. there's a sort of self-confidence and strong identity i feel from them that i think probably sticks out to me especially compared to the instability/volatility i get from enhypen. even when txt is releasing music that does not have the right "txt-ness" and falls prey to hybe's incessant dilution of anything interesting in a bid for money, that txt identity sticks out anyways. i of course think it has to do with the idols themselves. i do want to say more on this but again maybe in a more organised thing later...
anways i really like the music video!!!!!!!!!!!!!! this is a big day!!!! i was skeptical at first because i haven't liked a lot of txt's music videos recently (except for song of the stars, and can't stop i do like but it's not something that really sticks in my mind compared to other things they've done) and i talked more about that in a the sin:vanish post that i have yet to finish actually...... so maybe i'll find a more organised way to put my thoughts together when i figure my logs out (i'm doing notetaking as i write this apparently lol). so yes i did think over the moon was kind of nothing and beautiful strangers was kind of nothing and don't even get me started on how i feel about the freefall album. so this was a relief.
it's not very grand but i think that's a good thing. i actually really like its understated feeling. this is kind of my gripe with media, i can't even say media these days because this has been a long-standing issue for me for like over a decade now, where mainstream media is convinced "bigger" and "bolder" is the only way something can be better or at this rate even just good or worth making. i think it's nice to just reel it in sometimes. in this way the video really reminds me of early 2nd gen kpop like something big bang or infinite or beast would've released. like haru haru by big bang or other story driven mvs. the muted colours too, and the song having a kind of melancholy or more emotive? sound to it. 2nd gen kpop is where i got into kpop so there's a really strong feeling coming out here for me. it's late and i'm just trying to get my thoughts out for later so hopefully i'll come up with better descriptions of what i mean. less of a focus on showy graphics and big performance than on meaning. and i love loops of any kind. they are one of my favourite if not my favourite storytelling tropes (devices?)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i didn't even notice they were looping until sarita pointed it out on our second watch but that's okay hehe. and i love when multiple people represent the same character. i liked that a lot in enhypen's dark blood short film too. i can't really pinpoint what it is i like about that right now, it's similar to why i like loops... something something about characters being less an individual person and more a vessel or some kind of metaphor or template... link from legend of zelda is my favourite character ever with that being a big reason why. my (future) comic i never talk about is similar in that regard too, where the characters are kind of like templates or tropes. i don't know it just interests me. i should think more on this
some standout parts to me: i love when for beomgyu's part he gets introduced by the scene cutting to him with his eyes closed, looking almost serene at that bar counter and the wind blowing his hair slightly. it just felt like a slight shift from what came before it. i love the scene where the lights turn off around him too. his part was where i was really starting to feel the video i think and not just because he's my favourite member!! i love the soobin into the taehyun loops too at the start. what else.. yeonjun's romantic acting is spectactular lol he really sells it. he's so good at it. i also loved how the choreography came in. i'm realising now that's the only dance shot in the entire video that separates itself from the story but the way it's done still feels like a part of the story and i like it a lot. i kind of feel like i'm watching everything play out in a diorama (which is a part of why i like loops) and again that just takes me back to all the kpop i used to watch when i was much younger. like to me this is the same as the set for for shinee's hello or something. ummmm and i love when huening kai pulls that thorn out!! my interest in txt was from being a shinee fan where a slight fantastical element is like the perfect addition to anything. like the loop already sets this outside of reality but huening kai pulling the thorn out of his finger as the culmination of his negative emotions while the song does that more urgent part of it and everything is coloured in this warning red...#ilovedit. i'm not talking much about the song but i did love the first time the song does that at like 1:30 i think when yeonjun sings it. i like how..not dramatic in the sense of grand but dramatic in the sense of like? kind of angsty? like this is such old school angst to me. i like this video a lot. i almost spoiled the "reveal" on twitter earlier so i started to anticipate there was some kind of reveal once i saw soobin turning someone around but i was so momentarily confused by it just being another soobin that i couldn't even be annoyed i was anticipating something. i think the idea that it was meant to represent their own anxieties was kind of lost on me until i went back to find that same tweet later but that's okay. i love that it loops again once the logo has already come and gone, too.
okay onto the songs.. i have no productive way of describing what i'm hearing sorry so this will be unorganised as per usual. the thing is though ive recently started to enjoy reading thebiaslist reviews on kpop songs and i'm already anticipating them saying that txt's music has continued to be this sort of frictionless sort of pop song that hybe just loves to release. and i really do agree. i was feeling the same way before i started reading their reviews. something about a lot of kpop tracks i guess in whatever moment we're in right now really lack punch or clout or something. they just glide over my ears. and that's not inherently a bad thing but it is when it's the only thing we kind of get now and when i kind of want to listen to music that's evocative or has more texture or something and don't feel like that happens any more. it's strange because i literally just talked about how things don't have to be bigger or bolder to be good but in this case with the music itself it feels like nothing ever tries to push itself anymore. with kpop generally i feel like i'm watching higher and higher budget music videos and promotions with almost excessive visual aspects (not stick with you, just generally) at the cost of music that mostly just achieves being catchy. i do think txt manages to get past this a bit with other tracks on the album but idk, i feel like i'm just trapped listening to a sort of pleasant repetition rather than anything willing to actually be something with stick with you. i don't know if i'm really expressing what i'm saying correctly. also i'm saying all of this while knowing that i'm not going to be listening to anything else for the rest of the month, but i think this easiness to its listening is part of why that's the case. like the ease of scrolling social media but in the form of music. like i like the song a lot but at the same time i would just love if it pushed itself just a bit more...maybe into something more than sellable. i think that's what i mean when i liken it to scrolling. it's just too easy. there's nothing it really pulls out of me. i just genuinely believe now that hybe's productions with txt (and enhypen) do not stretch themselves anymore in the hopes of luring in a general audience. and like i said in my the sin:vanish review that i haven't posted yet, no definite audience requires a kind of neutral, inoffensive product. it's a shame to me because txt has so much potential that i feel like is being quashed. can't stop i think was an example of something punchier even if i like stick with you a lot more, like it's definitely more my taste. i guess uniqueness continues to be a virtue to me that i just continue to find lacking. i don't even want to bring up how everything is 2 minutes because i am literally arguing with the wall now where this is concerned. is it because 2 minutes means more streams in less time. capitalism makes my life so shit. ok let me get more specific about the song. i really don't like edited voices like i will almost always just prefer to hear one of the members doing the "is this a dream" parts than someone's voice pitched down. txt has things like that on their songs all the time like in ice cream and i just have yet to like when they do it. i should say some positive things. i love the way it builds up more urgently during the post-chorus parts. i also like how in comparison to that the verses have less instrumental backing. i really like this song a lot like i'm pleased with it despite everything i just said up there. i know it doesn't sound like it. it's just easy for me to explain what i don't like generally because my hatred for capitalism informs that and that's practiced, but my understanding of music isn't. i wish it had a bridge.
bed of thorns i will be honest cyberworld sounding songs like this are actually not my favourite. the opening reminded me of a video game title screen like the fairy fountain from legend of zelda games or something. those old rpg synths. and that's about as much thoughts i have on it.....
take me to nirvana is interesting enough... hearing it for the first time really made me smile because one thing i like about txt and why i'm kind of being so harsh on stick with you is that to me making lowkey weird music was a large part of why i got into them (like eternally was one of the songs that really sold me on them) and it felt like we were finally going in that direction again. so i like this song for that reason, and i also really like that the track is club music/techno?? while simultaneously having this kind of stereotypical or blanket meditative? spiritual? "asian" sound (i really don't know how else to describe this let alone musically sorry, i would do it as a kid by only playing the black keys on my piano lmfao). i also love songs that sound dreamy. i think while this song does still have a relatively flat production to me that still ultimately doesn't go higher than how it starts, i do like the decision to have longer parts without vocals and in this case i think the repetition benefits it in the sense that it's more like chanting (a mantra) given the title of the song being about nirvana, which adds some meaning to me.
so what is a no labels track... i think so what is good but i'm going to be so honest i haven't listened to no labels since the listening party i went to for it because it's just not my type of music. i'm so sorry yeonjun. it's not that i think the songs are bad but that kind of western pop music just isn't my thing and i feel the same way about this song. go figure that it would be the longest one on the album so far. i do love to hear #myliege taehyun sing though. also everyone's voices have been processed in a way where i can barely tell who is singing except for yeonjun and that part with taehyun? which is not something i like... but now that i'm looking at the lyrics it's cute to think about soobin singing this. i'm also extremely tired though and didn't like most of the mountain album (by gorillaz) until i revisisted it a day later with a fresher mind and i anticipate that being the case with this song bc even if it's not my type of song txt is cute enough to me.
21st century romance is possibly my favourite track on the album.. dreamier songs are very hit or miss for me because i love them but sometimes they go in maybe overly synthy directions i don't enjoy? i was worried it'd kind of go in a sludgy direction or something but it instead turned into more of a ballad, and i like the chords going down as it continues, that was very satisfying. and then the guitars in the middle that turn it into a queen song lmfao. i also love the decision to have this entire part without singing. same feeling as with take me to nirvana where i'm happy that the song is so much more interesting but unlike nirvana i feel like it's much more realised in this regard. but jesus these songs are so short and i don't like how abruptly this one ends. i feel like it literally just gets smothered at the end before it can take itself anywhere. like a really powerful bridge would have suited this song so well. i'm actually getting so fucking sick of hybe *SCREAM*
i didn't feel much for dream of mine at the start. i feel like it sounds like something i've heard before many times just being realised as a txt song...but then i loved the short guitar part at around 0:50, that was a nice touch. also love taehyun's "uh-huh" lyrics i think that's so fun. then at 1:30 the tone change actualyl just took me somewhere momentarily euphoric. i'm so serious. i think that part alone rocketed this song so high up in my mind. and then beomgyu's parts during that section being completely different from what came before it. i love the constant transformations that were happening before it returns to how it started, so i actually really like this song a lot. but then of course instead of really luxuriating in any of these things it's just a race to the finish and then an immediate end. huening kai's part at the tone change definitely could've been even one or two lines longer. the way it ends feels like they cut the song with scissors by accident and uploaded it. like to end the entire album this way feels like it was actually clipped off. i'm actually just feeling like i've been left so wanting/unfulfilled..........
so i guess my final thoughts are... i really like most of the songs. if you can believe it. i'm always making a disclaimer for my way of appreciating something being through critique. i really do like the songs and i think that's why i'm getting so pissed thinking about them being just a bit more... also because it's almost 2am now and i have to wake up early tomorrow. i'm happy that it feels like txt is making their weird songs again. but i'm genuinely so frustrated by how short they are. the momentum is literally killed by this trend hybe just won't let go of of making songs barely scratch past two minutes. and the productions just... never go beyond or diversify from what they give you at the start in terms of like...the actual sounds i'm hearing. like 21st century romance is so awesome but even then i still feel like there are limiters placed on the sounds that make up the music, like the potency is being constrained or diluted out by some quality i genuinely just cannot put into words. i don't know what it is. dream of mine i think could have been four minutes long. like i actually cannot believe the final two songs end this way. i feel like they end in the same way a sample track on some kind of cartoony soundtrack would. like if i were being taught about a type of song or something and just needed to be presented with an example. or like i'm listening to a rhythm heaven track or something. they end like default songs. i'm listening to default music.