the notes i took last night during my first listen of arirang~
body to body - crunchy and dynamic, love the highs and lows in the production. excited rapline is rapping in Korean! love jin's voice on this track. the Arirang sample with the drums at the end - GENIUS. also love the way they're merging namgi's voices on the track
hooligan - the DREAMY strings going into that GRIMY beat wowwwww, sexy!! the duality between the vocal parts and the rap parts reminds me of love cherry motion or txt's eternally, that trend of really starkly dual songs that shifted between super upbeat positive bits and sexy dark interludes.
aliens - OOOH immediately daechwita vibes! when it started i was like oh for SURE this is the rapline song and then Jungkook came in! great bait and switch. and they're doing a similar thing again with rapline bringing this LOW sexy grunge that rolls around in the mud while vocal line goes high and dreamy and floats above it. i'm obsessed with it!! i'm also so into the sort of sparse beats they're using so far. lots of empty space but REVERB and WEIGHT that makes it feel like the space is being filled
FYA - wanna hear this on HUGE speakers that make the floor SHAKE. this might be my favorite one so far, it's just PULLING me along behind it, DRAGGING. obsessed with that high clicking percussion like water droplets , it's like sparks flying off the beat.
2.0 - omg the transition from FYA to this was so seamless it took me a bit to realize it was a new song. i thought FYA just suddenly sat WAYYYY back and spread its legs open, let everything air out. love the way this one is luxuriating in the beat, basking in it like a cat in the sun. powerful. confident. sexy.
((it feels like they are REALLY committing to a sound on this album in a super powerful way. like there's no pulling back to put in something poppy for the charts, no watering down of the weirder elements to make the tracks more palatable. it feels very confident, like they knew the sound they wanted and they like that sound and they're leaning ALL the way into it and it will either be for you or it will not. it's really exciting to me. it feels so grown up, it feels like they are pandering to no one, it feels like they're showing up as themselves and you take it or leave it.))
SWIM - does immediately feel more radio friendly (lmao right after i wrote that previous bit!) in the context of the album it's for sure got single energy, but ALSO in the context of the album it feels like it's still very much the same vision from the first half, just reflecting on itself a little more instead of reveling in these dramatic highs and lows.
merry go round - beginning immediately reminds me of Jungkook's hate you, very golden energy. LOVE the sort of chiming music box notes they're introducing here, island of misfit toys vibes for sure. their voices are blending together in a really beautiful way here, one just flowing right into the next. really enjoying ending on hobi and namjoon's verses here, it feels like an unusual structural deployment of rapline verses for them.
NORMAL - rock vibes, ANGST, guitar. taehyung is really serving on this one, reminds me of how hard he went on boy in luv. the choice of hobi SPECIFICALLY rapping "if everything's just happy mm that ain't real" - oof. this whole song kinda has change pt 2 vibes to me, in the sense that it is extremely sexually attractive to me.
like animals - another one i wanna hear as loud as possible with the most powerful subwoofers i can find. i want the whole room to shake to this. namjoon's voice on this one is beautiful. soulful. this production is so LUSH. i wanna drive through the fog at night to it while smoking a cigarette.
they don't know 'bout us - love the playing with time they're doing on this album, this really modern production that calls back to SUPER early sonic references, like beginnings of recorded sound technology references. it's extremely cool and big dick energy of them tbh. omg hobi's verse on this one is SEXY what is he DOING with his vocal tone wowwwww.
one more night - ooh pink pantheress bedroom pop kinda beat. sparkly. like candy. i LOVE this. i want to hold it in my mouth and suck all the sweetness from it like a lollipop. i wanna see them dance to this one, i hope it has choreo.
please - feels like they're really playing with their individual voice textures on this one. found myself just waiting for hobi's verse bc i knew his timbre would work so well on this song and i was right. also love when men beg.
into the sun - oh my god this vocal production i'm obsessed with it. getting chills at the way the melody builds on this one. this song is beautiful. this is art. this album is a work of art.
gummygunk
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