still lonely by seventeen is still fucking amazing
i love still lonely so much. because of the stark contrast between the sound of the song and the lyrics. Its very relatable and meta. Just like how they sing about the mask they have to wear, the song itself is a mask to the listener.
A lot of us would rather not talk about how we're feeling, especially if we feel bad, upset, or lonely. We just bury it down and try to pretend we're ok even though we aren't. Because it's easier to pretend that we can't feel it than to admit it out loud and have to work through it. And maybe it's just easier not to bring it up because we don't want to dampen the mood between friends and family. And maybe its just easier to keep the issue to ourselves because if we ignore it, it's like it was never there in the first place.
And I think the cool part is that still lonely sounds very cheerful and very happy, until Wonwoo's verse near the end of the song. When he shouts his frustrations questioning why he feels lonelier and lonelier. If you pay attention, you can hear his frustration and in the live stages he stops smiling and looks upset. It almost breaks the happy illusion of the song, but then the song moves on to the cheerful chorus and the momentary moment of figuring out the song is sad is forgotten.
To someone who isn't paying attention to the lyrics or to someone who doesn't speak korean and didn't look at the lyrics, they could never be able to tell that this song is sad. Because there isn't a pause for them to think the song is sad, until Wonwoo's voice in frustration. But even then, it's not too obvious and can be looked over.
This means that the mask that the boys are talking about is working. The way they talk about their mask to the world and how it is so convincing that it fools everyone around them, it comes full circle when the song is able to fool people who don't look at the lyrics into thinking the song is cute and happy.
this song is the embodiment of youth. youth is a lot of things. it’s happy, it’s sad, it’s painful, it’s blinding, it’s fun, it’s terrible, it’s never-ending, it’s brief, it’s a paradox of things. youth is so many things and can be so many different things.
i think a lot of people, including myself, like to think of youth as always happy. but that’s just our nostalgia talking to us. i faced a lot of growing pains and just uncomfortable things during my youth, but I also faced a lot of good things. This song is just a reminder that youth isn’t always so innocent. kids face a lot of pain, even though they’ll probably only remember the good times later.
Youth is painful, that’s just our growing pains. without them, we couldn’t be adults.
the fact that this song is so old, yet it pours their honest feelings as teens and fresh adults, it means so much. because within SEVENTEEN’s discography, is the story of how they grew up. This is one of those songs. So this song deserves to be praised and studied. It’s so good and it’s so honest it feels painful.