omg i would love to see your elaboration on skz + taylor albums 👀
OKAY SO
chris - midnights
i feel like the reasons for this are easily answered in the liner notes/prologue for midnights. like this entire thing just reads as him in such a way it's almost visceral. the constant rumination of self reflection and worry, the critique on ones self, the regret, the quite literal insomnia, the nostalgia that's tinted dark, the never being able to escape out of your mind. this is genuinely a look inside his brain.
minho - speak now
defiant, honest but still soft, vulnerable in a way that has thorns. those are all things i think of when i think of speak now as an album and when i think of minho. a warmth at the heart, but a bit of a slightly brash outside, perhaps out of protection? a loud honesty that's admirable. a comedic and sly edge throughout? it's all packaged together perfectly for both.
changbin - reputation
REPUTATION IS AN ALBUM ABOUT LOVE!!!!!!!! and changbin is a romantic!!!!!! but he's also got this dark exterior, much like rep does. that tough, dark aesthetic, but something lovely and warm underneath. i think there's a vulnerability specific to reputation that mirrors changbin when he talks about the boys, one that's almost a little timid and shy about it, but ultimately is so overwhelming it has to be felt. but you gotta get past the outside first.
hyunjin - lover
this one is pretty obvious to me. slinky, a bit sexy, but full of color and honesty of ones feelings. while changbin is a self proclaimed romantic, i think hyunjin is a lover in all aspects, he's able to romanticize life in such a specific and rose tinted way, but he's also got that fun, silly edge to him like so much of the album does (yntcd, paris, etc). hyunjin is a lover in every way!!!
jisung - red
how could i not give jisung the breakup album of all time. jisung and his music carry such an emotional throughline in everything, just like red does. jisung doesn't feel things slightly, he's either all in or all out, and i think that passion is reflected extremely similarly in red. the toxicity, the regret, the anxiety and pain, the romance, the utter loneliness, it's all so jisung-core to me. come back...be here, the last time, sad beautiful tragic? all hanpop core to me lyrically.
felix - fearless
maybe it's the gold that represents it, but i think fearless is just so bright and youthful and hopeful despite being so emotional is just such a mirror to felix as a person. there's a nostalgia and sweetness that i think they both share, something that makes you yearn for a simpler time. fearless as an album is just so....light and free to me when i picture it, it's shining, and when i think of felix, i think of how he's such a light to everyone, how he's the heart, and fearless to me is the true beginning of the heart of taylor's discography
seungmin - folklore
seungmin's music is very story-like to me, the way he writes and sings. it's emotional, but when he sings, i'm being transported with him to whatever it is, and i think that's incredibly folklore of him. there's a certain kind of sadness and emotion in folklore, that i think seungmin like...embodies? not that he as a person is sad, but the way he can express it is so specific compared to the rest of the group, it's nostalgic and immersive. something about it all is really adjacent to red and midnights to me in a way (which makes sense honestly now that i think about it). seungmin to me is a storyteller, and what is folklore if not that?
jeongin - debut
bright, fresh, youthful. all things to describe debut and to also describe yang jeongin. maybe it's also him being a busan boy by the water, but the country-ness of debut sort of is adjacent to that vibe to me. debut is a lot like fearless to me in its brightness and youthfulness, but even moreso, in a way that you're maybe not nostalgic for, but will always be a part of you. debut is also really defiant, and jeongin to me fits that vibe really well, the bit of headstrong-ness in that youthfulness is really embodied in this album and in jeongin as a person. debut is just the start, and has so much ahead without knowing, and with jeongin being the youngest, well, isn't that true for him too?