Ateez Album Crawl: ZERO: FEVER Part. 1
We start this new era with a BANG! I can't believe how good this album is; every track could be a title track. It's quickly shot up the rankings for me. What an insane run of music we're on.
We open this chapter with a young girl reading from a diary, dated to 2016. She tells the story of a lost and lonely soul, for whom life has little joy and far too many expectations. "But the stars that I looked up in the sky did not shine at all." Until, this youth meets someone who shares the gift of music and dance, bringing them true happiness: "For the first time, I actually felt alive".
One by one, more children started to say my name
The path that I only walked with one another person became a path to many
Slowly, the word "I" became "ours"
We're obviously hearing the perspective of one of the members (Yeosang?) recalling how they all met in World A, before they are transported to World Z.
In this way, FEVER Part.1 acts as a musical prologue to the main storyline of the lore and its songs conjures the burning passion of youth.
There's a plaintive quality to this song; the opening verses describe uncertainty and doubt, but also grasp at a connection:
Are you there? How you feel? (Are you there? How you feel?)
Did you fall into the same darkness as me?
This is not quite a dance song, nor is this a ballad. It's an anthem of adolescence. They are suffering from a fever, a fever aptly described as youth.
In fact, upon reading the lyrics from the MinJoong rap section, I couldn't help but recall the angsty verses of Mingi's song Youth (still many years in the making, yet being actively experienced by Mingi at the time of Fever's production).
Followed the ray of stars at night
Kept falling down and bumping into things that made me think of giving up but
No, I don't know, get rid of those useless thoughts
Let's run away from the life that keeps throwing me around
Whoa, whoa, what do you mean "you know"?
I'm the only one suffering from my pain, who else would know?
They say my pain and such things is exaggerated
Mayday, I'm suffering from the world I face
It's a tremendously melancholy song to start with, but it's message is so powerful. The fact that the lines Passion, Young, Fever will return in Turbulence indicates that these two should be considered as part of the major thematic bookends of the Fever era.
If Fever is the emo-boy anthem of adolescence, than THANXX is its riotous and rebellious companion.
I love how the song starts with the cheeky guitar riff and then descends into a staccato-paced frenzy. Whereas Fever was heavier on the vocals, THANXX really highlights the powerhouse talents of Mingi and Hongjoong as rappers. Their back-and-forth is so satisfying!
In THANXX, the members are fighting back against the "helpful advice" of adults who only seek to crush their independent spirits:
"You’re gonna regret it later"
"You’ll know when you get a little older"
It’s always the same thing every time
I’m sick and tired of it
I’m sick and tired of it, yeah (Nobody knows!)
It makes sense that the song is noisy and raucous, as if in defiance of musical convention. It's usually low on my list of title tracks, but it's undeniable how well it works on this album.
This song is nasty!! To The Beat demonstrates the signature sounds of the Fever era: electronic, rap-heavy, and full of vocal distortions, inflections, and modifications. That opening whispers give me shivers all the time -- just on the edge of discomfort -- and then the bell tolls and Hongjoong gets to work.
I like how all the members are having a little fun with this song, especially San and Seonghwa, who sings their lines "Follow my lead/voice, ayy" with a really delicious kind of delinquent drawl (something we'll see again in The Leaders).
We gotta talk about Mingi's rap, full of swagger and punch:
It’s the inferiority complex, we're already on another level
No matter how much you try, we will win it all
The end of the song sounds like robots fighting or fucking.
I'll try to put into words what I've always thought about this song, and it's that it feels like the closest Ateez has come to sounding like a "regular kpop boy group." I think this song is almost too perfect. There are few rough edges or unexpected beat drops. This isn't necessarily a complaint (I love this song) but an observation. It's been labeled as their "yearning" song for good reason: "Every day & night, I'm gon' chase yoooooou!!"
Of course, in the context of the lore and of the meta-text of the album, the "you" they dream of is freedom, of liberation from fear and oppression.
Since I'm sharing some hot takes, here's another one: there is simply no better bridge in their discography than the bridge in Inception.
The way it leads into that final chorus HAUNTS me!!!
This is one of my Top 5 b-sides. CRIMINALLY UNDERRATED!! I'd love for someone to edit an anime amv to this song; it has such "shonen" energy, full of action and adventure.
My favorite part is when Mingi and Jongho sing the bridge together, and the contrast of their high and low tones.
We're coming, we're going, don't stop us, don't
We're coming, we're going, if you want us to stop, stop us if you can
We're coming, we're going, don't stop us, don't
The world isn't stupid, it's stupid, we're stupid, whatever, just go!
It's fitting that we cool down this album with a lovely little ballad with a groovy electronic beat. The lyrics also bring us from the combative verses of Good Lil Boy to something more hopefull and optimistic:
If you wanna hide, you're losing your mind
You gotta lean on somebody
I'll be that somebody for ya
Thousand miles, it don't matter
When you're feeling under pressure
Say the word, I'll be there
As foreshadowed by the opening diary entry, a lonely soul finds connection and reassurance from a friend. One becomes eight. Eight makes one team.
