KPOP THREAD II: The New Covenant

[Kinumi]

Spoiler

a lot of my favourite groups have come back at the same time and while i have done album reviews (thx sylv) in the past now i rly want to do a REVIEW review so now here i am. they will still be in the same super informal and literally-just-kim-watching-and-commenting-on-things-in-real-time-except-with-an-excuse style as my regular ones. ftr im not entirely sure how im gonna do this and everything will be disorganized as fuck but hey i will figure things out as i go

seventeens 2nd full album teen,age: an extensive review (for the purpose of this, i will be pretending that i like seventeen)

music videos

Spoiler

1. change up (unit leaders) - the way the music video begins is odd but in a good way bc it leads up to the eccentricity of the rest of the mv; a lot of elements look weird but it all makes sense and flows well when put together (the bright colours, retro clothing, usage of props, unobtrusive sets, acting) i just realized that the clock that shows up sporadically has "svt" on each side which is really good. in fact, i think the only thing i would say is out of place is approximately the final ten seconds—i feel like they were trying to do too much suddenly, and for no reason, because it's not like theres a superclimax in the song and theres no storyline—but honestly thats very nitpicky. i don't like the song, but since i'm judging only the music video i am givin it a 10/10

2. trauma (hip-hop unit) - oh boy another song i don't like; hip-hop unit sucks. anyway i just realized that all the unit music videos this time around (minus change up) has a little introductory blurb of text at the beginning, but all in different styles!! hip-hop unit's mv has very bold letters in a very bold colour which i feel is fitting (it's funny to see the word TRAUMA written in bright yellow though):

i like how all the members are in their own rooms except they're all in the same room, it makes for interesting transitions between verses. vernon's room with all the fans is especially funny tbh. i'm wondering if there's a meaning behind the room they're in?? s.coups' is long and has a lamp and a bed (very liveable), vernon's has sand and a bunch of fans, mingyus is just kind of ruined with frayed rope hanging everywhere, and wonwoos room is completely empty with a large window taking up an entire wall. i've noticed that the rooms get emptier as the mv reveals each one (mingyus -> vernons -> s.coups -> wonwoos) which probably goes with the lyrics but im not talking about the lyrics yet. im feeling kinda lukewarm wrt the most of the scenes shot outside of the room (i like the one with the members on top of a cube but the other ones are too edgy lmao). the shot at the end that reveals that all of the rooms were in one room probably means something significant but im not watching kpop to think. overall, 8/10

3. lilili yabbay (performance team) - finally a song i like!! since this is performance team i don't really have much to say about the mv itself though : ( i do appreciate how it opens with a shot of brooklyn and everyone is walking around but then the camera zooms in on performance team for many minutes and then it zooms out way later and ur like "o shit ya i forgot about the people." like trauma, the beginning has a little introduction and while it looks weird i like it anyway (they put the title in chinese bc chinaline is in performance team i ;_;):

again not much to be said because the music video is just a single shot (which is how it should be!! @highlight i want to see performance team dance not gaze into the camera tf). the one thing i dislike is how high the editors turned up the contrast lmao. the boys are all in white with white bb cream and they look like vampires, seeing jun with such pale skin is especially weird because hes tan and he likes tanning. overall, 9/10

4. pinwheel (vocal team) - before i start heres the opening, probably the most appropriate and most aesthetically pleasing out of all of them:

i think it's interesting to note that all of these music videos have the same dimensions, with the video bein wider than youtube's w/e, but instead of black bars it uses white bars—very fitting for both the music video and the song. anyway all the short scenes at the beginning that introduce the members evoke a feeling of distance (a long aerial shot of joshua on the road, a close-up of seungkwan behind a rainy car window, a medium close-up of jeonghan's hands playing the piano, and a blurryreflection of (probably) dk in a puddle of rain. for some reason it doesn't show woozi at the beginning, i don't know why probably because he sucks. the mv continues on that way until jeonghan starts singing the first line (already we have a very wistful mood going on!!) and then once he closes his eyes there is this long shot i like with him as the clear subject yet framed by two large trees:

after that we see him holding his seventeen ring which is really interesting for carats because seventeen has expressed multiple times before how significant that ring is to them. it's proof that they are a part of seventeen and they don't even take it off while showering or sleeping; interestingly the last time we have seen them taking off their rings was in the mv "smile flower," a thank-you to carats. anyway his hand closes on the ring which is like oh no!!! after that is (unfortunately) seungkwan, still trapped in that car—oh wait no now hes at a tall chain-link fence. he loosely has one hand on it and looks past it as if trying to reach something unreachable.......and then he looks away. it goes well with the beginning of the mv. heres another extreme-long shot i like!! it also has seungkwan framed between two w/e's and while it's not as drastic as jeonghans, it is still pleasant to look at:

the red arrow is interesting because it's red, it clearly stands out, and it points....somewhere. along w the car it gives the impression of seungkwan wanting to get to SOME DESTINATION but with the way the car it is parked it is clear that he can't get there. or at least he has given up on doing so. dk appears again, first with a medium longshot of his walking (wow, i see a motif here)

and he seems to be walking across the same fence seungkwan was just at! this is especially whoa bc unlike most kpop mv's all of the members appear to follow their own separate storyline and have separate scenes, but the fence connects dk and seungkwan. the road also probably connects joshua and seungkwan but more on that later

his sweater is cool because it matches the trees, probably intentional. anyway i was about to make the comment that the fence made it seemed like he was caged in but i zoomed in and it actually looks like he is in front of the fence. he's also walking parallel to it instead of actively looking in like seungkwan did, so it's like.....different ways of dealing w sad—

oh wait never mind. he clearly has his ring here which is something i think. a few seconds later whoa hey theres joshua master of cute!! he is situated in nearly the exact middle of a longshot and i very like it becos it looks like the intent was to divide the scene into 1. a very open and happy-looking grassy field and 2. a not-so-happy-looking bleacher-area that literally has bars at the upper right corner. so it looks like a recurring image is the ~caged~ feeling

shortly after this screenshot shua looks up with a solemn expression and with a frontfacing head.....clearly has his eyes facing right (opv)!!  i also don't know if this were intentional but he lifted his head with closed eyes and when he opened them they were already looking toward the bleachers. very nice. also i don't really know how to synthesize this but the orange-brown of his hair contrasts the blue of the bleachers and the wine of his sweater contrasts the green of the grass. also very nice. after this, jeonghan is shown sitting on top of the fence looking down, and then theres another shot that shows seungkwan next to the fence holding HIS seventeen ring. this is probably something since jeonghan was the first person we saw him take his off.

during the above shot the camera (i think it's worth saying that it is a handheld) drifts away from jeonghan which again feels very wistful and in joshuas words "tteo naeryeoga." right before the chorus aw man theres master of cute joshua again except this time he is depicted in an extreme-long shot and we can now see what is past the bleachers from his previous scene (A ROAD WHOAHOHOAO). although he is sitting facing towards the fields, he is one seat farther back and it is as if he is giving it a last look before....doing whatever hes about to do. as soon as the chorus starts we meet woozi for the first time (not literally), who's situated in front of what appears to be a large hotel that makes him look even smaller than he already is. the camera alternates betweens actual shots of him and shots of his reflection in the puddles (CONNECTING HIM AND DK, WHOA). anyway after that heres joshua lying in the middle of the road like a dumb fuck

although he initially captures the viewer's attention i feel like the intended subject of this frame is the phone. the telephone is on the ground instead of resting on the receiver which implies that he had already used it (lmao joshua u dum fuk). after that there are several scenes that show joshua walking....somewhere but anyway heres the framing again. this is the first shot with a member sandwiched between two not-natural objects within a frame.

theres a stairway at the end of the tunnel but we don't know where it leads and it's clearly not what shua himself is focused on. since he's not looking directly at it it can be assumed that he's just walking for the sake of walking rather than to reach a particular destination. again he seems trapped and confused which he always is but details. after this hes shown lifting the telephone from the receiver once again. during the short music break there are a couple things that i found funny but not funny enough to supermention: seungkwan hitting his head against the steering wheel -> a close-up of raindrops gliding down the windshield, jeonghan drawing/writing on a notepad while sitting on some steps (his right pinky is partially obscured but it looks like he isn't wearing it). anyway at some point it looks like dk has decided to join shua down in that tunnel except instead of walking shua has given up and is just sitting there bein sad with dk lmao; theyre both looking down and the way theyre sitting clearly blocks the path for anyone else who would want to reach the stairs. BTU ACTUALLY

wow what!!! joshua is actually shown coming down from them here!! hes still looking down instead of forward and theres an l-cut to him still on that dumb phone, also the red arrows are still there. none of them are shown in front of him in this frame so it's like (joshua ur rly behind go here (go here (go here))) that didn't make sense but you get me right

seungkwan happens for a bit and well u kno how seungkwan is. after seungkwan is dk and theres no supersignificance to this scene but i think it is worth mentioning that u can clearly see dk's seventeen ring while he puts on his earphone (i like to think that hes listening to say yes)

after that there is a somewhat low-angle shot of dk sittin on a wooden piano out in the middle of nowhere wtf but u kno whats cool is that he seems to be on the inside a fenced-in area now (not the same one, this one is clearly not chain-link). hes also wearing different clothing than he did from before which implies ~some~ amount of time between the two scenes, and in contrast to the ambiguous clouds from before he is now surrounded by clear skies

the mv cuts back to seungkwan after showing more shua and dk bein sad in that hallway and he is lookin down (versus dk who's looking up) while walking backwards. like he can't move on or sth. like dk hes also wearin different clothes from the time he was lookin at the fence except instead of the sky clearing up it actually looks super grey and worse lmao, clearly one of these boys has a hard time dealin w his problems

after that theres a frame of seungkwan lyin in a big field like joshua on his lovely road, i have no comment on that but i thought it was funny. then theres a cut to jeonghan standing outside the fence and peerin at the piano dk was just at (unclear whether this was before or after dk was there?? but the sky is different i think) and for the first time we see a definite open entrance!! whoa!!!

jeonghan goes inside and lightly caresses the piano as if he's min "suga" yoongi but before we see anything actually come out of it we see seungkwan falling asleep on the grass like his big dumb self and woozi walking inside a dirty, empty pool while fidgeting w his pocketwatch. theres a fence around the pool and the frame makes it clear that it exists. following that is another scene with woozi wearing the same clothes but instead standing under the big red arrow on the road (the shot is high-level so that the only subjects are the arrow and woozi). there he drops his pocketwatch =(

however hes shown over here, inside the now-closed fence, playin the piano!!! and now all his buds are with him. but seungkwan and joshuas faces look to be deliberately cropped out lmao idk whether to be heh bc seungkwan or unheh bc shua. woozi and dk and jeonghan are in new clothes (not the ones they started the mv with) while seungkwan and shua are wearing their initial clothes which makes me even more convinced that those two are purposely isolated for whatever reason??? it's also interesting how the mv director chose to place the piano directly on a crack w plants and weeds growing through instead of a more aesthetically pleasing, totally flat area

later shua is shown sitting on the bleachers once again except instead of the way he was depicted the first time he is now facing the field and when he opens his eyes he looks hesitantly but directly at it. then theres seungkwan in his big dumb car again (i guess he got back inside bc it was raining or something, once again there is weather) and instead of looking out the window and being emo he grasps the steering wheel and looks up through the windshield. i guess shua and seungkwan are the last to move on

but then heres shua with his dumb phone again!! because it's such a high-level longshot he looks very small but it's not excessively angled low enough for him to look....idk wat the word is i hope u get me. as opposed to the first time we saw him pick up the telephone he seems more in-control and less desperate in this frame ig

following that is a rly rly short shot of him (presumedly) lookin down at the telephone kinda resignedly as if a.) whoever he called didn't pick up or b.) he didn't get the response he expected. for the first time we see that there is a small tear in his otherwise very cute sweater

when seungkwan steps out of his car it is rly foggy which is interesting bcos here the fog can mean hey wow a cloud is flying rly low to the point where seungkwan is in it or it could be a sign of better weather. then theres a bunch more shots of old stuff we already saw earlier (shua lyin down on the road, seungkwan next to his car, woozi next to that big dumb arrow, etc.) which tbh i don't really get but it's fine. after a while there is a new crane shot zooming in on jeonghan with his dumb piano

jeonghan sat on and covered the chalk w his leg earlier, but i just realized that the piano is sitting on the intersection of ~two~ lines!! i don't know what this means but the frame precedes woozi running on the road, and it was shot in such a way that the white marks on the road were clearly visible. there is probably a connection. after woozi is seungkwan, also on the same road; dk, also on a road except clearly different in that it was surrounded by leafy trees instead of grass; shua, also on the same road as woozi and seungkwan; and jeonghan, whos just....on grass (lmao) in that order. after that we see the boys around a piano again and while shua and seungkwan are still in the same clothes we can see their faces now. the song ends on shua and it's rly good but not at all significant i don't think. seungkwan and joshua are the only ones still running between the end of the song vocally and the beginning of the mv's epilogue, which starts on a black-and-white shot of the boys looking though the not-chain-link fence

theres not much else to say about it since it's mostly repeating the same or similar scenes from the main section of the mv. the last thing we see is woozi still running except instead of away from the camera it is towards it which is mildly terrifying because it's woozi. i really liked this mv and writing about it and i also really like joshua hong. 10/10

5. clap  - IVE SPENT THREE HOURS ON THIS FORSAKEN POST AND I HAVE JUST NOW GOTTEN TO THE STAR OF THE SHOW,,,,,,the beginning of the mv is weird and frankly i still don't understand it but woozi kicking the other members is funny and characteristic. i bet the lightning that zapped them was chen's fault. specialized videotape technology is dumb. s.coups is dumb. but the song starts on joshua (actually s.coups but forget him) and because hes given the slate-clapper role in this ~storyline~ it's appropriate. all the sets look really good and WHOA HEY i just realized that hoshi is sitting in the same car he sat in during the change up mv and theres a lil nod to it heh

and whOA HEY AGAIN I JUST REALIZED THAT MINGYU IS IN THE SAME BOX THAT WAS IN TRAUMA, anyway joshua painting mingyu is really good esp because the trauma mv was mostly greyscale and the teal that he uses is the same teal in mingyus room. dude u think mingyus trauma "stuck in trauma" was referring to him bein painted by shua....

  

 

i find it appropriate that woozi is director. the aerial shot with all the members sitting at the circular table is reminiscent of the change up mv which is cool bc seventeen is nothing w/o their leaders and joshua. juns shirt is weird

when hoshi (iirc he represents a corrupted ceo in this??) walks across the seventeen w/e's he sits down and he pulls out a carrot o my gosh

the scene where seventeen overthrows him is really creative and cute and oh actually the weird ending of the change up mv makes sense now. seventeen is....all right

i wanna know joshuas reaction to wonwoos shirt

theres no explicit nod to lilili yabbay but a tape of it appears at some point anyway. in the same frame theres also some dice, one of which shows the face "17" heh

 

lmao hip-hop team is shown at some point around a table on which theres a cube w little lego goons that represent them in the trauma mv. cute

along w the other tapes theres also a nod to seventeens teen,age album on ceo hoshi's desk

also that scene is funny because he yells at vocal team and throws their pinwheel tape away but when performance team comes in

hes like "haha yes guys good job ur my fave." also when the boys start rebelling against hoshi the members revealed in their behind-the-scene mv-making video that dino was like "wow hoshi was mean to u guys?? but he bought performance team doughnuts" and vocal team and hip-hop team are like what the FUCK and then they raid hoshis office it's really good. anyway i love this frame because it reminds me of russian roulette omg

DURING THE LITTLE THING WITH THE VIDEO EDITING THERES LITERALLY A FILE THAT SAYS NATALIE PORTMAN IN THE CORNER IDK WHO THAT IS BUT?? AND THEN LATER

 

funny enough the cursor is on layer 17 when the program crashes. anyway remember when hip-hop team was playin with those legos?? apparently the change up mv takes place inside the trauma box wtf.....crazy how nature works like that (also it's funny bc s.coups was in both music videos)

upon the appearance of the "pinwheel" videotape woozis pocketwatch and joshuas telephone follows shortly. wow i never realized how thorough clap was. more importantly theres a scene where mingyu carries shua w one arm

it was very enjoyable, chaotic but what seventeen mv isn't. i liked it so it gets a 10/10

 

sidenote: theres a shoutout to mansae the best seventeen song!!

overall - everything is good, seventeen came back with many mv's this time around but they all express a different concept. im glad seventeen has some control over their musical identity and isn't stuck in a concept rut like some groups 10/10

choreographies

Spoiler

1. i'm wearing a hat - i will die before u hear me refer to this song by its english name, anyway as you can see in the video the choreography actually starts off where don't wanna cry ends! and as demonstrated at the aaa's and pointed out by hoshi performance team also deliberately made the final stance of im wearing a hat's choregraphy the initial stance of clap's choreography

 ending of dwc = beginning of iwah!!

 ending of iwah = beginning of clap!!!

it's small but very clever and the smooth transition between songs is rly nice to see. going on from that theres a little sequence where the members come back together in a crowd and slowly walk around the room; as each person's line passes by the respective vocalist stops while everyone else continues walking on. idk how to describe it im bad at explaining but it's cool!!

by the beginning of the prechorus everyone is dispersed again in an elliptical formation—not groundbreaking at any means but still new to see in kpop. i can't really say i'm a fan of the motions here (especially the leg sweep wtf is that) but when woozi's line hits the choreography starts speedin up again along w the song and it's like whoa hey yeah thats the seventeen i know. it's also cool bc there was a similar part in dwc where everyone else danced in a group while woozi stood apart from them and did his thing!! seventeen, kings of referencing past choreographies. the transition to the chorus formation is awkward but not especially so. honestly im not feeling the choreography during the chorus at all lmao, it feels overly simplified and just doesn't match the song. anyway at verse 2.1 (smooth transition dancewise) the choreography references dwc once again with the iconic street lamps my favourite

 

when mingyu walks through the path this time each member falls which rly cool since the opposite happened in dwc (as a member walked through the pathway the members on the side would bounce up into that streetlight position). they stand up rly quickly when he walks back through too and then give a nod to what i think is supposed to be mansae?? which is weird, dwc makes sense bcos im wearing a hat occurs right after it but why mansae.....

 

the little domino thing that dk did was good too!! im watching the chorus rn and again man i gotta say i am disappointed in the point dance move (not the mojareul nulleo sseugo one but the byeonhae bolkka hae one) i understand that there are only so many ways you can do it so that you'll end up with the same stance as clap's beginning but it's so underwhelming. the ending is somewhat chaotic and messy but it's whatever. a lot of things in this choreo were either hit-or-miss but i liked it overall so 8/10

2. clap - lmao these boys directed and recorded this dance practice by themselves talk about taking their nickname "self-producing idols" to a whole new level, joshua is amazing. disregarding their antics in the beginning, the start of the song is good and so is the part after that and also the part after that. the moves are very crisp and clean and FRESH man wow i missed happy seventeen, dwc was new but it was not seventeen. it also contrasts with the melancholy of im wearing a hat. anyway i really really liked how performance team incorporated seventeen's greeting into the part where s.coups says "seventeen right here"

i don't have anything else super specific to point out, but it's overall just very nice??? everything flows very well and matches the lyrics and the formations are smooth. the build-up to the chorus is great and i love how hoshi leads the first half and jun the second half, like i love joshua but tbh i have a soft spot for performance team and it makes me so happy to see them get recognition bc three of the four performance members are near the bottom of seventeens popularity ranking. i like how theres a divide between wonwoo/woozi from the rest of seventeen once s.coups' rap begins and oh man do i love whatever the fuck is going on during jeonghans/dinos lines. i appreciate when groups have different dances during different choruses (i don't expect it but it is refreshing) and performance team doesn't disappoint me when it comes to that. similarly to aju nice and akkinda, the second chorus has a much more static and toned down mood going on dancewise which is cool bc ur expecting hoshi to throw his hands and feet and neck and back but instead s.coups comes out and does whatever hes doing; it's also good because it's literally the only time during the entire song where the formation is three-dimensional and joshua is anywhere near the front. the part where they point to vernon to jjak jjak jjak jjak and then he jjak jjak jjak jjaks is really whew especially because everyone has a different pose and im fairly sure some of them are even michael jacksoning (tag urself im woozi)

after that they kinda slowly bob down and watch wonwoo as he does his thing and then wonwoo taps dk to stand up and jjak jjak jjak jjak with him which is also really good. since seventeen are kings of switching up their choreography during live stages wonwoo sometimes picks a different person to stand up and jjak jjak jjak jjak and it's always fun and exciting (he picked shua during the aaa's!!)

the8 leads the second half of the second chorus yes performance team!! incidentally i really like the point-dance during this part. i don't really like whatevers going on during the music break, but it's a good way to build up to the especially jjak-splosive third chorus and they do finger hearts. which are always nice

woozi leads the final chorus, excellent as he was originally a member of performance team, but then vernon comes out hes dumb. but whatever it's fine because seeing the point-dance done solo while the other members hype him up is..........fun. the ending is cool and i like how they chose jun as the center. overall, it kind of lacks in creativity compared to past seventeen choreographies, but by itself it's pretty good. honestly my only real criticism of this is that dino didn't really get spotlighted despite his position as main dancer along with hoshi, but as a performance team member and as the kind of person he is im sure he would have changed it if it actually bothered him. 10/10 except 7/10 since theres not enough shua

3. lilili yabbay (performance team) - WOO YEAH performance team dancing w/o having to accommodate 9 other members who may not be as skilled as they are!!! also i feel like theres a lot more room for creativity for fewer people; the lotus blooming in the beginning is already gorgeous wow

like clap i don't have a lot of super specific things i want to point out but every little thing that clap excelled at lilili yabbay rly masters. the transitions between everything are PERFECT and i love how intimate the choreography is; they use their forms to suggest a bunch of different fuckos (i remember hoshi once mentioning that performance team observes inanimate objects for choreography inspiration but ive never seen anything like lilili yabbay) like the clock is absolutely hands-down my favourite

that said i feel like the steps during the chorus are pretty generic. the members themselves deliver them sharply and w precision and it's probably definitely difficult to pull off but nothing about it is very outstanding. the second one is a lot better but i feel like thats more out of "wow, i expected the first chorus but actually it's not" more than anything else. the small solo parts that chinaline gets here are cute though esp since the8 incorporates his little personal talent into the dance

a lot of parts (as in like, at least one lmao and that one stood out to me) of the choreo use the ripple effect and thats something i always like......last of all the last chorus is really good and i like how they ended the song. like the previous routines i don't have anything i superdislike about it except there was too much sin in it and that sucked that always sucks. but since the overall creativity of it surpasses that (srsly i think this is my favourite performance team song AND dance yet), 10/10

overall - 9/10, i have high standards when it comes to seventeen's choreography since they create it themselves but not only did they meet them they surpassed them. not bad

the songs themselves

Spoiler

oh boy this is like the easiest one to do. i was planning to go in-depth with the lyrics and everything but nah ill just do wat i normally do for song reviews since i usually bring up the lyrics if theyre noteworthy anyway.

1. intro. new world - idk what to say since it's just an introduction but it's great. "started from the bottom" is cringey but when the beat drops it's very very reminiscent of shining diamond except better and newer!! shining diamond sucks but it's seventeens first-ever official song so putting that into this album as "new world" is good. 9.5/10

2. change up (unit leaders) - i didn't like this song and i still don't like this song. hoshi rapping is funny because u can tell he picked up some of his technique from jooheon (jooheon). i don't quite understand the lyrics lmao but they're funny to read and give me good vibes, 7/10 i guess

3. i'm wearing a hat - ugh im honestly annoyed at how much i adore this song. it's kind of generic edm but it's good anyway!! the prechorus is great and i will begrudgingly admit that vernon's rap is one of my favourite parts; there is something about how freely he switches between english and korean and the way he says "mollasseo amugeotdo himdeulo you don't have to be alone" that kinda breaks my heart but in a good way. the lyrics are extremely dumb and generic sad lovesong BUT DESPITE THAT, DESPITE THAT IT'S SEVENTEEN AND I CAN'T TAKE THEM SERIOUSLY, the way they deliver it is beautiful and ya do u get me when i say that it breaks my heart in a good way?? especially when seungkwan says "neon yeppeugo cham nappeuda" and then the accompanying "geurae" after that ugh UGH it's so sad and i don't even know why, maybe woozi is just that much of a genius :_: since the8 is the one who says "byeonhae bolkka hae/i'm thinking about change" in the chorus too it ESPECIALLY stings, his voice and knowing the kind of person he is adds to the very regretful very vulnerable very sorrowful w/e in those five short syllables and idk this song makes me feel emo even more emo than pinwheel which everyone else says is the sadder song. theres exactly one thing i don't like and thats the transition from the first chorus to verse 2.1, it's awkward. actually the ending feels abrupt and awkward too. but 10/10 seriously this is amazing

4. clap - this is great. great. im so glad they went back to their signature fresh sound instead of burrowing further onto the edm bandwagon thats been riding through kpop recently, clap is leagues and leagues better than don't wanna cry. the lyrics are so good too!! they're like stress come on except actually serious and it is currently my go-to stress relief song. honestly just hearing shua say "gwaenchanha gwaenchanha" in the beginning puts an end to all my mental breakdowns and i guess his friends are good too. the music break is weird and seungkwan's high note seems shoehorned in but yeah i like it. it's good. 9/10

5. shoot me and go (mix unit: hoshi, woozi) - have i mentioned that i love all the titles on this darn album?? the beginning is good because it's like military marching and then theres gunfire and then hoshi says roger that yes sir and since it's a hoshi/woozi duet it's like damn, unit leaders, theyre probably woopin seventeen into shape rn. i remember seventeen repeatedly asserting that the two are the most hardworking members, hoshi creating most of their choreographies and woozi most of their songs, and this song is probably w/e to that. hoshis "hoshi woozi kombi deuryeobwassna" is my favourite lmao. also "chuiruibongya chuiruichuiribongya." i feel like if i didn't have context i'd absolutely abhor this song but as it is......it's decent. hoshi's a better rapper than i expected, too. 9/10

6. lilili yabbay/dance of the thirteenth month (performance team) - AHH AFTER WATCHING THE MV FOR THE MV REVIEW AND THEN THE CHOREOGRAPHY FOR THE CHOREOGRAPHY REVIEW IM REALLY HAPPY TO SEE THIS SONG AGAIN BECAUSE EVEN THOUGH IT DOESN'T HAVE JOSHUA I LOVE IT ;-; ngl im a bit disappointed hoshi didn't participate in the composition this time but then again he had to choreograph more routines for this promotion cycle so it is understandable. the beginning is great and the way hoshi comes in is great and i don't even like his voice and the backup vocals are great holy hecks seriously the beginning is my favourite part, the8's vocal colour is weak but it fits the part he was given so well and it's even more whoa after hoshis singing, juns lines suit his voice wonderfully im pretty sure they were made for him, dino sounds great as well wtf istg all the members' voices fit this song flawlessly and the parts were distributed perfectly and o my gosh. i love how hoshi is the one to say the hook before the beat drop becos heh hes unit leader. chinaline sayin neol wihae lilili yabbay is good. everything is good. everything except dino's talkrap at the end but im fairly sure that it was a stylistic choice rather than dino actually being a bad rapper because hes not lmao. 10/10

7. trauma (hip-hop team) - whenever i talk about this album, i pretend that trauma doesn't exist. it's awful and definitely the worst out of the unit songs lmao....im peeved that mingyu does the chorus because he has a very distinct lisp and it bothers me to heck and back whenever i hear it ugh!! the english lyrics are cringey too. i guess i like the beat (vernon helped compose it, maybe thats why i don't like it?) but thats it. 3/10

8. pinwheel (vocal team) - during the making film the members said that woozi actually composed this song back in march and they decided to save it because they thought it was the best ballad he had ever written and honestly i agree. compared to some of their other songs, pinwheel feels very complete musically and the lyrics are so poetic that it's hard to believe that the song was inspired simply by woozi's dream of a lone pinwheel in an open field. also joshua ends the song which is perfect. the only thing stopping me from fully loving this song is that it reminds me too much of from y to y : ( 9/10

9. flower (mix unit: s.coups, jeonghan, wonwoo, the8, seungkwan, dino) - this is good and funky and it reminds me vaguely of fast pace even though they're literally nothing alike. the instrumental is rly good and i like w/e the primary instrument is. the chorus is my favourite except wonwoo saying "'cause you're my flower" shut the fuck up oh my god i never realized how much i disliked his voice until now. anyway, s.coups' rapping is really good. the lyrics suck but it's fine. 9/10

10. rocket (mix unit: joshua, vernon) - im a BIASED lil FUCK but yeah i love this song, all of joshuas lines yes. vernon sucks but hes my favourite seventeen rapper and hes good buds with shua so whatever it's fine; if i had to pick a seventeen member for shua to do a duet with it probably would have been vernon anyway. the amount of english in this song is hilarious im almost certain that this song is more english than korean but thats what happens when u assign joshua to a song as lyricwriter (vernon doesn't exist). the chorus is stupid but i love it (ZOOM). i love joshua hong. 10/10

11. hello (mix unit: jun, dk, mingyu) - i just realized that all of the mix unit songs are near the end of the album except shoot me and go which is a shame bc it would have been cool to have them all before campfire. anyway i used to not like this song (some of the lyrics are so cringey lmao) but actually it's pretty feel-good, i wouldn't have guessed that it were dk's first time participating in the composition of a seventeen song because it's so well-put together but i guess thats why bumzu exists. jun's voice sounds great and normally i prefer seungkwans voice over dk's but actually for a happy chill song like this dk sounds better. mingyu's rap lyrics are funny. i still don't superlike it bc it feels like it's missing something (probably joshua) but it deserves a good score: 8/10

12. campfire - ok i literally said a few days ago that this song was a walmart version of healing but thats not a bad thing lmao, i love healing it was my stress-relief song before clap (seventeen, kings of stress relief and also stressing me out). it's a bit cheesier but it's fine. the first time i listened to it i was like, "this is inferior to red velvet's campfire," but seventeens version has a very laidback mood and gives off an image of the members all coming together (esp. all the mix unit songs preceding it) huddled around a campfire together having a good time and it makes me happy. it's still inferior to red velvet's campfire but not all of us can be red velvet. joshua starts and ends the song so yeah it's good. 9/10

13. incompletion - this is like clap but it's very NOT which is rly cool bcos it's throwin u back but not all the way and it rounds up the album really well. nothing spectacular about it but it serves its purpose as an outro well. 10/10

overall - as of right now, i prefer the love&letter repackage musically and conceptually, but teen,age shows a massive growth in versatility and i am impressed w that. all of the members also participated in the production of at least one song and obviously they are working pretty hard to fulfill the "self-producing idols" nickname that the public has given them (bold = composition, italics = lyrics, underline = sole attribution):

• s.coups - change up, i'm wearing a hat, trauma, flower, campfire (5/13)
• jeonghan - i'm wearing a hat, clap, flower, campfire (4/13)
• joshua - rocket (1/13)
• jun - hello (1/13)
• wonwoo - trauma, flower, campfire (3/13)
• hoshi - change up, i'm wearing a hat, clap, shoot me and go (4/13)
• woozi - new world, change up, i'm wearing a hat, clap, shoot me and go, lilili yabbay, pinwheel, rocket, campfire, incompletion (10/13)
• mingyu - i'm wearing a hat, clap, trauma, hello, campfire (5/13)
• dk - i'm wearing a hat, clap, hello, campfire (4/13)
• the8 - i'm wearing a hat, flower, campfire (3/13)
• seungkwan - clap, flower, campfire (3/13)
• vernon - i'm wearing a hat, shoot me and go, trauma, rocket, campfire (5/13)
• dino - i'm wearing a hat, lilili yabbay, flower (3/13)

thats amazing. especially the8, who's still not fully fluent nor confident in korean. i really appreciate how far they went with this album because they sold fine with al1!! better than previous albums, even. they could have easily ridden the edm hype train or, worse, continue releasing shit knowing fans would gobble it up (*cough* rookie, signal, power) but instead they chose to continue growing as artists and i really appreciate that. they even helped edit and produce their own mv this time around too and idk regardless of whether you're a carat or not it's pretty undeniable that seventeens musicianship and artistry is admirable. by the next album i expect to see some members participating in the arrangement of songs—which i have not seen any idol do except pristins sungyeon and possibly jonghyun—and while that is a very big expectation i think it means a lot that seventeen makes me feel like i can have it in the first place!! tl;dr, i may not totally love this album, but it's a sign that seventeen is looking to grow as musicians and i really appreciate that they're working so hard to learn so much on top of regular idol stuff. stan joshua hong, 10/10

concept and styling

Spoiler

seventeen sucks. i created this category for red velvet. i'm only gonna talk about shua, seventeen sucks

when the initial teasers came out i was afraid theyd do a dark concept and then they didn't and im hella relieved but im still confused as to why the teasers look like this. his hair is good but fuck the coloured contacts dear LORD

this is really funny to me

his outfit in the pinwheel mv is cute as heck

 

shuas been super pink recently i feel rly blessed

ive been trying rly hard to avoid the photobook pics but this keeps haunting me and im dyin, i really want the white version now but also the orange version and also the rose serenity version and also

pink hair ;_;

 

 

everyone else sux by virtue of not bein shua sorry guys better luck next time, overall - 1/13

 

Edited November 25, 2017 by Painkiller B
stan hitori

[Kinumi]

one of my many favourite things about shua: seventeen thinks hes really good at freestyle rap and always tell him to do it during interviews and stuff and he spouts out the most random shit and all the members go crazy bc it's in english and he basks in the praise when really what he said usually isn't groundbreaking at all it is absolutely my favourite

[Freohr Datia]

"not a true army if-"

I mean.... I do vote sometimes, but also sometimes I vote against BTS

Because while they're basically the only group whose members I know very well and keep up with, they're not the only group I listen to and I want to support everybody I want to support

And I trust the other factors like album sales/expert judging/etc. to select who best deserves to win (although the fans seem to do a great job of making it between just exo and bts for some of those categories~) and if that involves or doesn't involve BTS I won't die either way, and I'm sure the boys won't die either

Edited November 25, 2017 by Freohr Datia

[Kinumi]

Spoiler

[Kinumi]

Just now, Freohr Datia said:

I mean.... I do vote sometimes, but also sometimes I vote against BTS

Because while they're basically the only group whose members I know very well and keep up with, they're not the only group I listen to and I want to support everybody I want to support

o yes this

im not gonna vote for seventeen if i believe that another group did better for them tbh, like some carats say VOTE SEVENTEEN IN EVERY CATEGORY THEY WERE NOMINATED IN but u kno.....dwc is definitely my least favourite comeback from them ever and voting for it would not feel right.........

[Stargirl]

i love how silly this thread can be but at the same time how mature the people here are im-

Edited November 25, 2017 by Hashuni Mei

[Stargirl]

bt21 cushions are coming soon im screaming

i want my own tata and chimmy ;v;

 

Edited November 25, 2017 by Hashuni Mei

[Kinumi]

2 hours ago, Hashuni Mei said:

bt21 cushions are coming soon im screaming

i want my own tata and chimmy ;v;

 

wait omg what is this who is who

[Stargirl]

41 minutes ago, Painkiller B said:

wait omg what is this who is who

BTS in partnership with LINE FRIENDS created their own characters to be turned into emotes for the LINE app

From left to right:

Koya = RM

RJ = Jin

Shooky = Suga

Mang = J-Hope

Chimmy = Jimin

Tata = V

Cooky = Jungkook

Van = ARMY (I read somewhere that Van represents hitman bang, although I'm not so sure about that)

they look so cute dancing

[Kinumi]

THOSE ARE ADORABLE AHH

[Kinumi]

(whispering) how is it possible to love someone u have never met before so much

[Freohr Datia]

saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaame

also I want a mang cushion I love mang so much

[Kinumi]

tbt the time wonwoo and dk were making VROOOOOOOM noises and woozi looked over and was like "i thought vernon was crying"

[Kinumi]

tbt the time woozi was trying to teach dino proper etiquette and told him that being well-mannered is when you can bow down to someone even when you know they're weaker than you and dino nodded and immediately turned to seungkwan and bowed

[Kinumi]

tbt the time the8 poured his heart out about the meaning of living and how grateful he was to his fans and how he strived to be an inspiration for carats and jun just followed it up with "eating makes me happy"

[Kinumi]

when the beat drops in aju nice

[Kinumi]

when vernon says "woozi switch it up" in eomji cheok

[Kinumi]

tbt woozi's failed birthday party

Spoiler

 

 

Edited November 27, 2017 by Painkiller B
stan hitori

[Freohr Datia]

3 hours ago, Painkiller B said:

tbt the time woozi was trying to teach dino proper etiquette and told him that being well-mannered is when you can bow down to someone even when you know they're weaker than you and dino nodded and immediately turned to seungkwan and bowed

omg

[Shadowess]

5 hours ago, Painkiller B said:

tbt the time woozi was trying to teach dino proper etiquette and told him that being well-mannered is when you can bow down to someone even when you know they're weaker than you and dino nodded and immediately turned to seungkwan and bowed

oh my god i love dino

[Shadowess]

OKAY i need to say this but so kard's comeback had two versions of the song 'trust me' and i honestly thought that it would be the same song, same beat, just w/the two different pairs (bm & somin and j.seph & jiwoo) but they...aren't?? j.seph and jiwoo's has a faster and more pumped-up beat than bm and somin's version

what's really weird is that i usually like the faster kind of songs but honestly?? bm & somin's version blows me away, somin's vocals are absolutely amazing, her range changes sm (ngl some of it reminded me of hyelin for like. a weird reason) and then half of bm's rap is in english. it's nice and slow and i guess it feels very emotional. i like it a lot i think i prefer their version (but j.seph and jiwoo have a great version too)

[Shadowess]

i can't rly put it in words but my general response is "wow fuck me up"

 

[PKLucas531]

just saw bts on my tv in the commercial preview...........

[PKLucas531]

I'm gonna die they're in the later half of the show

[PKLucas531]

THEY'RE ON