Yep, that’s right. You can love something or someone with big ol’ heart eyes and still have Ideas about How They Could Do Things Better. It’s probably best not to share these Ideas with them directly, however…. Good thing I have a blog the boys will never read!
Let me start with their newest title track, “Ash,” which dropped last month. It’s from a Japanese album, which usually means recycled, translated songs and a lukewarm title track, but in this instance I LOVE “Ash”—it’s the best from them in quite a while, and Nick agrees, so you know I’m right.
However…the video. It’s just really lackluster: frames and frames of momentum-sucking and oddly framed close-ups of the boys; not nearly enough of the terrific BBTrippin’ choreography for the song, which you can see here. The fix is easy: fewer shots of Seonghwa languishing in a boat floating on a sea of illegible photographs; more choreo. Done and done.
But that reminds me that I have similar, minor gripes about a number of their other songs and videos that I have been wanting to get off my chest. To be clear, even when their songs aren’t great or I don’t love them, they’re still generally good: EDENARY knows what they’re doing. But in many cases a few tweaks would take the song or video in question from a “B” to an “A.” So, I’ll run ‘em down. I’m starting with “Halazia” and working my way backward because frankly I’ve been 6-7, as the kids say, about everything they’ve released between that album and “Ashes to Light”:
Oh, I will say something about “Bouncy”: the song itself is mid, but not putting lowriders in a video for a song called “Bouncy” that has cars in it already is borderline criminal. (Not to mention they put lowriders in “Work,” a couple of title tracks later, when it made much less sense to do so; I’m just saying, it’s not like they didn’t know from lowriders.)
“Halazia”: The video is fine. I’m not wild about the whole cultish leitmotif, but supposedly it fits into their extremely elaborate lore, so whatever. There are some genuinely great shots in this video: Wooyoung with the burning hat, the ending shot with San and the ball…. It’s the song that needs some help. As Nick pointed out, the chant-y chorus just sucks all the energy out of the song that’s been building up through the spooky verse and pre-chorus: it needs a major ramp-up in the second stanza of the chorus, which would also provide a nice offramp into the excellent post-chorus. Otherwise, it’s a pretty solid song.
“Guerrilla”: Actually, I don’t have any issues with this song, and the punk styling in this era was my second favorite* (Seonghwa won this one with the kilt and the undercut!) But I agreed with Nick that “Cyberpunk” should have been the title track: it’s a MUCH better song—for sure in my top 10. The chromatic chorus, the beat hanging and then dropping on the second half of the measure on the second chorus—pure genius. Speaking of “Cyberpunk,” I have some notes on the choreography. There were a couple of brilliant gestures, like the face-turning one, but overall it was strangely lackluster for BBTrippin’. I would have put in some group relay moves on the chorus that looked like a robot moving in stop motion—kinda like they did for Utopia and Horizon. And I would have gotten rid of the chair-dancing nonsense. ATEEZ went through this overtly sexy phase for a couple of albums (basically the “Will to Power” tour), and it just didn’t work for them—they’re too introverted and control-oriented as people and artists to pull it off. Their charisma stems from how good they are at what they do: they impress, not seduce. Or maybe they seduce by impressing? I don’t know, I’m not a 14-year-old girl. And I don’t like overtly sexy choreos in the first place; I find them cringey. But I can recognize when they’re executed well—by artists like Taemin or Kai. When ATEEZ tries it, it’s just awkward—possibly b/c they also find it cringey and can’t really commit to the vibe.
“Deja Vu”: This was my first comeback with the group, and while I liked the song, it didn’t grab me the way that “Answer” or “HALA HALA” had. I can’t say why exactly, but I do know that they cut Jongho’s arpeggio short on the bridge: it should have kept climbing; then, it would have banked the energy from the chorus and carried it into Mingi’s rap. Plus, Jongho is famous for his falsetto range, and “Deja Vu” dropped right after he had gone viral for hitting 3 octaves in his live “Wonderland” performance in “Kingdom”: a nice, climbing arpeggio here would have been a great callback to that. The video for this song was just…confusing. I know it contained a lot of Easter Eggs that pointed to the lore, but it was incoherent. I didn’t know how the underground bunker stuff fit with the junkyard and the lightning and the drone and the constellations and…I give up. They should have cut back on the lore drops and dialed in a more consistent mood—maybe done something more with the cars and driving: were they escaping something? Delivering fried chicken? Would have been nice to know.
“Wonderland”: This is a GREAT song, don’t get me wrong, and the video is fabulous as well; this is the song that made them famous, and it’s well-deserved. My note is a very minor one: instead of “On my my way” for the opening of the chorus, how about “I’m on my way”—scans the same, is 100% more grammatical. ATEEZ has gotten better with their English lyrics over the years—notably since Maddox (a native speaker) joined EDENARY.
*Are you wondering what my first-favorite era was? The Fireworks/Don’t Stop era, right before Mingi went on hiatus. I mean, just look at these outfits:
The Rookery 