In the little over two years I’ve been listening to K-Pop, I think this is the first time I’ve checked someone out as a solo artist rather than the group they are a part of first. In fairness, Yeonjun was slapped all over my Youtube’s homepage thanks to reactors I like. His face was also quite the pull.
I had no clue he was a part of the popular group, TXT, until I actually went to look this guy up. And that was after I watched the music video medley from his debut album, No Labels. The very first song in the medley was called “Coma” and I was hooked immediately. The beat was erractic and his vocals were delivered in really unique ways. Plus, he looked visually stunning. I was sad with how short the song was not realizing it wasn’t the whole thing. The next song in the medley was “Let Me Tell You,” which features Katseye’s Daniela. I think a feature in a K-Pop song is rare, and I feel like that’s mainly because these groups already have so many members to try to incorporate into songs already. But here is a different story. And if you’re worried that Daniela’s part is overwhelming to the song, I assure you it’s not. It’s almost just like a complimenting whisper here and there. Their voices actually sound quite nice together. She did get to make an appearance in the video, since both she and Yeonjun are known for their dancing abilities. Stylistically, it’s totally different from “Coma,” which took me another listen to come around to, but I dig it!
The third song in the medley, and ultimately the title track, is “Talk To You.” If I had to try and describe this, I would actually say it could be the cousin to Korn or Linkin Park in many ways. It definitely has a heavier rock feel, and that was really cool to hear in K-Pop! I know there are plenty of metal-heads, myself included, who have trekked the same path as me. I think we are all more drawn to the more chaoitc groups, but this song truly adopts the most genuine rock sound I’ve heard so far. The video is a little bit comical, but Yeonjun is flaunting what he’s got. And by that I mean abs. So many abs. I was a fan of this medley, though nothing hit quite as hard as “Coma” for me, so I couldn’t even begin to tell you how many times I listened to that song over the course of just one week. Let alone up to now!
The rest of the album’s three other tracks also all manage to sound completely different from one another. I like the risks he was taking with these songs stylistically without making it seem like some disjointed thing he slapped together. Somehow all of those different sounds managed to make one cohesive mini album. “Forever” was probably the next strongest track on the record for me, that seemed to echo a bit of smoothness from “Let Me Tell You.” I will say that “Do It” and “Nothin’ Bout Me” have quite landed for me yet. Though in fairness, I haven’t given them nearly the proper amount of listening time as the other four tracks on this record. With this, it strikes me how much I appreciate music videos. There’s something to be said for creating a visual aid for music. I think it can help tell the story of the music better in a lot of cases, though there are times when it’s distracting. Most of the time though, I find that it intensifies my love of a song. he already gave us three music videos – why not three more?!
All in all, I was really taken by surprise with this record, by this guy I’ve never heard of, and whose group I’ve never listened to. Does my admiration of Yeonjun mean that TXT is just down the pipeline? No. For whatever reason I have no other curiosity to check out TXT at this moment, but who knows what will happen throughout the rest of the year! If you’re looking for something eclectic and cool though, No Labels is where it’s at.