Song Review:: Chen (EXO): Beyond- Love You

• Release date: 2024 October 01

• Album tracklist: Love You, Brighter Than

• Album runtime: 6 minutes

 At this point, I think I'm going to be more familiar with EXO's solo work than their work as a group. The very first song I heard from the group was Kai's Rover, and I fell in love a little bit with him from that song. But, generally speaking, I came in at the wrong time. But, that means I get to know EXO piecemeal, and that will probably be easiest, so when they do start releasing as a group again, I already kind of know them.

Since neither song has a music video that I can see, I'm going to pretend the one with more streams on YouTube is the title track. It's a guessing game.

We have a piano and some synth and that's it for the instrumentals. A lot of songs might let the synth take the center stage since that seems to be the more popular instrument, but not Love You. Instead, the piano occasionally lets the synth share its spotlight, but also stands on its own for a significant portion of the song, lending a profound sense of melancholy and wistfulness that would be hard to achieve with any other instrument, except perhaps a sad violin.

Chen is a balladeer apparently, and I want to hear him and Eunkwang do a duet together. It's not my dearest wish regarding anything to do with K-Pop, but that would be a blessing to the ears and soul. I mean, just the fact that Chen actually spends time in a lower register and the same tonal quality he has there gets carried through even when he's going higher into his mixed voice would be enough to catch my attention, but he's so clean with his notes! Even when he's using a melisma, there is absolutely no sliding. He's hitting only the notes he means to be hitting. I'm so impressed with his technique. He sounds absolutely effortless and is so clean. I think he might have a naturally lower voice, but you wouldn't know it from the amount of control and freedom he has with his voice. How much is his natural ability and how much is his training? I have no idea. But I'd argue that he should be one of the standards for vocalists in the industry, and the fact that his voice doesn't carry affectation through this song tells me how comfortable he is.