Song Review: Hello Gloom (IMFACT) x Justin Park: Somebody

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  • Release date: 2024 October 25
  • Album tracklist: Somebody
  • Album runtime: 3 minutes

 I've never heard of Hello Gloom, so first order of business is some research.

Okay, he's a soloist, birth name Na Ungjae. He is the maknae of the group IMFACT, which I have heard of but again, know nothing about them. He seems to be a songwriter and producer, which means that I'm going to be a little harder on this song. He's part of the 98z friend group that includes Seungkwan, Sinb, and Umji. IMFACT is apparently not disbanded; they're just focusing on solo stuff while they do the enlistments. Sang just enlisted a couple of days ago, which means it's just Ungjae that needs to go in now. 

Okay. Let's get to it.

Weirdly, I think the instrumentals do exactly their job and no more. They set the tone (dreamy in a sort of dissociative way). They stay out of the way of the vocals, while simultaneously supporting them and providing a grounding framework. But that's about it. It's entirely satisfactory. 

His voice is interestingly hypnotic. I zoned out for a full half hour, did literally nothing but sit here while I was trying to write this, and forgot I was supposed to be doing anything. This is also late at night and I'm sitting up with an elderly dog who isn't doing well, BUT I was genuinely impressed with his voice's ability to make my brain just stop. There's genuinely very little that can do that. I don't like the autotune quite as much, but underneath and around the autotune, the texture of his voice is really quite pleasant. Even with this song's ability to shut my brain off, I'd fully be willing to listen to other songs by him. And I know which playlist this is going into.

I love the styling. I love the vibe. The filming location was gorgeous. And now that I know the difference in the two artists' voices, I'm pretty sure I found the culprit to shutting off my brain. Hello Gloom is fine. Hell Gloom doesn't shut my brain off. It's Justin. But that's good to know. I genuinely do like this song. 



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