Song Review:: Enhypen: ROMANCE UNTOLD: -daydream- - No Doubt

•  Release date: 2024 November 11

• Album tracklist: Daydream, No Doubt, Moonstruck, XO (Only If You Say Yes), Your Eyes Only, Hundred Broken Hearts, Brought the Heat Back, Paranormal, Royalty, Highway 1009, XO (Only If You Say Yes) (English Ver.) Feat. JVKE

• Album runtime: 31 minutes

 Formatting the title for this review was not my favorite thing. I like the album subtitle, but that throws off my standard practice for the titles. Also, I'm very worried about the group being overworked by the company (especially in light of the HYBE leak), because the turnaround time between their last album and their tour and this album and their next tour is not a lot of time, especially if they need to rest and recover between. If they're physically, emotionally, and mentally fine, then I can reallocate some of the worry I've shifted over to the members, but I'll only be able to do that once they get through promotions without anyone collapsing or going to the hospital for any reason or having any sort of a mental breakdown, but the concern will reset for the tour regardless. They're young. They're not invincible.

That is an uncomfy run time considering how many songs the album has, especially since that run time is rounded up.

The instrumentals are very smooth and glossy, except for the bright post-chorus whistling, which means that even the energy inherent in the beat is lulling. I probably have a very narrow definition of R&B, because my ears associate it with a very specific movement from the 1940s and 1950s (do not get me on the subject of music from those decades; I will not stop talking), and while I recognize that the genre obviously has undergone some radical changes, much as any genre naturally will have in any form of art, that's my base definition for the genre. This song, by contrast to most others that get classified as R&B that I have to be told is R&B, immediately settled into me as R&B. The last one to do that was Jay Park's album back in the beginning of October, but that was also the first one in months. I don't know exactly what it is about the instrumentals for No Doubt that immediately made me recognize this as R&B, but that's what the slickness of this song said. Which probably means it's a great example of the genre? Maybe? But there's something else about it that brings to mind cyberpunk nightclub in the instrumentals, all chrome and neon.

Why was the voice affectation necessary? It's another example of the song smoothing off any possible rough edges and making the song incredibly easy to swallow.  Even if it were my intention to be negative and harsh with a song, the resulting vocals from the production doesn't give the chance for it. They're incredibly pleasant, though mellow, with the energy level through the song essentially maintained at an equilibrium. 

In case of emergency, use lobster! I jest. Mostly. Actually, that reminds me of FRIENDS and Phoebe's lobster thing. Also, while all of the members look very good, Ni-ki looks the most vampiric, startlingly so. He's the only one I can recognize on sight without having to think about it, but there at the end when they show up in the black costumes? Wow. And the claws? I feel like I might be missing something lore-wise there, but I'm also a little distracted by Ni-ki's visuals. Again, the rest of them look amazing too. There's something that I noticed and I probably wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't had to do the review with the music video, but the heart shapes marks on the neck? They remind me a little bit of ILLIT from their most recent music video. Which is a curious pairing, but the two groups are actually about the same age, member-wise. I don't know if there's any connection there, but they are both at BeLift. I'm not calling it a cross-over based solely on similar heart-shaped puncture marks, but I do think it's interesting.