Song Review:: G-Dragon (BIGBANG) (featuring Taeyang, Daesung): HOME SWEET HOME

- November 23, 2024

Release date: 2024 November 22
Album tracklist: HOME SWEET HOME
Album runtime: 3 minutes

So BIGBANG did in fact perform at the MAMAs. Sneaky, sneaky. I like that clever little loophole, and now I've got my finger on the kind of trickery I can expect from the group, should they continue to move back into the music industry as a group. I look forward to puzzling it out from them. It's still a little surreal writing that title, because I have mad respect for the older groups. They have gone through some insane things. I apologize for the slang. I don't know what happened there. So, welcome back, BIGBANG. Unofficially, of course. I look forward to your official comeback as a group.

And the three-and-a-half minute runtime feels illegally extravagant in this day and age.

The drums are so dramatic in this song. They're never on their own, but they do a good job at attempting to trick the listener into thinking there are sections where it's just the vocals and the drums due to the quieter instruments smoothing things over. The first verse has one. The pre-chorus in general is that way. Everything else is genuinely just enjoyable to vibe to. I'm also a huge fan of the very soft bridge. The transition to it was a little clumsy and exposed the seams of the song, but because of other sections of the sections that also soften, it doesn't come completely out of left field.

I gotta say, I live for the sentimentality. "Well I said I would be back, And I'd never let you go, Pick a petal off the flower, Daze, you love me, nope?" Forgive me if I'm wrong, but that also seems like a reference to their last song as a group. I don't know the song well, but I've listened to it and I remember thinking at the time that it reminded me of Again by NU'EST, who is hands down one of the most ridiculously sentimental groups I've encountered so far. It sounds like their may be other references to either his or the group's songs in the lyrics, which then makes both Power and Home Sweet Home connected by that common thread. There are enough snaps in the lyrics that it doesn't feel completely sappy, but I honestly can't decide if this is more for the fans or his members. He's been gone for seven years other than the brief blip of a single from the group. He's seven years older, he's gone through an incredibly deep betrayal from one of his former groupmates, and the loss of another, and he keeps having to prove that he's still himself and he hasn't made other choices. If he hadn't changed musically, either in taste or style, then I'd be concerned. This very much is a G-Dragon and co. song, with G-Dragon getting the verses and the chorus (short though that is), but Taeyang and Daesung are so expertly used that you almost forget that. Also, I think my favorite line is "winner, winner, chicken killer," because it's a little goofy and the ending of that clause is not what I expected.

There isn't a dedicated video for this yet, but I assume we'll get one in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, have the G-Dragon solo performance stage from MAMA 2024. Home Sweet Home starts at 5:05, but he's such a dramatic performer that it's honestly worth the entire stage. Plus, they also did some BIGBANG songs.