Battle of the B-Sides:: IN2IT: Young & Dumb

 So this lovely group left their company after a little over two years, founded their own company, and are now going by the name Skye as of 2023. So, yes, technically IN2IT is disbanded, but it's more of a B2ST/Highlight situation. I also found out that they did a cover of SHINee's An Encore a few months ago, which delights me to no end because that's my favorite SHINee song, and they did a great job. This one was also recommended to me, and because I've never heard of this group before, I'm genuinely delighted by the idea that I get to cover a group I haven't heard of. And the only group I've covered in one of these posts, going by some of the numbers, that's smaller is the ill-fated Chocolate, which I also hadn't heard of before I started looking into them. 

Some brief background on them. They debuted in 2017 as an 8-member project group from the survival show BOYS24 under what is now WAKEONE and left at the end of their contracts in 2020, which makes them the precursors to TOO/TO1 and ZEROBASEONE. They debuted a couple of months before THE BOYZ and a couple of months after WANNA ONE, in case anyone wants them within a timeline. This particular song comes from their 2019 single, PUZZLE, which was also their last multi-track single under the name IN2IT. Those are a lot of capital letters. 

Ah, a song of looking back on youth. The wistful nostalgia is strong with this one. But because I get to do what I like with this, I'm going to include some other songs that this would fit in a playlist together. This is why it took me so long to get this particular post out, because I was hunting down songs. This is kind of a recommended listening of the "If you liked this, then you might like this" variety.  First up is Butterfly by BTS. The tone of the rapping and the generally soft instrumentals pair really well, and that gives us a demonstration of the kind of choreography that this could have. There's actually a lot of crossover with between Butterfly and Young & Dumb, and if you like either, you'd probably like the other. Another song that matches is You Were Beautiful by DAY6. The threads between the songs as well as the way the songs are put together make Young & Dumb the slow-dance version of the band version. One is focused more on youth itself and the other on younger love, but they have the same wistfulness to the lyrics and the same beauty in the past. The more upbeat and energetic version of Young & Dumb is Cheers to youth by Seventeen. Where Young & Dumb softens, Cheers to youth powers up, but the quiet celebration of youth and the things we had remains the same. 

Now on to focusing on the song. There isn't a lot out there on this song and the suggestion was a little sparse on details (which is fine! It just makes this a little harder as I'm generating it myself), which is why I'm taking a little bit of a roundabout route with it rather than making you listen to all of my rambling wholesale. The lack of available content is a shame because if they'd had longer together as IN2IT, I believe this could have ended up being a staple for the group. They haven't done a lot as Skye yet, although they do have their IN2UIT music on their Skye YouTube page, so I am curious about what the situation is with the trademark and everything.

But, I digress.

The song is so smooth and polished, with crisp beats and a strong base despite the general quietness to the song. As always, I'm a big fan of the audience participation clapping, and they pop up multiple times when the song is at its quietest, but those moments come fairly often, so the rhythm of the song relies on a balance between stillness and sauntering movement without ever really moving fully into the briskness of even a walk. I love how mellow it is as well. This is just a good vibes song.

But as much as a good set of instrumentals do well for a song, this isn't a band. This is a singing group and the emphasis needs to be on the vocals, but I love the harmonizing going on. Half the song has harmonizing going on, and that's excluding the ad-libs, which also take up like half the song, though there is some overlap with the two halves. While, yes, the vocalists have fairly similar voices, that just means there's a purity to their sound when they stack them, especially when they get layered over the rappers, who have the expected low rasps. It's phenomenal. The company known now as WAKEONE wasted those voices, giving them no mini albums in three years. Yes, they had a few singles, but really? Not a single mini album? Are you kidding me? Even if they didn't have the voices they have, that's still a travesty.

I'm not going to give all the fancams I found because they're all of the same performance, I think, and that feels like it would be a little overwhelming. But I will give you Isaac's and take a leaf out of Ace of Ace's book and show you one to focus on. So, meet Isaac! He is Malaysian, the first Malaysian idol apparently, and the current maknae. He also got stuck in his hometown during the pandemic, so he stayed there while the Korean members enlisted, which is practical and time-saving and something I deeply admire. And he also has skills in all three relevant areas, listed as vocalist, lead rapper, and lead dancer.