Song Review:: Minho (SHINee): CALL BACK- Something About U

• Release date: 2024 November 04

• Album tracklist: CALL BACK, Slow Down, FIREWORKS, Came And Left Me, Something About U, Round Kick, Affection, I Don't Miss You, Because Of You, Would You Mind

• Album runtime: 31 minutes

 I was not expecting him to drop a b-side music video a month or so after the album release, but I should have guessed one would eventually given the length of the album. Hello again, Minho. Glad to see you back, and glad to review this one.

At the risk of being a little explicit, there are sections of the instrumentals that can only be described as "throbbing." They don't last through the entire song, which is a little bit of a relief as the pre-chorus and the bridge mellow them out, but a lot of those sections also have a grinding synth. There's not a lot of change from the chorus to the verses, if any, and the post-chorus is much of the same, but more intense, although it's also easily my least favorite part of the song. The slight tempo acceleration toward the end is also rather intense and drives the energy through to the finish line. 

I tried to side-step this a little during the instrumentals. I'm pretty sure I failed miserably, but I didn't try very hard. Bro sauntered out here with a seducing song where everything about it is targeted specifically to that point. I cannot stand whatever is going on with the post-chorus and wince every time I hear it, but that might be the point to keep the song from leaning too far into the territory I think it wants to go. Not that I don't think it's not already there anyway, but that could be a lot stronger. His voice just rolls through this song, picking up speed and momentum, even during the pre-chorus and the bridge.

I love performance videos. They're showcases of cinematography and the choreography, usually without all the distracting bells and whistles of a full music video. And in this case, the choreography was a lot less sexual than I thought it was going to be, but it's still something that I could also see his maknae, Taemin, doing as well. The costuming does a really good job of highlighting his figure without revealing too much.