Song Review:: Kang Daniel (Wanna One): Mess

• Release date: 2025 April 9

• Album tracklist: Mess, Mess - Instrumental

• Album runtime: 5 minutes

 Do I have to do the title track for his new mini album? Yes. Will I get to it soon? Yes, because Episode has been getting wins on music shows! Yay! I'm slowly getting my backlog worked on, and I wanted to do this one. However, I'm deeply disappointed by the runtime. I mean, look at that. But this is Kang Daniel, and I've come to realize how good his voice is. 

There's something very old about the instrumental track. I can't decide if it's the plink of the high notes on the piano or if it's from the slightly staticky overlay to most of the song, or maybe it's both, as both of those elements are found in music from the thirties. Although, to be fair, the one isn't necessarily on purpose but rather from the degradation of the recordings. The rest of the instrumentals aren't from the thirties. We've got the underwater echo that I love so much, but it also has some sections that remind me of a much more recent song, not necessarily a specific one, but just not something you could have found in the thirties. It's an intriguing song, and I'm glad that he gave this to us with the instrumental separate. Makes it easy on me, but also it's got such a movie soundtrack vibe that I'm hoping it is used in a soundtrack at some point in the future. It is a little bit, how do I say this, too steady. You know me; I like my variation, but also, this song isn't particularly messy.

Part of why I'm doing this one insead of the title track for his most recent mini album is because Electric Shock didn't necessarily introduce me to his voice, but it did make me more aware of him. And his voice is lower, which I've discovered is one of the things that is one of my happy points, as is the rough texture that idols like he and V share, so I will get to his song. I will. I promise. But I wanted to get to this one first. However, it runs into a similar problem that a lot of recent boy group songs specifically have. It's not milquetoast,; we're moving away from that sound, thank goodness. But it sounds like a lot of the song is held in a narrow band of notes. Now, having said that, it's not as bad with that as it could have been because the chorus holds the notes a little higher to give more variation The bell curve is a little more spread out, in other words. And I could be crazy, but is that French being spoken? 

It is French!! I also think it might be majority, if not fully in English other than the French, which is cool. And also has forced me to confront exactly how much I like the combination of the low voice and the raspy. I do have to say that it's a special video, so it's relatively chill. However, the close-ups with him looking like he's been in a fight? Very nice.