Song Review:: Key (SHINee): HUNTER- HUNTER

• Release date: 2025 August 11

• Album tracklist: HUNTER, Trap, Strange, Want Another, No Way!, Infatuation, GLAM, Picture Frame, Perfect Error, Lavender Love

• Album runtime: 30 minutes

 I'm behind again. It's fine. I'm going to get Key's done so I'm slightly less behind, and when it was between Key, Jeon Somi, and a newly debuted team, I kind of have to go with my man Key first. No offense to either of the other two and I'll definitely be hitting the debuting one, even though I have a bad, bad feeling that they're going to be gong on Underage Protocol. It's not something that I have to worry about with Key, though. Also, seeing him in person at KCon? Wow, he is pretty. He is so much prettier in person than on camera. That was one of the only things I could talk about on the walk to the hotel. (Well, how pretty he and Hwasa are and realizing that Key may have been the oldest performer there.) The runtime is rounded up, but not too badly, though the title track is not one of the longer ones. Also, he teamed up with Seulgi for Perfect Error.

The instrumental for this song is a near constant, throbbing grind. There are brief pauses, but otherwise, stripping out his voice creates a track for a video game soundtrack. It's definitely some sort of fighting game, or one of the higher-tech Final Fantasy games, like VII, XIII, or XV. The beat is strong enough that you could do a rhythm action game to it. Maybe not a boss fight, but you're definitely dealing with something big and gnarly in a high-tech section of the video game regardless of the variety though. Because it's so steady though, it provides phenomenal groundwork for Key's voice to have support while it moves and glides smoothly through the song. The ending in particular, where we get the second of the bookended sections, backs off when Key's voice softens and goes into a decrescendo. The same with the whisper in the middle. It would be so easy for the instrumental to be overwhelming, but it's balanced well and designed well.

Oh, Key. Those ad-libs at the end are gorgeous. I'm not overly fond of the vocal effects on his voice, but they're also not overly noticeable through the entire song and he's showing off so much range with Hunter. The whispers, the falsetto, the general, constant movement through scales. I appreciate all of it. It's not necessarily the song I would have chosen for his title track, but it's got enough interesting bits to it that I both can't complain and won't argue against it. (I would have chosen Strange even though it's got the heavily altered sections, but it's also a little too early for even me to be screaming about Halloween yet, so I can understand why it wasn't the title track. Though, honestly, there are a few songs on the album that would have worked as title track. Hopefully some of them get music videos.)

So, I'm apparently adding both songs to my Halloween playlist, because I'm getting some serious shades of VIXX here. I can't decide if we're dealing with a werewolf concept, or a vampire concept, or maybe something else, but it did confirm my theory that Hunter was also spooky. Man, I really need to strengthen up my vocabulary. Also, I'm a little tiny bit sulky now that Strange didn't make title track but, again, maybe I'll be lucky and get a music video for it. In the meantime, this music video gives me the thing that I like best to see in music videos. Say it with me: storyline. That's right, we got a full, glorious storyline complete with fantastic choreography. So satisfying. So mentally stimulating. Love it. Love it so much. And that choreography? Wowsers. It's unhinged choreography at its finest and I love that so much too.