Song Review:: Chen (EXO): Arcadia- Arcadia

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  • Release date: 2025 September 29

  • Album tracklist: Arcadia, No Gravity, Help Me (Somebody 2 Love), In My Life, Deja-Vu

  • Album runtime: 14 minutes

 Spotify has been very helpful in reminding me about this album since it became available for pre-saving. I'm just very behind. Sorry, Chen. I do actually really like his voice, so I was looking forward to this mini album. This may also be the tail end of big activity while they prepare for their first comeback as a full group post-military. That is something I'm looking forward to.

The angle on the album cover is interesting. Not bad interesting. Just worth pointing out.

Ooh, that was not where I was expecting this to start. My strongest association with the word "Arcadia" is the level in the horror video game BioShock, which is one of my favorites even when I was too much of a scaredy-cat to finish it, but prior to listening to this, I was aware of that and trying to ignore the association. The thing is that the intro to this is just horror-y enough that my brain went "Ah, yes. This would work well for the Arcadia level." Horror-y, underwater vibes, just enough density that it feels a little forest-y. It doesn't last, which is fine by me, because then it goes a little bit more rock, and as I hope I've established, I really like the rock genre in general. It's not fully rock, but in the places where it gets loud and emphatic, it's definitely rock leaning.

Chen's voice. Wow. I almost don't want to say too much about it because I'd really rather just sit and bask in the sound. This has just about everything I want in a soloist. Dynamics control, vibrato, belts. This is just a gorgeous song.

Well, we got a very minimalist music video. There's a metaphor there about how missing someone can drain the color from the world.




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