Song Review:: U-Know (TVXQ!): I-KNOW- Stretch

• Release date: 2025 November 05

• Album tracklist: Set In Stone, Body Language, Stretch, Spotlight2, Waterfalls, Leader, Premium, Fever, Let You Go, Take-off (26)

• Album runtime: 31 minutes

 I missed a pre-release? Oh, I’m so sad. Genuinely. I super did not pay attention to that and I feel bad, so I’m adding it to the ever expanding list. TVXQ! has a habit of releasing stuff around my birthday. Last year, it was their Japanese album. This year, U-Know and his solo album. It’s fun. It’s a good time for those of us who are me. I am a little surprised that he’s going to have his twenty-second anniversary next month and this is only his first full album, but it is what it is. 

This is such a cyberpunk kind of song. I can practically see the strobing and the neon and the chrome and the cybernetics. It has a really strong beat. Like, really strong (though there’s not a whole lot of actual melody going on in the instrumental; it’s mostly rhythm and beat). Actually, it’s strong enough that even though this is by no means a song I would normally seek out to listen to, I cannot help but head bob to it. We’ve got a very obvious dance break as well, which I love for him and am very excited to see. The whole thing feels a little grungy as well, so this isn’t the sleek and polished cyberpunk; this is the seedy underbelly of the city. Hilariously, this also kind of matches with a lot of their group songs, as they also have kind of a robot/cyberpunk flavoring to them thematically.

The vocal fry going on with this song. Wow. The majority of this vocally is fry or rap, and I’m not overly fond of having this much of it. But, it’s uncomplicated, which means that it’s not as grating as it could be. My brain is also recognizing this as music, so that’s a good thing, and I’m going to say it’s because there are three distinct styles of vocalizations happening. He’s managing to show off three different ways, and even though this isn’t necessarily the kind of song I would voluntarily listen to normally, I can recognize the amount of skill he has.

Opening the music video with U-Know burying a dead body is a bold choice and I love it. He's keeping the Halloween and the scary going for a little bit, which I appreciate for reasons, and while it's not entirely overt, the ending really solidifies that. I'm going to repeat what I said about the music video for Body Language, because I think it bears repeating, but U-Know is an eldritch abomination. In one, he's embracing the humanity, though he's still a bit kooky. In this one, he's embracing the eldritch and going off the rails a little a little. Two sides of the same coin. Y'all, I absolutely love that the two music videos are linked up and so clearly. It brings joy to my heart.