Battle of the B-Sides:: NCT 127: Vitamin

 I got this a bit ago as a suggestion, but I just kept putting it on hold. However, considering Taeyong is now discharged (and I get to pull his photocard off my Enlistment Wall now yay), I'm going to dust this one off and do it. I would have had this out for his discharge but I lost track of when he was getting discharged. Sorry. I am also slightly afraid of this song because I haven't heard it and whoever submitted it wrote "enjoy the lyrics ;)" and I can't decide which is likelier: if this is going to have lyrics like Smoothie or if it has lyrics that I am definitely going to mishear and make them worse than they are, because a comment like that could go either way. I also got an apology because this submitter isn't sure if this was ever performed live, but this isn't the first one I've done and it certainly won't be the last. 

And with regards to the T-named elephant in the room, I also had to decide how I was going to handle this and him, which is why this took so long to get out, and I'm glad I haven't gotten a request for any of his solo songs, or a certain second-gen idol involved in making equally poor decisions for instance, so I can put off that decision too. I'm not going to punish or ignore the whole group because of one scumbag, especially when he's not with the group anymore. So I'm just going to ignore him, unless it turns out that he is vital to the song, and that's how songs with...scumbags are going to go. 

Okay, heavy stuff out of the way. I apologize for that. This song was originally from 127's fourth album, 2 Baddies, from 2022, which is also an album that I actually have a few songs picked up that I like, but I haven't heard this one just yet. Kim Yein has only worked on a few songs: this, The Boyz' Lighthouse, and a song by Onewe. Jacob Attwooll has quite the list under his belt, a large number of western artists, but also Jin's debut song, VICTON, Red Velvet, TXT, Enhypen, TWS, TWICE, and XODIAC. John Eyden has RIIZE, Red Velvet, Hyo, and Wheein as artists whose songs he's contributed for. This is actually quite the range, and it makes me a little curious about what we're going to get for the song itself. I'm still scared of the lyrics, but I'm intrigued now.

This is quite the jazzy little number, isn't this? Ooh, I really like this one. After I'm done with this, I've got some playlists I'm going to be adding this to, so thank you for introducing me so I can introduce this to others.

So I get why whoever submitted this to me said why they did, because in the fashion of many of SM artists' songs, this is a double entendre à la Smoothie, and also I'm almost positive I'm mishearing some lyrics, so it doesn't matter which one you were aiming for, you got both. Even with just the English words as is and my garbage Korean comprehension.

But before we get into the lyrics, because that's where we're going to spend most of this time as that was the only added comment so I have to assume that whoever submitted this loves the lyrics beyond all doubt, I want to talk about that instrumental, because there are a lot of really juicy things going for it. I promise, I'm going to try to keep my own double entendres to a minimum, but some of them are going to happen whether I want them to or not.

That piano is a lot of fun. For the most part, it's just a plinky set of chords with the occasional movement, but it's such a good counterpoint to the beat. It makes it playful and fun, softening the intensity. 

The highlight of course is the brass going on in the last chorus. It takes what the piano is throwing down and triples the playfulness, which elevates the entire song's brightness and makes the song so wonderfully complex because of what is happening in the vocals at the same time. 

Okay. Let's talk about the good stuff. Apparently, they've said that it's simply about taking your vitamins. Yeah, and Smoothie is about how much they love smoothies.

Like I said, that last chorus is a banger. It's got so much going on, the vocals are vocalling, the ad-libs are ad-libbing. It's frankly magnificent. We actually get ad-libs through a lot of the song, which is a pleasant surprise considering we usually only get ad-libs at the end, and while we certainly get them there, there are some buried about half-way through the song if you listen close for them. That's fantastic.

I did look for a live performance of it and couldn't find one, so if you know of one, let me know so it's not just me yapping about the song. Because even I don't like the sound of my own voice that much, but unfortunately it is what it is.

Johnny opens up the song with "Yee-yeah/Girl, you got that take it all, baby/And I'll be the therapist for the day/That's okay, yeah, woo". And the number of times they say anything related to "take a bit of me" or "vitamin me, A B C D", yeah, everything's above board here. Totally just about making sure to take your vitamins. And that's just the English. If what I've seen is an accurate translation, whoo, buddy. 

The biggest offenders of the "totally about taking your vitamins" club are definitely Mark and Johnny, but several of the others are strong contenders. Although, during the chorus, we've got the line "나로 채워 너의 결핍 vitamin me" which was done by the whole group because it is the chorus, but that particular line is, well, impressive, even considering. The song tries to be subtle, and I do applaud it for its attempt, but this whole thing is about as subtle as Tyrannosaurus rex in Central Park, which I kind of love, because who has time to be subtle?

Seriously, if this has ever been performed, please toss it at me. And if this ever gets performed, I want to know about it. 

Thank you for the submission! This was fun getting to hang out with this song, especially since this isn't a group I'm super familiar with.

If anyone else has any submissions, feel free to go ahead and drop them in a comment or in The Form. But thank you for reading! I hope you like the song and have enjoyed my rambling! And seriously, if you find out about a live performance, let me know about it.