Greatest Hits:: KARD: YOU IN ME

 Oh, I like this one. Remember how I asked for the spooky songs? This was one of this batch, and while it's both out of season as well as not being one I can necessarily send directly back to sender because it came from The Form, I am looking forward to this one. Also, I love co-ed groups, and this was on the shortlist for the song I was going to do for the spooky. It just didn't quite make it. I also got a slight spoiler on the music video, and I'm excited to see the whole thing.

This one apparently has lore (and I'm looking at the titles of the album, which is piquing my curiosity, so I may need to do some album listening as part of this little thing). So, this song was released in 2017 as the title track for their second mini album, YOU & ME. So as far as the lyricists go, we've got the two guys, J. Seph and BM, which makes sense since as far as I know, they write their own raps. The other lyricist is also the producer Nassun, who has worked on a lot of KARD songs, but also songs for A.C.E (including their debut track, Cactus), Lee Hyori, ZE:A, KNK, Fanatics, and BLACKSWAN, as well as some others. The album debuted in the single digits on both the Gaon Album chart and the US World albums chart, which is very exciting.

• Group: KARD
• Debut Date: 2017 July 19
• Company: DSP Media
• Status: Active
• Album: YOU & ME
• Song: YOU IN ME
• Release Date: 2017 November 21

 I know that their later music is a lot more popular, but this is the jam. Again, I understand some of the Korean, not a ton, and if the English translation is half as beautiful and poetic as the original Korean, then massive kudos to the lyricists. 

I think my favorite line from J. Seph is "고달파진 갈증 내 목을 휘감듯/숨조차 버거운 내 박동은 못해도", and the way he delivered it is just so nice. He's got a very deliberate style for most of his verse until those lines, which shift into something much more clipped before returning to the previous style to end it, and I cannot wait to find live performances of this so I can hear him do it live. That's some incredible control. 

BM has a lot of weight to his verse that is absolutely fantastic, and then he smooths out "지나치게 아낀 게/숨을 쉰 이유가 돼야 했었는데/오히려 네 숨을 막았네". But the really cool thing about those lines is that he tips up into almost a voice crack as he's just sliding through the words. But being able to do that on purpose? Genuinely incredible.

The girls get the choruses and I adore the distinctness between the two parts. Really, it just provides so much texture to the song for the ear, and while the verses have the majority of the story, Somin and Jiwoo open it and it's their gorgeous voices that hold the frame of the song together. 

But that music video. Y'all. First of all, I tossed the word "apego" into the internet to figure out what it meant, and it seems to mean "attachment" in Spanish. I'm not sure what could be more appropriate for a hotel almost straight out of Psycho than to have it called "Attachment". 

If you haven't watched the music video, please do so now because I'm about to get into spoiler territory for the eight-year-old song. 

That switch from warm to cool is absolutely masterful as the visual trigger for reality over the ideal imagination that Somin and Jiwoo are living in. They have their boys, and it clearly doesn't matter that they're no longer breathing. Which also reminds me of a story that I read in my American Lit class, A Rose For Emily. I highly recommend it, especially around Halloween, which it obviously isn't right now but that's the good thing about the endless march of time. It will be Halloween again. 

Jiwoo is doing a much better of pretending like everything is fine and normal than Somin is. Somin is fully aware and flips between the imagined world and the real world much more easily, but the consequence with that is that she is a lot more unstable. It's also telling that the boys rarely actually interact with their respect partners, really only being more animated, pun mostly no intended, when they're alone and during their own specific part, if then. 

Oh, and also, shout-out to BM's coat in that one choreography bit. 

We're going to start off with just the vocals because I really wanted to hear J. Seph's part. It was exactly what I wanted, so I'm incredibly satisfied by that. But you know what? I was surprised by BM. Not only was he vibing basically the entire song and it was absolutely delightful to see, but we could hear him harmonizing with Somin there at the end. I think that's supposed to be with Jiwoo, but I really like that BM is doing it this time round. 

Also, I think it's adorable that J. Seph started eating something right after he finished his verse. Again, adorable.

Their expressions here are incredible. I mean, look at that thumbnail for starters, but it's like that through the entire stage. And that choreography? I'm going to drop the choreography version of the music video as well here, but I love the black-and-white costuming. It's actually very similar to one of the ones that they used in the music video, if not the same costume.

Have some behind the scenes for the music video. It's not long, only about five minutes, but you get to see them playing a little bit with each other, and also BM doing push-ups because of course.

Oh, the fanchant is loud in this one. That's awesome. Costuming, we're in all black this time and BM is harmonizing again at the end. But I do have to say that Jiwoo in particular looks stunning though the whole thing. I feel like this is her kind of concept. Plus, her ponytail is a paid actor here.

I think this costuming is my favorite of the bunch, in part because it's recalling the very cool colors there at the end when we get the realization that the boys are quite dead. Somin got a lot of praise for this song and she fully deserves it. The death glares she levels at the camera are so fierce. Well done to he. 

This video is super cool because we get both the choreography as a group, but then you also have them highlighted at the top individually, so if you're looking to actually learn the choreography, it has it broken down so nice. I really like this choreography. It lets everyone be fierce. 

Thank you everyone for reading! I hope you enjoy the song as much as I do now that I know it exists, and thank you to whoever decided to submit this song for me to do! If you've got one you'd like, go ahead and drop me a comment or submit it in The Form.

Thank you! You're awesome!