Song Review:: Kang Daniel: PULSEPHASE- Backseat Promises

• Release date: 2025 December 12

• Album tracklist: UPLIFT, The Chase, Backseat Promises, That's enough to go, back to you

• Album runtime: 15 minutes

 Thank you, Mr. Kang Daniel, for giving us a three-and-a-half minute song for your title track. I haven't heard a lot of his songs, but when I like them, I really, really like them, so I have tentatively high hopes for this one, which is usually the case once I find a title track I love. Also, apologies if I start rambling more than usual. It's currently incredibly late where I am, and the reason that I am up is because I can't sleep. So here we are. Funny story, though, I got a notification from YouTube Music that this had dropped.

The instrumental for this song reminds me of wicker for some reason. It's got some very bouncy moments, while also not being fancy free due to the resonance of the instrumental. It's also got a fade-out, which is a little bit of a surprise, I'm not going to lie. K-Pop songs rarely have one, which is something I've had to adjust to, but speaking of fade-outs, this instrumental reminds me a little bit of a U2 song at the beginning, which is just kind of funny. We've got pretty subtle variations with all the different parts, but there are enough tiny little things happening that even though much of the song sounds the same, I'm still enjoying the entirety of the song.

This feels like a hug of a song vocally. He's a bit breathy, which makes me a little worried for live performances if there's choreography, but at the same time, this has a level of intimacy that could only have become with the breathiness. Gorgeous song though. And underneath the breathiness, there's a lot of movement and range in the notes, so I'm not upset about it. No sing-songiness here.

This is an interesting music video. It feels really art house film, which isn't a style I see a lot in the music videos. Actually, it kind of reminds me of the video game Eternal Sonata (though it could be in the vibes because it's been...fifteen years or more since I last played it and I was surprised that I could even pull the name out of my brain when I was trying to figure out which one I was thinking of (as a side note, if you like music (and since you're reading this, I hope you do) and video games, I recommend it. It's such a sweet game)). This was cool. It was short enough that even with this style, I could pay attention, but because the song is a decent length, the music video is also a decent length, and I know I sound like I just contradicted myself, but things can be simultaneously true. It's very pretty and artsy, which also isn't something I've been seeing a lot with music videos lately, so that was refreshing.