Song Review:: Minho (SHINee): TEMPO- TEMPO

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  • Release date: 2025 December 15

  • Album tracklist: TEMPO, You're Right

  • Album runtime: 6 minutes

 At this point, it's kind of a toss up which Minho he gives us: he of the fierce rapper or he of the golden voice. Or maybe he's not going to choose and just give us both. The man has many facets and he is a multitasker.

 This is one of those songs where the majority of the instrumental is beat. We get a couple of different ones here, but most of it is percussion and beat. We do get a tiny amount of melody buried behind the beat, and I do mean buried because you have to really focus to hear it unless you've got the volume turned up. But the good news is that with this kind of instrumental, it's really easy for it to overpower the vocals, because there's not a lot of softness there. TEMPO, thankfully, doesn't fall into that trap. 

We got the golden voice version for this song, although he does rap a little bit. This is a very pretty song with brief flickers of unexpected vibrato in spots where I wouldn't have expected, but he is a second gen idol, so I can't be too surprised by the appearance of vibrato anywhere. This is a very sensual song, and vocally, we've got quite a lot happening. I think my favorite part is the call and response between the normal chorus, and the much lower rap-toned reply. It sounds so good.

His visuals really are not a joke. The amount of cool-toned lighting and effects really makes the moments when we get warm lighting stand out, especially the sunrise. That sunrise is beautiful and they got so lucky on it. The choreography is so smooth, and while I think normally I'd be classifying this as a vibes and visuals, there's a light storyline to it that if I didn't have a few more I needed to get done, I'd be spending a lot more time on it, but it's not obvious enough to catch my attention immediately. 


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