Song Review:: DxS (Seventeen): Serenade- Blue {Debut}

• Release date: 2026 January 12

• Album tracklist: Rockstar (DK Solo), Blue, Guilty Pleasure, Silence, Dream Serenade (Seungkwan Solo), Prelude of love

• Album runtime: 19 minutes

Well, the day has come, everyone. The main vocalists of Seventeen have arrived with the debut of their own subunit and that means their enlistments have officially been slated into position. At least in my head. I don't know if they've gotten their dates yet, especially since Seungkwan theoretically wouldn't need to go this year, but the pattern persists. Also, I have to laugh a little, because you could take thirty seconds from Seungkwan's song and give it to DK's, and Seungkwan's would still be over four minutes. As far as the title track goes, it's a healthy three-and-a-half minutes. I'm so excited about this one because good vocals are what give me life and considering both of them have voices that literally made my knees buckle listening to them live, as long as they have a good song for those voices, it's going to be a good time for me. 

Starting with the piano and then gradually adding in the strings and then the drums gives the song such a good sense of movement and progression. The process of the build is so soft and deft that you don't notice that it's happened until after it's already happened. The composer had an appropriately delicate hand, leaning towards the cinematic, for this song, and it creates a sweetness for the vocals to play against, because this instrumental is a vocals-first one, as it should be.

I have been sitting here for twenty minutes with this on repeat, trying to figure out how to put into words how I think about this song. I've also spent roughly the last twenty minutes trying to keep the tears out of my eyes because of how unbelievably transcendent their voices are. Both members have voices that have such prominent vibratos that this style of song is probably the best place for them to highlight them as they deserve. If I'm hearing the song correctly, I think there's a key change in the last quarter or so of the song, which brings me a lot of joy because I love key changes. But that's also the point where both members fully unleash their voices, so I'm a little bit distracted by them. We've got unison and harmony, we've got something that if extended would probably qualify as a round. But it also wouldn't be nearly as satisfying if the build-up to that climax wasn't as precise as it was. 

I almost don't want to turn this song off to go to the music video. I did listen to the rest of the songs and I'm considering this a no-skip album for me. 

Ah, these guys went more the route of Jeonghan and Wonwoo for this music video. It's also seven minutes long which means it's almost four minutes of pure storyline.

I'm not even weeping over this music video. It's just a slow slide of the occasional tear when I blink. Shout out to those actors. The color and light use is incredible. It starts off with everything being cool toned, except for the rescuers and the fire. But almost the entire music video, he's wearing dark neutrals or blues, and she's got the yellows, reds, oranges. Occasionally she wears tan, but there's even a difference in lighting for which of their moods is dominant. I think one of the most prominent showcases of that is the shower scene. She's bathed in a warm yellow light, wearing white, as a point in the gloom of the apartment, but she leaves it and joins him in his cool lighting in the bathroom. There's another one that, where he's wearing black. Another strong point is the contrast between him in the rain and darkness, but alone, she's got sunlight and yellow, which heavily implied that her light is being swallowed up by his darkness and blue. I think the best emotion for this music video is "regret".