Battle of the B-Sides:: ONEWE: AuRoRa

 Submission! Submission! Submission! Whoo! I thought this might be a good spot for this, so thank you for your patience! And when I'm finished with this, I'll head over to Threads and send it your way since you wonderfully left a username for me to deliver it to. I actually like ONEWE. And it's funny, after the administrative work and remodeling I did (some of it quite extensive) on almost all of these posts, I'm looking for something that hits my brain to do after this one (since I'd done some planning before I decided I temporarily hated myself). So I'm just listening to my playlists. And other people's playlists. And watching videos on YouTube looking for a sparked song. But I had another ONEWE song come up that caught my attention, and then I remembered that that would be after this one, so I couldn't. As of writing this paragraph, I'm still looking. But I just thought that was kind of funny.

ONEWE is a five-member band currently under RBW that re-debuted as ONEWE in 2019, but had debuted earlier as M.A.S. 0094 in 2016 (though they've been active since 2015). They were actually the band for MAMAMOO at the KBS Song Festival in 2016, so that's just a cute little fun fact. Another cute little fun fact is that one of the bandmembers is a twin with one of the members of ONEUS, who originally debuted under RBW.

AuRoRa is the third track from their first mini album as ONEWE in 2021: Planet Nine : Alter Ego. Our lovely songwriters include Jeon Dawoon who is a member of RBW's production team (MAMAMOO, Isaac Hong, 2AM, J-Rabbit, Map6, Kyuhyun, Cross Gene, B1A4, Sonamoo, Skye, B.A.P, 15&, Infinite, and SPICA), and members of ONEWE: Kang Hyun (MAMAMOO, Purple Kiss, BAE173, and ONEUS), YongHoon (MAMAMOO, ONEUS), and Giuk (Sunwoo, Purple Kiss, MAMAMOO, ONEUS, NEXZ, and YongYong). And this took the top spot on MTV's top 21 best K-Pop B-Sides of 2021. 

Almost all of the songs on this album got music videos, which is fantastic from my point of view. And also, the fans got so spoiled and I love that for them.

I think the first thing I want to talk about is that sick guitar solo. It's not long enough that it overpowers the second half of the song, but at the same time, it absolutely propels the song into its climax in a way that would have been difficult to achieve without it, especially because the song uses that lovely trick of having something relatively soft and quiet in front of it before to make the volume and the guitar really stand out. It's good writing. Well done to the songwriters. I just really love guitar solos and this one is a particular beauty. The best part is that the flow directly into that last chorus gets some of the echoes of the solo surfacing from the rest of the chorus instrumental. 

AuRoRa really is the perfect blend of deep softness and passionate energy. I genuinely love how the verses have such delicateness to them, and then that big burst at the chorus. And that's not even counting the slight growl Yonghoon has to his voice on the word "aurora" and the swooping that he's doing. There is so much to the texture of the vocals that range from soft and sweet to melodic rapping to the rock grit at the chorus. It's so beautiful because there are so many different things to it.

And the music video is very simple, but I need to point out a couple of things. My first thought with the lighting was that the light strips on the ground were mimicking the flashes of stage lights, and then they changed color and I realized that they were actually mimicking an actual aurora. Which is so phenomenally, creatively done that I'm kind of beside myself over it. Second, having this be a night-shoot was an excellent choice because so much of this song is dealing with the night sky and the stars and obviously the aurora, which you can see best at night. 

Also, apparently they had to engage in mighty battle with the mosquitos while they were filming this. I appreciate little anecdotes like that.

The line "못다 한 이야기들의 끝을 써내려갈게" hits me kind of hard, because sometimes with some of these songs, it feels like I'm opening up a door that's been closed and locked for years to let a dust-covered song back out to breathe. This isn't one of them, but some stories don't always get proper endings, and sometimes the story was ended prematurely. I'd rather shoulder-check those doors into opening back up and offering the songs to people again.

Okay, that's enough. Let's get to some performances and bask in what is going to be some incredible vocals and playing.

There's a whole slew of music show performances and I'm over the moon about it. This song is the gift that keeps on giving.

Ah, live vocals. We're in such a good position to be able to look at their throats to see the muscle flex and move for confirmation of what they sound like they should be doing. Also, the harmonies! And when Yonghoon bursts into that chorus, I had to pause and have a moment of jealousy that I wasn't there to hear it with my own two ear holes. And the echo effect they've got on his mic almost makes his voice too powerful for the mic and sound level they've got him at, which is a problem I don't know that I've ever had to talk about before.

I'm ignoring that coat/shirt thing he's wearing because that will simply drive me to distraction.

I also need to point out how good Harin the fantastic drummer looks? His stylist needs a raise because look at his hair. And speaking of styling, the keyboardist was in a crop top and we got ab peeks. 

And I'd just like to thank Inkigayo for letting them do the song in full. B-sides don't always get that courtesy.

Here's a performance from The Show! Again, the stylists deserve a raise because the shirt that Guik (formerly known as CyA) is wonderful and weird. We've got safety pins and a plaid collar, which definitely puts my mind back to certain fashion choices from the late 00s.

I do just have to point out Kanghyun over on the electric guitar is here for the guitar and he does it extremely well. The focus is strong with him, and the skills are excellent.

And I'm not going to say a lot about Harin for this stage because he's deeply attractive here and I don't need a certain picket I have hanging up on my wall to fall off dramatically in a pique of jealous fit. The competence level here is high. The stylist needs a huge raise.

I love the part toward the end of the guitar solo when everyone is headbanging. It's amusing for a song that's so emotional, but you know what? Sometimes you just need to headbang when you're in your feels.

That's a guitar solo on an acoustic. I repeat. That is a guitar solo on an acoustic guitar. And Harin is handling like three different instruments at once, so we love a multi-tasking king. 

After the guitar solo (which I'm still giddy about), Yonghoon has such a strong rock growl in his voice. Which he should because this is a rock band and he is the frontman of said rock band. But the point is still valid. 

This was the performance that the submitter (I really need to come up for a term for y'all) specifically asked for, and Yonghoon's smile after his first line when he yanked that mic out of the stand immediately told me what I was in for. I'm also fascinated by every time we got a good look at his throat while he was singing because of the strength that you can see in his neck.

The entire band is strutting without actually moving and it's delightful.

But it's kind of amusing that you've got multiple members of the band in tank tops, showing off some very nice looking biceps (two of the five have enlisted and been discharged so far that I can find), and then you've got sweatshirts. Giuk looks adorable in his pink sweatshirt with the accessories in his hair, by the way, and his little smiles during his raps are just precious. I also see that he's got one of his in-ears out, which made me smile.

Oh, the guitar solo. Kanghyun looks so chill about it, but his forearms are fully displaying how much work it's taking. But you'd never know it from how relaxed he is. And then the lighting on Harin on the drums at the tail end of that is stunning, synced up like it is with his hits on the drums.

I paused the video to come back over to this tab to talk about Dongmyeong on the keyboard during his section after the guitar solo and happened to pause as he's turning his head and sticking out his tongue and starting to smile (3:54). Which distracted me a little. But his vocal tone there is stunning. It's rich and full and deep and a delightful number of other adjectives that have only piled on to the existing delight in the five years since this song was originally released.

Thank you so much for sending this song my way, submitter. This was a delight to discover and I hope that you enjoyed this post! I'll pop onto Threads to send that your way in a moment.

For everyone else, judging by the comments on all the videos, I gather that this is one of their more beloved b-sides, so I do feel a little bit honored to get to make this post. I also have the strong desire to hear this song live because this may be another case of knee-buckling vocals.

If anyone has another song you'd like for me to cover, feel free to leave a comment or you can use The Form!

Have a lovely day!

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