Battle of the B-Sides:: Baekhyun (EXO): Ghost

 Hello, everyone! I went for a pick from my playlist that I've heard before but haven't decided where I want to slot it, the appropriately name "Maybe" playlist. Threw it on shuffle, and here we are. I'm actually pretty amused that two of the three male soloists I've done for this will not just have been from SM groups, but were also the two soloists who performed in Las Vegas a few months ago. I don't know if this was on the setlist or not. I just think that's really funny. I also find it kind of funny that even though I'm only loosely picking where songs are coming from, we're still ending up with some kind of cohesive flow. 

Baekhyun originally debuted under SM Entertainment as part of the boy group EXO in 2012, but later debuted as a soloist in 2019. He's known for his voice, though to be fair, EXO is one of those groups that's renowned for their vocals, and their somewhat persnickety and often amusing opinions when the fans are not singing as well as some of the members perhaps believe they should be.

Ghost is the sixth track of Baekhyun's 2020 mini album, Delight. This is a list of songwriters, so buckle up, friends. For the lyricists, we have Kang Eun U (ZEROBASEONE, FIFTY FIFTY, SHINee, Hearts2Hearts, Monsta X, Haechan, EXO, Wonho, BoA, Monsta X, Kang Daniel, Eunha, Ravi, SoYou, and B.A.P), Mola (Ten, aespa, Kang Daniel, EXO, SHINee, Red Velvet, Monsta X, gugudan, Taeyeon, Eric Nam, SoYou, Cravity, Babylon, Ailee, BoA, and Jeong Sewoon), and JQ (TEMPEST, EXO, Red Velvet, NCT, ITZY, Wheein, EVERGLOW, Enhypen, Shaun, TWICE, WANNA ONE, Girls' Generation, KiiiKiii, LOONA, Kang Daniel, Monsta X, Yoo Jae Suk & EXO, ITZY, ZEROBASEONE, LOONA, CIX, The Boyz, SHINee, ONEWE, VAV, Jongho, izna, IVE, f(x), EL7Z UP, B.A.P, Cravity, Verivery, Loossemble, KARA, Wonho, gugudan, BoA, Yeeun, Lee Hi, Eric Nam, Weki Meki, Eunkwang, APRIL, Weeekly, Victon, ASTRO, 1THE9, WINNER, TRCNG, WJSN, Shaun, Kim Jae Hwan, Vanner UNB, Super Junior, KNK, Melody Day, Fantasy Boys, Park Jihoon, Ailee, 8TURN, H1-KEY, INFINITE, TVXQ!, INI, Woody, BerryGood, Kim Myungsoo, Ken, DIA, MAP6, NCT, Jeong Sewoon, SE7EN, Lee Haein, Lim Jimin, Wanna B, Noel, and Shin Wonho). The producers are also on the list of composers, and they are Omega (Fall Out Boy, ITZY, Taemin, BewhY, Shownu x Hyungwon, Jungin, Gummy, and Ailee), Bram Inscore (BTS, SuperM, NCT, D.O, SHINee, and Max Changmin), and someone who it is unclear what his name is. Leo? Larus Leo Armarson? Larus Armarson? Someone who is part of the production team 1993? It's unclear. The other composers are Klara Ósk Elíasdóttir (Taemin, Kang Daniel, and naevis), Alma Goodman (Enhypen, TWICE, Red Velvet, Monsta X, aespa, IVE naevis, Kep1er, D.O, Taemin, Taeyeon, The Boys, Max Changmin, Onew, Chung Ha, Rescene, Miyeon, and Youha), Tony Ferrari (NCT, Monsta X, RIIZE, Enhypen, Wonho Alpha Drive One, Key, &TEAM, AMPERS&ONE, Victon, and Kang Daniel).

The thing is that the Maybe playlist is specifically for songs that I went "Ooh?" for, but wasn't ready to commit the song to a playlist. So one way or another, this song is leaving that playlist now because I'm going to end up with an opinion about it.

And oh, boy, is this a song. This is one of those songs that, were I to be writing a regular review of it, I'd definitely be making a comment about how this is a Taemin song that wasn't done by Taemin (which makes sense because almost every time you see SHINee up in the songwriter section, that includes at least one Taemin solo song).

So I checked out the lyrics to see what flavor of song we were dealing with, because it's got the vocal slinkiness that I regularly associate with something that's pretty closely linked to seduction. The second most common association I have for this is the pining genre. 

Ghost is part of the pining genre, subgenre "following the loss of love". This song is kind of accusing the significant other of not just being a ghost in the physical world, meaning that items and things that remind you of that person are still within eyeshot, but that they're becoming a ghost even in your memories, but you still can't quite let them go. Another reading is that this is an accusation against people who actually ghost as a verb in the common vernacular.

It's a tragedy, really.

And Baekhyun delivers that well. The cyclical roll of his voice with the melody during the chorus is both lulling and accusatory, allowing the song to sink into you in a way that you don't quite notice, especially if you listen to this on repeat like I've been doing for this. There are a couple of points with the chorus (notably the one at 1:46) where you also have some doubling up on the vocals, which immediately makes the song richer. In fact, if you were prone to dramatics and metaphor, you might even call the way the harmonies are working in that chorus and through the rest of the song as giving a bit of a ghost effect.

I am one such person, and even though it's not quite ghostly, I still like that well enough to describe it as such. The song lingers in a way that I love to hear, and that means the song is so well titled for the evoked mood. 

According to some of the comments that I've been looking at, his falsetto during the bridge at 2:17 is a lot of people's favorite parts. But also, this is a lot of people's favorite song on the whole album, and there are performances of it. So, let's go and find some of them.

First up, this is a fancam from a performance in Seoul in 2024. 

You know, that outfit is A Look.  Your eye is drawn first to the tight leather pants because of how they reflect the stage lights as he moves (and the fact that they show off his thigh muscles well when he's turned to the side), but then the more matte black of his sweater completes the very classy, suave silhouette. And then you get one last surprise as he moves his torso and arms, because the sweater has cut-outs that you only get to see then, which lets his skin play peek-a-boo. It's pretty coy. 

But you want to know my favorite part of this? I can't see his throat, but I can almost guarantee that this is live vocals (as you'd expect from a member of EXO) because at 1:21, do you hear what I hear? 

That's a voice crack.

I'm so happy for that proof, as is the reflexive glance off to the side that says something else about SM's training, but we're not going to get into that now.

I'm also amused because popping down into the comments reveals that a lot of people like the choreography here. He's got fancy feet at multiple points in the choreography as well as hip swivels.

But you know what's most telling? The most viewed part of the video isn't where he's got the strongest choreography going on, though there is some. No, it's the part with his ad-libs. Main Vocalist over here showing off his voice.

And here we have Baekhyun on his most recent tour, also in Seoul.

I am once again here to say I'm very appreciate of those pants and his thighs. They're not highlighted quite as well as they were on the previous tour, but I think he may have gotten stronger, which I like a lot. I like seeing that.

I'm also going to comment on those ad-libs again, because his vibrato ascends me. And then you hear the pant-pant into the mic that delights me every time I hear it, no matter who it is. Every time I watch a concert, I listen for that. 

Also, his dancer to the left of him at 1:58 is so pretty, and then she gets all smiley before she leaves the frame. I like to see the dancers are enjoying themselves as well, because it bodes well both as a reflection of the artist and the song. 

Fun fact, this is the first song I've done that was released back in May of 2020. And after spending several hours with this song, it's getting moved into The Jams playlist, the big one I regularly listen to most. So this is two-fold: one, the song is great and I hope you all enjoy it now if you didn't already; and two, I got to clean up the playlist a little. Score!

No, but in all seriousness, this is a really good song and it's pretty well-loved by the fans, so I hope that if you weren't originally counted as part of that number, this was a good introduction for you. Thank you for reading this. You're awesome. And if you have a song you'd like for me to do, feel free to drop a comment, or you can give it to me via The Form! I love to see what songs everyone else likes. Thanks again, and have a lovely day!

Previous: "Watch Out" by HOTSHOT                                                                Next: "널 기다려" by DIA