Battle of the B-Sides:: f(x): Paper Heart

 Welcome to April, the month this year I decided to not plan extensively because the gardener writer in me is chomping at the bit a little over how long I've been playing the architect! (Other terms I've seen used by authors are pantser vs plotter; I'm very much a pantser usually, especially when I write fiction). We're just going to see what the universe wants, unless someone gives me a time specific post in The Form. This comes from a roulette wheel I made for...well, just about anything you could want relating to K-Pop, really. I've got the link over in the Junk Drawer. And it popped up with this song. I don't know much about it although this will make the second BBS post from f(x) I've done, and I'm very interested. I do very much enjoy some of the other songs from the album. I hope there's been at least one performance of it done, because that way you won't just be listening to me yap about just the song. But if there isn't, well, it won't be the first or the last time.

f(x) is a four-member girl group from SM Entertainments that debuted as a five-member group in 2009. While they aren't currently active, they haven't been officially declared disbanded, but they went inactive, more or less, in 2016.

Paper Hearts is the eleventh and final track of their 3rd album, Red Light, released in 2014. We've actually got a fairly short songwriter list for this song, two of which are also listed as producers. So the producers are Chrizmatic (ZEROBASEONE, WJSN, Taeyeon, NMIXX, TWICE, NCT, Jonghyun, Cravity, Moonbin & Sanha, LABOUM, The Boyz, EPEX, AHOF, 8TURN, Key, Taemin, Apink, Kim Jaejoong, CIX, VIVIZ, VICTON, AOA, Super Junior, Nam Woohyun, INFINITE, Wonpil, Weeekly, VIXX, cignature, TEEN TOP, Onew, NATURE, and FT Island) and Didrik Thott (ITZY, P1Harmony, TWICE, The Boyz, BoA, NCT, aespa, SHINee, Oneus, EXO, Super Junior, Red Velvet, AHOF, Girls' Generation, Cherry Bllet, INI, tripleS, fromis_9, WANNA ONE, NEXZ, LUN8, Forestella, Cravity, Alpha Drive One, NewBeat, TRENDZ, Soyeon, Ghost9, CNBLUE, CIX, EPEX, SF9, Kim Jaejoong, ATBO, Teen Top, Kim Wooseok, Verivery, EXO, TEMPEST, E'LAST, and OWV). The non-producing writers are Seo Jieum (IVE, Red Velvet, Monsta X, ZEROBASEONE, EXO, SHINee, EVERGLOW, Kep1er, IZ*ONE, Hyolyn, Weeekly NMI, ITZY, NCT, Oh My Girl, fromis_9, CLC, Weki Meki, Super Junior, Cravity, GFRIEND, Girls' Generation, NU'EST, WJSN, Lovelyz, I.O.I, The Wind, Chuu, Pentagon, LIMELIGHT, Hwasa, DAY6, ODD YOUH, ASTRO, TVXQ!, K.WIll, FIESTAR, Highlight, Teen Top, UP10TION, Boys Republic, AOA, BoA, GWSN, TEMPEST, S.E.S, April, HELLOVENUS, LABOUM, and Melody Day) and Dianna Corcoran (her own stuff mostly). 

If this were a regular review, I'd absolutely be spending most of the instrumental paragraph talking about how much and how satisfyingly this scratches my love of country music, especially because I can think of about five songs that have a very, similar sound to this that I adore beyond all words. With that out of the way, it doesn't look like there was a performance of it. I did see about five fan-made music videos, so that says something about how loved this song is even without a performance.

Okay, am I wrong or is this a song that could have been in a movie like Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants? I haven't actually seen it, or read the books, but I do know roughly what it's about and I couldn't escape the soundtrack when it came out, and this has that coming-of-age soundtrack feel you get from movies like this. It's largely due to the acoustic guitar that thrums its way through the entire instrumental no matter what anything else, instrument or voice, is doing. It has that summer road trip in a convertible, driving with the top down and the sun and the wind in your hair, vibe. I'm glad the album was released when it was because if this had come out during the winter, it would have been such an intense mismatch that I'd be questioning SM's judgement.

This is a little funny on my end because the last couple of days, the temperature has plummeted about thirty degrees, and we've gone from comfortable early summer back to more comfortable early spring.

But more than that, this is a song for everyone who describes themselves as a sea urchin. Hard and prickly on the outside, soft and squishy on the inside. Good luck getting through the shell safely, but once you do, the core is very delicate. It's a song about finally getting that first love, when you're older and have had to learn to protect yourself from feeling rejected by holding people at a distance, then it finally happens to you and you're kind of terrified because you have no defenses against someone who finally got inside the shell. That second verse in particular is such a touching "please be gentle with me" plea. 

I'm not going to try to be maudlin about this, because this song didn't know what was going to happen, but it's touching that Sulli opened and closed the last track she was on with f(x). 

For the record, I really love how Amber's voice sounds at the start of the second verse. I mean, I generally love her voice because I love the lower voiced representation, but she settles the song so well. You're looking for 1:12, by the way. We've got just a hint of a vibrato from her, but that really matches the overall vibe of the song anyway, especially since Luna (who very much has a strong vibrato to her) follows her with minimal vibrato as well to match. The flow there is just excellent, and on top of the instrumental getting a little bit of time to itself right before her part, which helps with an aural reset to transition out of the chorus, Amber adds such a settled power for Luna and the rest of the song to push off against. 

I also really like the part starting at 2:13. That's the lead-up to the last chorus, where it softens before we get an instrumental burst and enough ad-libs and harmonizing that even I'm satisfied. 

I know. I didn't know that was possible either.

I wish this had some performances. I really do. Actually, I'd love to see some of the younger groups cover it. Kep1er and izna specifically that I'm thinking of could do something really interesting with it, and I think they've got members who can be stable at the range required by those ad-libs. I'd also be curious to see if tripleS could do something interesting with it, solely because even though I know very little about that group, they've got twenty-four members. The odds are pretty good that one of them can go up to that range and remain stable. I'd also like to see some boy groups cover it, and the top of that list is ATEEZ because hearing Seonghwa do those ad-libs would make me ascend, no rapture required (see: Utopia). 

Thanks for taking a listen to this song with me! It was fun to explore it, and I'm off to add it to a few playlists. It's so pretty. I'm glad we're starting off the randomness of April with something like this that's new to me too, and I'm curious about what the rest of the month brings.

If you've got a song you'd like me to cover, feel free to drop a comment or submit it via The Form. Even in this month of chaos, if you've got a song you want me to do for a specific reason, I'll still do it. Otherwise, I'll put it into a good spot. 

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