Greatest Hits:: Oneus: Same Scent

 Okay, I did this time what I wanted to do last time and pull from my big playlist. And it gave me a Oneus song that is a fairly recent addition to that playlist and thus is not one of the ones that I know super well. The odds of this happening are hilariously low because I listen to that playlist the most. It's also funny that we got Oneus, because in the numbers game, the odds were not in their favor (10/1306). So, obviously, this song deserves to be here now.

Oneus debuted in 2019 as a six-member group under RBW. They're currently down to five, but I still link the sixth member back to them. A lot of their songs have a more traditional sound, which is something that I am down for. And even though they're currently no longer at RBW, they were when this was released. So that gets to be this song's company.

Same Scent was the title track of their eighth mini album, Malus, released in 2022, and the last of their six-member releases. It earned the group their second and third music show wins, one from The Show and the other from Show Champion. All of the composers were also lyricists, and they were Lee Sangho (MAMAMOO, VROMANCE, CNBLUE, BEAST, AOA FTISLAND, N.Flying, Brown Eyed Girls, Cherry Bullet, The Crown, G.NA, T-ARA, Purple Kiss, 4Minute, K.WIll, KARA, Rolling Quartz, B1A4, BAE173, Lee Mujin, SF9, ONF, 2AM, SSS, 2Yoon, and Dal Shabet), Seo Yongbae (GFRIEND, MAMAMOO, Orange Caramel, P1Harmony, SF9, BTOB, Ailee, ASTRO N.Flying, Cherry Bullet, AOA, Purple Kiss, IZ*ONE, Rocket Punch, Weki Meki, CNBLUE, Brown Eyed Girls, WJSN, Chuei Li Yu, fromis_9, B1A4, 1THE9, gugudan, DIA, HELOVENUS, BEAST, PRISTIN, NU'EST, The Wind, WJSN, MBLAQ, AxMxP, HyunA, 2Yoon, BAE173, Lee Chaeyeon, CLC, ONF, S.I.S,  and Hyolyn), and Lee Hoosang (MAMAMOO, Purpl Kiss, King's Voice, XODIAC, ASRO, Kihyun, ONF, G-reyish, and Block B). The lyricists, but not composers, are Park Hyunkyu (ZEROBASSEONE, Enhypen, MAMAMOO, Isaac Hong, ILLIT, D1verse, B1A4, KARD, Kim Jongkook, Rowoo, Block B, Vromance, TRI.BE, Verivery, OnlyOneOf, K.WIll, VIXX, NU'EST, 1THE9, The Wind, and Kim Jaehwan), Ravn (Jo Yuri, MAMAMOO, Purple Kiss, and his own), and Leedo (exclusively his group, it looks like).

• Group: Oneus
• Debut Date: 2019 January 09
• Company: RBW
• Status: Active
• Album: Malus
• Song: Same Scent
• Release Date: 2022 September 05

This is a gorgeous song, and one of my favorite things about it is that we get the melody in the instrumental. It's not always at the same time, but it's almost constantly there to reinforce the base sound of the song, no matter what the vocals are doing. And that two or three bar bit that's repeated a lot is introduced with the vocals at the very beginning and gets to close the song softly, but it's also transformed through several different instruments, so that while it is an almost constant, the flow and movement allows the song to have a very dynamic feel that's still subtle enough that it's not blatantly in your face. 

 Very satisfying.

And personally, as you know, I'm a sucker for the rapper rasp, and Leedo gives it to us in the second verse where he starts off with the melodic rapping that I also love and that lovely, lovely rasp that provides so much texture to songs, but then he hits his rapping with a very powerful burst that allows Ravn to slide in and the way they work together is really quite beautiful. We do have this song as five version, but it'll be hard-pressed to beat that in terms of contrast to create a rich environment for the song. 

For the record, I haven't actually watched the music video yet. I wanted to get some of music only notes out.

And it's a yearning song! Okay, I love this song a little bit more. So funny thing, I rarely start with the music video or the lyrics. Songs go into my The Jams playlist solely based on the vibes and how much I like the sound of the song most of the time (this is also amusing in the case of this song because there are a lot of comments on the music video about how this sounds like a mature sequel to A Song Written Easily, which is also in that playlist and now I'm curious about both the music video and the lyrics). This has also caused my workout playlist to be funny because a lot of them, when I eventually looked up the lyrics for whatever reason, happen to be sexual. Like I said. Funny.

The reason I bring this up is this is the first time that I'm actually looking at the lyrics because I leave captions on my YouTube whenever possible, even when I'm watching my gamers in English. And the translated lyrics have been read by me for the first time. And starting off a song with "My body wants you bare" had me raising my eyebrows and going "Ah. So that's why I like this so well. They're strongly yearning." And then I just smiled because I remembered the aforementioned workout playlist. It's not on there because the beat isn't heavy enough, but thematically, it would fit perfectly.

Anyway, back to the music video. I'm trying to decide which of the two major parts to start with, but I think I'm going to continue with the romanticism (term used...with some mild irony). The combination of the glamour lens and the hard lighting is an amazing combination and one you rarely see this strongly. Usually, you get the combination of the glamour lens and soft lighting, because of what soft lighting is traditionally used for, and there are some instances of soft lighting here. But using the hard lighting with the glamour lens creates a very specific feel for the music video that reinforces the yearning and weight that's actually started on an audio level with the song being in a minor key. In other words, the glamour lens is part of the coding for a love story, but the hard lighting takes it from a comedy to a tragedy in the traditional sense. But crucially, it's still soft. It's not the ending of a tragedy, thankfully, because then we'd be probably be fully in the hard lighting with no glamour lens to be seen. It's very elegant. 

And speaking of lighting, I kind of love how each of the members, when they're in their glamour lens position, they've each got a color attached to them. Blue, green, gold, brown, yellow, and gray. They're not quite as strictly linked as some music videos, but that actually works in this music video's favor because the rigidity of having each member slotted into a single color wouldn't work with the other fluid elements that we're seeing. 

Now it's time to do something I don't normally do at this point: talk about the choreography. I know, I know, I'm breaking the pattern, but there's a good reason for it. I saw a comment somewhere that if the music video has choreography in water, it's superior, and we don't just have them dancing barefoot in the water, which would absolutely be enough to fulfill that, but we've got them laying in water and having it poured on them. It's actually a very wet music video, a lot more than you probably would have expected. 

I'm just going to say that the close-up on whichever member it is at :51? I got a little bit of a heart flutter when he looks up into the camera. 

And at 1:36, Ravn looks like SCoups (which as a Coups Girlie, makes me smile), but the line that accompanies that expression, "If we ever meet up in another life/Forever I know we'll be dancing in the moon night" is a lethal combination. 

They're all very pretty though. Let's be real. The vocals are gorgeous. The visuals are gorgeous. The lighting is gorgeous. The sets are gorgeous. But the members especially are just shining, and not just because of the glamour lens.

I'm not going to say a lot about this because it is choreography and while I've already mentioned it, this early is not where I talk about choreography. However, there is also a dance practice. So rather than choosing between the two, I'm instead going to drop this off because they often include traditional elements into their styling and sound and choreography. And this is just beautiful. So take a minute to bask in that before we get to the stages.

This stage was their first win for this song! I know Road to Kingdom 2 wouldn't have happened for another couple of years, but I'm kind of amused that they did kind of the same thing that they'd be doing there and with the same member, which says that they already knew what they had in Hwanwoong. All of the members are wearing black shirts and then a tan jacket over the top. From the front, they look like they match with some individualistic touches. It's nice. It's one of those things I really like. Hwanwoong, on the other hand, is only wearing a half jacket, so from the front, he looks like he's wearing a lot more black and it makes him stand out.

And it sounds like Xion there for his last line might be singing live. I can't get a good look at his throat (although it helped when I changed from 360p to 1080 because why does YouTube do this to me? Why does YouTube hate me?), but it's also a spot where he wouldn't get a lot of throat movement and tension, and even with the necklace thing on, it's not in a spot that would move too much with where his throat would move.

I may or may not have hummed the notes with my hand on my neck to see exactly what movements were going on and if they were lower notes, they'd definitely cause the necklace to move, but since they're higher and I'm fairly confident in my ability to match notes well (read: I used to sing with the tenors and baritones in choir to help be their sound guide while they were learning their notes because I learn notes quickly and I could hit most of their notes anyway and I was always right next to them anyway because I'm good at not getting pulled into another part. Which is ironic.)

The conclusion on if he was singing live was inconclusive, and I didn't like that, so I decided to go for one more shot and I slowed it down 50% and I got the proof. Throat movement that matched the notes. So, I'd be willing to say that he does seem to be singing live at least for his last lines like he sounds.

Also, the ending with Seoho and Hwanwoong? That's funny. That's a good ending fairy of the BTOB variety, which I am all about.

I'm feeling in a bit of a sentimental mood right now, so here's their second win for this song. I also really like that this stage was the best clip for the episode, which makes me happy. I really love the red suits on them because again, we're getting the red and black, and the textures some of those shirts makes me want to touch to see if they're the textures I think they are.

And the fans were quite loud for this one. That's a fanchant, if ever I've heard one. Very nice. 

They're really just pretty, you know? Their voices are pretty and the stylists deserve a raise, and really, I couldn't be happier for them for this win. 

And, again, Seoho gets the ending fairy and he's so funny. The man is twerking on stage with his cropped suit jacket. I can see why this one is best clip.

This one is from the 2022 KBS Song Festival, and the traditional elements are strong with this group for this performance. This was when they were down to five. Unfortunately.

But as we saw with the performance video, this choreography looks good with the modern suits and jackets, but there's just something beautiful and flowing about the choreography that's specifically highlighted with the traditional Hanbok. When they pull out the Korean music, using Korean instruments to do the melody that you hear so well in the instrumental anyway, the song elevates to something that's just glorious. Full stop. 

And I'm not sure I have the words to describe how much I love this stage. Xion with long hair. There's fan dancing. There's the ribbon dancing. There's scarf dancing. There's sword dancing. Literally everything about this, I just adore. I have to particularly shout out the section starting at 3:09 when they get the red robes over the top of the white Hanbok. It just looks incredible.

This is such a good stage.

If you watch none of the other stages, this is what this song deserves to be. The ultimate evolution of this song, if you'd like.

I really do like the Band LIVE performances and this is a very different flavor of song from the Song Festival version. And some of them are both singing along and doing the choreography in tiny, which is what we love to see.

But if this is true and those are live vocals, they really don't sound all that different from the studio recording. But the most replayed part of the video is Seoho's vocals (starting at about 4:30) and we've seen him be goofy from the ending fairies, but his ad-libs are just gorgeous and we've got multiple spots there at the end when we have harmony. Oof. I love. 

I also love that we get them talking about and reacting to the song there at the end.

Dance Practice time! You know, this choreography is genuinely so pretty and flowy, but Hanbok really is the superior costuming for this song. Not that it doesn't look good like this, especially since they're in looser clothes so we get the ripples and movement of the fabric, but that's really the best way to see this because of how many spins there are in this choreography. Particularly starting at 2:44. The spins and big movements look like they were designed specifically for wearing Hanbok. 

I noticed this in the music video, but I love that they bring their wrists up to their noses at the line "Remember your scent". I love that so much. I love it when songs do that.

We also get to hear their very satisfying foot stops. Specifically the spot at 1:45 where you get a body ripple, and then two solid stomps in succession. Watching it is good, but the sound of the stomps is top tier. And they have a lot of stomps in this song that are very loud, which means they're also very deliberate because they're also very light on their feet for a lot of the choreography. Seriously satisfying. 

One of the best parts is the very end where they're finished singing, but they finish the song delicately flowing like water, and then get into a zombie pose. It amuses me every time I see it and by this point, I've seen it a lot. Still amusing.

And here is the real dance practice when they're learning the choreography! This is the part that I like watching the best, because I love watching them work so hard to give us the polished product we see on stage and we get to see them working together and their bond (there may be butt slapping and it's very funny). Hwanwoong is very serious about his business and it shows in how much attention to detail he pays with the choreography and getting it to work. Also, this made me realize that Keonhee might be part of the Minhyuk look-a-like line with Soobin. 

We also get some live vocals a cappella, which has me over the moon, and we get some knee braces exposed underneath the basketball shorts.

Also, Leedo in the gray tank top. That's it. No notes. 

I'd just like you all to know that because I've been watching so many of Oneus's videos for this, I'm now getting fancontent. A video called "oneus forgetting their MEDIA TRAINING | funny moments" popped up next to my favorite gaming channel's new video. I'm not even mad though. If they're even half as funny as their older sisters, MAMAMOO, they're going to be wildly hilarious, so I'll be watching that as soon as I'm done with this. I also really liked the Studio Choom version, but I didn't want to make this ridiculously long. If you're interested though, I really liked it. I also really liked the recording behind because those vocals are where it's at, but again, I didn't want this to get ridiculously long. No, but seriously. If you want to enjoy some amazing vocals, as expected of RBW artists, watch that. Same Scent specifically shows up at 3:00.

Thanks everyone for reading! I hope you enjoyed the optional links and all the various performances of this song. It's just a lovely song and I'm happy that this one popped up for me to do next. 

If you've got a song you'd like me to cover as a GH or a BBS, feel free to drop a comment or fill out The Form if you've got some performances you really like for the song. Unless there's a time specific song, I'll get to the song once I get back to planning stuff out. In the meantime, we're enjoying a wild April.

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