Battle of the B-Sides:: Baek Z Young: carefully closely

 We're apparently having a slightly controversial little month. It's fine. You can't do anything in any industry without running into a scandal or two because people are people, and people are flawed. Not that she did anything wrong because she didn't. However, I added her to the Roulette Wheel candidates because she's released so many OSTs that I absolutely adore and because I, and probably many others, know her best from the song she did with Taec because of how many of the idols have covered that song, which was released a couple of years after she released this album.

Baek Z Young debuted in 1999 as a soloist and she is now wonderfully married with a daughter. Good for her. Genuinely love that for her. Also, I just need everyone to know that she has a song called "Sad Salsa" and if this weren't b-side month, I'd be doing that because color me intrigued. Also, I found out that she was one of the performers in Pyongyang, North Korea in 2018. She's so cool.

carefully closely is the eleventh track of her sixth album, The sixth miracle, released in 2007. Once again, the hunt for songwriters was engaged in my soul. I got two sources to corroborate these, not the usual suspects but when it comes to the older songs, well, I'll take what I can find. The lyricist is Choi Gabwon (Taeyang, IU, Gummy, N.Flying, Junny, Park Hyo Shin, Ailee, Changsub, Hwang Chiyeul, Fiestar, LUCY, Jukjae, Lee Hyori, Zia, Yezi, K.Will, Onestar, MAMAMOO, Mina, Lunedi, G.NA, Girls' Generation, Super Junior, 4Minute, Young Ji, Fly to the Sky, B1A4, SE7EN, Lee Seunggi, Kim Juntae, Jewelry, C-REAL, Wheesung, Uji, Click-B, Park Jungah). The two composers are Kim Dohoon (the CEO of RBW) (MAMAMOO, BTS, Ailee, VROMANCE, Sistar, Oneus, CNBLUE, KARD, G.NA, Gummy, AOA, S.E.S, 2AM, BTOB, Purple Kiss, N.Flying, SF9, Psy, Cherry Bullet, WJSN, Isaac Hong, M.I.M, Lyn, DAVICHI, IU, gugudan, Rowoo, K.Will, Wheesung, S4, T-ARA, ONEWE, Mad Clown, Lee Hyori, Rolling Quartz, Mystic White, SG Wannabe, BAE173, FT Island, SSS, 4Minute, Kangta, Lee Seung Gi, Dal Shabet, Youngji, SE7EN, Seo In Guk, and C-REAL) and PJ. Finding out who this is has been incredibly painful. I have no idea who this is. I'm pretty sure PJ also worked on another song I've posted for, but I don't know if I got the right one because this time, the name attached to "PJ" is RBW CEO, but I don't think that was the name I found last time. And next time it'll probably be someone else. Such is the life.

Good news, I looked this up in Korean and didn't find any stages, so I think this really doesn't, or at least there aren't any that were recorded and uploaded to YouTube.

Bad news, that means you've only got me because there are no stages.

Good news, this is a deliciously rich song that I found the lyrics for on Namu Wiki, which is my new bestest friend for these posts now.

I love the dress on the album cover though. It's very Anne of Green Gables. Oh. I don't know if I told you yet or not, but Anne was kind of one of my heroes as a child. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend reading the book. If you don't want to read it (which you should, I've worn out literally four copies of it and keep having to get replacements), watch the 1985 movie with Megan Follows.

This is a fun song. It's kind of a "If you love me, prove it. Don't just say it" kind of song, which is really nice because so often you find songs that are like "You say you love me, but do you?" They're shy and tentative, when so much could be fixed by just asking. So this is refreshingly straightforward and to the point. But there's also a softness to it behind the challenge, a vulnerability exposed in the title, in the line about waiting and taking your whole heart out, in the interestingly and relatively quiet repetition right there at the very end like asking for reassurance. 

And for a b-side, this song has so much sass. If you had told me that this was the title track, I'd believe it. At :30, the roll of her vibrato through the lines is the equivalent of Catwoman strutting in all her leather and heels, daring the "boy" in question to stop hiding and stop lying to himself and her. Like, I know she's kind of a ballad queen now, and the title track of the album is evidence of that, but this one is a return to the dancing queen. Which means that it's a crying shame that I don't think this ever got performed. I tried hunting down some of her setlists (which is how I found out about performing in Pyongyang) to see if it had been, and it hasn't as far as I can tell.

And the sass of the guitar. It's so cheeky and flirty and lingers through the entire song just in case you somehow manage to forget that spicy little quiver. I'm also kind of in love with the fact that the instrumental starts the song with just that guitar to set up the attitude of the song because it's all raised eyebrows at the beginning before it launches her roughly textured, low voice. 

I'm a little bit in love with the texture of her voice. It's raspy and it scrapes against my brain like when I'm scratching a good spot on my cat and he decides to repay me by licking the closest bare skin I've got. Which is usually my shoulder or my arm because I'm usually holding him when I find that spot and I wear tanktops probably two hundred-fifty days out of the year. This is a good thing, I promise. 

I'm finding, now that I'm on like the sixth or seventh listen, that this actually wouldn't be that difficult to learn the words to. She speaks very clearly, and the speed is comfortable enough that it shouldn't be too difficult to get the unfamiliar words out. If you can't read Hangeul, then you might have to transcribe it into the romanization, but it really shouldn't be too difficult to learn the words. If you wanted to. 

This would make for such a fun karaoke song, especially if you're trying to flirt with someone while doing it. 

You know who could do an amazing cover of this? Solar from MAMAMOO. She might actually wear the black leather too.

Thanks for reading, my fellow Champions! I'm delighted by this song so much so that I'm pleased as a pickle that 1) I decided to add it to that Roulette Wheel and 2) the Roulette Wheel decided to grant it to me. Y'all. This was good. This was a good choice. I'm glad it's now in the Expanded Offerings. And she needs to perform it because doing it now at the age of fifty would carry a very different weight than it would have at thirty-one, but no less incredible.

If you've got a song for me, even if it's never been performed, do let me know. Ooh, especially if it's spooky. You know me. I love the spooky songs and the month of Halloween is coming up quickly. Lowe's already has twenty-foot skeletons for sale. If you've got one, drop a comment. It doesn't need to be some long and fancy soliloquy for my work (although I will never say no to one if you're so inclined), but I do need to know enough that I know if you want this to be an Expanded Offerings post or a regular review. Or, if that makes you nervous for whatever reason, you can in fact always use The Form and submit the songs that way. It's a lot more structured that way, and completely anonymous unless you choose to drop me a username. Not that you couldn't leave me an anonymous comment, but with The Form, no one will know you left it but me.

Enjoy!

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