[Rossini's Semiramide Overture playing]
Umu: You are now reacting to the solo artist IU (아이유)
and the b-side song 'My Sea', a.k.a. 'The Sea of a Kid and I',
which is the Korean title,
released on her 2021 LILAC album.
Even if you are trapped in your own torment
this song reminds you that life is not only filled with sadness,
JU YOUNG!
Ju Young: I'm going through a hard time right now.
Umu: Even when you are feeling lost
and you don't see how things are gonna get any better,
just open your eyes to the beautiful things around you,
and you'll eventually find your path back.
Fun fact, IU chose this song to be the 8th track on her album
since 8 is her favorite number,
also this song is 5:16 long because her birthday is May 16th.
(Umu: 5:16 ...) Stephanie: Wow. That's awesome. That's so personal.
(Umu: Yeah!) Stephanie: Wow. That's awesome. That's so personal.
Stephanie: Wow. That's awesome. That's so personal.
(Umu: YEAH!) Stephanie: Wow. That's awesome. That's so personal.
Stephanie: Wow. That's awesome. That's so personal.
Umu: And then the song is composed by
김희원 (Kim Hee Won) and 제휘 (Jehwi) and the lyrics were written by IU.
Owen: I like that!
Kevin: What's the Korean name of the song again? 'The Sea...'
Umu: 'The Sea of a Kid and I'.
Kevin: See? That sound like a children's book that I would buy -
TODAY.
That just sounds so poetic and just like:
WOW~ I want that book.
3 2 1 !
Wow, that was...
Owen: I like it entering with the voice and without meter.
Henry: I like this repeated note - oh?
It stopped.
Cloud: Aw, that was nice. [Imitating vocal embellishment]
Stephanie: Hmm!
Ju Young: This is literally me in the morning.
Jason: You literally just said that!
Ju Young: Yas girl, yes!
Kevin: Nice.
Okay, as the piano gets louder,
I feel the top a little more, the compression.
Raffi: Hm. Withholding a little bit.
Sam: Yeah.
Raffi: Oh! 'Bwaa!'
Sam: Wow. Yeah, there was a big 'BWAA'.
Henry: That deep sounding percussion.
Raffi: [Looking at lyrics] "Only traces remain"
And then they fade it a little bit.
Text painting.
Ju Young: we have this like...
Jason: The strings are fire in the back! *imitates*
Jason: The pizzicato. [t/n: Plucked strings] Ju Young: I don't know if it's electric guitar.
Ju Young: That blends very well with the strings.
Jason: Yeah, see? It's like rhythmic driving.
Stephanie: It's a cool texture.
Owen: Musical theatre!
Kevin: Yeah no, it sounds like a musical theatre. "Dancing Through Life".
Oh.
"Defying Gravity" [t/n: Musical numbers from 'Wicked']
Owen: Yeah.
Sam: Hmmm.
This really is like the peak song - like -
Raffi: She didn't flip that time. That was belt. Sam: No she did NOT!
Ju Young: She's gonna do something weird, I already know.
[Called it]
Jason: Half-step modulation?!
Henry: AAAH! Ju Young: AAAAAH!
Jason: FIRE!
And that was in the middle of the vocal phrase, so that was sic-
Cloud: What the f*ck?! Henry: ARH!
*Henry ambiguously between crying, laughing and screaming*
Sam: Ohhhhhhohohoho
Jason: Uh, that note is a little harder to hit a half-step higher.
Ju Young: MM, there it is! (2x) Jason: Oh, the harmony in the back! OOOOOH MY GOOOD! [in high F]
Henry: Ah, how she frees up into vibrato at the end is so beautiful!
Oh my god, she's such a good singer. AAhaaAAh!
Sam: Oh my gosh.
Wow.
Raffi: Wow.
Sam: WOW.
Oh my gosh.
Raffi: Oh, it's not over!
Stephanie: Mm~
Wooow.
Ju Young: I didn't know 5 minutes of a song could be so good.
Like, that's really hard to do.
Jason: Yeah, she's got a lot of great control.
Ju Young: This is so different, though!
I'm so used to hearing her high voice?
Her low timbre is so nice.
Stephanie: *Sound of satisfaction*
It's like a lot of different textures
that were super unexpected, like each time.
Especially that one spot where they just did the acappella thing.
Leon: Hm, right.
Stephanie: And I got like a little bit of a gospel vibe,
and also like, I...
Leon: The 4 ♯4 5
Stephanie: Ahhh.
And then also kind of like Irish kind of stuff,
or like the use of drone. You know, like 'Danny Boy'. [t/n: drone: keeping a sustained note]
Yeah, it's the exact vibe I felt from this when they went to acappella.
I wonder what exactly made me think of that...
Oh maybe it's just like the, you know,
*vocalizes*
the four-scale pattern?
I feel like there is lots of songs with three notes, like *vocalizes*,
but *vocalizes* [four notes] may be not so common?
Henry: I'm in a loss for words.
The only room in my brain right now is for feelings.
Oh my god.
I love what she does with her voice, that's beautiful.
Because she has so much control over what she wants to express,
whether it be singing really lightly in her head voice,
or belting out a beautifully in tune high note on a nice open vowel,
and then letting some of that vibrato free up at the end before it cuts off,
And then the chorus -
the actual choir, I mean the choir at the end.
Cloud: That was so weird!
Henry: OH!? WEIRD? Oh my god, it made me loose my mind -
(Cloud: Yeah, we saw that.) you heard it - it made me loose my mind,
and then at the outro, when they have the choir again...
it's so cathartic, I miss being able to sing with people so much.
Ju Young: My god. It was also so natural, too,
like the way she uses the instrumentals,
it's so smartly placed where they put,
like where the strings are gonna come in,
where the harp is gonna come in,
where the voices are gonna come in, and - what was it?
(Jason: I don't think it was a harp.) where the voices are gonna come in, and - what was it?
where the voices are gonna come in, and - what was it?
Jason: I think it was just like an electric piano,
kinda just dangling on top. (*Ju Young imitating sound*)
yeah, it was just like scalar (Ju Young: Ah, okay okay.)
but it was like some type of like sound patch.
Ju Young: They smartly placed everything.
Jason: Yeah, it was pretty standard, the way they placed it, it was pretty good.
Raffi: I'm always looking for the communication aspect
and the text painting, you know, like bringing out certain words,
although she does it plenty,
I felt like the instrumentation did a lot of it,
in terms of less and more, growing and diminishing,
and there is just balance among all the different types of instruments used.
Cuz usually it's the vocalist having the words,
like you're doing that, like that's up to you to communicate the text,
and she definitely did it tenfold
but the instruments really supported that venture, so...
Cloud: I enjoyed a lot of like the music soundscape that she made,
and how it does feel - Soundscape!
(Henry: ~Soundscape~) and how it does feel - Soundscape!
and how it does feel - Soundscape!
And she talks a lot about the sea, it's all about the ocean,
and at first I was like: You know, this doesn't really sound like the ocean,
this feels like flying, this feels like a soaring melody,
and then I was like:
Stoopid!
That's kind of what being on a boat feels like,
like if you have ever been on the front of a boat,
and it's like really windy, and like,
if you've been on a smaller boat
and it's like kind of jumping a little on the waves,
that's what it feels like, it's got that mix of like soaring
and pushing and pulling of the waves,
and there was like a little bit of rain toward the, uh,
I think it was the very last, the bridge,
the very first line was like a little bit of rain,
and then the choir came in and I was like:
This is messing with my ocean soundscape, but okay,
we'll have a choir at the middle of the sea,
sure, you're invited on the boat, why not?
Henry: Well I didn't think-
I didn't really put myself through that much imagery,
that's actually really cool.
Cloud: Yeah, I like watching movies when I listen to music.
Umu: Also I, like reading the lyrics, Cloud: Yeah, I like watching movies when I listen to music.
(Henry: This is so musical to me.) Umu: Also I, like reading the lyrics,
(Henry: This is so musical to me.) Umu: it sounds like she's breaking free,
which is why I do get that flying vibe,
Cloud: Yeah that's a saying, and I'm like: (Umu: is that yes, you're on -)
Cloud: maybe she's breaking free by jumping on a boat and just sailing. (Umu: ...she's soaring...)
(Cloud: Sure.) Henry: This is like the pivotal aria/solo number in a music theatre,
(Cloud: Yeah, for sure.) um, show, that is like,
if you've seen Wicked: 'Defying Gravity' very much
similar feelings of just power, also orchestration,
like you got the strings starting with piano for a little while,
there is a rhythms guitar and drum set, or,
well they have the drum set sound a bit more under-the-sea deep,
but like the same kind of instrumentation that builds up,
it's very much akin to musical theatre. Cloud: Well just enter this into some kind of ocean themed musical,
Henry: Yes, oh my god, no really! Cloud: it can go in Titanic, just put it in there.
Henry: It's like THE aria, the moment changing our-
especially with that key change in the middle, too, oh my god!
Henry: It's so beautiful! Cloud: And the choir at the end, like okay,
Cloud: We can do that in musical theatre, no problem.
Owen: Did it, it sorta went up a half step, right, at some point?
Kevin: Yes. It was very sudden.
A very very jarring key change that I enjoyed.
Owen: Yeah. Up to F?
Kevin: I like the compositional aspects of this song
but I think some of the production and instrumental choices
did make it sound a little cheesy.
A lot of IU songs allow me to bathe inside this sentimental-
the pathos, the emotional qualities of it,
but yeah, this one got a little to theatrical for me,
wherein there where moments where it felt like
if there was like an emotional rubber band, it's like it snapped back
and I was like: Oh, I'm back in my seat!
Umu: Oh, those moments (Kevin: Yes),
those moments, if I am in the right mood, they make me like sob.
Kevin: Nice. Well yeah, like the choir that came in for that one line,
I don't know, it just, it sounded kind of flat?
I mean it was pitch perfect.
Voice should sound like this, you know, this round experience,
but they, they sound like that.
And also it doesn't really come back, I could argue that the,
the last section of the piece, where it's just kinda murky and
deliberately not as rhythmic, just more textures,
that could be a callback to the choir section...
but...
I mean I guess thinking about that it's kinda nice.
Umu: So this is a song that you would enjoy more hearing it live?
Kevin: Most likely. I can imagine like -
especially if there was like a live piano
(Umu: Live instrumentals, live chorus...) that's like being mic-ed and ... right, oh yeah.
Owen: And lyrics in the program, in English. (Kevin: Yeah.)
I have a lot of the similar feelings about it,
in that the first part was definitely...
did exactly what it needed to do and did it well,
that the middle became definitely to musical theatre-y for me
that it became so laden with affectation
that it felt like it kind of lost that initial clarity,
and then the end of it I actually liked just as much as the beginning.
It felt a lot more spontaneous and interesting and like alive.
But I felt like it was flow-charted in a way, in the middle point.
Umu: I'm curious 'cause like I -
When I think of the lyrics at that section where it turns musical therety-
*stumbles over words* theatre-y,
I can't picture any other way of doing
cuz it's talking about crashing waves and
reaching out to the memories calling you back,
and it's super dramatic visual lyrics
that I feel is best done by that kind of instrumental?
Kevin: The thing about musical theatre is:
She's going really hard on the vocals
but the instrumentals don't feel as colorful and inspired as say
like a Strauss song or like a song written for voice and orchestra.
I feel like the orchestra was doing this one thing,
it very much felt like the background, I think that's - yeah. (Umu: That makes sense.)
It could have done more of the ch- maybe,
yeah, I mentioned a timpani because [t/n: timani or kettledrums, pitched percussion]
I feel like that would have brought the explosiveness,
or even more of the bells, you know, that type of stuff... (Umu: Mm, chimes)
and it's, there is a kid in the title, like you know,
it's 'The Sea for a Kid and I',
and I think, yeah, instead of a child-like wonder
it is like a Broadway wonder, I don't know? (Umu: That makes sense.)
Stephanie: Talking about the melody or the composition-wise, though,
of this song, what stood out to me was the re-using of that *vocalizes*
that just one motif, major second and then coming back
and then that's like the very first thing you hear,
the next phrase is *vocalizes*, just that fourth up.
I don't know, recently I have been really paying attention
to the reusing of either melodic or rhythmic motifs
because in our combo, our teacher is just talking about
the reusing of like one small idea and really sticking to that,
yeah, they did that in this song, so I was like: That's cool.
[t/n: Sam's subtitles on screen]
Umu: ...hit the trash can...
Ju Young: I love this. I love IU. I love music. I,
I love you. Thank you.
(Umu: Aww, I love you too, Ju Young.) I love you. Thank you.
Ju Young: OH My GoD! (Umu: Aww, I love you too, Ju Young.)
*Umu loling*
Jason: This song changed your life. Ju Young: I'm touched
Umu: ...the end of her 20s and going into her 30s and her life journey...
Jason: She's 30?
Umu: She's turning 30 soon, I think it's Korean age.
Jason: What does that mean? Wait! There is different ages? Umu: Cuz one year, so you get one year older,
Umu: you get one year older at new years,
(Ju Young: Oh yeah) Umu: and then another year older on your actual birthday.
Umu: So there's a two years difference between...
Ju Young: So I am 22...
Umu: ...international age and Korean age.
Ju Young: I'm so old. Umu: Yeah, there's different ages.