Melissa: Whoa, it didn't resolve like I thought it would...
What, what was that?!
Umu: Now you're reacting to the solo artist Baek A-yeon and a song from her EP 'Dear Me'
which Baek A-yeon says she wrote as a form of therapy after experiencing betrayal and disappointment.
The song is a conversation with a boyfriend discussing the infinite loop of breaking up, getting back together, and breaking up again.
Cloud: Cut the loop!
Cloud: Get rid of the loop! (Umu: The song is composed by Mr. Cho.)
Isaac: Mr. Cho, let's see how— Kevin: One composer, excellent! There's a singular vision.
Kevin: It's just like a relationship is a singular path through an infinite loop.
Isaac: Onwards! Kevin: Don't get trapped in it.
Kevin: Don't get trapped in it!
Elizabeth: Oooh, accordion! Owen: Alright.
Elizabeth: You don't hear that everyday. Owen: We're, we're in Animal Crossing.
Owen: This is great!
Fiona: That SWELL!
Fiona: Crescendo-decrescendo baby!
[Daniel laughing]
[Kevin and Isaac singing Elgar's 'Salut d'Amour']
Kevin: What is that, oh Elgar! (Isaac: Yeah.) It's Elgar.
Cloud: It's weird because I feel like I'm listening to a Celtic lullaby or something, but it's a little fast?
Henry: Yeah, is that a clock I think? Tick tock tick tock tick...
Cloud: Yeah.
Henry: It sounds like it—I love her voice, it's so gentle.
Elizabeth: I love when the strings just kind of
...feather in (Owen: Effortlessly, above everything else.) Yeah, they just kind of fill in the soundscape.
Owen: Yeah, she really accentuates that major sixth by singing the major third in the vocal line.
[Melissa singing]
Melissa: Whoa, it didn't resolve like I thought it would...
What, what was that?!
Melissa: That was that was crazy. James: That was...Amazing!
Melissa: I thought it would just go straight to a one chord there but it didn't!
Kevin: See, the rhythm is looser because break up causes a person to disintegrate a little bit.
Yeah, there's no longer that...
perpetual spark.
It's just...heartbreak.
Kevin: I'm trying here guys, I don't know the lyrics.
Cloud: Oh that's cool! It took a really high harmonic, or something.
Henry: There it is...nostalgic oboe?
Fiona: I love [singing]
It sounds like Brahms.
Daniel: *gasps* I lied!
Daniel: It's not a metronome, it's a clock!
Fiona: Oh! Well, they both signify time then.
Daniel: Well, the first one could've been a metronome this could be a clock, but—
Aaron: This music gives me like...
Aaron: The picture of her singing and like wind just happening around her.
Elizabeth: Get that cello ostinato! (Owen: This descant vocal!)
Owen: Also yeah, that too.
There's just a lot of nice layering
Kevin: Based on my interpretation, this is the second breakup and she's going through it with a more militant
and courageous attitude!
[Isaac sings]
And then there's some horn?
Daniel: It sounds like sparkles and just like, spring!
Fiona: This is nice, right back to the beginning.
Kevin: So I'm guessing based on the album cover that in the end she finds self-love
and the whole song is actually about self-love. How like, the breakup doesn't define her.
Kevin: Another string swell? Isaac: Please, one more!
Isaac: Awe no, we're ending it! Kevin: Yeah.
Nick: Ooh!
Aaron: That's just like, a beautiful ballad. Like, that's just amazing. I love it.
Umu: What made it so good? Aaron: The different layering.
Aaron: You know, starting with harp, and the like clock ticking (Nick: Mhmm.) or just metronome sound.
It's very like open and then we had like all these big swells, big climaxes
of like, emotion and she's a emoting and you know
you don't even have to understand the lyrics to like know what she's talking about.
Because I feel (Nick: Mhmm) like we've all been there or at least we've all like watched movies where like—
That's another thing, it was very like cinematically written. (Nick: Yeah.)
I can picture her like standing in a really beautiful meadow, except it's cold out,
and then gusts of wind are just blowing around her and stuff.
And, I get a very— it paints a very vivid image for me and I think that
and I think that's something really effective about her, the song.
(Aaron: I'm sad.) Nick: I'm sure when they're using these, uh—they resolve from V to vi a whole bunch
(Aaron: Really?) and I'm sure it's on words where it makes sense to go to sad places instead of a happy place.
Do you want me to talk about what that means?
So, when you have a five chord, which is kind of—
How would you describe a five chord to...?
(Umu: Uhhhh...) Nick: It's like, you start at the home key Aaron: Building anticipation
and then you go to somewhere and that's usually, the V chord.
And then when you come back, you can either come back to the home key, or you can come back to the vi chord.
Which, um, it sounds a little bit like the home key, but sad.
It shares a whole bunch of notes, which is why it sounds similar and they can pretty much be substituted.
And then she goes to vi a whole bunch and I'm sure it's on song—
on words where she means for you to feel sad for her or she's feeling sad.
Nick: I think it was really nice how they did that. Aaron: Well it—
Aaron: Because V chords build that...
That you can hear the resolution before they happen. And then when you put in that vi chord, it's kind of like a
NOPE!
[Nick laughing]
And that's kind of like how relationships work in a sense!
You get all this anticipation, from like first dates and stuff. Then you start like thinking about your life with this person.
And then they don't feel the same way in one day. And then they're just like "NOPE."
And it's like a big vi chord in the face!
And so I think that you know, that's written —it's just awesome on her part.
Elizabeth: I like that they played with a bunch of different instruments.
I think you were mentioning Tchaikovsky, and I think a lot of those instruments are
definitely sounds that Tchaikovsky loved a lot. Harp, being one of them, the superstar of the song.
Also, very lush string chords I think is also sort of a staple of Tchaikovsky and we got that a lot in the chorus of this song.
And then also, you know, some woodwinds in there, some accordion
Elizabeth: which is, by definition, schmaltzy instrument. Owen: Yep.
And then what we're supposing is a celeste, but could be a glockenspiel.
So I think this really good combination of sounds, very romantic sounding.
Daniel: I thought this was actually...amazing!!
[laughter]
And this is why: because I think it's like one of those songs that they don't really—
"This is a song and we're gonna start playing it and you're gonna like it! BOUNCE."
You know? It was something it was more like very personal, but at the same time, there's so many like rich textures.
She had this incredible voice that sounds like soaring! You know, like you were talking about. (Fiona: Yeah!)
And there's so many awesome elements. There was the clock ticking in the background—
or it could've been a metronome the first time and a clock the second time—
and the harp that kept continuously going, it was just that loop.
Fiona: It had a nice message too just something very positive, (Daniel: Yeah!) and open.
Fiona: Self-love-y? I don't know. That's the impression I got, just from hearing it.
Cloud: I liked it. But I also—it leaves me wanting a little bit.
There is a very nice lift to a lot of the downbeats. You'd have like: three-four-downbeat.
and those are great. I love when you can, [deep breath] and then relax.
Henry: Yeah, I thought it was nice. It was really pretty. I really liked her vocal quality.
It was very gentle and it seemed to kind of stay in a upper/middle to floaty register.
She never really used much of her chest voice, but it was stylistically appropriate.
Like we said, it was super cinematic, but it's— I guess what you're saying is it's missing
Cloud: If you told me those were real violins playing, I would be very surprised.
Cloud: Because it sounds kind of like a midi file
Henry: So what you're thinking is—what you're saying is
Henry: the sound of the full orchestra was not as organic as it could've been. (Cloud: If they had a full—yeah.)
Cloud: Yeah, exactly. Henry: For some of the dynamic swells and pullbacks.
Henry: But even just the timbre, right? Yeah. Cloud: Even just the sustained notes, like just
Cloud: Just the sustained notes, like if you had any violinist—especially here [Eastman]
If you put that in front of them and played that they would just naturally vibrato and kind of taper them out.
We naturally tend to just taper those kind of things,
and when you put that into a computer or you synth it,
they don't usually do the nice taper at the end of long notes. (Henry: Mhmm)
Cloud: I think that would have added a lot of really nice musicality and just like a whole nother level.
Kevin: This reminds me of HaSeul's 'Let Me In' from LOONA because that song also has, you know,
a bunch of really well-crafted synthetic instruments because if you listen carefully in this song,
I think—I have a theory that all the instruments are synthetic.
Kevin: Because even with the accordion tone, there were some long notes. If you know how an accordion works,
there's like a pump where you make sound. If you're playing very passionately or even just regularly,
there's enough human error for the pumping speed to be different.
So the sound, the dynamics, have these little micro shifts. And in this song, the accordion tone is
completely the same, (Isaac: Just flatlining?) flat throughout the entire thing.
You know, it took me until the second half the song to know that, which means that I think the balance
and all the instruments were very well mixed and produced and created very good sounds.
In the end, I wasn't bothered by it. I wouldn't consider it like a flaw or anything, but I do like the song. I love the Elgar homage.
Kevin: I wish there was a violin solo that just played the same— Isaac: What's the title of it, again?
Kevin: I think it's 'Salut d'Amour'. Isaac: 'Salut d'Amour' yeah, no that's right!
Isaac: Please look at that! It's actually a really wonderful violin piece.
Isaac: Yeah, that piece it's actually the same thing, it's about saying goodbye to your love.
In 'Infinite Loop' if it's about, what is it?
Kevin: The breakup, the cycle. Isaac: Yeah, so, it's perhaps if you want to extend it from the Elgar piece,
it's the feelings that you feel after you say goodbye.
Where you're just, "Was it wrong? Was it right? Aaah, what do I do?"
And it really emphasized that and I really enjoy how they brought this perspective through music.
Daniel: You're gonna get acne, don't put your face against the carpet!!