Cloud: There's the harp Henry: it's still just doing like arpeggios in the background
Henry: WOOOO
Umu: So now you're reacting to the solo artists Jonghyun from the boy group shinee. you're reacting to neon from jonghyun's first solo EP called bass
Released in 2015. This is a love song that uses the brightness of neon to contrast the darkness
Jonghyun feels around him the bright neon light of this person shines on him and makes him shine in the world without them is boring
The song was composed by Jonghyun and Deez
Elizabeth: no one could say that he's a shinee
Umu: AAAAAaaaahhhhh
Elizabeth: You know you can cut that out (she didn't)
Aron: 3 2 1
Nick: That's pretty it's like really
Aaron: Like funky, I dunno. Nick: it feels like silk.
Aaron: Yeah. Nick: Yeah
Just the synth is so smooth and not like thick either
Owen: Alright
Owen: That's super interesting how they're playing around the beat
Elizabeth: yeah, I like that sort of syncopation.
Stephen: Oh yeah, that's cool I've never heard anyone do that before and I really like it
Seiji: it's like a super like
modern R&B thing ya know?
Stephen: But it's so nice like-
Melissa: I love his voice.
James: Oh
Melissa: It's like I feel like his voice is like casual without being breathy
James: His voice is so expressive. Melissa: Yeah
Kevin: The instruments are like really competing with his voice in dominance
Kevin: Whaat!!! *sound effect*
Owen: Also, love all these like extra vocal lines that are kind of playing with him too kind of like in a D'Angelo-esc sort of
way
really cool
Cloud: There's a harp! Henry: it's still using like arpeggios in the background
Henry: WOO
Cloud: woo Henry: OH
Cloud: ooo sing it Henry: oh my god
Seiji: I'm trying to figure out why it sounds so open
Maybe because there's no sustain bass.
Stephen: There's no sustained bass and
There's not like a bass drum on like all four beats or like 1 and 3. You know what I'm saying?
Owen: Hey go double time now
James: Whoa
Melissa: This is so lit James: there's so much happening
Henry: This huh, there's so much Cloud: there's so many instrumentals
Aaron: These slides or like glisses are very like
And all the like cymbal crashes, the snaps, like the way his voice like jumps up
octaves and you like get this like lifted feeling very
Nick: it's very light and bright like
texturally
James: Well
James: What
Melissa: I like how every quart of neon was like slightly different like they added voices yeah
James: Yeah! Melissa: I liked that
James: they like Expanded the harmony
Melissa: yeah cuz like a lot of people would just do the same thing three times, but not this guy
James: And of course he expanded it upwards.
Melissa: So it's like intensifying. James: BEEEp Yeah, it was like crazy. Oh my god
Melissa: that's such a thing. Like so many things come in threes, you know
James: Mm-hmm,
Seiji: that was different
Stephen: Yeah,
Seiji: I guess like the song that comes to mind the most that's sort of like that is that Grover Washington song
But yeah, usually it's a lot more sustained
It's a lot more quarter notes and horn backgrounds pop backgrounds again because it's so feels really broken and very open
That's I haven't seen that before.
Stephen: Yeah I thought it was really sick. I really like the fact that whenever
You'd have chord hits or things like that
you
Would only be in for like bleed in for a split second and it would not be in the rhythmic that I used that you
Would associate with whatever the tempo is so like for example, it wasn't really in time when they like bring it back out for example
Which was really sick because that would throw you like threw me off as a listener
I also really like just how with what they had going on feel wise
It just like widened the beat it just made it groove really really hard
Umu: Is that what you were talking about when you said
like towards the ending you said "no one does it like that! I like it" and then you were like "oh you came back again"
Stephen: Yeah, cuz there's a synth part with like Waum waum waum
well
What like he like lays back and it's so great because it just like pushes everything back for a second
But it creates a really nice like rhythmic rub
Cloud: That was a lot that was so much
It's like when the first thing that we react to it's like superhuman and we just sat there and we were like
Cloud: THERE'S SO MUCHHH Henry: yeah
Henry: There's like- immediately not a lot of layers Cloud: this is so over whleming
Just straight into it it can be a little disorienting but especially after a couple of listens like a couple of refrains
You start to like pick up more and more and that keeps you going that keeps you
Really interested because like intentionally or not intentionally and another refrain they bring out one certain instrument more than another one
(C:Yeah) so it's like you can hear the trumpets in this one. You can hear the harp a lot in this one
Cloud: you can hear the strings coming out
Yeah Henry: it's really cool.
Kevin: It's definitely musically interesting but man
It's it's quite overwhelming of a song
Yeah
I thought the balance between the voice and the synths and
All the crazy instrumentals were trying to threaten the voice a little too much. Okay
I like a song that can really throw me for a loop like this just in concept
But I think the actual song itself is something that's just a little too much for me this if you like Jonghyun's
Just trying to like do as many tricks as possible and I really admire his tricks
But I don't know as a cohesive musical experience. I was just left feeling like whoa
I don't I don't really feel the romance. Sorry. I don't even feel the neon
quality, it doesn't feel like a night type song for me
Isaac: for me I think it does sound like neon because neon lights stay on for a long time
alright so maybe
That quality was just it's always on
just neon and daaadaaaa
There's always something going on
Aaron: I love how like all these like interjections and things were literally like
cuts of light. (N:Yeah) and it's like like these high noises and then followed by like this like grounded low sounds and stuff
Nick: I think I know where the funk is though
I think the funk that we're all hearing is is the like triads that just come in on two and four
(A:Yeah) so you have the melody and then it's like the chord comes a beat later
Owen: They kind of minded me of Beatles like in the Yellow Submarine
Where there's there's a counter melody that plays in a really really nice lineup
Elizabeth: *breaks* no no no no no no no no (REPEAT) Umu: Do you guys wanna listen to this again
Owen: do you want to listen to the bridge again?
Elizabeth: Yes,
Owen: hmm. Elizabeth: Yeah, we add a bunch of instruments here
Owen: If I've heard this playing back Elizabeth: did you hear the like thing in there and that's like
Elizabeth: dudududdu
Owen: Yeah, whoever's plan that is getting paid for that one note, really well
Elizabeth: well because it's a little bit out of tempo Owen: dadada
Owen: That's a sentence basic idea
repetition of the basic idea and then like a concluding phrase the answer to that so like dada
Dada batabatabata. I like that one note
I like I like that in the bridge this whoever is playing that *sings it*
For them because it was it's perfect.
Elizabeth: Yeah, I liked it a lot
I think it's definitely one of those songs that's like layered a lot and because it's all about like light and shining
I feel like there's a lot of
Sounds in there that I meant to kind of get that across musically. I'm like we had the harp
And we had like a very like high synth chords over
Like everything the whole time and then there was like, you know interjections- like strings
There's like interjections of like, you know, bright like fake brass I think and yeah
It was just so definitely a lot of like trying to feel light and sort of like bright in texture
Owen: Mm-hmm.
James: His voice is a
incredible like I was saying it was expressive because
the song itself was pretty like
There was a lot going on the whole time and his voice also sort of reflected that and that it wasn't ever like
Monotone or he wasn't ever giving like one color
for an extended period of time it was like
Like phonating things differently
at this at this point like using a crazy different register at this other point like colors and like timbres and
phonation and like the way he pronounce things and like the way the way he was like placing certain notes
You know like it was there was like so much variety there and it showed like so much
Melissa: it felt like
Casual without being conversational if that makes sense. Like it wasn't breathy
It didn't feel like he was like sitting right next to me and talking in my ear
But it felt really casual like he was just doing whatever he wanted
James: that sounded like he was
Like he's singing about this like person in his life
That's like this neon light and it sounds like he's so appreciative of this person that he just has to like let it out
(M:Yeah) and it's like crazy
song that's so busy because he there's so much like
appreciation and love for that person that it's like when it comes out it's like
Melissa: And like the texture was so thick like in the accompaniment
It just felt really free like his voice could just do whatever the heck it wanted
Like he was just completely free to express himself because there's so much else going on
Yeah, and I think it's pretty poetic as well like the whole idea that
Someone can be such a light in your life that when everything gets dark like they shine more
That's like a super super poetic idea to me
like usually
You know darkness engulfs everything
but if someone's like a
neon light it makes them stronger which is like super cool and to have someone like that in your life is like
Kind of like what you said. It's like very like valuable like you wouldn't give that person up for the world
but also at the same time like the song was so busy
and that sort of made me think like life can also get really busy. But even like when everything's like shit and dark
and nothing's happening
but you feel terrible or if like life's too busy and you're overwhelmed like that that
Person who like shines as a light like is there like regardless of like what's going on? It's like the one constant
Melissa: I'm gonna text you next time I feel sad James: you should
Owen: badadadummmmmmm
badaddummmmmm
bababdadababababdadaadbabdabdabd