Umu: Hi, my name is Umu I'm ReacttotheK's Channel creator, I'm also a French horn player
And I am also a hardcore AKMU Stan
AKMU is my favorite artist of the moment
If we do not count the artists that I grew up listening to it's just- they're my-
favorite current day artists
And so I've actually
done something different this time around usually I-
Listen to an artist's title track and then listen to all the b-side songs on the album
This time, I started with the first to b-sides on the album so I could just listen to everything in the order that
Chanhyuk set it to be
Or Suhyun is-
a lot-
more engaged with the album creating process now, so she probably had her hands in the order, too
So yes, I will be doing a first listen
I'll probably just edit my reaction to this song first because you know, it's a little bit shorter
So long title
Hello, 'How can I love the heartbreak, you're the one I love'
I'm ready for-
A ballad question mark or just something emotional because-
A har- heartbreak, let's do this. I have the subtitles turned on
Hopefully there's English translation 3, 2, 1
It's fresh hearing-
An acoustic piano after the guitar filled the first two b-sides of the album
It's beautiful
You can hear the dissonance of the seconds in the piano
That's interesting she says "there is a void beside you" and in that melodic line
I kinda expected her *vocalizing Da-da-da Da-da-da* to go up
But instead she sung a descending line while she said "void"
There's the AKMU guitar
There's Chanhyuk
*sighing in content*
Yeah, the tears are coming
During the pre-chorus I'm guessing
3...4... chorus...?
Bassline in the strings have come in
Is that Suhyun with a girl?
Who's in the front of their boat
They're so creative with their harmonies, switche-
I thought it was going to go into descending thirds for a second
But it doesn't
Okay back to the harmony accompanying
OoOh!
Chanhyuk singing but it's really really quiet
no longer
We've got a shaker
Screw it, I'll talk about the harmonies after
That doesn't sound like a typical shaker it might just be like when those small eggs
Okay, they do have an actress
This is SO SAD ㅠㅠ
Oh! That's interesting
The lyrics-
*deep breath* They're-
Seem much louder now, so there- its a really good arc to the song
This is the fullest instrumentation has been so far
I need to make a checklist of all the things that I want to talk about them after the song ends
Yeah, the soaring string line went *vocalizes*
That continues into the cello
Electric guitar?
Or was that just violin?
Oh that- that moment was so good.
Oh that was so good
Ahhh! Minor fo-...? *vocalizes*
Minor seven
*vocalizes*
See it has a start to the
Pachelbel sequence
Ok descending thirds
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Okay...
First thing's first, like I started talking about their harmonies
So wHen hARmoniz- wOw mY voiCe cRackahahahaha
When harmonizing
A melody, so you've got the main melody
And then you can either do notes above or notes below
Suhyun's voice *vocalizing: she was singing a lot up here in her register*
And sometimes
Chanhyuk would use his I believe it's chest voice so
He would do upper harmonies
But they almost sounded lower because it's just his timbre is lower
And I literally will have to go plunk it out on a piano
to see whether he was actually singing higher than Suhyun or not
So I couldn't quite tell whether they're upper or lower harmonies because they might have been lower harmonies
but just because the way he was singing it was different it sounded higher because it was-
The way he's singing it was louder but like they mixed his voice to be you know, the same dynamic at Suhyun's
So that's one creative thing that they did with the harmonies
It's just they- they don't always stick to just above harmonies or just below
They stick to the members taking the spot line and the other one harmonizing above or below they- they go with you know
Suhyun and Chanhyuk sings above or below or sometimes both which is why I actually noticed in
The b-side songs that I just listened to that I TOTALLY FORGOT TO TALK ABOUT
Suhyun was singing the main line and I heard Chanhyuk's voice in both the right and left channels
Which was so cool because Chanhyuk is harmonizing with both his sister and himself
It's like WUTTTTTT?!
That's such a cool soundscape to live in and the second thing that I wanted to talk about
Was the- that, okay, right here- around?
*deep inhales* 2:50
Where the lyrics are "I can no longer move forth" and at that moment
Suhyun is just singing by herself, no instrumentation
It's like, you know
You can't move forward so the instruments aren't playing
It's leaving the vocal line to say that alone
But then it goes to the lyrics
"Every step brings me closer to our breakup" and that's when all the other instrumentation came in
And the way they were singing the melody
Changed, they saying it louder, higher in their register
Which-
Conveys motion, right? And so "every step brings me closer to our breakup"
The music is pushing them along and I got super emotional
It's really funny because like I'd be listening to this song and be enjoying it
I could I could feel the bitter sweet pain, but then it wasn't until I looked at the lyrics-
And that's when I started tearing up
One more time through this time around I'll be paying attention more to lyrics
*vocalizing*
I love how at the lower end it just doesn't hit actually hits the lower note
And then arpeggiates there's a lot of movement
It isn't just-
Cause now
It's hitting and staying, right?
The rhythm of the piano lines up with the vocal part... but now-
It's its own thing
On the lyrics where it says "grey road you look back" it resolves
3...4...
This is why this song has such a good-
Arc because they're singing the hook, but very very very quietly
Which later on... they really sing out
That's kind of-
Funny though, I don't know the- grammatical structure
of Korean
because
it ends cut on a minor tone and then the instruments come in
feeling- making it feel more hopeful but
In English it ends on saying like Oh something something pain, so it's interesting that-
The pain lyrics line up with a more hopeful moment
Once again
This verse is the same melodically as the first one
But when she says "lacking" in the lyrics is a descending lyric the first time it was she said "Void" Now it's lacking
And now it's hopeful
Yeah Chanhyuk's singing the-
OH! I love his moment right there *vocalizes*
Octaves
I love the way they mix Chanhyuk's voc-voice, it sounds like it has a lot of gentle low-end to it
So you can feel it resonate in your chest almost
That moment right there I can't tell what instrument it kind of sounds like a electric guitar that goes *vocalizing*
Yeah, like a little electric guitar riff
But that also might've just been-
Violin? or-
A woodwind?
AHHH THAT'S MY FAVORITE THING ABOUT DUETS
When-
Oh, okay, I'll talk about it afterwards
*vocalizes*
Was that flat fo- I think that was a minor four
Because minor four, three two, and then they didn't resolve to one
Gosh
That's mean of them
Have a minor four towards the end. It's so heart-wrenching
How dare they? Haha
So after hearing "Fish in the water"
My very first thought was oh my goodness, this sounds
like Indigo Girls' "Closer to fine" because it's very similar guitar sound
I believe it's in the same key and it has a very similar chord progression and it's in the folk-y genre
And also Indigo Girls is actually a female duet
And they are so so so creative with their harmonies and one thing
That I love about their music is oftentimes, they would be in unison
Then they split into octaves and then they'd harmonize
but then they'd have two lines going at the same exact time
Kind of echoing the lyrics so they're not singing the exact same lyrics
at the same time and they're not moving at the same harmonic
rhythm
Like so we have something slower going on and something faster going on
and they kind of you know interweave like that and that's what
Just having in AKMU because I don't think they've done this too often, they tend to stick to the same
Rhythm overall, but they play around a lot with the notes that they're singing instead of-
Doing different rhythms from each other
and that's what I loved at that moment where they started off in unison
They're sin- moving at this not unison octave
So they're just singing the same note, but in a different register and they're moving at the same time
But then- what was it- wait, we're gonna play this out loud so I don't have to edit it
Octaves
Right there!! Where he just kept going and then she went *vocalizes*
And then he sang certain lyrics and then she echoed it in a different rhythm
*muffled* Ooooooh I love it when that happens
This song is really good
Like every single one of the songs on these- on this album so far
Okay
Time for me to move on to the rest of the album. Thanks so much for watching
I will see you guys later, bye!