James: Oohhhhhhh
Umu: So now you’re reacting to a solo artist named Subin,
who is a former member of the girl group Dal Shabet,
which is why, for this track she is calling herself DALsooobin,
instead of just like plain Subin, you know.
Subin refers to ketchup as a magical sauce that makes food taste better
and was actually inspired to write this song after using ketchup on bland restaurant food.
However, in the lyrics she uses the phrase "catch up"
instead of "ketchup"
as wordplay since “Katchup”
is the sauce that will help her conquer love.
This song is composed and written by her.
Henry: Sick!
Cloud: You ready?
Henry: Yeah! Cloud: You don’t have your headphones on. Henry: 3...2...1
Cloud: Piano, like it!
Henry: Shhh oh is that like an atonal row right there?
Elizabeth: Ooooooh
Henry: Oh!!
Elizabeth: I like adding in the bass with that
It like totally changes the context
James: Ohhh...whoa!
Melissa: This is the lowest I’ve ever heard someone sing in K-Pop. James: Whoa
Henry: Oh that scoop up it wasn’t quite up to that blues thing
Henry: Or... Cloud: It is very like breathy and airy but like
Henry: That’s that like that’s kinda like that sexy timbre though that she’s going for
Oh, she's got pipes on her!
Nick: I really love the bass
Aaron: I was just gonna say it’s like...it’s the perfect sound for her
Nick: Yeah, with the voice
Melissa: If this is the chorus, then there wasn’t really like a transition into it...
Henry: I think this is about to be the chorus, I’m not sure... Melissa: Oh okay
Henry: Weird...this is really weird
Melissa: Is this the chorus or the post-chorus?
Henry: There we go
Melissa: This is the chorus?
James: That bass! Melissa: I love the bass!
James: The guitar, it’s so good!
Melissa: Yeah, it—
It reminds me of Billie Eilish "bad guy" just like a tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny bit
Melissa: Yeah...
Melissa: But the bass reminds me of like literally just like a live bass in a jazz band,
or like a salsa band or something.
Henry: Oh that guitar in the background is playing
the same thing that she was playing on the piano the whole time. Cloud: Yeah
Henry: That’s clever, you said she wrote this herself? That’s good!
Daniel: This is very like story heavy. Fiona: I feel like I’m drunk.
It feels like she’s... it’s kinda like a narrative.
It’s not really much, it’s kinda like a confession.
Fiona: Wow
We’re at the cool echoey metal room sound
James: Oooooh
Fuck me, that’s amazing!
UGGHHHH UGH
Kevin: Oh there’s some rhythmic games in the beat!
It's on a different beat
Aaron: It's been like creeping me out like...
Nick: Oh, "katchup with you!" And there’s a little static
Aaron: See that’s this just what I’ve been saying!
Like, "I’m gonna catch up with you" like, die!
Melissa: Oh, okay, alright!!
Fiona: Whoa...
was not expecting this!
Dance party!! Katchup!!
Henry: I really love, um, in this chorus
how she uses ketchup as a percussion.
Because she’s probably super close to the mic so the Cloud: Yeah
“kuh” and “puh” those uh
I don't know it’s just the diction training in me
Katchup!
Melissa: Wow!! James: Rhythmically that was
Melissa: That was lit James: It's not a cliché thing but
but it's something that happens a lot is
you'll just like omit the downbeat and it's like
it's like this really cool effect
That was amazing!
Melissa: That was like so chill yet so exciting at the same time, you know?
James: Uhhh I don't even know where to start it was so good.
It's a sound you don't usually hear from female vocalists
Essentially, what she was doing is
She was speaking on pitch
It almost wasn't... Melissa: Sprechstimme?
James: Yeah Melissa: Oh my god
She was literally, she was speaking on pitch and it was
Intentionally, like—these choices are intentional
She was adding grit and "wilt" is the word that
some popular vocalists will use as a very "wilty"
sound. Her voice was kind of breaking it was
very conversational, very quiet.
And that's usually a sound you hear from male vocalists, not female vocalists.
But she committed to it!
And especially with these on, it was like ASMR
It was amazing!
Melissa: It was very whispery
James: Yeah, it was conversational and that's why
Whenever you like whisper something it makes the song so much more intimate
And I really appreciated that about this, in particular.
And it's just it's insane to me that she literally
put ketchup on food and she was like,
"I'm gonna make this masterpiece now!"
But it's, usually American Pop music
is never as like trivial as this
And I'm not using that in like a negative light at all
"Trivial" in like the best way possible.
Like she literally made a bop about ketchup!
Fiona: Wow... Daniel: So what did you think?
Fiona: I enjoyed the random dance party that was in that.
Like, she just exuded confidence the whole time.
Like with her sultry, lower tones. Henry: Yeah
Like you said, it was like
dark...visually, her voice range, and like kinda the bass ostinato stuff happening
Daniel: Yeah, also talking about just like
the lower timbre of and this kind of like
bass heavy there's not much like high treble content
in this video. It kinda reminded me of
From the musical Chicago, is that right?
The Cell Block Tango number
It features these nine or ten
women convicts/criminals who all had a reason to murder their
beloved one or whatever, their significant other
I got the same vibe in how
this video was set up in a kind of narrative situation where
she's talking about sort of her past with this guy
and she's like, "I'm gonna katchup with you" or whatever
It seems very story-narrative centric.
The kind of lower beats and the dance feel also reminded me of
Cell Block Tango where if you just take a beat and ostinato in the background.
I definitely see the similarities between that
Kevin: What a low key/high key song
that exists...and doesn't exist.
Umu: What?
Kevin: Within the ether and the zeitgeist.
Umu: *giggling* what?
Isaac: That was...I would say, musically seductive.
Kevin: Yeah! Isaac: Yeah!
Isaac: Because it brings you in just...really dry
Would it be dry, or damp, sounding piano?
Isaac: The recording of the piano? Kevin: I think it's more damp
Isaac: Damp, right? Kevin: I think it's more damp, yeah.
It's distant...and slightly, yeah, it's wet.
Isaac: I think I said dry because it's just so...alone.
Isaac: So maybe yeah that's why I associated it Kevin: Absolutely
There's a damp sounding piano,
that sounds a little bit like
how they used it in La La Land.
Kevin: It's not just the fact that it sounds like a piano it's that it sounds
a piano you might have at home because
Kevin: it's a little out of tune Isaac: Yes.
Isaac: It's very personalized that way, perhaps.
Kevin: And the hammers might not be working all that properly
because t's a little wet, it's a little weird
Isaac: Weird action Kevin: And it's at that one corner in the room where the
acoustics aren't the best. So you're like
Kevin: listening like "What?" Isaac: That's exactly like my mom's piano back
Isaac: in Taiwan. Kevin: Oh really?
Isaac: It's just in the corner haha Kevin: Uh huh
Isaac: Yeah it kinda has that maybe if you have a piano at home
it brings you back to your childhood, perhaps.
So there's that nostalgic aspect of it that draws you in
Kevin: Wow, that piano really got you.
Isaac: Yeah, it got me. It got me!
And then she starts singing with this
heyyyy
Aaron: This is like...wait, what is?
It's like Strauss operas
Where it's like
The leading lady soprano character is
like in Der Rosenkavalier,
or like in the song name where she's like
kissing his like severed head.
and you're like,
"This is really beautiful" Like I really
liked this song
But then she's also like, "I'm gonna katchup with you" and like
kill you basically
but then katchup is also like, "I like ketchup
with like French fries...
On eggs"
Aaron: And like Nick: Is that what this song is about? Because I totally got
Aaron: No, I'm just like I'm just Nick: ...different vibe
Aaron: Wait, is it not about—because she literally like
pours ketchup on the little figure of him
or like a person and his like
Umu: What's your interpretation?
Nick: I kinda got the sense that she wanted to become closer to someone
but not in like a "I'm gonna kill you!" way
Aaron: Dude...I got "I'm gonna kill you" vibes
Aaron: Maybe that's my...how I Nick: Maybe it was like all the squishing everything with the ketchup
Aaron: But I think it's cool that she wrote it
I feel like that I can definitely tell that she wrote it
Like there's just a difference between production I think
I don't know...
Nick: I can't imagine anyone else singing that
Aaron: Yeah, like I definitely felt that she wrote that for her voice part
or type.
Nick: You know one weird thing about the bass?
It reminds me kind of like a
Habanera or whatever it is
From Carmen
Cause it's got nearly the same rhythm
And then they've got all the Spanish stuff going on in like the video.
There was something else, there was—Oh! The percussion instruments
Nick: There were like pretty Spanish too...so I think Aaron: Yeah I would say
There was a little bit of that vibe but it wasn't in your face or anything
Like a Mariachi band and she was like, "Oh Katchup Katchup Katchup!!"