Umu: NCT Dream!
Oooh, Trending #9
Damn...
Kevin: 57M though, that is really impressive.
57 million!
Umu: And we're checking this out about-
a little bit more than a week after it was released, yeah.
Am I doing the math right, a week and a half?
Kevin: Week and a half.
Umu: Week and a half, how many days in March? 31?
Kevin: 30...
Umu: 30?
Kevin: 31
Umu: ...have September, April, June and November,
all the rest have...
I forgot the rhyme.
Any-
Kevin: Oh, there's an English version?
All I know is the Chinese version.
Umu: There's a Chinese version?
Kevin: It's just, you say the names of the month that have 31 days,
[?????]
Umu: And that's it?
Kevin: Yeah, it's like, oh those have 31 days, and you know February...
*We hope you enjoyed this brief construction montage*
Kevin: What an interesting diversion, cool.
Umu: Anyways... Kevin: Almost like we went into glitch mooooode.
Umu: Ooooh whaaa?
3 2, 3 2 1!
Kevin: Oh, we enter a... space?
Umu: Oh, 'Hello Future'! Kevin: I wanna play Roy
Umu: Speaking of...
Oh!
We are texting.
Oh?
Kevin: Meta
No way!
Umu: Was that an odd-?
Wait, what key are we in?
Kevin: I can't tell, there's not enough chords.
Umu: Oh, we are not where- Kevin: Oh, that's in F♯.
. . .
Kevin: Oh, is it... B?
No, B♭, AH!
My perfect pitch is not completely perfect!
Especially with a song that does this to me.
WhAt?
Umu: Hello, major key.
Kevin: It's pretty glitchy, I like it.
Umu: The SM pre-chorus with more major sprinkled in.
Kevin: Oh, nice dominant 7.
Umu: I love the cymbals.
Kevin: More R&B crazy chords.
Yeah, CRAZY R&B chords.
Umu: Eyyyy!
Kevin: It's so weird.
Oh my goodness...
Deep mixture.
Oh I see what they're doing now.
Is that riser synth in the background new?
*Wheeyo!*
Kevin: Oh, probably.
Kevin: I like that.
It gives a...
Umu: This song is as if like an early NCT song married NCT U's 'Universe'.
Kevin: Mm.
Kevin: This is a completely different pre-chorus!
Umu: New background vocals too.
Kevin: Yeah.
Everything is different about this pre-chorus.
Umu: WooOOOOoOOooOOOOH!
WHAT?!
Kevin: They didn't change the tempo though,
but they did change the style.
And I'm in for some grungy...
[t/n: 299,792,459m/s to be exact]
Kevin: ...The Red Hot Chili Peppers stuff.
Even though the drums are still...
electric.
Umu: This feels almost like an outro now,
rather than arriving at a chorus.
Kevin: Interesting, I have some thoughts about that. (Umu: Okay)
That IS an outro, wow, I guess you were right.
What are thooose?!
Umu: What?
Kevin: What are these weird face thingy-
oh is that the emoji, but like cold?
Umu: Yeah.
That was such an interesting experience because
they gave us so little melody and harmony to go off of
that you didn't quite know where you were,
where like the home of the harmony was,
which is why I like just didn't decide to speak at all
cuz I'm like: "I don't know where we are, but I also know where we are"
Cuz we've got that really iconic descending minor NCT bass
and then would come in the modal mixture
and that's when you said like, "Oh I kinda know where we are."
Kevin: I think, yeah, when we heard the major thing at the beginning
we weren't sure if that was gonna be the chorus
or if that was just a setup.
So when it did come back to the chorus I was like:
"Oh, that's familiar - but wait!"
So for me, when you said that the second chorus felt like an outro,
that was the time where I actually liked the chorus a little more.
Umu: Also it was third.
Kevin: I guess, cuz if we count the beginning...
Cuz it's beginning, and then it goes into "glitch mode",
and then we do second verse-
oh I guess-
No wait!
*Wait a minute...*
Umu: It's pretty typical song form,
Umu: just the bridge was the usual 3x SM bridge. Kevin: Was there a chorus before the bridge? (Umu: Yeah)
Kevin: I don't think there was a chorus before the bridge. Umu: I think it was half, half of the chorus.
Kevin: Alright let's check it out
cuz unless this song glitched my memory completely...
Umu: 1:57, 3 2 1
*Umu mimicking bass*
'Fire Truck'
Kevin: No...
Kevin: I've been defeated by this song.
I know what that is, but..
Umu: Pre-chorus.
Kevin: Mhm
Umu: And the pre-chorus is twice as long...
Umu: and different Kevin: Oh yeah, ridiculous pre-chorus.
Kevin: Yeah.
Oof
So good.
Kevin: Yeah, there's no chorus. Umu: Oh, there's no?!
Kevin: No, we go straight into this. Umu: Oooooooooooo...
Umu: ooooOOOOOOHHH, okay okay okay,
so it's like 2 ½ choruses.
Kevin: It's like, yeah, exactly.
Umu: Intro, which is part of the chorus.
Kevin: The first time the chorus came back,
so after the verse and after the first R&B pre-chorus,
the chorus felt a little bit like, "Oh, we're back here..."
"But I'm a little bit let down by it,"
just because everything before that was kind of in minor
and then we got the crazy R&B style modal mixture...
Umu: Yeah, and the texture was finally very luscious and thick Kevin: Yeah, and when it came back it was like, "Oh..."
Kevin: But then the last time the chorus came back
I felt like before that we had such an arrival with the dance break,
with the hard rock style thing,
and when it came back it was like a reset,
like "Oh", I was like "Oh cool! We're back and I can groove with this!"
Umu: Whereas I felt that the energy had peaked so only naturally that had to be the outro.
Kevin: Yeah, so we're saying the same thing regarding the last time the chorus appears,
I also like the second pre-chorus significantly more
Kevin: than the first pre-chorus. Umu: Oh mY gOd, yeah, I mean that-
Umu: What is to say?
Kevin: Well there is something to say,
there is actually a theoretic, music theory related reason
Kevin: why the first pre-chorus was bad. Umu: Tell us please!
Umu: Oh, BAD?
Kevin: Oh yeah, it was- well in my opinion,
like in comparison, relatively less successful.
Umu: Okay, let's listen to it.
Kevin: Oh, we're gonna listen to it? Cool, okay. Umu: Yeah, let's do back to back comparison.
Umu: Where are we? Okay, 1:06, 3 2 1
A lot of bass.
*Du du du du du* - arpeggiations.
Kevin: It goes into B minor 7...
no it doesn't, I don't know what that chord is.
I- my theory brain is completely off today,
BUT!
The reason-
Like it kind of works, right, and it's kind of beautiful,
and I think the butterflies in the visuals really match this thing, and...
Umu: It's dainty.
Umu: And fluttery, yeah. Kevin: Yes, and the thing is,
Kevin: If this were the second pre-chorus again,
I would be like "Yeah, they're doing the thing again",
but I think it's intentional
that this one is like a little less ambitious than the other one
but I think the thing I guess I'm getting at is:
This one really focuses on modal mixture,
which is like sudden shifts,
which is the SM type of- a typical SM thing,
where like you here [E♭maj7]
where you go here [F major],
and then you go like [G major]
and then you go back to the home [E♭ major]
and then you get surprised again, [F major - G major]
but then somewhere along the lines they do another chord which is like a surprise,
it's all about surprises, right?
But the thing with giving too many surprise chords is,
it kind of lacks a musical direction (Umu: Okay),
it doesn't have a forward momentum,
whereas in the second pre-chorus...
Umu: 2:21, 3 2 1
Kevin: We start the same place...
Umu: Same production as before. Kevin: And it even goes to the same chords.
Umu: Is that it?
Kevin: No, it's the after, it's right now, it's right now.
Umu: But that part wasn't harmonized before, right?
So they took the chord in the instrumental
and moved it to the vocals, it felt like.
Kevin: I think so, they changed it up a bit,
and I also think the member who sang the beginning of the second pre-chorus
somehow gave more direction to the chords,
while the first time, I think,
it was delivered in a way that was meant to be SURPRISE!
Yeah, cuz now that I notice it, yeah, the chords are actually the same,
but here:
Umu: 2:32, 3 2-
Kevin: We slightly modulate into E♭, and they continue it.
Umu: They even have kind of like a walking bass,
did you hear that, it was like *demonstrating*?
Kevin: Yeah. The thing is, it tries to tonicize into a new key
which is ~the key~ to making- what makes the second pre-chorus so,
it has a forward momentum,
so [G major] we go here [with 7 and 9]
and then, uh, what is it, [F minor] right?
[C7/B♭] [t/n: I guess?]
It wants to go into E♭[maj7] which is great,
So like, when we hear this it's like,
"Oh we're in a new place and it's moving forward."
[B♭7 - E♭]
And then they go [D♭]
which feels like not only a new chord that has never been touched in this song
but it has direction, it's like oh, there's anticipation!
And then it goes into the dance break
with the weird snowflakened face.
So yeah, it's just, you hear the momentum,
and even though a lot of what I said might sound like gobbledygook
there is forward momentum and you can hear the difference between the two pre-choruses
Umu: 2:38, 3 2 1
Kevin: Yeah.
Umu: Ah!
Kevin: And it also makes that high note so cathartic, you know?
That high note feels like a nice ending
to this very high momentum directional pre-chorus, you know?
Whereas if that thing happened in the first pre-chorus
it would be a cool moment, but it wouldn't be as earned.
Umu: That makes a lot of sense.
And also here they have like a little electronic voice,
I can't tell what it's saying...
2:43, 3 2 1
Oh oh, something "technology"!
Kevin: Oh okay.
Umu: Uh, 2:46, the second the guitar came in I was like: WayV?
Kevin: It sounded like they said "Turd technology."
Umu: no...
It must be like NCT Technology, right? Cuz that's the thing...
Kevin: Yes. Umu: Or, Neo Culture Technology,
Umu: that's what it says Kevin: Oh that sounds about right,
Umu: "Neo Culture Technology!" Kevin: Cuz there's an "r" in there. Yeah.
Umu: And then WayV happens, 2:46, 3 2 1
Kevin: I like the poooower guitar sound.
And they even wear the beanies,
almost like a reference to that, you know...
they got the stylistic choices, like an urban 90s,
early 2000s type of street vibe, you know? (Umu: Yeah, okay)
It fits the music very well,
in fact this might even go back further into like the Beastie Boys era.
But it works!
You- yeah.
Umu: I was gonna point out, is this progression the exact same as what we've been hearing before?
Kevin: It might be, I think it is.
Umu: So this is literally the same notes that we've been hearing the entire song
but because the texture is so different,
like it took this 3rd, 2nd listen to tie those two together.
2:56, 3 2 1
I love how insane the cymbals go off,
I love the percussion throughout this entire...
Kevin: They give the illusion of an actual drum set.
Umu: And then here I'm like, "Okay it's outro."
Kevin: Yes, trailing off, leaving us with the good vibes, full circle.
Oh I love that.
Did they do a Debussy at the end?
*Umu singing ♭2-1*
Kevin: Well no, one of the voices almost sings a dominant 7,
so there's a little bit of a [B♭7 (occasionally sus4)]
but then it goes back and the voice is kind of sliding around
so it sounds like he's like speaking it.
That's one of those, I guess, late Chopin, early Debussy techniques
where like they do a dominant 7
but they just don't go anywhere, they just go back to the home key.
Yeah...
Umu: That was- Kevin: Which then became the blues.
Umu: Oh?
Umu: Really?! Kevin: I think there's a musical lineage to be traced there, yeah,
Kevin: because blues, the whole thing is they stay in the dominant 7
but they don't really go anywhere.
Yeah. C7 is equal to C.
Umu: Okay.
Kevin: Yes. In jazz and blues, sometimes.
Umu: Right right.
Hoo, that was a fun listen.
A lot of really interesting outstanding moments
as well as a lot of very comfortable,
just recognizable soundscapes from NCT, so...
Umu: This is going on my favorite list of 2022 so far. Kevin: It's pretty good.
Umu: Thanks for watching guys, bye!