Naoki: Ben is with us in spirit.
Naoki: Are you recording? Cuz--- [gestures to Shimon] Umu: Yes. Naoki: Oh, okay. Good.
Umu: Yeah, so Ben wasn't able to get off his work so that's why...
Umu: Okay, this is good.
[Intro. music plays]
Umu: All right. So today we're starting off with EXO.
Umu: Um, if you guys remember "Monster" and "Lucky One"... Henry: Yeahhhh
Umu: Um, this actually-- we're rewinding a year and this is-- came before "Monster" and "Lucky One."
Umu: I think this might be your first time with EXO. Emiel: Okay.
Davis: OH ex oh Lindsey: Oh my god. Three, two, one.
Davis: Ohhh!
Hugo: Oh f*ck yeah. Gwen: I f-- I'm gonna like this song. Hugo: I know.
Gwen & Hugo: [happy cats]
Hugo: They started singing it and I was like, "F*ck yeah."
Gwen & Hugo: [vibing]
Gwen & Hugo: [continue vibing]
Fiona: *random noises*
Henry: [shook]
Fiona: Funky.
Henry: Boy.
Henry: What?!
Henry: Did they just reference a bunch of their old videos? Oh wait. No, they can't. This is old.
Kevin: Michael Jackson? It's like "Thriller".
Yunyi: Mmm... [Considers whether or not it's like "Thriller"]
Kevin: Slower though.
Emiel: Yeah, this is groovy.
Henry: Yeah, for real.
Henry: EXO can be hot and cold.
Henry: Like, sometimes they're just, like, thumpy, trashy dance music.
Peyton: *making electronic guitar noises* Jarod: Dude. These guys are some of the hippest dancers I've ever seen.
Henry: Also, they just are a very good-looking group.
Naoki: Oh, that's sick. Shimon: I like that.
Naoki: The dancing was pretty spot-on. Shimon: Oh, I've totally heard of this.
Naoki: You've totally heard of this before? Shimon: Yeah.
Kevin: I think of all the retro songs this one emphasizes the guitars more than any of the other ones.
Yunyi: Yeah, yeah, you always have that-- Kevin: They actually-- Yunyi: --that, that funky bass going on. Kevin: Uh huh.
Shimon: Sorry, what? Naoki: They have riffs with the guitar and trumpets kinda like, um, I don't know... kinda like, blues-y, jazz-y.
Henry: asdflkj woah! Fiona: *random mouth noises*
Henry: [scatting]
Emiel: Choreography's pretty good too. Henry: Yeah, the choreography's very good. K-pop never fails with the good choreography.
Henry: Oh boy. He had moves as f*ck. Emiel and Fiona: [synergistic mouth noises]
Henry: *gasp* look at those bouncy balls! That's adorable.
Naoki: Yeah, that's very, like, electro.
Naoki: But now they still have the guitar though. Shimon: Yeah.
Naoki: So it's like a fusion of styles.
Shimon: It would've been nice if they did a key change right there. Naoki: If what?
Shimon: If they did a key change. Naoki: Yeah.
Lindsey: This is, like, very 80's pop kinda... Davis: Yeah.
Lindsey: Like, the, the harmonies that sound very, like...
Lindsey: Like the subtle, little, like, falsetto things in the harmonies. That makes it sound very 80's.
Gwen: This song is so good!
Hugo: [agrees]
Lindsey: I like this. It's very, like, *snaps* groovy.
Lindsey: It's like, disco-ish, kinda.
Kevin: I don't know how-- I don't like that sound.
Yunyi: Nice way of subverting the tonic.
Henry: I don't know
Fiona: *random noises*
Fiona: Oh! Woo~~
Jarod: This has a really, like, kinda, like, Bruno Mars feel to it, you know what I'm saying? Peyton: Yeah.
Jarod: Like, it's got, like, that driving, very pop-y-- Peyton: This is actually a very Bruno Mars vibe now that I think about it. Jarod: Yeah
Jarod: I'm trying to think of the exact song I'm hearing.
Jarod: Oh. Wait. Any of them.
Lindsey: Yeah, this is, like, aesthetically pleasing.
Davis: Yeah--
Davis: Yeah it all compliments each oth-- itself really well. Like with the music and the way the camera moves. Lindsey: Yeah.
Davis: It's all, like, really quick. And like-- Lindsey: I also like how it-- there's not really, like, a real story going on in this. It's just a lot of, like, frames.
Yunyi: I feel like them and, like, BTS have the most consistently beautiful cinematography-- Kevin: That's true. Yunyi: --in their videos.
Henry: Meh. It was pretty good. Fiona: *noises*
Emiel: Yeah. Henry: It's pretty funky, but like, meh...
Umu: Wh- what specifically did you like, um, about it? Was it-- the live trumpet-- or brass?
Emiel: That was pretty cool. Henry: There was some live brass. That was pretty dope. Um...
Emiel: Some good falsetto too. Henry: YEESSSSSS. Emiel: Like, good voice.
Henry: Good, Falsetto--
Kevin: It doesn't... Yunyi: It doesn't venture to new territory. Kevin. Yeahhh.
Kevin: It doesn't-- I don't leaving-- I don't leave it going, like, "Yeah...!"
Kevin: Like, I don't know. By the end of it I'm like, "Oh..."
Kevin: Eight out of ten. 7.5 out of ten.
Yunyi: You're, like, grading everything on the scale now.
Kevin: Yes. Umu: Let's, let's grade on the scale of food.
Kevin: One pound of pork. Sc-- "scale" of food? [anyone? anyone?]
Jarod: Very pop-y. You know, you got, like, the typical, like, kinda pop--- actually, it was like brass synths. Peyton: With some funk sprinkes.
Peyton: Some funk sprinkles. Jarod: [agrees] Some funk sprinkles. You know, heavy, heavy beat.
Jarod: Um, like, a SYNTH beat. Not necessarily, like, a DRUM beat. Like a drum MACHINE beat.
Jarod: Your synths. Um... kind of-- not really horns, but more like horn, uh, samples, than like live ones.
Umu: Mm-hmm.
Jarod: So...
Umu: Overall just, like, more like a dance song-- Jarod: Yeah. Another, another kinda dance tune.
Jarod: Like, not necessarily, like, super substantial where I'm sitting there, like, "Wow. What a fine tune."
Umu: Yeah. Thoughts?
Peyton: Yeah! Uh...
Peyton: Just really, like, a good dance tune. Like, I wanna, like, dance to this in a club.
Peyton: Like, just, kinda, "Oh dang, girl just LOVE ME RIGHT YEAAH. WOO!"
Kevin: I actually like the beginning more because it reminded me of, like, something, like, a Michael Jackson vocal would do. Like the way the *sings*
Kevin: There's that, you know-- plays with that dominant seventh and that *points to throat* was out of tune, but...
Yunyi: I just didn't find any parts of it to be extremely memorable. Kevin: [agrees] It's quite true.
Yunyi: That, that was probably my qualm with it.
Yunyi: Like, it does everything well, but there wasn't that extra oomph factor for me.
Umu: Right.
Yunyi: So, I remember the music video was really beautifully shot.
Kevin: "I remember". Like it happened a long time ago.
Davis: I was kind of like, "Uhhh." And then they hit that a capella section. I was like, "Yes! That is how you make successful pop song."
Davis: Cuz you build that tension before, you're just like *boof*
Davis: And then you hit it. And then they hit it. And so I thought it was really good.
Lindsey: I agree.
Davis: Yeah.
Davis: Nice job, EXO.
Umu: Alright. And what were you talking about with, like, the guitar?
Davis: Yeah, the guitar. It was sick.
Davis: I, like-- again, I don't know if it was like a, a thing, like, that they *air pedals* Umu: Pedal?
Davis: You know, they have like the pedal effects or whatever, but it was just like the way it-- but it was just...
Davis: You know, it was, it was like a cute little... *air guitars* I don't even know.
Davis: You heard it. If you listen to it, you'll hear it. You'll know what I'm talking about. Umu: Right. Davis: It's fine.
Davis: It's there and I liked it.
Davis: It was a nice-- That's, that's the, that's the thing is they bring all this stuff in the background to the foreground
Davis: and once you hear it then, like, you notice it the whole song and it's just, like, good.
Davis: Layers.
Umu: Right. Did you like anything about the song specifically? Lindsey?
Lindsey: I liked the harmonies, like the vocal harmonies.
Davis: Yes. Vocal...
Naoki: It was fun. Shimon: I recognize it. Umu: Did you see-- yeah.
Umu: Um, did you see how, like, they did variations? Kind of? Naoki: On the chorus part?
Shimon: Oh, I think that's a really normal thing to do in uhh, most popular music when they have, like, the climax
Shimon: and then when they're going down to... what is it called? The resolution?
Naoki: The resolution. Shimon: I don't know. Um...
Naoki: The coda. Shimon: The coda! The coda! [this guy]
Shimon: They, like, take the melody, but they kinda elaborate on it. Um...
Shimon: Oh, what's the word? Naoki: Wait, what are you talking about? I wasn't listening.
Shimon: Um... Naoki: I was too busy drinking. Shimon: They were, like improvising off of it but they just, like, add embellishment.
Naoki: Ahhhh yes. Embellishment.