[Sherlock by SHINee playing]
["SHINee's back"] [t/n: The reactors get very excited in this one.]
[t/n: The reactors get very excited in this one.]
["SHINee's back"] [t/n: Thus I issue a HEADPHONE USERS WARNING!]
[t/n: Thus I issue a HEADPHONE USERS WARNING!]
["SHINee's back"] [t/n: Thus I issue a HEADPHONE USERS WARNING!]
["BACK! BACK! BACK! BACK!"]
[Rossini's Semiramide Overture playing]
Umu: SHINEE'S BAAACK!!!
*Ju Young screaming* *Henry sings 'Ring Ding Dong' by SHINee*
Henry: "My Babeee!"
"Ring ding dong ring ding dong Ring diggi ding diggi ding ding ding"
Ju Young: "누난 너무 예뻐" (*singing 'Replay'*)
"미쳐"
...
"REPLAY REPLAY REhahaha"
Umu: After three members have finally returned
from their military enlistment,
the K-pop boy group SHINee is back!
This is after it has been 2 1/2 years.
Owen: Good for them. Wow, it feels like shorter than that. Kevin: For real?
Kevin: Yeah, 'cause we constantly reacted to them, so... Owen: Good for them. Wow, it feels like shorter than that.
Umu: We constantly react to them, Kevin: Yeah, 'cause we constantly reacted to them, so...
Umu: so it doesn't feel like a long time for us.
Kevin: But yeah, welcome back!
Umu: You'll be reacting to 'Don't Call Me',
a title track picked for SHINee's 2021 album
because of its impact and sonic difference
from the tracks that the group has done in the past.
So in an interview the member Key said:
We didn't want to just showcase SHINee's usual colors and usual style,
but emphasize the performance aspect of our group with this comeback.
'Don't Call Me''s lyrics are filled with the emotions of someone
who was in an unhealthy relationship and became betrayed by love.
They address the ex, who is becoming obsessive,
and the track serves as a warning for them to stay away.
Brianna: Period. Cloud: I feel like there is a lot of emotions you could go with that,
where it's like: "DON'T CALL ME"
or it's like you're scared that they're gonna call you and you're like:
"Oh my god, please don't call me..."
Umu: It's the first one.
Cloud: Yeah. Good.
Umu: This song is composed by Dem Jointz, 유영진 (Yoo Young Jin),
Kenzie, Ryan S. Jhun and Rodnae 'Chikk' Bell.
Sam: Wow. I can see why so many people wanted us to...
Sam: ...talk about that, jeez. Raffi: Yeah, people call me all the time, and I'm just like:
Raffi: "Stop calling me"
...
Sam: Is that so?
...
Sam: So I'm gonna hit the play button in three... Raffi: Okay, let's...
Henry: 3 2 1 !
(Ju Young: AAaAaAAaAAaArhgh!)
Henry: What an intro.
Charlotte: This is a choice.
Brianna: Ugh, their skin ... so f***ing good.
Cloud: What is on his head?
Stephanie: Wow. I don't know what's happening.
Brianna: These are interesting chords.
Henry: THIS AIN'T SHINEE!
THIS IS SHINEE?
Sam: OOOoOoh!
Raffi: Did you hear the little harmony? Little bit of it.
Sam: Oh, going the major route, okay.
Henry: 5, we're sitting on a 5 (scale degree).
Back to 1 (tonic)?
[Yes]
Brianna: I like the percussive like vocal background.
Cloud: That slide!
Kevin: Okay, we got the (pre-)chorus.
Oh!
Kevin: Oh hello! Owen: I like his voice.
Stephanie: Ooh, I like that voice!
Sam: Oh my god.
Henry: This is like a sustained pre-chorus.
Henry: UuUuuUUuU! Sean: Huh!
Cloud: It's SHINee, it's fine. We knew that they were gonna do that.
Henry: WHAT?!
Sam: What the heck?!
*Ju Young imitating the voice ostinato*
Ju Young: OH!
Ju Young: Harmony! Harmony, wow, wow... Jason: Yeah, these melodies are pretty nice, man.
Kevin: "All your trash!"
Kevin: Man. This feels like a b-side being turned into a hit,
as in like the experimentalism of it.
Umu: Already back in the pre-chorus, or is this verse part 2?
Sean: I think this is pre-chorus part 1.
Umu: Yeah, and then pre-chorus part 2.
Sean: And then, yeah.
Kevin: It's so weird, wha- what's go- why?
Will I ever get used to this?
Sam: See, like the key just became became the V,
just became major, which just became the V, and now it's...
WhEre aRe wE???
Raffi: Is this like torture or is it pleasure?
Sam: It's like...
Raffi: Torture-pleasure?
[collective wheezing]
Jason: Ah, is this - Ju Young: Ah, what?
Stephanie: Wow.
Ju Young: WWWOOOHOWWW!
Brianna: I kinda wanted somebody to go to the fifth above that.
Ju Young: Holy crab!
Jason: Yeah. Ju Young: Oh my lord.
Henry: This is more than a bridge, this is a f- portal.
Sean: Oh!
Umu: WHAT?!
Sean: That's not- on a different pitch, set of pitches. (U: What the heck!)
Henry: *stumbles over his words*
AAHH!
Hm.
Charlotte: Yo, that was nice.
Henry: Ah, I know.
Sam: OGH.
Henry: This is so high in the range, this is so belty, hng,
MEAT!
Stephanie: Wwoo, WOW! Leon: Wwooww.
Henry: WOW!
Umu: So you didn't see that coming, huh? Henry: I did NOT see that coming!
Ju Young: Emma, I- Emma I love this(x2) Emma I love this a lot Jason: They did come back strong, and I-
Ju Young: I love, I like, I... I wanna marry this song, Jason: I haven't even seen their beginning sh*t, but that was pretty strong.
Ju Young: it's just so, that was, that was an experience. Umu: Wait, wait, wait, wait,
Umu: Ju Young, guess what their pre-release song is called?
Ju Young: Huh? Jason: 'Marry Me'?
Umu: Their pre-release song is called 'Marry You'.
Ju Young: HAHAHA!!!
Ju Young: It's a sign! It's a sign! Umu: So I guess they are marrying you.
Umu: Congratulations on your engagement!
(Jason: Congrats to you.) Ju Young: That was really good.
Charlotte: Why do I feel like
usually SHINee is more on the cuter side of things? (Henry: Yeah!)
Henry: This was like some... Charlotte: This was tasty, this was delicious, this was...
Charlotte: Mm, satisfying.
Henry: This is a full meal, we got a snack, I'm full, haha!
Sam: I was not expecting that. I was not expecting that at all.
*Umu wailing*
Sean: It's an interesting approach to like, it's- (Umu: Modes?)
Sean: Yeah, it's overall in D, but
Sam: There is a moment where it was descending down into the -
or the melody was descending down because it's in D minor normally
It was descending from I think A to G
to where I thought it was gonna be F, and then instead it went to F♯,
indicating that it was sort of flirting with modal mi- or,
modal mixture, I think that's the name of it.
Sean: It's using a lot of having the tonic major
with other scale degrees minor, which we hear pretty frequently,
but because they also have been sort of slipping in the phrygian♭2,
it starts to sometimes just sound like it's G harmonic minor.
Umu: Yeah so you hear this as switching between D and G?
Sam: D and G.
Sean: It's one of the songs where it's just sort of, it's ambiguous,
it's ambiguous exactly where the tonal center is
not even because of just modulating between two or three different ones
but just like the way pitches are handled
sometimes kind of implies one way
and sometimes kind of implies another way.
So it's roughly:
(plays E♭ major chord)
(D7) [functions as V/IV, if we are in D minor]
(E♭ major)
(D7) [dominant to G minor]
(G minor) [feels a bit like tonic now]
So like by adding in the E♭,
like that could just be a phrygian second over D, right,
we've heard *plays 'Rum Pum Pum Pum' by f(x)*
right, in 'Rum Pum Pum Pum', like we've heard that sort of scale before,
but it also makes this scale even more
*plays G harmonic minor scale*
sound like G harmonic minor.
so that's where it's kind of maneuvering a lot between D and G,
with various notes that could be modal inflection in either one.
Sam: And then in the bridge it went into A minor,
and then, when it went back into G minor, it still was,
the piano was still like ... between the boundaries of those two keys,
which is just, just nuts!
Like the musical nuance that went into the construction of this
is just insane.
Henry: Dang, oooh. Charlotte: Hmm.
Henry: And the harmony, like, it's wild. (Charlotte: It's cool.)
Henry: It really didn't stick around to just one like
easy lyrical melody, gosh.
I love how they split that pre-chorus into like
easy-section, with, it went to major tonality for a bit, and you're like:
Relax, this is SHINee, I know what I am listening to...
Umu: We know what SM Entertainments pre-choruses sound like,
like huh, like you know that intro, that was whew, that was a wild ride,
we know where we're going now,
and then of course they had some harmonic changes
that I did not see coming, and I'm like:
Okay, never mind, we're not safe, where are we?
Sean: So you think it's gonna go:
But instead it goes:
It goes to the ♭II chord instead of to a tonic,
and then (D7)
passes through (D minor)
but then this time it doesn't even go to the second chord,
cause instead it's going to (A7)
that chord instead.
And then that starts the dominant that sets up the
*plays the "don't call me" section*
that part of the pre-chorus.
Umu: Yeah, what stood out to you in that track?
...
Stephanie: Like so many things, I'm trying to figure out...
Leon: I can really feel their anger,
and I think part of that is because of military.
Umu: Hm. Well, because of their military training? (Leon: Yeah!)
(Stephanie: Oooooh!) Umu: Hm. Well, because of their military training? (Leon: Yeah!)
Umu: Does the military train you to be angry?!
Leon: Yeah, very angry! (Umu: What?!)
Leon: Like very torturing and pain(ful)
(Stephanie: Oooh) (Umu: Oh yeah!) because like I have been through military training ... yeah.
Although I'm just like four months, but still like,
when the officer tells you to do that, you can not like argue with him,
no matter if it is reasonable or not.
Umu: Wow. So the anger you feel from their vocal delivery,
do you also feel from the music as well?
Leon: Yeah.
Umu: What aspects?
Leon: Hm, harmonic aspects.
Like it's really interesting that they just like
break through the ordinary chord changes,
that's why I love it so much.
Cloud: It felt like when someone is like -
you - there seems to be a disconnect here,
let me put it another way, like,
don't call me, don't contact me, don't look at my photos,
they just have like different iterations, like musically, of doing that,
with the different like, I feel like they're different key centers,
I was like surprised,
and then I remembered that we listened to 'Why So Serious',
and that I was not surprised.
Umu: HAHAHA! [t/n: 'Why So Serious' has lots of key changes]
Cloud: I was like: Allright, right, I think I-
(Umu: This is SHINee, they can do whatever they want) Cloud: I was like: Allright, right, I think I-
yeah, I would have been sad if they didn't do something weird.
Stephanie: Yeah, just use of chromaticism at unexpected parts...
Leon: The piano part!
Stephanie: That too, yeah, and then,
also the build up of energy using that chromaticism,
I remember one part, like, I think it was like a third,
like interval third, like *vocalizes*
and then they take that interval
and then just kept on raising it up, like (Umu: Mhm, toward the end of the chorus)
yes, yes, that, and then, yeah, just taking that same shape
and then bringing it up,
and in that I really felt the energy like building up at that point.
Kevin: Just the way it almost refuses to get into like a groove,
every time the "don't call me" comes back,
even at the end with the piano embellishments,
it just cuts through the song in this way that
it feels cold, it feels calculated, you know?
I don't think it's for me. It's a very bold move...
so I respecc it. I respecc.
Owen: It is a song where you respond to it intellectually,
as far as the harmony goes, more that viscerally,
more that with your feelings,
and as I was listening to it, that's where my brain was.
My brain was going: That's a chord.
What is that chord. Why is that chord there?
As opposed to:
What is the general narrative that this song is trying to convey?
It was more moment to moment,
and why did they do that interesting bizarre chromatic thing,
and then another version of that thought process.
Kevin: The way the song kinda just locks me in,
it almost doesn't allow me to, yeah, react in like a WOAH in a normal way,
(Owen: You can't escape, you really can't) it almost doesn't allow me to, yeah, react in like a WOAH in a normal way,
because you know with most songs
I feel like when I react to something,
you know it's always the push and pull of like
how much am I listening when I'm reacting to something,
and with most songs, when there's something cool,
I feel the freedom to like exclaim "WOW"!
(Owen: To step out first...) With this song I can't really exclaim, I'm just like:
Owen: Yeah, it's like a - Kevin: What ... is next? Do I wanna know?
Owen: a basilisk's eye, with the song kind of locking you in place. Kevin: Oh right. Medusa's snakes.
Umu: What was the most shocking value of the song to you,
Kevin: The beginning. Just when it started. Umu: was it the rhythms? Okay.
Umu: Okay, what makes this so unsettling?
Is it that the *vocalizes* comes a little bit late?
Sean: They might have even just side-chained the piano around the voices.
You don't get the beginning of the piano
'cause they have to say "me me", and then,
or whichever syllable it is at the given point,
and then the piano fades in as the side-chain stops pressing it down.
(Umu: "call me") and then the piano fades in as the side-chain stops pressing it down.
and then the piano fades in as the side-chain stops pressing it down.
Umu: Right, 'cause right now it sounds like it's hitting after the voices,
(Sean: Yeah) Umu: Right, 'cause right now it sounds like it's hitting after the voices,
so you're like: Wait, do I hit my head with the voices or the instrumental?
And they're so close you literally have no idea which ...
to bang your head to. (Sean: Yeah)
Umu: I love how far panned the instrumentals are.
Sam: Cuz it's like D major - G minor
- D major - G minor
so this is the I, this the iv, or the predominant,
dominant, so this is our predominant
and then this is F major, which would make it be like a ♭VI - ♭VII to i.
Now we're in A minor.
Sam: So just those piano triplets! Raffi: Yeah, it's so cool.
Sam: Also the piano plays C minor there when it's D major.
And now we're in G minor, hahaha that's so crazy!
Raffi: Hm.
Sam: WOW!
Henry: It's really original, it creates a really unique sound,
because they don't use any kind of I'd say "packaged" beats or so,
not that they did before, but a lot of people did,
there is only so many drum sounds you could have.
Oh, also there's that moment, the "don't call me",
where they added in that really lush piano bit,
a lot of octave hits, that was a beautiful choice, so original.
Umu: One of the members breaks of to continue
his own solo on the piano during their live stages.
(Henry: Awesome!) Umu: Like they bring a frickin grand piano onto the stage...
Charlotte & Henry: Of course, of course they do. Umu: Like they bring a frickin grand piano onto the stage...
Henry: No, this is so fresh, this is fresh,
fresh veggies in the dead of winter, just what we needed,
*chef's kiss*, thank you, keep us healthy, SHINee!
Ju Young: Mah nà mah nà HAHA!
Jason: Mah nà mah nà!!! Do doo dodo do!
*continues to sing 'Mah Nà Mah Nà'*
[t/n: I assume they are singing the 'The Muppets' version...]
[...]