Kevin: ♪Da da da♪
Oh~
[Semiramide Overture by Rossini]
Henry: X...
...dinary
Extraordinary?
Extranary...
Xdinary Heroes-
Is it gonna make me cry?
Umu: So you are now reacting to the K-Rock band Xdinary Heroes-
Liam: OH!
Liam: K-Rock? Umu: Mhm.
Liam: Are you kidding me?
Umu: You are now reacting to their b-side song 'Good Enough'
released on their 2023 Deadlock album.
For my script this time I scrolled through the comment section
and the first comment that popped up
I thought I would read to you guys.
They say that: Remember the fact
that the first version of this song was a poem
that the Drummer Gunil wrote while looking at the sea at dawn
back when he was a student at the Berklee college of music.
Henry: Oh!
Kevin: Oh.
Then he hid his feelings and the poem and saved it until now
when he collaborated with YoungK to write the lyrics in English
and worked alongside Xdinary members Jungsu and Jooyeon
and producers 심은지 (Sim Eunjee) and 이해솔 (Lee Hae Sol)
to create the atmosphere of the song.
This song is based on the drummers love experience back then during college,
a love that could not be.
The song ends with the lyrics "You'll never find this story of mine",
which means that the person who the song is talking so endearingly about
won't ever even know that this song existed, nor the feelings that the member hid deep within.
Jason: WwaAAh!
Ali: Okay.
Ju Young: Ready. 3, 2-
Ali: I already like it. Ju Young: Dude!
Leon: Mmmm
Rachel: Triple feel, oh yeah. Liam: 3/4
Liam: Ahhh
Ju Young: So good.
Kevin: Nooo!
Leon & Jory: Mm~ Henry: Wooo! ooO!
Jory: Nice. Kevin: Wow.
Henry: I like that they even went back to that note.
Leon: Mm~
Rachel: Hm.
Liam: Yeah, that was pretty beautiful.
Ali: *e x h a l e*
He sings so high!
Kevin: Oh~
Henry: Oh that register shift.
Kevin: OoOOoHHHhHH!
Jory: Wow.
Owen: Those are great duo vocal lines,
kind of DNA-ing in and out of each other.
Jacob: Mm, it reminds me of the flute and the soprano.
Kevin: This is like one of the most know-worthy melodies I have heard in a long time.
It just knows.
Henry: The pizz?
Kevin: It's alive. Yeah... Henry: I didn't expect that at all!
Leon: I can see Studio Ghibli vibes.
Ali: It's so dreamlike and like, nostalgic.
Ju Young: It's the piano.
Ali: Yeah.
Ju Young: ♫Da da da da♫
Jason: ♪La da da da♪
They counterline with the cello.
Jason: I f#%k with that!
Jory: I like that one the most.
Jason: The strings, *ching ching ching*
Kevin: I kinda wish there was a more resonant drum,
but that's like nitpicking, it's like,
oh, and I love:
♪Da da da♪
Oh~
It's like a different- they g- yes...
Anyone else would just repeat the same fifth twice.
Liam: Mmm~
Liam: The head voice is very nice.
Wooo~
Owen: I can hear this as being in a musical for sure.
This is very theatrical.
Kevin: Ooh!
Kevin: OOH!
Henry: Uh oh, I'm thrown off again.
Kevin: It's like a hemiola business.
Ju Young: The doubling in the octaves.
Stephanie: Oh okay, that's different. Jason: I didn't see that coming.
Henry: Oh my god, there are like countermelodies!
Kevin: It's almost going into shoegaze.
It's getting a little 파란노을 (Parannoul).
Leon: Mm~
Ju Young: They end it with like the be-[ginning]
That's so like...
AAAAAAH it's so good.
Stephanie: oooo~
Ali: Yeah, I really liked that.
Ju Young: Damn!
Umu: Add it to the playlist! Add it to the playlist!
Henry: I- I'm gonna do that right now. Let's pause before- Kevin: Gotta do it
Ju Young: Oh wow I love that.
In the beginning, like the motif that's played in the piano throughout the piece
is like just the guitar, end then it ends with the piano.
Ali: Oh yeah...
But it's like-
It's more subvert.
Ju Young: Yeah.
Ali: It's in the background.
Ju Young: I like that.
Ali: My organ professor calls it the brontosaurus,
where like, if you are improvising,
it's nice to start with nothing, to build up,
and then start again with nothing.
It's basically just like a bell curve, and this song has it.
It ends as it began, with the same motif,
but in a- with a different instrument, so,
I don't know, just symbolizing something
it could be like a character change, or like a change of heart.
It's the same thing, but sounds fundamentally different in timbre.
Henry: Oh my goodness, their vocal control,
Kevin: It's good stuff. Henry: Oh, holy crab.
Jacob: I feel like the head voice of a lot of a lot of TBB singers,
like that is something that is kind of underappreciated and so
oftentimes higher TBB voice types, specifically tenors,
opt to go for like more of like a mix or like
TA dominant sort of approach to the high notes
where it's like, it sounds like mix or even if it's balanced, that there is a chest in it,
and so sometimes just hearing TBB singers use their head voices,
something that's not really common,
or, when someone does use their head voice,
it's too underdeveloped so it just sounds like falsetto where it's just really wispy.
But I thought that like his head voice was like,
it was really well developed and it had the sense of pharyngeal space and hootiness
that like makes it sound like a...
I don't know, that made it sound croony, almost, and like, flute-like, I don't know.
Rachel: It's so emotional, like you can tell that there is a story behind this song
by just the emotion within the vocals.
I can tell that there was a lot of though taken in to like
how they did the runs within the vocals in this song
because you can tell this person has a lot of technical ability to be
like there are a lot of runs happening throughout all of the melody
but what was impressive was like the use of falsetto versus full chest voice
(Liam: Yeah, belt.) And how he used that to show the melodic contour.
He used his chest voice whenever there was a peak,
like an emotional peak within the melody,
what was happening in the melody, does that make sense?
Umu: But did you have a favorite vocalist, cuz there were four?
Rachel: -okay-
Rachel: I don't know if I have like- Umu: But they all...
Umu: They all have adlibs // Liam: Yeah, between the four of them. Rachel: No, all of them- just between the four of them.
Henry: I mean that's just such a fun way to lead into a, like a full chest voice.
Which one is this? *sings note*
Kevin: That's a B♭.
Henry: Holy shiiiit!
Kevin: Yeah.
Henry. Oh my god. And then he belts that in his head voice. Kevin: And then he gets to an E.
Cuz this first part where he's like, he goes first to the A
♪C - A♪
♪C - A - B♭♪
♭7 in his falsetto, and then he sings it in his head voice!
I mean, you're already hearing that pitch,
it already went a little higher, like "Oh my god, it went higher?"
and then he sings that full voice, you're-
it's already in your ear, but then you're just able to focus purely on the tone color change
and hear all of the strength that's right around like second 50
YEAH!
Yeah, that's so powerful.
And then go all the way, is it an E?
Kevin: Yeah.
Henry: ♪E-D-A♪ - WOW!
Kevin: I think any...
any faults I have with the instrumentals are actually,
I mean they are, they are brought back up just by his vocal delivery,
it really feels like his voice is leading the entire...
Henry: Yeah.
Kevin: Yeah, but some some spots in the middle, I'm like,
okay I'm not sure, little bit of pizz,
sometimes the drums are a little dry, I wanted more resonance, like with the lower stuff.
Umu: I saw you looked at like, for the time code right when we reached the bridge,
was that to see how much time left there was?
Jory: Oh no, it was, I wanted to see when it was released,
and it was like super recently.
Umu: Oh, why was that?
Jory: Because it was really dry, not a lot of reverb.
That's kind of a trend.
You know, there is a couple of times, like in the chorus,
where I was like, maybe the snare is a little dry or something, or like...
There wasn't a lot of reverb, like in general.
Or it was, if there was it was like playing notes really short.
Will: There was some cool panning to them,
kinda like subtle, but the drums, the hi-hats were like alternating,
so it was like:
Jory: I didn't catch that at all.
Will: Pretty cool.
It was like really wide, so that was interesting.
I also really liked the vocal harmonies at the bridge,
that was very very cool.
I am not sure if that was done with some kind of harmonizer effect plugin or something,
or if it was just like really accurate and real harmony tracking.
Either way, very cool.
Jason: What I found interesting was that the lower octave of it
was being sung like normally,
and then the higher octave, which was softer and more like panned in the back and like lower mixed,
was him singing to like a resonant capacity where I was like,
you could hear like the struggle and the-
but it was like quieted down.
Usually it's like, when you're above an octave people do like falsetto or something, it will be like chill,
but he was like really singing it
and then they quieted it down,
and then the louder thing was the lower octave,
which, that was cool!
I thought that was a really cool effect
cuz then you kind of hear that struggle inwardly
as in that cool, fluid, lower octave as the main thing you hear,
and then within that you hear struggle.
So I though that was really cool.
Cool color.
Umu: Yeah! You were, were you paying more attention to it rhythmically?
I saw you tapping your foot along.
Brian: Yes. I thought it was kind of a...
it was a nice little slow jam moment.
Liam: You can hear the sea in this, a lot. Rachel: You can hear the what?
Liam: The sea! Umu: Like the ocean?
Liam: The ocean!
Umu: How does that, does that add to the nostalgic side?
Brian: I think it adds to the genuine, authentic, kind of emotion filled song he's going for, I feel like,
because 6/8 is kind of closer to the way you speak normally than like a duple.
Brian: That' what we talked about [in class] Jason: Sometimes.
But also it's a dance figure.
The lilt of kind of more an ocean kind of thing.
Like ocean don't go 1-2 1-2 or 1-2-3-4,
oceans kind of go:
there's an ebb and a flow.
Kevin: Is the pianist playing while singing that syncopation?
Cuz that would be pretty hype!
Umu: Can we break down, yeah, like the aAAaAhAAh,
and the syncopation with the piano line?
Kevin: Yeah, so the reason it's confusing is because-
Henry: This is on an offbeat.
Kevin: Yeah, you usually expect the short note to be the lead in.
Yeah.
Right? But it's actually on the downbeat:
Henry: Ah, it's kind of in between. Kevin: But it's also against the grain of the main beat,
Kevin: cuz it's like 1-2-3 1-2-
So it's a hemiola plus a syncopation.
Yeah, but if you listen to the triplets of the piano, the:
or whatever he's doing,
you can actually hear that the vocal line is like sorta lined up with it.
So the accent of the - that wasn't the right chords, but it's like,
Whereas if it were a lead in, it'd be even more confusing, it'd be:
Henry: It's not changing meter, it's not changing, (Kevin: No)
it's not adding any tuplets so it makes you feel sort of off-kilter, (Kevin: It's just a very strong hemiola.)
but it's still rooted in the same steady beat
so you can find your way home again, it's really, it's very nice.
It's really smart composed.
Kevin: Yeah, I think so.
Henry: It's really smart songwriting.
Leon: Oh, it's just a lot of great moments and great chords.
Ju Young: like just the beginning is so Paramore!
Ali: It's really pretty, it's...
It's like an F major 9 and then it goes to IV [B♭]
and just going from I to IV, you just feel like you're at home and safe and all that.
That's the psychological feeling I get from those harmonies.
Owen: But yeah, that was nice.
And then they also had a couple of augmented triads in there
when they were doing the descending, and I feel like that's got that kind of like unrest,
like you're not sitting comfortably and looking out into the ocean and be like "Oh this is so beautiful"
like, there is something twisting in your heart,
and this is a very twisty chord. [A+]
Jacob: Mhm!
He's running after that person, ruuunning after them!
*Henry singing along*
Henry: That is a nice contour too, dipping down a pitch and then coming back up.
Kevin: Something about the second "good enough" being lower
it almost makes it feel a little sad, it's like,
it's like, is it though?
Is it good enough? What is the emphasis word there? Yeah.
Stephanie: Kind of like giving up on someone that you like,
because it's like, "It's okay, my life is good enough", kind of, I think.
I have felt that before, I have told myself that before.
Rachel: When you start thinking seriously about a person in that way
and it's very personal at first and you kind of got to think through it
and then you come to that, you finally come to the realization and you accept it,
and that's kind of what the end felt like,
it is, it feels very personal at first
and you don't really know what to do and you are by yourself,
then all of the sudden more people get added on,
more voices and then you finally come to this conclusion,
where it's just like...
you have, you know...
Liam: It feels like a lot of thoughts roaming through your head. Rachel: Release.
Rachel: And that's what it felt like, and it was, yeah,
I can relate, like it's a good, this was a really good song,
it made me feel like...
better.
I think.
Umu: Yeah.
Jacob: Cuz a lot of it sits pretty low in TBB tessitura, it's-
Umu: ♪DA DA DA DAAA!!!!♪
LOW for TBB?
Jacob: Oh, but I mean like, hmm...
It's not low but I would say that like-
Umu: You got it!