HHHUH!
[Rossini's Semiramide overture plays]
[Lee Jin Ah's 'Random' plays]
Owen: Before we jump into reacting to Lee Jin Ah,
we wanted to let you know that we were able to film and edit this video thanks to our Patreon.
Steve: Since we are unable to monetize any videos put up on this channel, it is our Patreon that keeps us running, growing and improving.
Owen: We have a lot of interesting and exclusive content uploaded to our Patreon,
including uncut reactions to this song, reactions to Japanese releases, live performances, and more.
The full list of exclusive videos is pinned in the comment section below.
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It's completely optional, you can also support us by leaving a like or comment at the end of the video.
[이진아 'RUN (with Gray)']
Owen: Let's get to reacting!
Umu: Right!
Henry: Aye, let's do this.
Umu: You are now reacting to the K-indie-jazz solo artist Lee Jin Ah...
Henry: OH WAIT! Umu: You are now reacting to the K-indie-jazz solo artist Lee Jin Ah...
Henry: I love Lee Jin Ah, I am sorry, I didn't even look at her name before!
I love her! Okay, we are ready, I'm gonna say awesome sh*t about her.
*wheezing*
The whole time!
Ju Young: Fun fact, in like 2017 I think they came to New York.
I was obsessed with like K-pop Star when Sam Kim and Crystal Yi were on it,
and when I found out they where in the town I was like: I have to fricking go to this concert!
so I went, and let me just say: They literally eat up ['Yum yum yum'] their albums, they sound amazing live,
and they are not Korean pop artists, they are like, they are just literal musicians, and just that whole company, like...
Props to Antenna!
Jason: I feel like I'm... Ju Young: They're just, they are musicians!
Jason: I think I missed a term, "eating your..." - What is that?
Umu: Yeah, "they eat their CDs" as in like, they sound exactly what their CD sounds like live. (Jason: Ah, okay.)
Umu: So, you are now reacting to the K-indie-jazz solo artist Lee Jin Ah and the title track 'Dreamy Alarm' off of her 2020 Candy Pianist album.
In an interview Lee Jin Ah explained that she came up with the title for the EP by adding "Pianist" to the colorful and sweet image of a "Candy",
in hopes of singing and playing sweet melodies that can light up the mood of listeners.
'Dreamy Alarm' is a song with playful lyrics that incorporated everyday sounds in the melody.
Lee Jin Ah and her songwriting partner added the sounds of pencils, desks and other items
that people use in their daily lives as musical sources, so it will be an enjoyable listen.
The song is composed by her and Simon Petrén, and the pianist in the track is her - and the vocalist.
Raffi: Oh, I love that! Sam: I am excited!
Umu: The music video was filmed using the smartphone camera app Snow's anime filter
are either of you familiar with that?
Okay, well it's gonna be real life people with anime faces.
Stephanie and Leon: WHOA!
Stephanie: Ah, that's funny - oh, THAT filter, yes, I know, yeah! (Umu: Yeah(x5)) Leon: Is it like Japanese style?
Leon: Is it Japanese style or...?
Umu: I don't know, I think it's, well it's an anime filter, I'm not sure... Stephanie: Oh, this is so recent!
Stephanie: Oh that's why, because I know all my friends were using it, all like a few weeks ago. *collective wheezing* (Leon: What?!)
Umu: And the people featured in the music video are people under the same music label as her,
and the pretty dude is an actual K-pop idol from the boy group Astro.
Stephen: Man, I'd love to be like... you know how you have a script for the MV, and it's like: Oh, this is your role.
And my role was like: Pretty Dude. (Steve: Yeah, you are pretty) (Umu loling) That would boost my self-esteem so much.
Steve: I think you're Pretty Dude. Stephen: OH MY G- well I'm friends with him.
Cloud: I'm a little scared of this video.
Henry: You're a little scared, why? Umu: Because of the anime face?
Cloud: Yeah, anime stuff, I don't love it. Henry: Oh, I love anime, wanna count us in?
Owen: 3 2 1 !
Is it gonna start with alarm?
"So put your little hand in mine..." *singing 'I Got You, Babe'*
[t/n: This is exclusive footage of Kevin and Owen sharing the same brain cell]
Henry: Um... 6 AM.
Oh well, lucky her.
Cloud: 8 o'clock?
Henry: JAZZ!
Her voice! Aw, it's so cute!
Jamal: Uuh!
Leon: Ahh.
Rafael: I really like how this is mixed, it sounds really good.
Nothing feels too loud...
Steve: UUUUUH!
Owen: This is a very characteristic groove for her, I think.
Kevin: Whoa!
Steve: Is that Dreamy Boy? Stephen: I think that is Dreamy Boy.
Umu: Not yet!
Kevin: Ah, when she goes back to that tonic, G-major, it's so satisfying, something about it.
Sam: Goodness, that fill!
Steve: *excited approving noises*
Stephen: Uh, a good slap on that bass.
Owen: I love that percussion, it's like a palmas feel almost, in the background
Ju Young: HHHUH! It's Peppertones! What is going on? Jason: Oh no. Oh my god.
Ju Young: Wait, is the whole company in this music video, what???
Jason: I knew it...
Rafael: The bass fill...
Henry: Uh! What a lead-in, hey!
Ju Young: *Clapping* Gotta have the CEO! (Jason: Oh wow)
Raffi: A little background harmony~ Sam: Literally.
Henry: Uh. UH! EYY! Ey, give me some more! Cloud: Yes, yeah!
Jamal: With the scatting, too? Man...
Jason: Mmmm
Ju Young: I like how the bass and the voice were in unison there.
Steve: Yeah, THAT'S him.
Stephen: Yeah, it's definitely Dreamy Boy. Steve: That's Dreamy Boy!
Steve: Oh, we got clouds! Everything is looking up!
Sam: This is like the type of song where I can listen to it a whole bunch of times and learn something new about this song (Raffi: Yeah)
Jason: Good!
Jason: There's two pianos layered, and that sounds really nice. Ju Young: Aw, I'm so happy. Oh my god.
Kevin: Such, such classical playing. That broken octave thing?
Huh!
Sam: Oh, now we're in F-major.
[t/n: ConfusedClassicalMusicians_YNoHomeKey.png]
Kevin: It started in G! Oh oh oh oh oh oh! Owen: It's not in G, was that...
Kevin: Oh, she wakes up one last time.
It took her 3 minutes to wake up, 'cause it's 8:03 on her clock.
Stephen: I wish I was that perky when I woke up in the morning...
Steve: Oh, there's more!
Owen: It's gonna cadence in F again?
Kevin: Wow!
Sam: That was ... unreal.
Kevin: So I am actually currently going through some of the history of jazz, especially in the album format.
I am in the early 50s now, and there's a specific time, I am right about on that time where people stopped ending on the tonic,
pieces stopped ending on the tonic, just once bebop was created it wasn't that big of a deal anymore,
because back then it was big band, when it was big band, there was actually like a care to make the last chord the same as the main key of the piece,
but it's interesting how at some point they just abandoned that.
This makes the last note feel like a tonic, which I think is very interesting, like when it lands on F it feels like the ending,
but I like the freeness, it's something that, there's a classical voice in my brain going like:
That's not right, that's not right! But I'm learning to really really appreciate it.
Owen: I thought it's kinda cool that you mention how they end off-tonic.
Kevin: Yeah
Owen: Obviously, I am sure all the jazz people know this, but like it's in a jam session,
sometimes you're playing a tune and you get to the end of it and the piano player will just like go over to you and say: G♭!
Boom! You know? And you can... Yeah, seriously!
(Kevin: Really?! Wooow!) Boom! You know? And you can... Yeah, seriously!
Right in the thick of it, you know, like they can just say any note, (Kevin: Really?! Wooow!)
Right in the thick of it, you know, like they can just say any note,
and if it has some sort of jazzy relationship to whatever you're in then...
Kevin: Or emotional relationship, yeah. and if it has some sort of jazzy relationship to whatever you're in then...
Owen: Emotion, yeah, exactly, however they're just, Kevin: Or emotional relationship, yeah.
Owen: Emotion, yeah, exactly, however they're just,
if they're feeling a B-major at the end of the tune, they can just say like:
Kevin: Yeah! Let's do it! if they're feeling a B-major at the end of the tune, they can just say like:
Owen: "B" or something, and then I play that, and then they do a million extensions, yeah,
but it's kinda cool, you can do whatever you want, it's music.
Sam: I - the songs that I have the most fun with is when I don't want to say things,
just to listen and just to dissect, and this was one of those songs, I feel like,
and there are just so many different layers, the textures were so, they were so interesting,
and it was always moving, there was always something new that she was bringing to the table with every new part,
I felt like that this dexterity and this flexibility that she was displaying with the instrumentation,
and even parts with her voice, like when she was going with the improvising nearing the end, I was just thinking: Oh my goodness...
It's just so free.
Raffi: I loved how there were moments when the piano was doubling the voice, like sometimes that can come across as just like really simple,
but it wasn't, there was artistry in that decision.
Leon: I liked the piano.
Umu and Stephanie: The piano...
Umu: The piano she was playing, or the piano playing?
Leon: Both of them.
Stephanie: It was the rhythm that I really liked: *demonstrates*
and then: *demonstrates*, I like that rhythm. So the upbeats, I guess?
Umu: It's really cute. Stephanie: Yeah, I liked that part.
Umu: Keeps it light... Stephanie: Yeah, true.
Umu: What were your favorite moments, the chorus, is it?
Leon: Yeah, and also the pre-chorus, the pre-chorus is so beautiful, the bass line is *mimicking*,
I don't know what he played but it's so good, and then I love the harmony here, it's really smooth,
I think she didn't force the harmony to be complicated, it just, like, let it happen,
like there's a twist in the pre-chorus that she added a lot of like backdoor dominant,
but those didn't sound like: Oh, it stands out to me and fees kind of cool,
but it just like smoothed out the whole song and made it more interesting.
Umu: Yeah, that's what I like about her music.
Jason: I didn't think that there could be a coffee-shop-ASMR-jazz genre in K-pop, but there is.
Ju Young: I'm not a jazz musician, but the rhythmic variety that she put, to my ears it was very nice to listen to
because there was something different, it wasn't constant, but like especially in the beginning,
it was a more simple pattern, I don't know what the pattern was.
So *imitating rhythm* it was 16ths, and then she...
and then she changes to 8ths *demonstrates*, and then... yeah.
It's just, the rhythmic variety just made it so nice to listen to,
and I'm just kinda surprised that this whole thing happened within like a span of four minutes,
cuz like in the beginning it was like 7:59 in the morning, and then at the end it's like, what, like 8:03, like 8 AM,
and I am just like: Girl, how do you get dream- why am I heating up? Jason: was she like snoozing and dreaming
and then snoozing and dreaming again?
Ju Young: OH MY GOD!!! Umu: Ooooh!
Jason: what
Ju Young: Thats. So. Smart! Jason: i don't know what just happened
Stephen: I think the moral of the music video is:
Be Dreamy Boy,
and don't (Steve: I didn't like it!!) be the rejects that take selfies on the sidewalk.
Steve: She was like: Oh look, boy number one, could that be Dreamy Boy?
And she was like NO! Go sit on the bus!
Umu: do you see yourself in those guys?
Steve: I do, I do, I'm definitely portraying myself onto those guys.
I think I'm guy number one, who worked at the market.
Jamal: Wow, that was great.
Rafael: So that's K-indie-pop?
Umu: K-indie-jazz...pop
Jamal: That was like jazzy as hell.
Rafael: That's so different than like American indie pop.
Jamal: Wow, just like, I mean first of, just like, (Rafael: That was really good.)
she's just a crazy good musician, like in the piano, just how percussive she makes it,
Rafael: She's drawing a really a really good sound out of the piano. Jamal: Just like... Such a,
Jamal: Such a beautiful sound, just like from the first notes I was like: Wow, this is beautiful...
Rafael: Also the writing is really good, this one moment, in the last chorus, that just like...
Jamal: Also every time it would just come to that drum beat, like *demonstrates*, the drums just came in so full,
I was like oh my god, this is just like, how it was mixed was like jeez, this is so great.
Rafael: I am not usually a huge fan of scat but I thought the way that it was used in this really was a good transitionary element
between the solo and the, just general singing, and since they're both her, it makes total sense,
like it's her voice, literally, and then her voice on the piano playing together (Jamal: Yeah, that was great, that was like: Yeah!)
So I found the scat was done, was used really effectively, and then also when she decided to not use it
and just sing over what she was playing, like what she was playing was different as well, and it was really good.
Henry: Man, I love... She's such a strong musician, first of all,
cuz she is a killer pianist and singer. (Cloud: Yeah, I loved seeing her play piano in the video and stuff.)
Henry: Uh, I just love her, I love her so much, I love her voice Cloud: Yeah, everything about the instruments felt so free,
Henry: it's so cute! Cloud: it didn't feel like we were boxed in by anything.
Cloud: And it felt like so well mixed together, like everything just floats so nicely.
Henry: Yeah, I feel like it had a really good flow, I didn't feel - it felt like it had a good sense of grounding, as far as structure goes,
but it didn't feel super stiff and repetitive. (Cloud: 'Cause it had that bass there.)
Henry: Ah god, that was my favorite for sure. It just felt so playful (Cloud: Don't you love when a song has more than four chords?)
and so like musically fun, just like: I'm just gonna have fun with what I'm doing, I'm having genuine fun making this music,
All of it felt like she was just having a blast, like, creating and singing with everybody,
and that, for me, was just infectious, infectious, I felt that bled into my life right away, easily.
Henry: You know your comment is the top on this video?
"LEE JIN AHHHHHH! Our ears are so happy to be blessed with your wonderful music again"
468 likes, top comment, right here, ReacttotheK, BOOM.
Cloud: Because Umu has NO CHILL Henry: We're such fanboys, holy crap!