Henry: This is what? Elizabeth: A millennial whoop.
Henry: What do you mean? Elizabeth: Do not know what the millennial whoop is?
James: I'm fine.
Umu: You seem like you're the dog meme of the dog in the restaurant with all the flames....that comic thing
Melissa: Oh, yeah, that guy. James: Oh. Umu: Like: I'm fine!
Umu: So now you're reacting to the brother and sister duo AKMU, and their song 'Time and Fallen Leaves'. Isaac: Akdong? Kevin: That's their full name. Umu: It's by Lee Chan Hyuk, the brother.
It's a single that was supposed to be released on their very first album,
but they decided because it didn't fit the mood of the album,
that they would release it later.
The lyrics compare memories to fallen leaves
Even though this is a single, AKMU's company said due to the emotions the track evokes,
they would rather have listeners imagined that their own stories instead of watching a video.
Collin: All right, it's our favorite duo. Umu: Yes. Collin: Let's see what they got.
One, two, three.
Jarod: Speak for yourself, but they are my favorite duo. Collin: What?
Jarod: Just teasing you.
Kevin: Wow!
Mixture seven.
Elizabeth: I like the the way that they've constructed the rhythm so that it kind of feels like (singing)
So it feels a little bit... Henry: It's three plus three plus two. Yeah. Elizabeth: Yeah.
Cuz it's still technically four four, but they've grouped it in a way that sounds
more like a mixed meter.
Jarod: I like the addition. That's cool
Collin: Dude, her voice is as good as I remember it.
Fiona: Are there strings, too? Is that cello?
Aaahh!
Aaron: Wow, just ultimate.
Fiona: And then the twinkly wind chimes, like, oh, my gosh, water? Duh!
Aaron: I mean, but that's all like, contributes. Fiona: Memories, it's like, it goes so well with it, you know?
Isaac: Aah, that's a very good line. Kevin: It's a very good line.
I like the damp, cold memories idea. It's a good one.
Elizabeth: See, this is how a pre-chorus is supposed to work. You crescendo and you add more texture and instruments.
Henry: I like that they speed up
Isaac: Call and response.
Aaron: I really liked their duet that they were just having. Well, and now this interplay, it's so cute.
Fiona: So inspiring! The soaring streams, now I can feel like I could soar above the clouds.
Aaron: Yeah, sing them perfect fifths.
Elizabeth: Is this a millennial whoop? Discuss.
Henry: Is this what? Elizabeth: A millennial whoop.
Henry: What do you mean? Elizabeth: Do you not know what the millennial whoop is?
James: Ooh!
That was a leading tone. It's like a very dissonant lean in on that one note. Melissa: Yes.
Kevin: That's an interesting idea.
Ooh, two. It goes down to two.
Still not resolved.
Aaron: Oh, no, it's not sad. Fiona: Honey.
Aaron: Aah, and the cello! Cello is such a just, soulful instrument. A lot of emotion in there. Fiona: Oh, yeah.
Melissa: It's like the beginning again.
Kevin: To go back to that intimate place - the quiet sound - it's really awesome.
Elizabeth: There's a massive leaping interval that they keep using that's very emotionally effective.
I can't...it's too fast for me to catch which one it is, but...
(singing)
It's a major seven. There's a major seventh in the melody, which is just, you rarely ever hear major sevenths in a melody,
which is like,
it gives it sort of a bittersweet vibe, I think, and also, you don't expect it to go that high, cuz
the inverted interval of a major 7th is a minor second. So it's just like, it's a half step lower.
It's so close to the note below it, but by having that resolution be upwards instead of downwards, it adds this sort of
floating quality, maybe? Ethereal quality?
Umu: I'm curious: Does your silence mean you hate it, or silence mean you like it?
Henry: Oh, it was f*cking incredible. It was so good. it was really...yeah. Everything about
writing a pop ballad and everything about writing a pop ballad really well and very sincerely can be
exemplified in this video, in this song, at least in my opinion. I think they're the most ambitious.
I also think they're the most sincere, so.
Elizabeth: They are very sincere, yeah. Henry: It's very hard, it's hard to balance those things sometimes, of remaining very
honest and sincere while also trying to do something that is completely new
to you and to other people. That is so hard to navigate, and I think that they do it really well.
And I also think that one of the things that I appreciate the most about AKMU is that they're able to do that
but they're also able to just like
really,
very strongly nail the simple stuff.
That's hard. People think that easy and simple are synonymous and that's just not true.
There's a lot of music that is very easy to understand and easy to listen to because of the fact that it is
it in its most basic form not that complicated, but
it's hard to nail simplicity like that.
Something that is so
stripped of excess elements and raw
and personal like that. That is a real challenge for songwriters. I just think they knocked it out of the park. That was awesome
Jarod: No, I really enjoyed that. Cuz it's like I didn't want to say anything because I just didn't want to ruin the moment.
I don't know, because it's just, it was flowing and they get some really great harmony, like the
the interplay between all the instruments and the way they were slowly added and danced around each other made a really cool effect.
And it was just really great listening. Just like a nice, smooth,
you know, flow. I just really enjoyed it and didn't want to say anything.
Collin: I thought by far the strongest part is their lyrics, and I thought this was like,
I mean it's close, it's pretty damn close to poetry.
I mean, I don't know how the translation, how rough the translation is, but
yeah, I thought that was by far the best part. I thought the music was good, too.
it was definitely, I think like,
I was surprised that it was so
minimal with instrumentation, that sort of thing. Especially with the prominence of the guitar, and how
how much that actually had the power to hold your attention
with I mean, cuz like then her voice was added on top of it and it's like, oh, man, her voice sounds great.
Melissa: This uses
the tropes that I've been like, "I hate this because it uses these tropes" but I actually really like how they did it
here, because it was very tasteful, very subtle.
It was a nice cello melody
instead of a whole MIDI string section. And the wind chime thing only happened twice,
and I can forgive that. James: I liked it, too.
I thought her tone was really kind of like velvety and beautiful, especially and in the tune where
when her brother...they're they're brother and sister, right? Yeah, so when she comes in and sings it the first few times she goes (singing)
She likes slurs up, and then when he comes in later, it's like, not, it's different.
So I appreciated those fine differences, but then when they started singing together
harmonies were really, really, really nice. Melissa: Yeah. James: I can tell they've been singing together, working for a long time.
Isaac: It's like an umbrella. You start from the very top, where the umbrella's very thin.
So you have to two voices, and then just spread with more instruments.
So that's when the brother comes in and more instruments are added, and then it comes back to just the handle of
the umbrella. It's...you have something to compare and contrast.
So, seeing like, listening to the more
full and rich
instrumentation and also voicings
I can also appreciate the very small, and I guess, thin textures.
Kevin: I really appreciate the fact that there's no video for this
because
I think some of the ideas in here are so abstract and there's so much poetic imagery that the music and the lyrics just kind of
speak for itself. Yeah, it's not something the content of the song isn't something. I personally relate to because I think
memories are so important to me, and they're what makes
humans human, and I tend to not hide them.
I tend to use my memories to inform my life. So the idea of like
covering your memories and not being able to reach them is very,
it's more abstract for me, because I can't really understand it.
But the the very nice chords and the swell, the overall swelling
structure of the song
is very enjoyable, and I'd like to come back to this again and again.
Hello everyone, I'm Umu, React to the K channel creator, and I'd like to thank you for watching this video.
I really hope you enjoyed or learned something from it.
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