Henry: Oh, whoa! What the he—
Umu: So now you're reacting to the girl group NATURE that debuted in 2018
and you reacted to their song 'Some (You'll Be Mine)'.
(Umu singing 'Some (You'll Be Mine)') Kevin: Yeah, it was also in our medley.
[Kevin & Umu singing to help jog Isaac's memory]
Umu: 'I'm So Pretty' is the title track of their first mini EP released in July of 2019.
The song embraces vanity and the girls relish in the confidence game with good looks.
The lyrics use the metaphor of a fox which some fans believe is referring to the myth of the
nine-tailed fox who appears as a beautiful woman to seduce—No, not Naruto!
—men in order to eat their hearts
Umu: This song is composed by Erik Lidbom, Claire Rodrigues Lee, and youwhich.
James: Okay.
Henry: This reminds me of a— (Cloud: I'm. So. Pretty!)
Henry: Silence of the Lambs. Cloud: Oh..oh, oh?
Cloud: Hello!
Cloud: Oh...oh!
Aaron: This is fun!
Nick: I like their little boxes.
Brianna: Oh, I love the syncopation in the piano.
Both: Mhmm.
Brianna: I don't know why, but the piano sounds like a salsa?
(James: Yeah...yeah it does!) Brianna: like or something, like a tango, yeah!
Kevin: What's that one track with the [sings tune]
Isaac: Oh my goodness.
Kevin: I'm so out of tune, but there's...
Kevin: Oooh nice minor. Isaac: Nice reverb!
Owen: Harmonic rhythm slowing down then speeding up to get—to the chorus
Elizabeth: They got to get that pre-chorus though! (Owen: Oh yeah.)
Daniel: I love how there's like a consistent and steady bass and presence
but it's just like the girls are like...
They're just like having fun, on top of that. (Fiona: Yeah)
Kevin: Whoa... that weird inverted G dominant 7.
Henry: Waaah...it's me!
[Henry singing along to the teasing part]
Henry: I think that was purposeful.
Henry: It totally is. It's definitely like a tease.
Cloud: Like a mocking, kind of. (Henry: A tease motif, right?)
Cloud: A tease motif, I like it (Henry: It is!)
Henry: Oh, they're all furries now. (Cloud: Oh, I see the fox.)
Henry: We have different opinions for that [laughs].
Daniel: Oh , I love how—it it just keeps switching in character.
It's very smooth, like now it's like more...harmonic.
Fiona: They have tails.
Fiona: I like that melody. [sings]
Nick: Oh, weird. Okay, so (Aaron: that girl had a glass slipper)
Up until here it's just been like entirely pentatonic melodies (Aaron: Yeah.) and now we're getting half steps.
Henry: This is very different.
(Henry: The bridge.) Cloud: Well the timbre is really different, you know>
Cloud: It's all like, nighttime sparkly.
Henry: Oh whoa! What the heck?!
Cloud: Bring the brass back! Yeah!
Henry: That was so cool!
Elizabeth: So it's like, it's just it's like a really fast upbeat tune (Owen: Mm-hmm.)
...with like the pre-chorus
...Briefly slowing down so that they can like
take a break from the energy for a second and then hit you with the chorus.
Daniel: I just love how there's like a long line that's maintained,
but then there's also like this, propelling intensity.
Daniel: Oh my goodness. And it's almost the same material, but it's not boring.
Kevin: Whoa...
Isaac: Another one!
Kevin: Yeah, the last note is something special.
I'm so used to songs just ending with like, all the instruments cut off with last note [sings].
But no!
They gave us the almost jazzy type of chord. It was like, uh, it was a chord with the 6th
(Isaac: Added onto it.) Yeah, and then it repeated it. Just like, "Yep, we're doubling down on it." That's right.
Henry: I love that ending! That was so cool!
That's like a big band at like a late night show and like
they play their last hit and you're supposedly like [mimics cheering]
And then they're like the last word (Cloud: and then they put it back) and then *big finish*.
That's so cool!
That was, that was pretty good, yeah.
Nick: That's...
So odd, how they did that with the modulation earlier. (Aaron: I love that, love that.)
(Aaron: 10/10) Nick: We need to hear this again, I'm sorry.
Aaron: Yeah, we do need to hear this again!
Plus the bridge was my favorite part, so!
Aaron: We're still following the guidelines of tonality and then
[both singing to figure out the modulation]
Aaron: I think it just went to 5, but I think it just went directly to 5.
Aaron: Down a little bit, there we go!
Nick: Is it that? So that would...
That's actually my favorite modulation. If it is that, which is
One two major flat three. (Aaron: Yep!)
Nick: I don't know. It hits you like a (Aaron: Freight train) brick to the head, yeah.
Aaron: Like...
Nick: Yeah, maybe it is that.
I don't know.
Is it really that, do you know? (Umu: I don't know!)
Umu: I'm just like this ThiS wEiRD SpoT that I cannot explain.
Nick: It's very weird I like that modulation a lot
If it is that I mean, I like whatever they did.
Aaron: Bucket of cold water.
Nick: Yeah, it's really quite far away in the circle of fifths.
Even though you do retain the the fifth scale degree.
Which becomes the third of the new key.
Which maybe is why it sounds like they're going to five
because there was a five sustained before and after that.
But all of your flats and sharps changed, so it does sound pretty distant
Thoughts?
Feelings?
Prayers?
Aaron: Everything was so like...
Pleasing, if that makes sense. I feel like I just got like a bunch of serotonin released in my brain.
It's like eating a piece of candy.
That's that's kind of what it's like, except with your ears.
Nick: Oh yeah, it's ear candy!
James: There are some elements of like drum beats in there like with a crowd at the end,
it was very almost like marching band.
They're like a few little like moments (Brianna: Yeah, there was a little tag at the end.)
But then the salsa like...
Yeah, it was cool.
I really liked their use of octaves.
*sings*
It's the same key as 'Fabulous', High School Musical.
It's really similar, so I was like...
Brianna: You could hear a lot of like rhythmic things that they're like teasing like
*sings children's teasing tune*
James: Oh yeah and that! That was interesting, what is that?
Umu: I think it's just like a childhood song...
Brianna: Yeah it's just like, and like the— (James: It's just like a childhood song.)
James: I liked it, it was really cool.
Daniel: Oh shit, dude. Fiona: They're also good at performing.
Fiona: That was cool.
Daniel: Oh my god, I actually love this so much.
Umu: What did you love about it?
Daniel: Sometimes like they really try to go for this like overly feminized look
and sound and also in dress and attitude and performance
Fiona: And it like reinforces, like gender roles. (Daniel: Like certain, like gender...)
Yeah, or stereotypes. But I feel like here especially with this group,
not only is like the music amazing, which I want to talk about.
But it's like even when they perform like their femininity it's like tongue-in-cheek.
And at the same time it's like, "I know what I'm doing."
Like, "I'm being sexy" but it's like I have the power here."
And it kind of had this like, I don't know how to say it.
Fiona: It's confident, it's like, "I'm cute for myself and not for someone else." (Daniel: It's like...yeah!)
Fiona: It was an empowering like, "Yeah!"
Daniel: But I don't even know about "empowering" but it's like
It felt like they were taking the power into their hands (Fiona: Yeah.)
In a way that they're like they're kind of like (Fiona: Empowered) they're like playing
with expected like female tropes that they're about to give
Fiona: So I think it goes back with the—(Daniel: Femme fatale.)
Fiona: Yeah.
Daniel: And she mentions also 여우(yeou), which is "fox" in Korean.
Like this idea of like, you know, this sly woman who's like about to destroy you, essentially.
(Daniel: With her beauty.) Fiona: Yeah, and she knows what she's doing.
Fiona: I really like the confidence of this overall.
Daniel: Sometimes when I see female artists and they kind of play that, play to that trope
It's like usually like thrusted on them and they in turn embody it out of like this power dynamic.
But it seemed like the power dynamic was shifted in their performance.
Where they were giving it to us.
But then for the music, it was like..
Well, even from the beginning there's like a suspension cord.
It sounded like 'Superhuman' [NCT127].
Where like *sings* "Superhuman" and there's like the suspension, right?
But this one was just like right on the dot, and then they jump in.
But there's so many different characters
and they switch very quickly.
But at the same time it felt like there was this long line that was intact.
Just like this whole sense of continuity but at the same time this driving rhythm that was underneath.
And some of this motifs could have aired towards monotony.
But I think just the way they structured everything felt
so like...it still felt fresh, still felt like I want to be on the beat with them.
(Daniel: Super inviting.) Fiona: Yeah there were the interjections like, "Let's go!"
Fiona: And then it would restart (Daniel: Yeah!) like that
was very like, "Bringing it back in, we're doing this section again."
Fiona: It was really cute and effective. (Daniel: It's so, yeah.)
Umu: Yeah, what are your thoughts on that song?
It was kind of a ride.
Elizabeth: Yeah, I haven't had enough (Owen: It was a bop.) caffeine yet for this.
Owen: I liked it! I thought the chords in the chorus, I'd want to figure those out
because they're very cool and interesting and sort of like they definitely have the same
functions as chords that you'd expect like there's very clearly
a tonic and a looping four chord cycle that deviates from a tonic
and then one that leads you back to where you or
tonic, in this case just meaning the stable chord.
Because I'm not sure if it was a solid one chord.
But it definitely had a good cycle of stability leading away
then wanted to come back and then stability.
But it was very interesting chords.
Elizabeth: It feels like...I don't know. This is just like a case study
and how to make sure the tempo and the bass beat stays the exact same during the song.
And then how do you like kind of change it a little bit in the chorus and stuff so it doesn't get boring?
Because like the bass is unrelenting,
the only time it will like slightly lift is
right in the pre-chorus like maybe a couple bars before the chorus comes in
just so the course has that effect of being like, "We've arrived!"
Because if you just like crescendo into the chorus, I think there wouldn't be a good delineation of it.
So yeah, that was—I mean and because like the actual like rhythm in the piano
and everything was sort of syncopated and Latin-inspired...
It's just very busy to the ear and very high-energy and sometimes at 9:30 in the morning...
*nervous laughter*
(Umu: Shhhh!) It's a struggle (Owen: A lot!)
*Umu reenacting Some (You'll Be Mine)*