(subtitles by twitter @angelade17, the Stray Kids dance tutorials guy)
HENRY: It's definitely...
They're definitely showing off a lot of different kinds of...
sounds? I want to say.
Yeah, they are showing off a lot of different sounds in this.
It's definitely very unique.
Let's give "Another Day" a shot.
1 2 3!
Oh!
"Loneliness, sigh, haze".
Okay, acoustic guitar. This can be happy vocals.
[t/n: this song hits deep]
HENRY: Nice singing.
UMU: I like the little pauses where we're going rhythmically here.
Rest.
Oh just kidding, it didn't happen that time.
And there's the harmony.
Lower harmony! :O
Octave abup- abup?
Above! *laughs* and "up" at the same time.
I like how they keep switching between above harmony and lower harmony an octave above.
H: Aw yeah.
Yeah these are clever... Clever music writing.
U: Nice, Hyunjin right?
I'd like to talk about rapping after this, in this kind of slower genre.
H: Whoo! The *sings* is great!
Ooh, that filter sound!
Naughty.
*sings along*
I like how they add a bit of, *makes rhythm sounds*
Just to give it a bit more drive, but not like crazy.
Bit of kick in there.
Otherwise guitar is giving the *makes sound* the percussion.
U: This is coffee shop music.
Right? You're sitting sipping coffee, reading a book and listening to this
Yeahh. :)
Wha- oh that was the end?!
H: Oh it's done? :(
*sigh* I wanted that to go on.
Actually-
No, I'm okay. That's like perfect.
If it had gone on for another verse I might have been like-
Who knows, in another universe if it went on another verse I could have been like, "It was too long."
Or I got bored of it by then.
That was... satisfying.
That's like...
Yeah again, like a couple flavors, couple courses in you need a break.
"Another Day" is like the food coma you slip into after you had like a big part of the meal,
and they let you rest for a bit before they bring out like,
a refreshing little like, cheese or fruit platter to get you into dessert.
This is a- hoo,
yeah, this was good.
God, their singing was really nice.
It really shows off that they can do it all.
You know, they have good- they have good vocal capabilities as well as a really strong,
a really good strength in rapping and...
I guess, let's call it flow. Rhythmic flow.
U: Rapping when it comes to softer pop songs or ballads,
I think... I feel like in the industry,
so often it's hard for a rap or, you know, more-
Yeah, it's hard for rap to fit in the genres and I've come across multiple songs where I didn't feel the rap would fit in with it.
This one, I think they did it well.
I loved Hyunjin's part the best because he added more pitch to his rap.
I feel like in ballads and um, the softer pop songs,
rap needs to have more pitch to it, so like it needs to become rhythmic singing in a way.
Even though like, the rest of the melody was pretty- pretty fast in rhythms and enunciated.
Even though soft in timbre.
Dreamcatcher's Dami is my favorite whenever it comes to rapping in ballads,
because she can soften her timbre and add a little tone to her rap
so that it's like, obviously rap but it also fits in completely and doesn't feel like the strange rhythmic intensity shift in the song.
Like um, 'cause...
Like they kept the instrumental the same, and yet we had sudden all this like, more intense rhythmic power than before,
even though they did change their timbre a little bit.
H: Anything I particularly liked about this?
I like their short like, lyrical structures, especially at the beginning.
Like right at the beginning. I'm gonna see if I can pick apart something here.
*sings*
Yeah! *sings*
So the start of those two phrases are the same, but they end slightly different.
*sings* Kinda ends unfinished.
*sings* It's still not quite finished, which I like because it allows it to move on, but it's more resolved than the first one.
Instead of *sings* ending on like, minor 6,
*sings* it ends on 3, which is in tonic.
Anyway, I feel like it really helps create memorable melodies in your head,
because you get that repeated structure in the first question and then the answer, so that sticks with you a bit.
I like- I love singing. I love singing.
Alright, let's-
Let me move on from that. That's a good strong suit, the lyrical melody.
U: Um okay, is it "Phobia" next or "Blueprint"?
Oh, it's "Phobia" next - fear, complexity, and trap.
H: I'm interested to find out. Also, the length is 3:33.
I'm not sure if that's going to actually have any significance, but we're about to find out in 3 2 1!
Fear, complexity, trap. Keep it in your head.
U: Ooooh, I really like the texture of this synth.
H: I like this little bass ostinato, *sings* it's noodly.
*head bopping*
U: I like how this synth is in and then a different synth answers it.
This is trap???
Complexity and fear? (umu's note: "and then I read the lyrics.")
I'm getting the freshness that they said the fifth track would have.
This feels fresh.
H: Ooh!
Wow, those harmonies there.
*sings*
Yeah, I think it's like a three-part harmony there. *sings*
It's close harmony for sure.
That's nice, that's sick.
U: Back to half-time.
*sings rhythm*
Nice upper harmonies.
I wonder if this is gonna have choreography. [t/n: omg I wish :o]
I think they'd have really pretty choreography to this.
I like that last harmonic shift before we move into the chorus.
H: Yeah, it just feels like it's relaxed,
solid ground.
*sings rhythm*
Like- *laughs*
U: Is it just my imagination or is the reverb going: *oscillates*
Is there like, actual vibrato to the echo?
On one of the tracks maybe.
*counts beats* Nice!
8 counts before going jump in.
THAT'S a satisfying high note! [t/n: VOCAL KING]
H: What is all that up there? What is all that up there?
U: Is that Han??? [t/n: our boy han jisung]
U: Han!!!
U: Wow.
I like the overall vibe of that sound- that song.
We did, um-
Something I've been listening in for when um, often like listening to music for the first time off camera,
is I listen to looped percussion samples and the chords and stuff,
and how often they're used throughout the track, right?
Do we keep layering on?
Or do we just keep repeating the same exact progression and percussion loops throughout the entire thing?
And then like, what do we change? Are there effects on it?
Do they change the loop itself up between sections?
And it seems like in this one, our main *sings* kind of like, guitar thickly textured synth,
that repeated throughout, but the rhythms often changed,
but it was buried in the texture-
Or maybe even changed synth sound, but like the same like, melodic progression was played in the chorus.
And then we also had this eighth note softer synth sound *sings* come in,
and that appeared throughout the entire track too.
But then of course like, during the verses we had thinner textures,
while in the chorus we just had everything layered on so it's kind of harder to hear the texture of everything,
which is why it contrasts so nicely with the verses.
H: "Blueprint". Taking a look right now at the ingredients.
It says ingredients are youth, dream, and hope.
We already had one with those ingredients, we had dream, we had youth.
I guess some ingredients are good in everything.
U: Now I can't trust whether *laughs* these ingredients are gonna make the song like super dark and badass or ballad,
or like, pop EDM upbeat. 3 2 "Blueprint"!
[t/n: this is a perfect summer driving to the beach song]
Didn't see this coming!
H: Of course-
What is that other one though? It's like a plucked Hawaiian guitar or something.
*hums* The doubles on the voice humming?
I like that, they cut out everything, *sings* and then drums.
Ooh, I love this guitar, playing some bass in here.
Aw yeah, cut out the percussion for the voice, I like that!
Give it some room, hype!
That was shout-y.
Interesting.
*sings*
Ooh that's cool, he like flipped right into his chest voice for that. *sings*
See how they kind of- it goes floaty to shouty right there? That's good control of his registers.
I mean I'd be really impressed if he sang that top one in head voice, but...
U: *sings* I like the little voices that come in, *makes noise*
Continuing the texture.
*laughs* "Ow!!!"
I like, the producer is playing with effects on the instrumentals in the verses.
Like...
Niiiiiice.
That was cool, we took out the high frequencies in the beginning half of the verse, and then we had silence and then...
See, now it's back to muffled though.
That bass comes out a lot in that moment and then it fades off.
It's like, bass solo for two seconds.
Maybe it's the "what I want" that reminds me of "Highway to Heaven".
H: This is a great dance song.
We started just from some acoustic guitars, this is a great build-up.
U: This is a, driving in the car song with the windows down on a nice sunny day.
What are these instrumentals?
Oh bass, electric bass now.
H: Ooh, by one beat!
*sings*
Right in there, that was good.
U: This is definitely like one of those playful songs,
where Stray Kids wander around the stay- stage and interact with STAYs.
*full grooving*
U: Yeah. *sings*
*sings scale degrees*
H: That was party, that was a party song. That's a summer party song right there.
It's obviously about that acoustic guitar, also that like, *sings*
lead guitar, lead guitar!
So you have a guitar that plays a role sort of more as percussion, so playing chords,
And then you have a lead guitar that plays melodies, and that was- that's what that one was playing as.
Even though it functioned more like a descant, like adding in to the- adding in to the harmony.
That was a fun one.
That was a little longer than I expected it to last, but definitely made me feel invigorated.
It's very sweet. That one was really sweet,
a good sort of pick-up-the-pace after the last two.
[t/n: TAAAAAAAAA]
(subtitles by @angelade17)