Isaac: [Sings] Kevin: Oh, I love that. Yeah, the ascending. That's really good.
I: Wooh! K: [Shock]
[Rossini's Semiramide]
Umu: So Heize is an alternative R&B 26 y/o singer-songwriter/rapper
U: Who rapidly grew in popularity following an appearance on a female rapper reality show called Unpretty Rapstar.
U: And this first song that were reacting to was written by her and a piano player who's featured in the track.
U: This music video also references to the teddy bear from her 2017 music video called Don't Know You.
U: That music video described taking a relationship for granted, and in this song she talks about anticipating the end of one.
U: So basically in this relationship the narrator has endured heartbreak, but she's able to recover from it with the help of her significant other.
U: However, she has now become dependent on him and like a Jenga game,
U: She knows the tower of her relationship will eventually come crashing down if he were to leave her.
Katie: 3, 2, 1, let's go! Jarod: Just get it~
K: Fuck, yeah.
Elizabeth: It's interesting what they're doing with the piano.
E: You got like the chords on top and then the bass line's moving independently.
E: Kind of like Jenga.
Katie: Oh, that's so badass. Jaorod: [Laughs]
Kevin: Her voice really complements this well though, in all seriousness.
Isaac: The low bass, just like the [gesture]
Fiona: I bet like, you know how she's up there - it's like Jenga.
F: And it's probably a metaphor for how her life feels lik it might topple over at any moment.
F: Like Jenga. [Yay]
Peyton: I like her flow. Charlotte: Mm hmm.
Jarod: [Makes noise]
J: Her line is so good. Katie: [Agrees]
Emiel: Yeah, the harmony is really nice too. It's refreshing. Stephen: Yeah, and it's catchy too at the same time.
Kevin: Oh no.
Isaac: [Sings] K: Oh, I love that. Yeah, the ascending. That's really good.
I: Wooh! K: [Shock]
Lindsey: Ooh.
L: This is like, really cool melody in the chorus. (Fiona: [Sings along]) F: Yeah.
F: It goes where you don't expect it to.
Isaac: Oh! Kevin: That's a good picardy third. You don't ex(pect) - yeah. I: Damn.
K: It does a - it is a 9. Minor 9 major 9. [Shock]
K: Yeah, oh yeah. Ends on 9! 9 picardy third.
K: 9!!!!
K: Has anyone else done that in music?
K: [Emphasis] NEIN.
Peyton: I like the real bass sound.
P: Feel like we rarely get an authentic,
P: Upright bass sound.
Kevin: I just feel like she's telling a story. Isaac: Yeah. K: It's great.
I: Kind of sucks because we don't like, I don't understand. so. K: Yeah.
I: [Sings along]
Jarod: The sense of flow.
J: Like, she has like, the breathy voice and often times it's like, I don't know, they're kind of like, it can get kind of stale.
Katie: But also, like - J: But it's just like, there's motion.
K: [Sings along]
Isaac: [Sings along]
Kevin: Aww, man.
K: Oh, gosh.
I: It's so good.
Stephen: I really like the chorus. How it like [motions]
S: I don't how to, [sings along]
S: It keeps going up like melodically, and like harmonically too.
Emiel: The harmonic, like the harmony follows the shape of the melody.
S: Yeah.
Katie: Mmmm.
Jarod: Ohhh, it has a solo.
J: Like an actual like, piano solo.
Stephen: Gotta have that piano solo. I still want those blues, you know what I'm saying. Those licks.
Emiel: It contributes to the soul vibe. S: Yeah.
Jarod: I haven't even seen that in a K-Pop video thus far. Even the jazzy ones, there's nothing like
J: Like, solo form kind of Katie: Yeah.
Kevin: Ooh, nice. Little broken octave. Isaac: [Whistles]
I: Aww. K: [So into it]
Fiona: [Sings along] Lindsey: Yeah, it's sharp I going to II.
L: That's unique.
Kevin: Whoaaaa
Isaac: So much angst.
K: It was [imitates] I: [Follows]
K: Mysterious little, wait.
K: Nice. I: Yeah.
Umu: Yeah, so what did you think about that song overall musically, and maybe how it created the vibe of like, "You know what, I'm done."
U: "I'm out of this, but I'm also fragile".
Henry: Felt like a little bit of a shrug.
H: It's cool. I dug it.
H: I dug the aesthetic.
H: I sort of feel like it was playing a character of a kind of music that's very popular.
H: And I thought that was really cool. I thought that a lot of visual elements were very interesting.
Elizabeth: You asked how it felt like "Oh she's done", right?
E: Well, I think just because the end of the chorus, you have like an applied VI-V chord going
E: To a key that is very much not tonic and it's also a seventh chord
E: So you know the dissonance of the seventh in there.
E: Because the chord starts in one key and ends in another.
E: Like, it's obviously, she doesn't want to continue on the same path as she did before.
E: Because we're not continuing on the same harmonic path that we were before.
E: Other than that, I thought like melodically it was kind of boring.
H: It didn't have a whole lot of other motifs or even parts. E: Yeah.
H: I felt like I heard this song in the first 45 seconds. E: Yes, yes we did.
H: And then nothing was gonna change about it.
H: Which we're not saying that's necessarily like a bad thing to have a lot of common elements.
H: But I just feel like, as the song progresses, more things should become apparent.
E: And we had like a little piano interlude.
E: But then we ended over back where we started which, (H: That was dope.)
E: I mean, maybe there was some sort of thematic overarching idea behind that.
E: But it's not necessarily the most interesting thing to listen to at that point.
Kevin: That piano sound is so great.
K: I like how the music video makes it known that like the piano is sort of synthetic.
K: It's not like the most organic sounding piano, with like, by pressing the, yeah.
K: But then, by the time you get to the solo, it's like it starts and you were like, "okay",
K: This is an interesting sound.
K: But it does like an actual solo.
K: And there are dynamic levels. Isaac: [Makes noise]
K: And it's just, it's just everything I needed to make this night perfect.
Stephen: That was sick. Yeah, I don't know.
S: I feel like rhythmically maybe like, it was definitely syncopated.
S: But I love the chorus, how it was like, it gave you like a lifting kind of sensation you're feeling.
S: It was like [sings] and then it just keeps going up.
S: And then it resolves, and I like how it, even though it's just quarter notes like, she does it really really effectively.
Emiel: Mm hmm.
E: Yup, just the voices in the harmony move very well. S: Yeah.
E: In shape with the melody or their voices. S: Voice is really nice.
Katie: There are so many, so much to talk about in that video. Jarod: [Whistling]
K: Let's see, all the references to like being on really like shaky ground and like stacked up high,
K: The sharp I, her like vocal line, like Jarod was saying.
K: The piano solo was groovy. That was awesome.
K: Yeah, really great mix between visuals and vocals, and the music was really fun and interesting to listen to.
Jarod: Yeah, that was really somethin cool.
J: It stopped and i'm like- Nooooo, I wanna keep going. K: Yeah I know. It's like that went by so fast
J: Um, it was so, it was hip hearing it.
Umu: We're gonna be comparing it to another song released on the same exact album, this is called Mianhae,
U: And "mianhae" means "sorry" in Korean.
U: And basically this is composed by the exact same people; Heize and the piano player.
U: To summarize the meaning of the music video, a fan tweeted me saying that,
U: Mianhae is about Heize feeling guilty.
U: She thinks she's not allowed to feel human emotions, hence her robotic appearance in the music video.
U: Also, she apologizes a lot for being herself and not fitting into the perfect "idol image" everyone wants her to fit.
U: The tone of the song is where the language barrier gets a bit tricky,
U: So I think I'll just summarize the lyrics, because otherwise it would be just really long and we're tired.
U: So she says, "I want too change too, like the actors on TV."
U: "I tried practicing in front of the mirror, but I'm not very good at acting happy."
U: "Sorry for hurting. Sorry for being sad."
U: "Sorry for being someone who is emotional. Sorry for being so damn weak. I'm really so sorry."
Kevin: Mainhae mianhae mianhae mian-
K: Speaking of odd sounding piano that strangely work.
Elizabeth: It's like you get the piano but it's, it's distorted so it sounds really far away or recorded on a very bad recording instrument.
Henry: Woahhh
E: Ooh, that's creepy. H: That is freaky as hell.
H: I don't like the whole, I don't like that at all.
Lindsey: Ooh, I like how she just started rapping kind of.
L: I don't even know if I would call this rapping.
L: She's just chilling.
Kevin: Aw.
K: What is that?
K: Flat VI.
K: But the juiciest flat VI you've ever heard
Peyton: It's also very important when you come-
P: When you come off of it, like, it can go
P: [raps variations of triplet rhythm]
P: Like I mean like, there's just so much you can do with it.
Lindsey: This is minor but it doesn't feel minor.
Peyton: The actual vibe of the song is like, I don't know if it goes with the words or this video.
Henry: That's deeply unsettling.
Elizabeth: She just kind of rapped a little bit in there. H: It's true.
E: I think that's cool having the same person who's been singing the whole thing also rap.
Fiona: This part just sounds major.
Lindsey: Yeah, this. F: Except, not now.
F: WUT L: Tonal ambiguity F: Uhhhhh, okay.
Kevin: How do I, what key are we -
K: It's, we're in F.
Jarod: Woah, this is such ironic, because it's like such an upbeat music,
J: But then you look at like the story that's being told here and it's just incredibly dark.
J: Musical irony.
Lindsey: It like, moves between the -
L: Relative major and minor here.
L: Cause some of the other things that we've listened to move between like the parallel major-minor,
L: And that like, makes it sound even weirder.
L: But this, I think since it's moving within like the closely related, whatever,
L: It, it sounds less ambiguous.
Stephen: Oh it's cool. Emiel: Yeah. Little piano riff.
Kevin: Great sequence, great sequence.
K: Ooph. Isaac: [Sings along]
K: Oh man, that chromatic parallel ten. I'm Poppy!
Emiel: I like the switch to the guitar.
E: Nice change. Stephen: That was a nice build. If you like it. E: Yup. Now we're getting somewhere.
Kevin: You never expect such an acoustic track and such a music video to go, go well like this.
Elizabeth: Wooo.
Henry: Hey. E: It's a seventh.
H: #JazzChords
H: [Sings along] E: dominant
E: Oh, we got the piano again.
E: But this time it's real, and it's not like distorted, like it was in the beginning.
H: I dig.
E: Which I'm sure that's meaningful. H: Yeah.
E: Metaphorical piano.
Kevin: Ooph.
K: Yaaas.
K: Nice. That one's so good. Isaac: Damn.
K: That's beautiful. Nice. Gets in your skin doesn't it?
K: Aw, that's good shit.
Umu: What did you think of that song and how it may have supported or may not have supported the message?
Jarod: Actually, I think it kind of makes sense.
J: Like I've been thinking about this the entirety.
J: So as you have like the, the kind of cheerful beep, obviously you can hear it in her voice that there's some sort of like, there's pain.
J: You know, she's very much just kind of, I get like -
J: And then you see like in the, in the video itself?
J: There's all the people around here, around her.
J: So you think of the music as the environment that has been placed around her.
J: Like basically from the scientists and the people in the community who are like super excited.
J: Like, oh we had this humanoid
J: So it's like, there's kind of like, this great like buzz about it, and it's like everybody thinks this is a great idea.
J: But really, from the humanoid's perspective, it's like this is very depressing, you know?
J: I am literally like, your plaything.
J: And you just kind of see that pain.
J: Like I'm like, I don't necessarily know what the exact lyrics were
J: But like whatever I should feel there, you just feel that detachment from this,
J: This world that's been created around her. And like, you see the facial expression when she's put on display like,
J: She's literally just like, quite literally objectified.
J: And then like this music, like kind of cheerful beat around is like,
J: I guess what, maybe she feels like she should be feeling, you know.
Katie: And it also was very consistent it was [counting beats]
K: It was like, march-like almost.
K: You already mentioned like, the entire time, yeah.
Henry: It feels, okay.
H: I know what I wanted to say about the last one, I feel the same way about this.
H: Is that it, it doesn't feel like it's jazz. It feels jazzy.
Elizabeth: Mmm yeah. H: That's frustrating. E: That's the thing.
H: That's frustrating.
E: When they use jazz ass an aesthetic.
H: And not as a genre. Yes.
H: That's why I said, mentioned it felt sort of like, it was an impostor in a genre it didn't belong in.
E: Yeah.
H: I wanted to enjoy more but there are two main fatal flaws for me.
H: One, is it felt jazzy, not like jazz .
H: Two, god the animatronic thing just freaks me out. Sorry. It just so does.
H: I had a hard time like looking at the video because I was like
H: [NOOOO]
H: It's really just a personal thing.
Umu: And did, musically that message also came across?
E: I mean, they kind of had like, the, the sort of,
E: Distorted piano at the beginning so it sounded more mechanical, and then the real piano at the end.
E: But other than that, It sounded like a sort of generalized pop song to me.
E: Like they weren't trying to make it sound very mechanical, you know.
E: If they wanted to do the like very strict rhythms, very strict harmony,
E: I think that would have come across more as a mechanical.
E: It was it was you know, jazzy, which doesn't really seem to fit with that sort of idea.
H: I would have appreciated if it was a little bit more angular. E: Yeah. U: Mm, interesting.
H: And then has sort of like melodic flowing motifs that sort of interrupted that.
H: That would be way more intelligence honoring.
H: Not that what was here was bad, but just that it didn't feel cohesive.
U: Okay.
Fiona: The whole time she, like how she's acting just like indifferent and kind of sad, and then the song was just kind of indifferent.
F: And it didn't change very much, there wasn't really any variety.
F: It was just kinda like, [chill]
Lindsey: But also like the video.
L: It was very like kind of robotic. And I think of robotic as more like stagnant, lacking variation.
L: So I think that the music and the video definitely supported each other now.
F: [Flat, robotic sound] Like how a robot would talk like this. L: Yeah.
F: This song, there wasn't a lot of like shift or change, or like, it wasn't like a big drop like some others have, so it was like. L: Yeah.
F: It's good, and it's fine.
Stephen: Well maybe because she's doing it on purpose but, this the vibe that she was going with at least like what she was doing musically,
S: being, supposed to be like kind of like happy-go-lucky, you know?
S: If you hadn't told me what the lyrics were and I wasn't watching a music video, I would have not picked up on that.
S: I just thought she was just being mellow.
S: But maybe she's doing that to kind of juxtapose in a kind of a weird way when she sings.
Kevin: I like how the lyrical content of her songs are, you know, they're, they're more nuanced than your average like
K: [Squeaky voice] "I love you, you love me"
K: Or your average "Oh I hate you, don't, please come back bla bla"
K: There's sarcasm in it.
K: And there's connotations. And combined with the music it adds another layer.
K: Instead of just the music being a melody, the music adds to the character of the lyrics which a lot of K-Pop songs don't do.
Isaac: Like listening to her voice, like.
I: It was very breathy, I feel like when I tie it to breath, when you hear someone giving up their just sighing. They're just like, [sighs]
I: They're just constantly breathing out. So hearing her breath was a very great effect to me, I don't know.
I: It just kept hitting me. That was like, "Wow, She's very much alive."
I: And then the way she sung, like it was like, a lot of moments of where you have the piano, having a steady beat.
I: It kind of sounds repetitive, right? But except for the chords, the chords just constantly moving and warping itself,
I: And evolving itself, and having her singing it, sing over it, and then progressively get more expressive.
I: It's very interesting because it's like what like you can speculate the time.
I: It's like you're fixed in some place.
I: But then the harmonies, it's like there's something within you that's like, you're constantly changing which is great.
I: Like looking at the video, it's like progressively gets more confined. And also like near the end, she blows up.
I: Maybe signifying, like "This is enough", or this is the extent of having to be confined to someone else's overwhelming or unrealistic expectations.
I: That's almost like just watching about listening to music was like, wow.
I: That was a great piece. This is great.
K: Also about the music video, you know, she's so emotionless throughout the whole thing. I: Yeah.
K: It adds like a callous mood, you know, her voice sounds really warm. It's really flexible.
K: It's doing a lot of inflections.
K: But deep down maybe how she's feeling, it's just really cold.
K: "I don't give a shit."
K: And, and then when she cries at the end, you're like
K: "Oh, there's another layer, there's another layer there." I: Oh man.
K: You know, it's awesome stuff.
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