The day after a glowing review of Debonair was posted on the largest popular music criticism site in Korea.
[Two Working Producers Review DEBONAIR’s Album “Huino-aerak (RNBD)”]
A K-pop review channel that had somehow grown to 340,000 subscribers finally uploaded its Debonair episode.
[Rio: What’s up, guys. I’m Rio from Double G, a songwriting team active in Korea and the United States.]
[Noah: And I’m Noah from Double G. Who do we have this time?]
Generally, the producer team Double G would stop at reviewing one or two songs per album, but the reason they decided to make an exception and review the entire album was simple.
A large poster of the five members appeared on the screen.
[Rio: Debonair, a group we can say with certainty is the hottest right now. Apparently this album was made solely by the members themselves, but how is that even possible? Their schedule must have been packed.]
[Noah: Exactly. In fact, I think this is the first time in idol history that the only people credited as creators are the members. In K-pop these days, isn’t it a given that at least three or four people will be attached to the composition alone, not to mention the arrangement?]
[Rio: Right. So we’ll say this before we begin, but this review may end up being a praise video to a degree that makes you uncomfortable. You have no idea how much we talked about this album all week...]
[Noah: And we’ll get into this later, but it’s certain that this member is at the center of the album. No, how is she a minor? She’s a high school student. A high school student.]
[Rio: We said this once before in our review of “Sweet demon,” but even “Rhapsody,” which Dohee and Chaerin composed back in their Seven days, was good, and we said she had made incredible progress, that the speed of that progress was amazing... but really, this album...]
[Noah: She broke the parameters straight through the ceiling.]
[Rio: There’s no end to it. Let’s start the review. First title track, SAME.]
[Noah: Let’s get it.]
And the two began reacting as they watched the music videos one by one.
Starting with the first title track, SAME.
[Noah: Seriously, SAME is insane. It’s insane. The way the song uses contrast is really textbook, but it’s so sophisticated. How is it like this?]
[Rio: We’re going to review the performance version separately, too. The stage was actually even better. It’s already hot as a challenge, right? Simple is the best. I heard Ua made this little flicking point move, too. This group is truly made of artists. Artists.]
[Noah: Hah... But how are we supposed to proceed with this, seriously? The music video fits perfectly, too. As soon as we watched this MV, the unity of the imagery was so firm that we thought a producer must have been involved, and sure enough, Dohee apparently drew up the draft as the producer. She’s really multitalented. Seriously.]
The second title track, Euphoria.
[Noah: How are these members the same artists from earlier, who were even a little bizarre? In an instant, they became cute girls. Dohee even went all the way with pigtails.]
[Rio: Haha, that’s another privilege of being the youngest, right? Though from what I heard, Dohee expressed quite a bit of resistance to it.]
[Noah: Wow, but Naeun’s voice in particular feels like a voice that shows off freshness even more.]
[Rio: I think it’s a vocal tone that shows very precisely that a clear voice can itself be an individuality.]
The third title track, Do it anyway.
[Noah: I’m supposed to be reviewing the song, but I keep listening to the lyrics. The overall vocals come through the members’ voices, and this song was also written solely by Dohee, right?]
[Rio: Yes, it kind of feels like Dohee is speaking her own thoughts. It’s a calm song, but the harmonies that build up toward the end have a real impact. Personally, I like this song the most. What idol would release a lyrical song built only on a single guitar and harmonies?]
[Noah: The music video is just them singing and playing guitar by the sea, too... It really feels like it’s telling us, this is what the concept of an idol group called Debonair is. That’s their catchphrase, isn’t it? That they won’t be confined to any one image. Everything is unconventional.]
The final title track, Even an Ordinary Day.
[Rio: It was a twist. Everyone was trying to guess what day today was, and then it turned out to be just an ordinary day.]
[Noah: Aren’t the lyrics so cute and fun? “You who came to me are clearly a new day, so why do you seem like yesterday’s guy? I don’t know,” haha. We all have times when repeated daily life feels boring, don’t we? I guess that’s why it’s just an ordinary day.]
[Rio: And in contrast to Do it anyway, this one is an upbeat, light indie song, right?]
[Noah: Exactly. Wow, and I’ve been saying this nonstop since Seven, but I’m a total fan of Seoyun. Even in idol music, whenever Seoyun’s vocals come in, they’re so stable, but when they go indie, the song really comes alive.]
Just that running time alone was about fifteen minutes.
But half the video still remained.
The two producers slowly wrapped up the review, calmed the corners of their mouths that had been lifted high, and finally began the main topic.
[Noah: This video can’t help being especially long. For the first time, we’re going to talk at length about our interpretation and impressions of the album. Is this what it feels like to become a fan?]
[Rio: We actually watched Debonair’s comeback live, didn’t we?]
[Noah: Exactly. When Dohee revealed the album title and showed the introduction, I felt overwhelmed myself. Just from that introduction alone, I immediately felt that everything had been perfectly structured. And then Dohee herself couldn’t continue speaking and said to interpret it freely... It’s really, how should I put it, for some reason it was so moving, and I...]
[Rio: Wow, listen to you getting sentimental. You’ve become a total middle-aged man. Anyway, we also looked up reviews from other YouTubers and the review from Baneum, the music criticism site, and this time in particular, we’re going to talk about parts of those critiques that we agreed with and parts we didn’t.]
[Noah: Ah, this is something a review channel really shouldn’t say. Are we going to lose subscribers? Haha.]
[Rio: Well, if that happens, we’ll just have to make a living writing songs as our main job.]
The two showed the album title, introduction, and track list on screen.
[Noah: The album Huino-aerak, another name RNBD. When I look at things like this, I feel like I keep turning into an otaku.]
[Rio: That just means we talked about it with that much passion while interpreting it. If we’re going to start somewhere, it has to be Dohee’s year-end stage remarks, which were incredibly hot.]
[Noah: Wow, that alone had 4.95 million views.]
[Rio: Because they were words that moved people’s hearts. Do, meaning “to arrive,” and hee, meaning “joy”: Dohee (到喜). And when you consider that this album’s title is Huino-aerak, and that each title track’s theme is one of those emotions—joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure...]
Noah nodded with a smile and clicked the mouse. Then a highlight appeared over the intro on the track list onscreen.
*I DO (到喜)*
[Noah: The fact that the song Dohee performed on the year-end stage that day, and the first track of this album, is “Dohee (到喜),” “to arrive at joy,” makes me think the structure was perfectly designed from the intro onward. Really.]
[Rio: As you said, it announces the beginning of Huino-aerak, starting with the character hee, joy. Since we reviewed this intro song very diligently last year, we’ll move on for now.]
This time, the next track was highlighted.
*SAME*
[Noah: Earlier, we reacted to this song for many reasons, saying how sophisticated and beautiful it is, but now we’re going to talk a little more conceptually about it alongside the album.]
[Rio: Yes, as we said, we watched a lot of reviews. And opinions on this song are mostly similar. Though it’s the first title track, SAME is the song that expresses the second emotion in Huino-aerak: anger.]
[Noah: But we’re going to add a little more to that and talk about it. The no that means “anger”; in the album introduction, they wrote it with the English word “Nettled.” I’m not someone who’s easily impressed, but from here on I was impressed again... Wow...]
[Rio: Hahaha, yes, I actually didn’t know either, but after hearing Noah’s interpretation, I naturally found myself impressed at this part too.]
Noah nodded, still unable to close his mouth.
[Noah: Dictionary-wise, “nettled” means to irritate or anger someone, but as an American and a native English speaker, if I talk about what a nettle is...]
He moved the mouse pointer and brought a certain passage onto the screen.
—under the nettles they were gathered together
Job 30:7 (Under the thornbushes they gathered together)
[Noah: Yes, the thornbush that appears often in the Bible is the nettle, a thistle. Isn’t the structure so impressive? This song was released on Friday the 13th, wasn’t it!]
[Rio: I’m not a Christian, but of course I know that day signifies the death of Jesus. Now that you mention it, Jesus nailed to the cross is wearing a crown of thorns, right?]
[Noah: Exactly. Because thornbushes signify suffering in Christianity. So as a Christian, I really wondered how an idol group could have planned something like this...]
After saying that, Noah continued showering it with praise as though submerged in admiration he couldn’t escape.
[Noah: There’s no way this wasn’t intentional, because this is something that connects to what comes next, but if you look at the lyrics of the third title track, “Do it anyway,” which came out on Ash Wednesday, there’s a line that says, “Even if it’s hard within the thorned maw,” isn’t there!]