Episode 15: 3,6,9 The Story of Light
In this episode I tackle SHINee's brilliant 3-volume album The Story of Light for its one year anniversary. ♥
The songs played are:
1. "Want" by Taemin (Live on Music Bank, February 15, 2019
2. "One of One" by SHINee
3. The Little Prince (Anime Opening Credits)
4. "Fox in the Snow" by Belle & Sebastian
5. "All Day All Night" by SHINee (Live Performance on M-Countdown but watch out for Minho's jacket. It's a killer.)
6. "Lucifer" by SHINee
7. "Selene 6.23" by SHINee
8. "Good Evening" by SHINee
9. "Ko Ko Bop" by EXO
10. "Really Really" by Winner
11. "Beautiful" by SHINee
12. "Shine" by SHINee
13. "Undercover" by SHINee
14. "MOVE" by Taemin
15. "Jump" by SHINee
16. "You & I" by SHINee
17. "I Want You" by SHINee
18. "Chemistry" by SHINee
19. "Electric" by SHINee
20. "Drive" by SHINee
21. "Tighten Up" by Archie Bell & the Drells (Live performance)
22. "Who Waits For Love" by SHINee (Live Performance on M-Countdown)
23. "Our Page" by SHINee
24. "5x10" by Arashi (performed live at Kokuritsu Stadium)
25. "Tonight" by SHINee (Live Performance on M-Countdown)
26. "Excuse Me Miss" by SHINee
27. "Retro" by SHINee
28. "I Say" by SHINee
29. "Lock You Down" by SHINee
30. "Honest" by KEY (Live performance)
31. "Illusion" by Onew
32. "I'm Home" by Minho
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Welcome to Filmi Girl’s Idol Cast. HIT IT!
Our opening song today was “Want” performed by SHINee’s own Lee Taemin on Music Bank February 15, 2019. And I always say this but I really, really mean it this time… watch the music video version. Taemin is the best dancer in K-pop and the Music Bank performance has him emerging onto a dry ice covered stage dressed in this all black outfit with a blinding white sash across his chest. The sleeve on his right arm goes to the wrist but on his left arm it stops above the elbow and he’s wearing this long white opera glove that has material trailing from it which swirls beautifully every time he moves his arm. A snake was part of the visual concept for the song and the dance ties in, Taemin moving his body like he has the 300 vertebrae of a snake instead of our mere human 33.
Taemin, still just 25 years old as I record this, is a member of veteran idol group SHINee, who just celebrated their 11th anniversary, and whose three part album The Story of Light released in 2018 is what I’m going to be discussing today.
SHINee’s previous album, 1 of 1, had been released in October 2016 and ever since that promotion schedule, SHINee had been slowly drifting apart, busy with solo projects. And it might have continued that way with the group just fizzling out into nothingness when their contracts ran out. But then SHINee member Kim Jonghyun took his own life in December of 2017. SHINee was faced with not just a personal tragedy--the loss of a beloved friend and colleague--but also a professional crisis. The remaining four members were forced re-evaluate themselves as SHINee and decide if they wanted to continue as a creative and performance unit or to simply end the group for good. SHINee looked back at their shared past, their shared struggles and triumphs, and they said… Fuck it. We’re family now. And on May 28, 2018, they released The Story of Light Part 1, kicking off a six week promotional slog with part 2 of the album released June 11 and then part 3 on June 25.
As Taemin said on the variety show Radio Star, “We always showed people what they wanted to see. But now we’re doing it for ourselves. We thought why are we doing this? If we can’t get through this we should split up. That’s why decided to put out the new album.”
The artwork for the three volume Story of Light is bright primary colors--reds, yellows-blues--and the covers of the three volumes all feature a small fox, a nod to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s classic novel The Little Prince. In Korean, 어린 왕자 . While I think the novel is mostly remembered today in the English-speaking world as a fussy children’s book or perhaps--if you’re in my age group--as a schmaltzy old anime the original story is a little more mystical and a little more bittersweet than that perky anime opening implies. Saint-Exupéry was not just an author but also a pilot, an early pioneer of international flight in the 1920s flying mail routes. The Little Prince was delivered to a friend just before Saint-Exupéry went off to join the French Air Force for World War II at the age of 43. He was in poor physical condition, injuries from crashes over the years that had never fully healed, but after years of sitting on the sidelines he had lobbied the government to be able to return to the skies. Saint-Exupéry vanished in July of 1944 after taking off on a routine reconnaissance mission over the Mediterranean. He would never know what happened to The Little Prince.
Saint-Exupéry’s final book follows a young boy as he seeks to make sense of adult life. Questioning the very facts of daily life we take for granted like only a small child--or a person living through the aftermath of a tragedy--will do. Why am I here? What purpose does all of this have?
“Goodbye,” said the fox. “And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
The Story of Light, part 1, opens with the sound of bird song. A new day is dawning. This is “All Day All Night”.
“All Day All Night” begins serenely enough but as soon as that almost frantic latin electro-bass kicks off we’re falling into a haze of desperate passion, falling, falling until bam we hit the chorus:
“If I get any hotter I’ll burn out
All I do is love you”
But there is sweetness--that keyboard loop from the beginning is laced throughout keeping us grounded in the madness.
“All Day All Night” is a strong opening statement of what SHINee sounds like with the loss of Jonghyun’s voice. Jonghyun’s vocals had been the foundation on which so many SHINee songs were built. His power, his strength, but also his emotional vulnerability. Rather than try to force the other main vocalists Onew or Taemin into a role unsuited for them, SHINee has built a new vocal sound from scratch. A new balance of their voices, with Minho and especially Key stepping up to take more prominent roles vocally. Before Minho and Key tended to be confined to small insert lines or “raps” but now the parts are divided fairly equally. And if you listen to the swirling vocal outro to All Day All Night you can hear Onew and Taemin on adlibs but they are like a bit of sugar sprinkled on top of the real treat, that firm foundation of SHINee voices all blended together.
“When the little prince arrived on the Earth, he was very much surprised not to see any people. He was beginning to be afraid he had come to the wrong planet, when a coil of gold, the color of the moonlight, flashed across the sand.
‘Good evening,’ said the little prince courteously.
‘Good evening,’ said the snake.
‘What planet is this on which I have come down?’ asked the little prince.
‘This is the Earth; this is Africa,’ the snake answered.
‘Ah! Then there are no people on the Earth?’
‘This is the desert. There are no people in the desert. The Earth is large,’ said the snake.”
The second track on part 1 is the title track, “데리러 가” given the English title “Good Evening”. The music is a solid example of the perky K-pop style of tropical house. A breezy summery beat--think Exo’s “Kokobop” or Winner’s “Really Really”. But the lyrics stand in stark contrast. They are about longing for somebody always just out of reach and make many, many references to the night falling and to the moonlight. Reaching out as fruitlessly as trying to catch a moonbeam in the palm of your hand but trying anyways because you have to.
Musically, what turns “Good Evening” from a standard tropical house K-bop into something special is the breakdown. We’re nodding along with this noodly 80s party synthesizer when suddenly the bottom drops out and all four members jump in this incredible vocal breakdown. First Onew with his rich soulful tenor, then Taemin who kicks it up with this powerful held note while time just… stops. We’re floating. Key comes in softly, his husky voice just nestling in our ears. And then the ever practical Minho herds us safely back into the chorus. This is no generic tropical house song, this is a SHINee song.
As the title track, we have to include the video as part of the song and the video for “Good Evening” is wild. The theme, as I see it anyways, ties into the section I read of the Little Prince. We see SHINee on a cold, cruel soundstage surrounded by broken cameras. There is no life in this dessert. SHINee flip back and forth between the soundstage with the broken equipment and another somehow even more sterile set surrounded by plastic trees. There is no life on this planet. As that breakdown section hits we see Onew greeted by the fox. A tear falls on his hand but when he looks up he realizes it’s rain. And the water brings with it freedom. They break the choreography and just dance wildly as it pours down. And then as the song kicks back into the chorus we see Onew plunged into a pool of water, like Alice in Wonderland falling into the tears she cried. And when he emerges, it’s into a real forest. SHINee weren’t on a lifeless planet; they were only in the desert. Moving past the sandy boundaries, quenched by the life-giving water, they run happily through the leafy green woods. And then there’s this moment just before the final chorus hits where we see Key walking by himself, you can see on his face that he’s not sure of his surroundings, but then just as the beat hits he smiles wide and just takes off running.
It’s quite the statement of intent for a group whose last big song was a retro R&B ditty where they danced in candy colored outfits on the platonic ideal of an SM soundstage.
The next two tracks “Undercover” and “Jump” are both bangers. When this album was first released I listened to them over and over again because the production was so full and rich it was impossible to take everything in on a single listen. These two songs were made for headphones so if you aren’t listening to this podcast on a pair of good ones, I’ll wait while you go find some.
First up, the spectacular “Undercover”. We’re thrown back to classic, pure pop SHINee, written in part by Andrew Choi, who also contributed to a handful of tracks from 2013’s brilliant Misconceptions of Us. (Beautiful Dangerous Shine). And as soon as you hear the percussion line drifting back and forth across the stereo spectrum left to right, you know you are in for a treat. Listen.
The lyrics play on the idea of being “undercover”--like how we’ll see a swan gliding calmly across the water while all the time it’s legs are frantically paddling below. Of hiding your true feelings, your struggles. But also the idea of burrowing so deep in somebody else’s soul that they don’t even realize you’re a part of them until it’s too late.
New secret vocal weapon Key starts us off with a distorted vocal and then Minho--doubled at the octave--comes in. Taemin and then Onew. Four members, four lines, four voices. And when that chorus hits and our frantic undercover paddling stops. It’s just… chills. Literal chills. The way the voices are layered so rich and thick… I’m not exaggerating when I say I listened to this on repeat probably at least 50 times when it first came out.
Key’s voice here my god. Key new vocal line KING.
And then this floaty, floaty bridge. We’re just drifting now, sounds of water dripping, as Taemin sings us up to heaven.
“Jump” was produced by an American production team--the same ones who did Taemin’s solo “Move”--and the sound is pure club music and is deceptively simple. You can just put this on and bop around your living room but scratch the surface and the beauty of the production just pours out.
We open with a fade in and filter sweep as if the song has been going on for a while but we’re just sort of tuning into it now on the radio or something. The backing track on the verse is a this very straight ahead pop beat with just hints of fluffy synthesizers panned wide leaving all of this space in the middle for the vocals. And then as Key kicks us into the prechorus where we build up this funky, very cluttered beat as more and more sounds layer up until this little drum roll so soft you might almost miss it just clears the whole mess away and we’re dropped into a sparse chorus, voices blended together so well they may as well be another synthesizer. It. Is. Gorgeous.
And that grit in Key’s voice. Damn boy. JUMP ON YOU.
“Jump” saves one more surprise for the end when we dip into this bridge with Minho (yes, MINHO) crooning to us as the beat drops. Key comes back in with the drums. And listen to those harmonies at the octave DAMN. And then this little bit kills me every time. Like… we got so worked up that we dropped our radio underwater and all that comes out are these watery, watery vocals. Gorgeous.
Part 1 ends with the beautiful ballad “You & I” subtitled Good-bye, with lyrics written by Key. The hook comes with the line that gets repeated over and over: 내 맘은 장식이 아냐 literally “My heart isn’t a decoration” a play on a common Korean turn of phrase meaning something like “my heart actually works, it’s not just a decorative ornament.”
Unlike the rest of the songs on this first disc, You & I has no secrets or surprises. It builds slow and solid. Sounds layering on top of sounds; voices layering on top of voices until we hit a breaking point. These few seconds as we wait for the song to start up again are heartbreaking. And there’s that line-- my heart is not a decoration, there’s just so much sadness in it.
The song just washes over us before ending a cappella, all four members of SHINee in harmony. 내 맘은 장식이 아냐
Disc 2 picks up continuing the tropical summery sound with peppy love song “I Want You”, the title track. The video for the song also picks up where “Good Evening” ended with SHINee frolicking in the woods, their love of performance rediscovered. And I think the song works best read like that. It’s a simple celebration of the type of fun, dancey, happy songs that SHINee can do so well. No angst allowed here. Oh na na na na na….
“Chemistry” and “Electric” are two more solid pop songs like “Undercover” and “Jump” that are delightful on good headphones. “Chemistry” is rhythms piled on rhythms piled on rhythms. The secret to this song is that it’s built on an offbeat rhythm that goes one… and and one and and. Keep this sound in your ears. One and and.
So we have what seems like a good, solid, swung dance track until the bridge. Taemin’s last line lingers. Then Minho comes in on a filter sweep as that same one and and rhythm pops back up but wait but wait but wait for it… BOOM! Listen. To. This. My. God.
The rhythm drifts underneath the vocals from that one and and to the on beats and back again and back again making it sound like SHINee is singing on top of a patch of the beach with a wave washing back up over and over again. I have NEVER heard anything like this in a pop song before. And on just an album cut too? SHINee forever.
“Electric” also builds loops on loops. It doesn’t have the giddy release of that final bit of “Chemistry” but it does have a electric zap that leads into the chorus.
And then we have “Drive”... which, spoiler alert, is probably my favorite track on this second disc because of the build-up. But let me walk you through a little:
We start off with a rock beat. A guitar loop and hand claps on the two and four. It’s early in the morning, we’re in the car, windows down, radio turned up, and we’re about to head off on a beautiful summer day. Onew sings as much in his first lines. As the drum kit comes in with Key, we’re on our way! Let’s go!
And here it is. I get goosebumps every time. The lyrics are about wanting to follow the green light even though you’re not sure the road is the right one and you can feel that hesitance and coiled anticipation as the drums and rhythm drop out. You can also taste it. Hesitating at that green light. Should I go? Should I turn off here? Should I turn back? And then you see a car in the rearview mirror coming up behind you so say fuck it and just… go.
Ah listen to that descending line! My god, SHINEE, you drop this album then go on hiatus, you are killing me. Ba ba ba bba bapppba…
And then this soul-song build up outro is just… chef kissing fingers emoji. I’m talking a throwback to like… Archie Bell and the Drell’s Tighten UP. This. Is. Music. Listen to this.
“Drive”’s soul ending starts off with Taemin’s voice floating on a dreamy synthesizer. Then we add the guitar with Onew… Then the choir coming in with hand claps here… and the drums… And… we’re back driving off into the summer day…
It is a fantastic song.
Finally, Disc 2 closes out with the somber “Who Waits For Love” part of the unusual but appreciated genre of sad dance songs. We get another shuffle beat to counterweight the depressing lyrics about being broken inside and accepting it’s your own fault that your lover ran off rather than put up with your shit anymore but it still hurting. But you did it to yourself, you know?
The delicate Minho harmonies here.
Who waits for lo-ve. Taemin-shi! Onew--
This sad shuffle kills me
Whoa-- Taemin’s voice here my god.
This delicate breakdown. Minho’s rap bless. And back to the sad shuffle outro as Key main vocal gives us adlibs in the background. TAE. Min. SHI! Onew!! KEY!!!!!! And the echo on the guitar fret noise is just… I love it.
Disc 3 also begins with the title track, the tear jerker “Our Page” with lyrics written by the members of SHINee themselves, dedicated to the late Jonghyun.
“And if I know, I, myself, one flower which is unique in the world, which grows nowhere but on my planet, but which one little sheep can destroy in a single bite some morning, without even noticing what he is doing, Oh! You think that is not important! If some one loves a flower, of which just one single blossom grows in all the millions and millions of stars, it is enough to make him happy just to look at the stars.
He can say to himself, ‘Somewhere, my flower is there...’ But if the sheep eats the flower, in one moment all his stars will be darkened... And you think that is not important!”
별이 사라진다면 모두 잊혀질까 repeats over and over through the song. If a star vanishes, will it be forgotten?
Musically, it gives strong echoes of another real tearjerker--Arashi’s 5 x 10 written for their tenth anniversary. I like to think it’s a nod to their large Japanese fanbase who has supported SHINee through some very dark times.
And if you thought the song brings out the waterworks, the video takes it up to 11. It is heartbreaking. If the first two discs wanted to show a SHINee moving forward, “our page” is about finally feeling strong enough to look back. The video begins with the four members separated, each going through the motions even though their hearts are stuck in a grey purgatory. Taemin is at the gym, Minho is filming, Onew and Key are alone at home trying to work on projects. And then as the song builds up we see them break the dreary cycle and come together. They meet first on a sound stage. During the second chorus, the camera whirling around as they sing the line about voices reaching to the stars. Then as the bridge quiets down, we see them ascend a staircase one by one into a thicket of light bulbs hung from the ceiling. The lights begin to flicker on. And when they reach the platform, among the lights. There are five microphones…
It’s a reminder that no matter how much we as fans miss Jonghyun, the men who worked with him, performed with him, lived with him side-by-side for years will always miss him more.
Unlike the other discs that go right into bangers, Disc 3 is more subdued. The second track is the gentle “Tonight”, a lovely piano-driven, mid-tempo ballad about being lonely… this piano loop just sadly plinking along under the verses. But then once that final chorus kicks in it’s like… okay we’re lonely but we’ll get through it. It almost feels like they’re going for the classic key modulation up a step but stop just short… until that final piano chord resolves in the major instead of the minor. It’s a little thing but hints at a positive direction.
And then comes “Retro” which isn’t just the title of the song but also a fun callback to the type of fun, jazzy songs that SHINee excels at. I’m talking like “Excuse Me Miss”... (live SHINee world 4) “Retro” is in this mode and would also be a great concert song.
Retro love!
“I Say” is another ballad. This one a real, proper Korean pop ballad, showcasing the vocal talents of all four members, yes, even Minho. Though they no longer have Jonghyun’s powerful vocals beside them, the remaining four members of SHINee step up and sing their hearts out. Each line drips with emotion. Nobody is phoning anything in.
All I really have to say about this one is that I really appreciate how rich the backing track sounds. It is tempting to cheap it up on string patches and piano sounds but whoever did the programming on this track really did it right. It sounds very, very natural which is what this song requires.
The closest to a banger on this last disc is the last song “Lock you Down” and… it’s less a banger than an average-quality midtempo pop song of the type that SM Entertainment groups could churn out in their sleep. But what makes this one special is that it was built on an unfinished demo track that had Jonghyun’s vocals on it. And it hits really hard because you’ve been listening along to four member SHINee and then suddenly out of nowhere it suddenly hits. Jonghyun’s voice. And the floodgates open. I’m sure I’m not the only one listening who teared up hearing him again. That something which once seemed so ordinary has become imbued with so much emotion and meaning…
For some of us, for me, music is never just music. Music is built from a lot of pieces. Rhythm, melody, voice, harmony, lyrics, all the fun production tricks you can use. But emotion is also part of it. Our hearts aren’t just for decoration.
I hope you liked listening to SHINee’s The Story of Light as much as I did and I recommend picking up the repackage edition if you don’t want to spend money on all three volumes like I did. The track order will be a bit different but all the songs are there.
Since The Story of Light was released, Taemin has gone back to doing solo work. As the youngest member of SHINee he’s in the prime of his dancing years right now and I don’t begrudge him working it one bit. (HOT HOT!)
Key and Onew both released their first solo albums before reporting for their mandatory military service. Following in the tradition set by Taemin with Ace and followed by Jonghyun with Base, Key’s album was Face and then Onew’s Voice.
Key’s voice is very… distinctive. And I have a feeling it’s not to everybody’s taste but luckily it is to mine. His album is full of really good pop where his voice is used to it’s best effect--piercing through cluttered production to hit right in the heart.
Onew’s love of jazz and ballads is all over his Voice. It’s the kind of slow, gentle album you can put on while you drink tea and daydream on a Sunday afternoon.
Minho also put out a solo song before entering the military, bless his heart. “I’m Home” is an unassuming, very soft midtempo song that says to the listener, hey, I know I don’t have the best voice but I still want to sing something for you. And you know what, he sings his heart out. It’s very, very sweet. I love his little transition from chest to head voice so much.
And that’s where I’ll leave you. Talk to you next time!