The Kulture Study: EVNNE 'Backtalk' MV

0:00 Hi everyone, welcome back to former therapy.

0:03 My name is Cheoke Bedy and today I'll be reacting to E'Dawn's latest comeback,

0:09 but their first comeback post Yunsae and Shinwon departure.

0:15 E'Dawn is now a permanent group as a five-piece and while it is

0:21 exciting that they're going to be staying together and giving us more music,

0:25 it is disappointing to lose such fantastic members.

0:30 Regardless, I'm looking forward to what they're bringing us to the table.

0:34 I really enjoyed their last comeback.

0:37 Uh let's go ahead and check out Petal and Backtalk.

0:41 Now, that title alone I found to be pretty interesting.

0:45 That already got me really excited.

0:47 I feel like we're going to be getting something a little bit spiteful,

0:51 a little bit venomous.

0:53 Uh and the reason I say that is because backtalk

0:57 in Korean is a little different from the Korean title of Petal.

1:00 Sounds similar, right?

1:01 But it's a play on of the phonetics.

1:05 Petal means to spit it.

1:07 So, either spit it or spit it out.

1:09 Petal.

1:10 And then backtalk is the talk back to somebody.

1:14 In either sense of the word, it is actually pretty rude in Korean culture.

1:20 Korean culture is all about politeness.

1:22 I know I grew up uh during my phase when I was a teenager,

1:26 I got in trouble a lot for what?

1:28 Backtalk.

1:30 And Petal to just spit on the ground is obviously impolite, right?

1:34 So, I get the sense that we're going to be

1:35 getting something pretty rough around the edges and pretty raw.

1:39 So, I'm looking forward to this.

1:41 I always like that side of E'Dawn.

1:43 So, let's check out Petal, aka Backtalk.

1:53 Woah.

1:55 Okay.

1:56 You know the past times, blood is like sugar Cool.

2:14 Hey.

3:12 Ooh, you want a little bit of rage in your hip hop.

3:16 Oh my god, let's go.

3:38 Wow.

3:40 Okay, that blue haired kid is now fabulous.

3:43 I thought at the beginning these lyrics were

3:45 actually pretty self referential and looks like they are.

4:35 Wow, what a reflective ending.

4:39 Wow.

4:42 WOW.

4:45 WOW.

4:46 I got to give it up to them.

4:48 That was really, really cool.

4:50 Wow.

4:52 Even since debut, I think has always

4:56 been challenging us with their title tracks.

4:59 They give us some pretty unconventional K-pop songs.

5:03 You know, Jersey Club has been heard in K-pop a handful of times now,

5:08 but I would say Even had one of the most prominent early

5:12 pushes of Jersey Club and especially including it on a title track.

5:17 And now they're coming in with this rage hip hop,

5:21 like this mechanical electronic sound,

5:24 kind of very similar to like Cordis' fashion type of stuff.

5:27 It's so freaking cool and it's so very them.

5:31 And when you listen to the lyrics, it also feels very self-referential.

5:35 This song feels like a sort of bittersweet melancholic statement.

5:44 And it almost feels referential even to the Yunza and Seonghwa departure.

5:50 And it feels like they're kind of saying, "Yeah, we lost them.

5:55 That sucks.

5:56 So what?

5:58 What are we going to do?

5:59 Just give up?

6:00 Giving up is not an option.

6:01 We're just going to wipe up our wipe up our sweat,

6:04 and we're just going to keep trudging forward." Those last lyrics

6:08 in the song are kind of hauntingly beautiful and very philosophical.

6:12 There's no giving up in this world.

6:14 The only option is Or no, it's not there's no uh giving up in this world.

6:19 Nothing goes your way in this world.

6:21 And you're the only option is to struggle.

6:25 It's kind of like the beautiful aspects of a lot of stoic philosophy,

6:31 which is the fact that struggling or the obstacle is the way.

6:35 It's the way to growth.

6:36 It's the way to achieve what you want.

6:40 Nothing in this life, nothing of what you want comes easy.

6:44 And this song also feels self-referential of even their past.

6:49 There There were some really interesting lyrics.

6:51 Um let me bounce back a little bit.

6:57 You know all the past times not pretending cool vibe.

7:01 It's time to rise up.

7:01 Well, this is the intro.

7:04 So let's skip the lyrics a little bit.

7:09 No.

7:10 No.

7:10 No.

7:11 Skipped too much.

7:12 You know what?

7:13 Might have to just rewind uh and listen from the beginning.

7:17 All right.

7:18 Uh before we do, let me give my first impressions.

7:21 First impressions, this is really cool.

7:24 Something about it is a little bit missing for me, though.

7:27 It's I really like the sound.

7:29 This is exactly my vibe, but something is Oh,

7:34 something I don't I don't know what exactly it is,

7:37 but something in the beat is just a little bit

7:41 lacking for me where I would give this, you know,

7:45 it's following all the tropes that I really like, hip-hop, electronic elements,

7:50 you know, especially the the not not often heard rage elements.

7:55 I would give it a solid 10 out of 10, but I'm going to have to give it an eight.

7:59 I think it's great.

8:00 I think it's pretty out there,

8:02 and I I love what it's saying as a statement for the group,

8:06 especially post departures of two of their members.

8:11 But, I feel like as a song, something about it it felt a little dragging,

8:17 and it's not even like a long song.

8:20 The song is like a little under 2 minutes.

8:23 So, something about it was not quite fully working for me,

8:26 but I'm not quite sure what it is yet.

8:28 But, that's my first impressions.

8:30 Music video, it's cool.

8:33 It's well shot.

8:34 Also, something about the music video is lacking just a little bit.

8:40 I want to say that it's giving me

8:41 vibes of feeling like a low-budget music video, but it's not exactly.

8:46 There are some really great CG in there.

8:47 It's shot really well.

8:49 The location the like the locations that they're shooting in and the location

8:55 space renting and all that, it's you know, that's pricey.

8:59 But, it does just seem like the filmmaking

9:02 and the aesthetic itself is missing a little something.

9:06 Both sides of it, I feel like it's missing a little something.

9:10 I'm not quite sure what.

9:11 So, let's go ahead and take another look, not only to inspect the lyrics,

9:16 but also to just listen to the song and the music video a little closely.

9:27 All right.

9:29 I love this opening.

9:59 I love how B and B's vocals are on this.

10:14 So these opening lyrics are really interesting.

10:16 So obviously these are mem- these are members from Boys Planet

10:23 1 and the opening first lyrics eliminated, now I'm a loser.

10:29 I immediately I was like, "Huh,

10:32 that's an interesting lyric." From the blank again, do my thing.

10:38 Talking about starting quite quite literally just because

10:43 they lost doesn't mean that they're without nothing.

10:47 Dreaming, planning stages, nothing about them has changed.

10:51 They're just starting from a blank slate.

11:29 How is Suk is good, too.

11:36 You know what?

11:37 I think actually the chorus is a bar too short for me.

11:40 I think so that I I I think I would have loved like a little bit of a switch-up.

11:47 So, where they do betta betta betta betta.

11:51 So, they do that for a bar.

11:52 I wish, rather than going into the post-hook immediately,

11:56 I wish they had done another bar of it and then do the betta part,

12:01 but in a higher key.

12:03 Uh also with sort of a chorus effect.

12:07 So, where it sounds like all five of them are on it.

12:10 And so, they're going betta betta betta

12:13 betta and they're betta betta betta betta.

12:16 Like, it's rage, you know?

12:19 Like, give into the rage.

12:21 I feel like this beat

12:22 and this the the the electronic element is absolutely going hard,

12:28 but I feel like they're playing it a little too smooth.

12:32 I feel like get a little lost in it.

12:34 Get a little belligerent with it.

12:36 Get a little bit messy for me.

13:04 Like, Kai has I feel like Kai has parts are great.

13:07 Complexity.

13:08 Like, that's not just Kai.

13:09 I think someone else does it as well,

13:10 but that part where they they kind of like play with the beat a little bit more,

13:15 those parts are fun.

13:17 But, I feel like the rest of the song And mind you, we need contrast.

13:22 Of course, you want these smooth parts,

13:24 but I feel like a lot of it is pretty smooth.

13:37 Right there, I think it could have cut

13:38 into like a a really dope rap break right there.

13:43 But it slows down even more.

13:49 I feel like after Hanbin's part Ooh.

13:59 And then I think they could have done like they could

14:02 have done like a double time really crazy rap break right here.

14:07 Like a E-Tyang-Yang K-Pop rap break and then go into this bridge right after.

14:14 And you know, I said it sounds slow.

14:16 I actually think I think I think it's because this song it's a lot of swelling.

14:22 It like It like it's constantly like swelling and surging,

14:27 swelling and surging, swelling and surging.

14:29 I think I needed this song to have

14:31 just a little bit more chaos, especially the rap.

14:38 So basically I I think this song just needed more dynamics for me.

14:41 Like everything else is really great.

14:51 And then right there after that again second bar Better better better.

14:57 Like just raging.

14:59 I I to sound so I I honestly like there's there's

15:03 an aggressiveness in this song but it sounds kind of repressed.

15:11 So there's that extra bar but the extra bar here is it's in the same key.

15:15 I think they should have gone up and I think they should have sounded angrier,

15:19 louder and kind of having like this big chanting chorus.

15:34 See like this ending is is a really haunting ending.

15:39 But the whole song kind of lives

15:41 in this energy and like this ghostly haunting energy.

15:45 The whole song lives here and so I feel like

15:48 I don't have as much of a dynamic reaction to it.

15:53 And I feel like if the song had kind of if it peaked higher

15:58 in its energy this the the roller coaster dynamic would be much more visceral.

16:14 Same I think goes for the music video as well because

16:17 they don't have like actual true rage elements and them going crazy.

16:21 If they did like the rap parts would have colored it like completely red,

16:26 have scenes with some red lighting, some contrast.

16:29 I think the song is lacking contrast

16:30 and I think the music video is lacking contrast.

16:33 The music video is generally one chromatic

16:36 scale which is like black, grays, whites.

16:40 And I feel like it's lacking contrast and I think that's

16:43 why the music video feels also slightly a little lacking to me.

16:47 It looks like it could have used a a harsh

16:50 a harsh uh just strong contrasting color and I

16:54 do think red would have been kind of like

16:56 um almost like uh a slight bright wine red.

17:02 I don't know what color that would be.

17:03 Maybe cherry, maybe burgundy.

17:06 Something that's red but not bright red

17:09 but a little bit darker I think would have been

17:12 like the perfect color to introduce into this music

17:14 video to give it like a nice dynamic element.

17:17 Of course, that's just my thought.

17:19 That That's my first reaction.

17:21 I think it's a great song.

17:22 I think it's I think it's a great sound that works for them,

17:25 too, but I just think that uh there's some dynamics missing from the song.

17:31 Like think about one of my favorite songs from them is Batter Love.

17:34 Like if you think about the Batter Love choreo, it starts off like a firework.

17:39 It goes But then the post-chorus goes It like slows down, right?

17:53 So, they they use momentum in that song a lot more expertly.

17:59 And I feel like that's just something this song

18:00 could have used a little bit more of.

18:03 Just a little bit more of some emotional roller coaster manipulation.

18:07 But again, those are just my thoughts.

18:09 Would love to hear yours.

18:10 What did you think of Eben's Back Talk?

18:14 I think it's a cool concept.

18:15 I think it's a great concept, in fact.

18:18 Um and I just think that the execution

18:20 could have used a little bit of a harsher, harder sort of point to it.

18:26 Um little bit of a like a you know,

18:29 kind of like a like they're spitting on the industry.

18:31 Kind of like they're spitting on like who cares?

18:34 We're still going to keep going.

18:35 That's what their attitude in the song is,

18:38 but I feel like it's just not it's not angry enough.

18:42 But I'm going to pass the question off to you guys.

18:45 Guys, that's going to be it for my reaction to Eben's Back Talk Petal.

18:50 Let me know what you thought.

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19:33 Thanks for tuning in.

19:34 Hope you had fun.

19:36 I'll see you later.

19:36 Bye.