Potpourri: NCT 127 (albums and B-sides)
On part two, a deep dive into the discography - from the mellow to the abrasive
This is part two of a series of Potpourri posts dedicated to NCT 127, who celebrated their seventh anniversary on July 7th. You can find part one, about their music videos and lead singles, here.
As a fan of a SM Entertainment artist, one can rely on the album as a piece worth the money and energy and time, and NCT 127 is no different in that regard. Straddling a variety of genres and boasting an incredible lineup of vocalists, each of them distinct, the group’s discography overall may not be as influential as their vastly successful singles run, but no less charming and magnetizing. Theirs is a discography that boasts little flaws, showcasing a group that pivoted from an electronic-heavy sound to one comfortable with R&B and adult contemporary, too. When they received the coveted Grand Prize (the Korean equivalent of the Album of the Year Grammy) in 2021, it felt simultaneously just at the right time and too late. For the sake of brevity and with the inevitability of my fallible taste, the selection of songs below will surely not appease the hardcore fans. Nevertheless, my aim is to showcase the limitlessness of NCT 127’s capability, the B-sides that prove that NCT isn’t all noise, and honor the tracks that have not left my heavy rotation.
Bolded tracks are highlights.
NCT #127
The first EP
Released: July 10th, 2016
Lead single: “Fire Truck” / B-side performed: “여름 방학 (Once Again)”
The initial EP of NCT 127 doesn’t yet feature Doyoung and has no qualms to sideline big vocal moments for the performance, that is to say, the club. Most of NCT #127 seems like a glimpse into a SM Entertainment that sought out EDM in its main label rather than through its imprint ScreaM records (this was, it must be said, before Hyoyeon adopted the moniker HYO and made it her sonic calling card). This SM hinted at its interest in electronic music from 2014’s Red Light record by f(x) and continued it in 2015’s 4 Walls and SHINee’s View. NCT #127 neatly follows the trend by featuring a variety of synth pads: ones that sound metallic, ones that are distant and floaty only to pull deeper, icy percussion elsewhere with autotuned and heavily processed vocals. This is NCT 127 in its rawest form, and everything that followed would expand on these humble beginnings. From it, “Wake Up” (the sung ”let’s just wake up this world” leading to a drop that sounds like waking up a Blade Runner-esque world) and “Another World” (highlight: the chanted pre-chorus “I don’t wanna feel nothing”) stand as two particularly inspired examples of this EDM vision.
And then there’s “Switch”, and this is the one that features Doyoung (here as a not-yet debuted trainee of the SRB15 roster). Doyoung had a wide-eyed look to him in early music videos (”Without U”, “Limitless”), something bright and chipper, and as he opens “Switch”, that visual fully translates to his voice as he asks where is this place? I’m curious. Described as UK garage, the pads give it a jungle-esque feel without fully delving into the 90s genre, and the chanted chorus is an exercise in tightness of excessively bright male vocals that cede to those glorious synths and a wordless vocalization in a satisfying payoff. There’s a mystique to “Switch” in that moment, one that sells the NCT concept better than all of the desert videos ever could, and the main perpetrator of this is Doyoung, who sticks out in every single chorus and every single verse he does. The music clicks when he sings over it. “Switch” is a song rendered so beautiful in his voice that it’s difficult, almost tantalizing, to imagine that there would be much better, stronger Doyoung moments to come. It’s ironically inversely proportional to the idea that NCT 127 would have much stronger moments in their discography than a jungle track.
LIMITLESS
The second EP
Released: January 6th, 2017
Lead single: “Limitless” / B-side performed: “Good Thing”
With Limitless, Johnny and Doyoung officially became members of NCT 127. For the latter, that meant more moments where he could stretch his vocals. As such, the EP packs a variety of genres in the songs that is standard for quite a few of K-Pop releases out today, especially of SM Entertainment. The most standard of which, of course, is the acoustic guitar ballad “Angel” (which is also the closer) and the obligatory B-side they performed at the time, the bizarre saxophone / synth-led “Good Thing”. The middle, however, is where the EP houses some of the most beloved B-sides of the NCT 127 catalogue to this day. Starting with “Back 2 U (01:27 AM)”, a R&B track with murky synths throughout, the song suddenly springs to life when Doyoung sings his legendary “Ireojima” (Don’t do it) in the bridge. “Heartbreaker” (Korean: “Rollercoaster”) is even better, the punchy percussion, dizzying synths, and vocal sample of the intro swirling around the mix forming the basis for another melancholy track that still sounds chipper. Finishing this trifecta of love and heartbreak is “Baby Don’t Like It”, mostly performed by Mark and Taeyong, in which snaps, drills, bouncy percussion, whistles, and the easily-recognizable Jersey club “bed squeaks” make a good foundation for the two. The highlight, though, once again belongs to Doyoung, who has a star turn in both the chorus and the bridge. The group doesn’t yet sound like NCT 127 on this EP, but for a showcase of Doyoung vocals, Limitless gets the job done splendidly.
Cherry Bomb
The third EP
Released: June 14th, 2017
Lead single: “Cherry Bomb” / B-side performed: “0 Mile“
To this day, Cherry Bomb stands as one of the best releases of NCT 127’s catalogue, and it’s not because “Cherry Bomb” begins and finishes the EP. Its canny combination of cool synths and classic SM songwriting make the group’s third EP an auditory journey to the futuristic. Far from the antagonistic “Cherry Bomb,” the other songs strike a more romantic and even summery tone throughout, whether that’s the fizzy “0 Mile”, the rap-heavy “Whiplash” (chorus member this time: Jaehyun) or the deep house-reliant “Summer 127”. One of the songs nudging the EP to a soundscapes hitherto unexplored in K-Pop is the ethereal synth ballad “Sun & Moon” led by Taeil, Jaehyun, and Doyoung, taking inspiration from Majid Jordan’s synth-heavy ballad style with a dark, propulsive beat throughout, never going higher than it should be. It is not the most evocative NCT 127 would be, but one of their moodiest moments. The other one is “Running 2 U”. It starts things with a paranoid set of bleeps, as well as punchy kicks and claps, before ultimately revealing a instrumental chorus of a top line that snakes through the murky soundscape. As the song concludes with repetitions of “Running! To You!” the vocals warp and bend all over again in one single declaration. “Running to you!” It has a first draft quality to it, its ending unresolved, almost unsatisfied with itself. It marks one of the most addictive turns of their discography just yet.
Chain
The first Japanese EP
Released: May 16th, 2018
Lead single: “Chain”
The first Japanese EP of NCT 127 explores the group’s R&B side before their Korean discography did. “Limitless” was originally Korean and one of the singles for this release, while the serviceable B-side “Come Back” would be performed in Korean not much later. That leaves things with the closer “100”, which starts out mellow but later turns aggressive and acidic. The vocal sample at the back here feels more reductive and less interesting to the song as the members trudge on in the chorus with nary a worry. Taeyong’s brief rap verse is the sole point of interest for “100”, but things are different for opener “Dreaming”, which makes a winning combination with its clapping, bubbling percussion of a slow tango tempo and its bass loop. The chorus is by Taeyong and Mark, which almost borders on spoken-word as they finish the chorus with “dreaming, dream-ing dream-ing” over and over, the NCT manifesto in one word.
Regular-Irregular / Regulate
The first full-length album (and repackage) first release with Jungwoo as NCT 127 member
Released: October 12th, 2018 (Regular-Irregular) / November 23rd, 2018 (Regulate)
Lead single: “Regular” (Regular-Irregular) / “Simon Says” (Regulate)
B-sides performed: “Come Back” (Regular-Irregular) / “Chain (Korean version)” (Regulate)
To Regular-Irregular (and its deluxe version Regulate), the difference of regular life and irregular dreaming didn’t just begin and end with the rollout and the title track in NCT 127’s first full length album. Much like “Regular,” Regular-Irregular also works as an ode to the metropolis, where both regular and irregular things could happen — often simultaneously. The deluxe track “Welcome to my Playground” makes its idea quite clear, though its bit pop melody feels at odds with the rest of the album. “City 127”, as the ode to Seoul, sets the scene as opener far better, a romantic scene in the ever-shining city, with whistles and bright piano notes. Meanwhile, the LDN Noise-produced highlight “Replay (01:27 PM)” makes a keen auditory observation on a city’s bustling work day with deep house, airy synth pads, and a chanted “I just want to be / I just want to be loved”. The Taeyong and Mark-fronted “My Van” sounds even more desolate, with its constant ringing and industrial drums detailing the busy life of busy SM idols such as NCT, while Yuta and Jaehyun extend the vowels on how they ride on their van. They issue a simple command: “Keep driving.”
This being a NCT release, dreams are never too far away, and Johnny makes it literal by bookending the interlude: “All we see or seem… is but a dream within a dream.” Through most of Regular-Irregular is accordingly floaty in its sonic ideas — a notable exception being the piano ballad “No Longer” — “Fly Away With Me” stands out as a particularly ethereal one. Taeil and Doyoung sound immaculate on the opener, as if both are airborne, particularly the latter, who sings as if a voice could levitate a person. The synths do nothing to tether either of them down, not even when the chorus doubles their voice. Jaehyun closes the song at the climax with a sweeping fervor, the cherry on top to such a brilliant track. NCT 127 sound at their best when their slower moments are wrapped in such digitized clouds. Though not fully fleshed out in its ideas just yet, Regular-Irregular marks a good step in the right direction.
Awaken
First Japanese full-length album
Released: April 17th, 2019
Title: “Wakey-Wakey”
The first full length Japanese album of NCT marks a serviceable collection of tracks and already released Korean (or, in “Regular”’s case, English) titles, though the sequencing itself isn’t quite there yet as it was in Korean releases already. Of the new tracks, “Lips” plays out like a strange ambient piece of whistling straight out of the 2002 soundtrack of the Gamecube game Metroid Prime, a moody piece of romance. Meanwhile, “Blow My Mind” utilizes bleeps and snaps to a foggy dance chorus that almost recalls the 00s K-Pop releases, particularly of SM’s own catalogue. “Long Slow Distance” is another piano ballad, while “Kitchen Beat” is the noisiest NCT 127 would get just yet, full of clanking beats and numerous tempo changes at the start (and Jaehyun and Yuta both switching to rapping) on the basis of cooking a five-star meal in the kitchen. The chorus here is more a chanted afterthought than it is a sung moment, and oddly enough, a song like this — a B-side on a Japanese release — would predict what K-Pop of the boygroup variety would evolve to in the years to come.
After briefly pivoting to “Cherry Bomb” and “Fire Truck” in their original Korean versions, Awaken ends with its strongest point yet: “End to Start”, a midtempo track utilizing chilly synths and a rare moment of Mark singing. The chorus, here, slows down with a low bass ruminating, and has them all sing at the same time. It’s almost as though somebody here was inspired by Daft Punk’s collaboration with Julien Casablancas, the chilly cinematic glam-rock piece “Instant Crush”. It’s a very melancholy moment to end an album on, one NCT 127 would never go back to, making it all the more remarkable.
WE ARE SUPERHUMAN
The fourth EP
Released: May 24th, 2019
Lead single: “Superhuman”
In a portal peeking into a parallel timeline opened by SM sometime 2018, NCT 127 is a normal K-Pop group doing normal boygroup music. WE ARE SUPERHUMAN is one of those normal K-Pop boygroup releases that managed to make it into this timeline. The EP is full of well-sung, well-produced, and faceless pop music. The most original thought the release has is to finish the EP with an outro named “We are 127” with a runtime of 1:27 and some club noises that recalls their early ventures. Nevertheless, NCT 127 are adept at straightforward pop music and K-Pop bsides too. “FOOL” makes the best one of these, with a busy synth line and a busier rap from Mark before the warm vocals describe an awkward romantic moment — it would prove quite prescient for what was about to come. Meanwhile, “Paper Plane” was the second attempt at “01:27 PM (Replay)” as a happy-go-lucky variant, and “Jet Lag” is at odds between outright ballad and coffeeshop midtempo track and works just enough so as to not distract, mainly because Doyoung’s voice shines the brightest with tracks like these, where he can stretch his vocal chops a little and emote throughout. “Got each other, other” as a chant at the end sounds awkward and the song never quite fulfills its promise as the 90s throwback it could be. We are 127, though.
Neo Zone / The Final Round
The second full-length album (and repackage)
Released: March 6th, 2020 (Neo Zone) / May 5th, 2020 (Final Round)
Lead single: “Kick It” (Neo Zone) / “Punch” (Final Round)
B-sides performed: “Prelude”, “White Night” (Neo Zone) / “The Final Round” (Punch)
The rollout of the second album Neo Zone started on 127 day, January 27, with an obvious throwback to the 90s: “Dreams Come True”, an R&B track that utilizes floaty synths and angelic singing. The music video to “Dreams Come True”, similarly, goes heavy on the pastiche: credits flashing at the start, closeups of all members smiling, everyone arm in arm in a bleach-white room. Unlike “Kick It”, it was this pre-released track that would set the tone for a great majority of Neo Zone: a place in which the nostalgic ceded to bliss, often of the romantic kind. The corresponding track videos to Neo Zone go there literally: the charming opener “Elevator (127F)” has the boys wait and jam inside the elevator, “Pandora’s Box” imagines a fun, early-morning present opening session with the viewer. Though “Boom”’s Korean title is dream, it leads NCT 127 to enact a film with a ladder and a shopping cart as props, and “Day Dream” goes for the dreamy imagery of clouds inside a room. Other titles have love in their title: “Love Me Now” (the setting of the track video: a harbor and lots of smoke bombs) and “Love Song” (a yellow studio and moist leaves) appear on Neo Zone back to back. Like with Regular-Irregular, the rap-heavy tracks come after the interlude: the group-led “Sit Down” (the video: Taeyong and Mark in a garage) and the Mark/Taeyong-led “Mad Dog”, in which Mark and Taeyong are sitting in a parked car with huskies and glitch out. There’s also piano ballads here, “White Night”, a black-white shot music video, and the fan track “Not Alone”, on which a desktop is simulated with the members making heart eyes at the viewer.
NeoZone’s sole problem is probably putting “Kick It” so early into the album, thus cushioning it between much more benign songs: “Elevator (127F)” and “Boom”. The repackage Final Round opens a salvo of much more aggressive tracks — “Punch” leads to the synth-assault “NonStop” and then to the instrumental “Prelude” before arriving at “Kick It” (”Elevator (127F)” at the very end feels perfect). What befuddles me here is that the interlude ends with “no more trauma”, a line from “Kick It” — and instead it’s lead to “MAD DOG”. Nevertheless, this is nitpicking of the highest order, as NCT 127’s tip of the hat for a bygone era still makes for incredibly charming moments. The vocalists get to shine in glossy, but generally unobstructive production — and the moments in which the production does go big and abrasive, you get moments like “MAD DOG”, on which a violin is distorted and bent out of shape a couple times in the chorus, complete with a horror-esque piano chord. Produced by Hitchhiker, the moment that truly ties the song together is Doyoung and Yuta’s bridge, the couplet of “Welcome to my party / Welcome to my nightmare” both arriving with distortion.
There’s a wider section of songs with big vocal moments — a feast, even — with “Day Dream” standing out as one particularly airy example. The chorus, with its staccato delivery and the stacked vocals, gives off the feeling of a track by labelmates Red Velvet, who typically favor vocal harmonies in their discography. Elsewhere, “Elevator (127F)” and “Love Song” make a good pair of R&B tracks, the former with a wordless, euphoric chorus, strings and electric guitars in the mix, the latter from the Pharrell / Neptunes playbook by its four-count introduction and its glossy and crunchy beat. “Love Me Now” is another continuation of “Replay (01:27PM)”, and “White Night” delves in deep into the adult contemporary section, with all the vocalists on it more than up to the task, delivering a beautiful performance over bright and purring synths. The Final Round adds another piano ballad, “Make Your Day” to the mix, as well as pulsating highlight “NonStop”, borrowing from EXO with its big group vocals and an “ah-yeah!” between chorus and verse. Overall, NeoZone is a charming release and a well-deserved fan favorite, if more vibey than the last album.
Resonance (NCT)
The second full-length album by the overall group NCT
Release: October 12th, 2020 (Part 1); November 23rd, 2020 (Part 2)
Lead single: “Make A Wish (Birthday Song)” (Part 1) / “90’s Love” (Part 2)
In every NCT release, there is one song that is performed by each unit. “Music, Dance”, NCT 127’s track for 2020’s Resonance, takes the title literally — utilizing a deep percussion and starting out with a high energy only to slow down during the pre-chorus and to return the velocity in a chanted chorus. Of note here is Jaehyun, clearly comfortable quasi-talking on a track with an icy confidence, and Jungwoo’s lemony, unshowy voice who makes a great fit with cold production like this. The production shows its cards quite soon, though, and the rest of the vocal melody doesn’t accommodate to it consistently. NCT #127 has more interesting ideas than this track does.
LOVEHOLIC
The second Japanese EP
Release: February 17th, 2021
Lead single: “gimme gimme”
At just five original tracks, and thus one of NCT 127’s shortest releases, each track on LOVEHOLIC is polished to perfection. “Lipstick” starts with metallic synths and deep percussion and only briefly pauses its ferocity during its pre-chorus. “First Love”, right after, gives Ariana Grande and Social House’s “Boyfriend” a well-deserved bouncy update and makes full usage of many vocalists on that angelic pre-chorus, cushioning the feeling of love in the chorus with Doyoung and Taeil at the lead, while behind him you can hear Jaehyun and Haechan. The clubby, loud “Chica Bom Bom” uses a militaristic trap snare and synth pads to reveal more drums on a shouted title in the chorus. Its biggest strength is its energy, which holds all elements of the disparate production together and makes for one of the most jumpable moments in NCT 127’s discography. Rounding out LOVEHOLIC is “Right Now,” seemingly beginning as ballad, before the synths kick in like a fall down from a building. Of course, the moody feeling continues, but the song is backed with dancey production even at its most moody moments. Taeyong slides over the percussive-heavy verse with absolute ease with his rap. But then there’s the drop that the song brings back for the bridge, which turns out to be one of the sickest earworms NCT 127 have in their arsenal, and that it doesn’t sound like it could come from this moody offering makes it all the more sticky. LOVEHOLIC doesn’t have the time to build up narratives — musical or otherwise — but much like its lead single “gimme gimme”, its off-kilter charm captures a snapshot of NCT 127 at their best.
Sticker / Favorite
The third full-length album (and repackage)
Release: September 17th, 2021 (Sticker); October 25th, 2021 (Favorite)
Lead single: “Sticker” (Sticker) / “Favorite” (Favorite)
B-sides performed: “Lemonade”, “Promise You” (Sticker)
The album that finally got NCT 127 the coveted Grand Prize is uninterested in concepts or even so much as an interlude. As soon as “Sticker” is done, the promoted B-side “Lemonade” continues in ferocity and ominous vibes. While the post-chorus, a necessarily calm after the storm that is the chorus, is reminiscent of Las Ketchup’s only hit “Aseraje”, the quick rap verses — and again, that icy chill of Jaehyun’s baritone — make this one as much of a rollercoaster as “Sticker” has been just a song prior. With their strongest club offering, “Breakfast” keeps the pace — only to suddenly come to a screeching halt with the R&B highlight “Focus” (Doyoung in the first second is so breathy that he practically melts into the gossamer synths) and go even slower with the competent piano ballad “The Rainy Night”. “Far” ramps up the pace again, introducing another barrage of militaristic percussion and deep bass as the chorus declares that they can’t be stopped. “Here’s an area, here’s an area” somehow ends up a belted line in that song — and Doyoung’s “three, two, one” in the bridge one of his slinkiest moments yet. “Bring the Noize” is another chant-heavy title with more attitude than melody and, with its car driving noises, marks a foreshadowing moment for NCT 127. After an abrupt end, there’s a section best described as fanservice: the ballad “Magic Carpet Ride”, the mildly upbeat “Road Trip” and the 70s pastiche “Dreamer”, all of which are okay but mark an obvious drop in quality, all their tricks revealed within an instant. Thankfully, though, the closer, “Promise You” is a track for fans, but its 80s synths, twinkling beats, and pulsating bass make it a far more engaging listen than most tracks of this caliber.
The repackage Favorite adds the charming “Pilot” and throbbing highlight “Love on the Floor” to the mix, adding to the album’s tracklist tremendously, the latter being a discography highpoint of cascading synths, autotuned raps, and “love on the floor” in the chorus feeling like a free fall, particularly when Jaehyun sings it. Another highlight: “life is a bastard” in lieu of an intro in Mark’s rap.
Sticker is the kind of album that stuck with me and revealed another new neat detail on each listen. Its competent production and stellar vocal moments of the tracks as well as its smart tracklisting feels a journey to get lost in, unlike Neo Zone’s idea of a prevailing mood and regular-irregular’s map to guide the listener through. Sticker stands out above the other albums because it doesn’t try to repeat some older highlights — you’d be hardpressed to find another repeat of “Replay” on here, and the closest one track sounds like another is “Promise You” with “Dreams Come True”, which is still quite the distance — and its run of great tracks is so large, spanning to nine of fourteen on the deluxe, that the back end being a little lighter in quality feels forgivable in comparison. The NCT 127 of Sticker straddles their adventurous and safe sides with ease, refusing to sacrifice one for the other. By the end, “Promise You” leaves at a satisfying high note, asking the listener to plunge headfirst into “Sticker” or “Favorite (Vampire)” all over again, just to hear how the group is great at both these things.
Universe (NCT)
The third full-length album by the overall group NCT
Release: December 14th, 2021
Lead single: “Universe (Let’s Play Ball)”
For the third overall unit album, NCT 127 gift “Earthquake”, a track that sounds like could have been a title track in an alternate NCT 127 release that we never got in 2021. “Earthquake” doesn’t do anything that’s too far from their usual fare. But the sitar warbling around here in conjunction with big percussion and bigger claps makes for a compelling sonic landscape. The members don’t have to do anything they haven’t done before: Jungwoo proves a good fit, as does Taeyong singing; but consider Yuta’s nasal baritone and Doyoung clear tenor work with and against the track respectively to great success. “Earthquake” is a track that plays to everyone’s strengths and never lets up on its energy and tension at any given point. In the music video, a literal earthquake triggers Doyoung awake (or maybe vice versa), and general mayhem breaks out. All the while, the other NCT 127 members are utterly calm about it, even welcome it. Nothing could describe their music better than this video.
2 Baddies / Ay-Yo
The fourth full-length album (and repackage)
Release: September 16th, 2022 (2 Baddies); January 30th, 2023 (Ay-Yo)
Lead single: “2 Baddies” (2 Baddies); “Ay-Yo” (Ay-Yo)
Performed B-sides: “Faster” (2 Baddies); “DJ” (Ay-Yo)
The best of 2 Baddies and corresponding deluxe Ay-Yo are undoubtedly career highlights. At the top of this list is the DemJointz-produced “Time Lapse”, which uses the beat in the verses of “Kick It” as a basis — that pristine piano chord — to an cosmopolitan lament of a broken relationship, a game of tension (those synths building up behind Taeyong’s chorus!) and release (a group of vocals dispelling it all of a sudden with “Can we fix it? Baby, can we fix it?”) that give the song a cinematic feeling. The song feels like a world unto its own, and each of the members singing inhabiting different protagonists, in a sort of Love Actually situation except they’re all being broken up with on a rainy day.
“Skyscraper”, from the deluxe, is another DemJointz production and goes the opposite direction, sounding like dropping from the sonic equivalent of the Burj Khalifa in the chorus, complete with an ominous bass and appropriately snippy percussion. It seamlessly segues to the even more villainous “Tasty”, featuring the impeccable line “we savage, outlaws, rock solid, no flaws” and a quasi-rap line from Doyoung that is almost as exhilarating as the chorus. The vocal performances across 2 Baddies are top notch — Haechan’s and Jungwoo’s touch are light and incredibly pretty on “Black Clouds”, “Gold Dust” features Doyoung at his airiest and most contemplative yet, while “Crash Landing” mixes both R&B and trap to a moody potion of romance on an effective chorus that makes good use of both chants and the fact that NCT 127 boasts six distinct, great vocalists.
But if 2 Baddies/Ay-Yo suffer from one major problem, is that a good portion of these tracks are inoffensively fine and don’t seek sonic adventure the same way other albums, even Neo Zone, did. In fairness, Sticker had tracks like those too — but therein lies the other problem, in how close this album feels to older albums in its ideas and tracklisting. Ominous opener “Faster” only exists to set the scene for a title, which is something no other NCT 127 release has. “Playback” is a playful track and uses metallic xylophones to build the synths, a 2022 update to “Welcome to my Playground” in some aspects. Deluxe track “DJ” is a very charming nod to Stevie Wonder, but an odd placement (sandwiched between “Time Lapse” and “Crash Landing”) prevents it from reaching its full potential within the album, a sudden burst of serotonin between a moody and a desperate-romantic song respectively. “Designer” seemingly opens with hard percussion and distorted brass before the record is rewound to another benign R&B offering that never returns to its introduction, except — of course — the rap in the bridge. Like in Sticker, “Vitamin”, “LOL (Laugh-Out-Loud)”, and “1,2,7 (Time Stops)” build the fanservice section that Sticker suffered from, too, with “LOL” standing out as the worst of these.
The portal that seemingly was opened way back in “Touch” and gave us We Are Superhuman has caught up with NCT 127 in the present time, it seems: they sound great and the production quality is top notch, but for an album title that communicates speed and ferocity in its Korean 질주, 2 Baddies/Ay-Yo plays things rather safe many times. Despite that, though, the highs are so high that it’s not hard to see why the whole album is a fan favorite. Can we fix it? The next full-length is slated to come out Q3 2023.
Continued on part three…
