Potpourri: NCT 127 (solo and unit songs)
Part three features songs performed but not yet released, a whole lot of OSTs, and a cover performance for Music Core.
This is part three of the NCT 127 Potpourri. It focuses on solo songs and unit tracks and does not include Winwin. Click here for part two, and here for part one.
As is usual of a whole host of SM groups, all members of NCT 127 are booked and busy — Mark and Haechan in NCT Dream aside, the other members’ work ranges from DJ-ing (Johnny) to acting (Yuta) to runway moments and brand ambassadorship (Johnny, Jaehyun, Taeyong, Yuta, most recently Doyoung for Dolce & Gabbana). Still, between NCT U songs and sub-units and solos — even Soundcloud releases —, there is a handful of NCT 127 solo work. And also, a whole host of… unreleased songs that were performed? This is not normal with K-Pop, but of course NCT 127 works outside of all that.
SOLOS
Taeil
To see Taeil, the oldest and one of the main vocals of NCT 127, record the music that eventually makes it the light of day immediately completes a sonic impression hard to put into words otherwise. He puts every fibre of his body when he sings of the italicized kind. His eyes are closed and sometimes his hand is pressed to his chest to really reach those notes. It gives the vocals an almost bound feeling, as if they strain to be free. But far from this sounding unpleasant, it leads Taeil to be one of the most textured vocalists of the group. Some of his solo work, mostly original soundtrack contributions, go with the strained feeling — others show him far freer with his vocals, as on the cover of Kim Min-Gi’s “A Beautiful Vocal”, to which he lends a gentle touch. But even more brilliant is his feature with Moon Sujin, the soul-indebted “The Moon”, which has him adopt an almost rap-like cadence on the verses and go airy near the end. His harmonization with Sujin, a classic soprano, is a cherry on top. (That, and the fact their last names are both Moon performing a song named The Moon.) For his birthday, Taeil has opened a channel and released a cover of Day6’s exuberant “Time Of Our Life”, and if being airborne involved the physical feeling of flapping wings, Taeil sings with each feather feeling the wind.
Taeyong
The most prolific NCT 127 member with solo releases, Taeyong has steadily built up a number of Soundcloud releases over the years that start out with cloud trap and become increasingly more complex. Culminating in the EP SHALALA — all B-sides of which penned, co-produced and co-composed by him — Taeyong as an artist is a contemplative, melancholy one. Of these tracks, “Virtual Insanity” has lived two lives as “GTA” and “GTA 2” on Soundcloud before, if in inferior versions. Based around bouncy, angular drums, Taeyong is free to explore an aggressive, cybernetic world that is not too far from the NCT 127 soundscape. To hear him get closer to it until the final version, one that is polished to such a degree that the neon lights practically burst at its seams, must feel nothing short of profound happiness to both Taeyong and his long-term fans.
My favorite of the Soundcloud tracks are “Rose”, featuring an incredible verse by labelmate Seulgi of Red Velvet , an alt-pop track with cloud rap sensibilities and Taeyong singrapping to quite charming success, and “Monroe”, featuring SuperM groupmate Baekhyun. The latter is more firmly in tropical pop foundations, and has Baekyhun rap-sing in ways he never goes to in EXO (or SuperM). What “Monroe” also does tremendously well is remain upbeat in ways none of Taeyong’s other Soundcloud songs are, a song so fully fleshed it’s hard to imagine it’s just out for free on a Soundcloud. Taeyong strikes a natural chemistry with anyone he sings (or dances) with, and here, they fold to his vision of the sonic equivalent of a lava lamp, hypnotizing and enticing at once. But as it is with most things he features on, the centerpiece remains himself, the most hypnotizing part of all.
Yuta
With his long hair, piercing eyes, and an aggressive performance style — including the company he keeps — everything about Yuta screams rock star. It’s unsurprising, then, that the one clip that is passed around with Yuta is a cover of L’Arc en Ciel’s “Honey” that he sings with passion and fervor. Typically this is followed with the declaration by fans that he needs to sing more on NCT 127 songs, but he already sings quite a bit… on B-sides, as the other baritone. More nasal in tone and more distant in attitude than Jaehyun, Yuta’s great strength is when this voice of his that is seemingly cold by nature runs through fire. His unreleased solo track “Butterfly”, first performed at a concert, is a serviceable dance track that only utilizes this Yuta of the surface, but Yuta knows better. Uploaded through Instagram Reels, “Crime & Punishment” was originally performed by Sheena Ringo in 2000, a trip hop-esque percussion with a rockstar-burlesque sweep on the vocal end, a big and theatrical song in every aspect. Yuta rips into the song with fervor. Suddenly, that cold voice gains a brittle, emotional edge to it, and he’s absolutely comfortable screaming on many points on. One can only imagine how his solo music would sound like if it continued in this vein.
Doyoung
The first thing to note about Doyoung is that his vocals seem to pierce through everything — it’s clear and bright and technically completely in control. But unlike Taeil, whose vocals are often slinky, Doyoung sings like he’s searching for someone, a yearning quality that is especially well-suited on romantic fare. On many points in NCT 127’s discography, he gets brilliant moments that he, in turn, polishes to perfection just by singing on it; an effect amplified when the amount of members is reduced and the sonic palette becomes firmly set in soul and R&B, which is exactly where NCT DOJAEJUNG (of which he is the Do) is settled. On his solo works, almost all of which K-drama OSTs, that yearning quality of his voice is amplified — and matched often enough with a piano, their clear notes a good match with his own. “Like a Star,” a contribution for Yumi’s Cells, is a torch song with electric guitar and acoustic guitar in tandem creating a bit of texture for Doyoung’s voice, on which he sounds like he’s simultaneously consoled, enchanted, and even a little melancholy about it all, easily the best OST song he sung for.
It also bears mentioning that Doyoung likes to cover all sorts of songs that span from pop to R&B tracks to outright ballads, all of which beautifully reinterpreted. The best of these he’s done in an episode of the Lee Mujin Service, Hynn’s “시든 꽃에 물을 주듯” (The Lonely Bloom Stands Alone) with a performance so incredible and emotive it moves to tears.
Jaehyun
Jaehyun boasts one of the fewest solo works of the NCT 127 members, but both “Try Again” and “Forever Only” are songs that reveal Jaehyun’s penchant for melancholy music and guitars. One of the few baritones of the group, Jaehyun can both be gentle and chilly, rap and sing at the same time. “Forever Only” has him adopt a rap-like cadence on a surprisingly fast-paced coffee shop song at points and even a key change on the final chorus. But the best song under his belt is one not released yet: “Lost”, a R&B lament on a former lover on which Jaehyun sings with real hurt and confusion in his voice. On an interview with Esquire that came out earlier this year, Jaehyun mentioned that he had concerns about various singing techniques a very long time ago, but now really likes his own technique1. I like to think that you can hear it across the discography, that growing confidence. Jaehyun grounds every song he tackles, and all of them crackle with electricity one way or another.
Jungwoo
To make a line like “bless me, achoo” work in “Simon Says” requires a certain kind of cool, and Jungwoo, who joined the group in 2018, has it in spades. The image I have of him most often when he performs is that half-smile of his — as if he knows you know he’s cool, and just can’t help being cool, ever. When he isn’t just assisting with attitude and delivering fresh and lemony vocal takes within the group, and really sings, he bears resemblance to Doyoung, if maybe more closed off. The cover he chose for some kind of NCT 127 variety, Ne-Yo’s “So Sick”, is a good example of this. Jungwoo is an unshowy vocalist, but technically rests on firm foundations, which works perfectly well with pop songs: “Smiling Angel”, a cover he did for Music Bank — which he hosts alongside NMIXX’s Sullyoon and Stray Kids’s Lee Know — fully flexes his superstar powers and his sensibilities as a pop singer. And always, there is that half-smile of his.
Mark
Mark is pure charisma — of which one needs a truckload amount of to make a line like “and that’s a longass ride” so memorable. It’s no wonder that besides his two purely solo works — “Child” and “Golden Hour” — he’s been featured in quite the number of in-house SM releases. Of these, I was struck by how EXO’s Xiumin and Mark have a vocal synergy that is not quite there in other NCT 127 releases: two nasal tenors that seemingly inhabit about the same spaces and attitudes in a song. “How We Do”, from Xiumin’s debut mini album Brand New, has both Xiumin and Mark sing and rap to a spirited track that is interested in packing just about anything inside there: bouncy beats, New Jack Swing, disco, guitars, autotune, you name it, this track has it. The charisma of both Xiumin and Mark holds the song together quite well, though. It’s always a treat to hear Mark sing, because his limited capabilities almost always makes him sound timid as a singer — quite the contrast to his often boisterious and big raps. Xiumin is happy to work the track with him, rather than just relegate him to one verse. The energy is infectious. For a song just performed by him, there’s a number of songs he performed on SuperM tours, and also the throwaway “QTAH” (Quality Time At Home) that Johnny filmed, on which Mark raps with an easy flow and a certain thoughtfulness to his cadence. The charisma, of course, remains.
Haechan
Haechan has a tenor that makes him sound like his voice has never dropped — bright and often pretty, my favorite contributions of his are typically adlibs and incredible runs nested in another incredible run. Unlike Jungwoo, Haechan has one OST under his belt. “Good Person (2022)” is an acoustic guitar ballad on which Haechan sounds lovely but can’t exactly elevate the usual K-Drama track, which is fine. Somehow, though, listening to it reminded me of his great idol, Michael Jackson, who sounded similar when he was very, very young. Unlike Jackson, though, who progressively sang with anger and paranoia in his voice, Haechan sings here with gentler emotions: something like hurt, as if the thought of loving someone was too much to bear. It’s not a type of voice I associate with him. His part in “Elevator (127F)”, though, that “Let’s! Just! Keep! This! Simple,” is more like it: a boyish charm that is absolutely essential to all NCT 127 songs.
UNIT SONGS
This presupposes that all members I will talk about here are NCT 127 members.
“Maniac” (Doyoung, Haechan)
Ryan Jhun, who started out his songwriting and producing career by working with SM Entertainment acts, gets an assist by Doyoung and Haechan with a funky, summery track that recalls Calvin Harris’s Funky Wav Bounces Vol. 1 — when Doyoung and Haechan sing about how she is a maniac, it sounds like neither are too bothered by it. In fact, they love her just like that. The guitar lends it all a warm, briny feeling of the ocean at sunset, recalling more Lionel Richie’s “All Night Long” than the Michael Sembello song also called “Maniac”. Haechan is especially well-suited to the track, his voice high and energy spirited throughout. But Doyoung, this close to adopting a diva attitude to the track, frequently goes breathless in the chorus and turns “Maniac” a winner.
“New Love” (Doyoung, Jaehyun)
For the show When You’re On The Blacklist Of Bullies, we hear Jaehyun’s warm baritone on a rare drama soundtrack contribution — and Doyoung’s not soon after. It’s a tropical pop track on which both sing together, and the baritone/tenor make a good duo that one can’t help but see as a precursor to the excellence that is NCT DOJAEJUNG. This is also one of the most spirited NCT U OST tracks and one of the few that actually stands on its own.
“conNEXTion (Age of Light)” (Doyoung, Mark, Haechan)
This crunchy, metallic SM Station track reduces the NCT fare to just three components, all of which have featured on the very first NCT track: Mark’s confident rapping, Haechan’s light vocals, Doyoung’s soaring singing. “Connect, connect me — connect, connect you” Mark intones in the chorus. It’s a story you’ve heard a couple times before, and its idea of accelerating only to cruelly pull back and then drive fully forward has been played out in the past, too. If anything else, it works as a reminder of how the group, this project started out — back when they were not so much singers but part of a grand scheme to change the world.
“Kiss” (NCT DOJAEJUNG)
The first subunit off NCT 127, DoJaeJung delves deeper into the R&B back catalogue that NCT 127 has become known for with fans. But that’s not to imply that Doyoung, Jaehyun and Jungwoo are simply replicating what NCT 127 did — a track like “Kiss” feels lighter than the usual NCT 127 R&B tracks, and also more outwardly sexual. As the cymbals and vocal samples swirl around, the vocalists play coy until the chorus, exuberant, spells the desired objective out. U-R-L-I-P-S ur lips, kiss: each vocalist gets his own chance to add a flourish to the last line of the chorus and post-chorus, when things are reduced to just the cymbals and the vocalist. “Kiss” is sexy and grown, and each chorus feels as heart-fluttering as the first.
The unreleased vault
K-Pop does not usually work with leaks, and the few that are worth mentioning are big ones (e.g EXO’s “Wolf”). Songs that are released at a concert usually make it to the listener in studio version one way or another. In fact, NCT DOJAEJUNG has started out as a marketing research scheme— I mean unit stage on a NCT 127 concert before the interest was big enough to translate “Can We Go Back” as the very last song of their debut EP, Perfume. But for some of these tracks, it seems they just exist as performance songs, or — in particularly egregious cases — are turned to NCT U songs.
"Love Sign” (Taeil, Haechan)
This song is regularly passed around on Twitter when the topic turns to a prospective Taeil solo track. Like Yuta’s “Butterfly” and Jaehyun’s “Lost”, this track debuted at a concert first and features Haechan and Taeil on a propulsive R&B track; the song doesn’t bring out their strengths beyond a big vocal moment for Taeil and Haechan, who sound better on dramatic and funky material respectively. What this does excite in me, though, is the possibility of combinations — Taeil and Haechan approach a song differently, thus creating a synergy that is intriguing both on paper and in execution. It also reminds me of a moment where Taeil’s pinched and Haechan’s high vocals work flawlessly: the dancey, funky bridge in “Superhuman”.
“Switch Off” (Doyoung, Taeyong)
Taeyong, as it has been noted, is a prolific songwriter, but what I haven’t touched on here yet is that he has songs from before he debuted that Doyoung would hear first. On two of the tracks previewed, Doyoung features prominently as vocal, and the chemistry between the two — they are close friends off-stage — immediately translates to the songs as well. Perhaps the best feature on all of Taeyong’s tracks is Doyoung, who understands the melancholy wave that Taeyong’s solo works all operate on. Both these tracks, “Yestoday” and “Switch Off”, can be categorized as old-school hip hop tracks. “Yestoday” features dusty pianos on which Doyoung has the lovely duty of chorus singing, while Taeyong raps about the positive influence that Doyoung has had in his life (”Somehow you’d always try to drag those bad days away from me”) and the dark days that hung over Taeyong like a cloud. This track eventually made it the light of the studio recording — as a NCT U song, however, featuring two more members. On the NCT U song, Mark also raps about how he’s now in a new loop that seems not too different from the times he’d ride the bus to his school — and then comes ex-NCT member Lucas adding negative value to the track, talking about a relationship for reasons unknown (in English) before Doyoung thankfully saves the track with one last chorus, filling the space with very inspired “ay, ay, ay” adlibs.
“Switch Off” is another melancholy track that similarly features dusty pianos and a notably sadder melody than “Yestoday” — Doyoung once again carries the track with a pristine feeling of sadness, while Taeyong pours his heart into the rap verse, simultaneously the most aggressive and forlorn he’s ever sounded. The NCT U track, now called “Light Bulb”, adds Sungchan and Kun to the mix (and a whole lot of welcomed production budget), but the originally emotional track becomes something of a maudlin affair that seemingly only exists because all of SM Entertainment releases feature rap ballads of this kind. Maybe that’s a hyperbole to think of a track as worse only because other vocalists are on it with no noticeable positive or negative effects — but the dilution of Doyoung and Taeyong, two immediate performers, warrants such descriptors. They are good friends; they are great artists in their own right; hopefully at some point they get to be on a track together without other people around.
“Colors” (group)
A Japanese-only track that debuted in the Japan leg of the concert tour “NEO CITY: The Link” that still hasn’t seen a release, this one is a charming tropical pop-tinged R&B track that would make a very good B-side to an upcoming release — and, as a more recent development that all their later releases boast, all the vocalists sound suited to the track, the track flowing with an effortless ease. There are rumors that the upcoming NCT 127 is, again, in the third quarter of the year, just like “2 Baddies” has been. But if this will be a Japanese release remains to be seen. The fact that I am sitting here telling you about a B-side that has yet to be released for reasons not even SM Entertainment could conjure to any of us says more about me than it will about NCT 127 — but it does say something about their vibrant catalogue, past, present, and the ones just waiting to be released.
