As years go, 2023 hasn’t been a completely gleaming interval for SM Leisure’s sprawling boyband collective NCT. In addition to having to climate the chaos at their company in latest months, they’ve misplaced three of their quantity – Sungchan and Shotaro, now of rookie boyband RIIZE, left in Could, weeks after the departure of Lucas. As the numerous models of NCT regroup on ‘Golden Age’, their annual full-group venture, the now-20 member crew look to show issues round.
During the last seven years, NCT have grow to be synonymous with bringing an experimental aptitude to Okay-pop and ‘Golden Age’ isn’t any completely different. Throughout the album’s 10 tracks, the group largely keep away from predictable strikes to craft songs that hold you in your toes. That a lot is obvious from the very first seconds, when lead single ‘Dishevelled Denims’ (carried out by Taeyong, Doyoung, Ten, Jaehyun and Mark) enters in a hush of throaty whispers and elastic bass whipping beneath coolly delivered lyrics dripping with swagger.
‘The BAT’ (Taeil, Johnny, Yuta, Jungwoo, Hendery, Jeno and Jisung) delves into hyperpop, positioning the collective as Batman cruising by the evening in his Batmobile, setting the story to ominously noir instrumentals. “Yeah Bat’s on wheels / Replenish the fuel to the utmost / max go apex,” they chant because the beat teeters and totters beneath them, vibrating like a speedometer needle being pushed into overdrive.
The total group title observe, in the meantime, lulls you right into a false sense of safety with its light piano intro, however rapidly begins whipping forwards and backwards between these mushy melodies and a grinding, industrial-tinged backing. The truth that the piano sections use Beethoven’s ‘Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13, “Sonata Pathétique” II. Adagio cantabile’ as their basis solely makes the composition extra spectacular.
Not each observe zips or zooms fairly in addition to the others, although. ‘Not Your Fault’ (Taeil, Kun, Doyoung, Ten, Jungwoo, Xiaojun and Renjun) feels a bit of boring in comparison with ‘Golden Age’’s bolder tracks, swapping NCT’s innate improvements for timelessness. ‘Alley Oop’ (Yuta, Winwin, Hendery, Jeno, Jaemin, Yangyang and Jisung) is extra fascinating however the brass interjections in its primary beat dilute it to the type of tune that you simply’ll discover blaring out of the audio system in a trashy membership on any given weekend.
Nonetheless, it’s arduous to kind a cohesive identification to your group when you could have fairly so many members and transferring components, but ‘Golden Age’ feels distinctly NCT. As they refuse to relaxation on their laurels sonically, the crew additionally skip by quite a lot of themes of their phrases, from brags to Batman, romance to reliance. ‘That’s Not Truthful’ (Johnny, Taeyong, Ten, Mark, Jeno and Yangyang) posits that we’re all pretending to be pleased, its see-sawing melodies and lowkey supply capturing each a dystopian really feel and a seeming affect from Billie Eilish. ‘Kangaroo’ is way sunnier in each sound and topic, Taeil, Kun, Renjun, Yangyang, Chenle and Jisung bouncing by an ideal summer time bop about “operating round carefree / I’m trippin’ kangaroo”.
Like 2023 to this point for NCT, ‘Golden Age’ is a combined bag of fortunes. Fortunately for the 20-strong experimental pressure, although, its pendulum finally ends up swinging in its favour, its tracks principally pulling off the issues they got down to do. Right here’s hoping it’s a optimistic omen because the boyband enters the ultimate part of this 12 months and an indication of “unbelievable, so basic” issues to come back.
Particulars
- Launch date: August 28, 2023
- Report label: SM Leisure
