"Black Out" by IU


“Black Out” 
IU

IU (real name Lee Ji-eun) has been making music for about ten years, during which she has taken more and more artistic control of her output. Her most recent album, Palette, was almost entirely written by IU herself. It seems her hard work paid off, as the album was awarded Album of the Year at the MelOn Music Awards (an annual South Korean music awards show). The album also received international attention: Billboard named it the best K-Pop album of 2017 and Fuse TV ranked it 12th on their “Best Albums of 2017" list (the only Korean album on the list). For me, the best track from Palette is the darkly intoxicating, and surprisingly refreshing, “Black Out.” The song was written and produced by IU, with music and arrangement by Lee Jong-hoon. (Source: Wikipedia)

K-Pop is known for it’s brilliantly polished and shiny production, nary a breath or note out of it’s predetermined place. “Black Out” is gleefully not that. The rhythm section is clanky and cantankerous. The synths stammer and stumble around. The vocal performance is breathless and cooly detached and the whole affair is topped off with a wobbly and woozy, if slightly precious, guitar solo.

The lyrics are a tipsy meditation on the fleeting nature of happiness, love, and life itself; taking the listener on an inebriated, slightly apathetic, yet earnest narrative journey. Throughout the song we are voyeurs to a muddled narrator attending a party and ruminating on the bliss and misery of overindulgence and attempting to truly enjoy the moment, hell, any moment. We are taken along with the narrator through confusing conversations, overly affectionate strangers, falling in love with the music, falling in love with the DJ, and, ultimately, double vision and physically falling down.

The lyrics manage to rise above mere hedonism with a clever, and quite sinister, reference to Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway. The novel revolves around the titular character throwing a lavish party in post-First World War England. During the party one of the guests at the party commits suicide by jumping out of a window. Mrs. Dalloway “gradually comes to admire” the suicide, as an act “to preserve the purity of his happiness.” (Source: Wikipedia) This is echoed by the lyrics “Today won’t ever come again, right?/ Of course it wont/ I don’t wanna remember from this moment on.” Heavy stuff for a party.

 -Daniel R.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"A, B, C, Dumb Dumb..." by Daniel R.

Image
The Basics Let’s get the basic basics out of the way: Yes. I know I am late to the Red Velvet Party. Sleep. Yes. Red Velvet are slaying.  Yes. I am snatched. Yes, these are my own thoughts, opinions, interpretations, and experiences (except where noted). Yes, I may be off-base, and you may strongly disagree with me. And that is okay. K-Pop I had no prior knowledge of the behemoth that is the Korean Pop music machine when I first forayed into K-Pop some time in 2016. In hindsight, I didn’t stand a chance against this addicting creature. For a long time, though, I mistakenly considered K-Pop to be somewhat of a novelty item. The occasional catchy and kitschy pop confections would temporarily draw my attention. But like chewing gum that quickly loses its flavor, there was no lasting impact.  Despite that erroneous and myopic perspective, I kept finding myself drawn to the production quality of K-Pop. It seemed the sound engineers and producers knew what
Read more

"Give" by Harari

Image
“Give” Harari The anthemic “Give,” by South African band Harari, is an urgent and funky testament advocating for altruism and selflessness. Harari expertly walk an impossible tightrope… seamlessly bridging the paradoxical worlds of humanitarianism and hedonism. Harari espouse the benefits of benevolence while simultaneously enticing the listener to let loose and dance to the good vibrations. Indeed, “Give” is a near flawless fusion of funk, gospel, disco, blues and social activism. A rare song that finds itself in the company of Michael Jackson’s beautiful, heartbreaking, overwhelming, and transcendent "Man In The Mirror." The song’s synthetic bass line rumbles, shakes and entrenches the song with an oceanic depth while the the polyrhythmic percussion is smooth and unhurried. The guitar cuts and chops the song like a throwing stone across water while the slap bass roots the song into a groove. The production and instrumentation avidly set the stage for
Read more