1/6/2026 The "NCT #127 Neo Zone: The Final Round - The 2nd Album" Review (Part 1)

This has been in the works for a little while, ever since I listened to the whole album on a long car trip. My first album with NCT 127 having been "Ay-Yo", I never understood why people said this, or rather the original release of this album (I will be reviewing the extended repackage version), was their best album. Having gone through it, I can say it has some gems. I feel it to be less cohesive than "Ay-Yo", but it certainly marks a change in 127's sound.

I would finish the whole review tonight but im tired zzzzzzz 

 

"Punch"

Title track status aside, this is kind of a crazy way to start an album. Would it be so strange to suggest that it might have been better as an opener on the original album and not the title track for the repackage? Many of its flaws would have been significantly less noticeable if the function of the song was different - for example, it wouldn't have to bear as much comparison to "Kick It", and it wouldn't need a music video.

How would I feel if someone told me this was their favorite NCT song? Respect. Lil confused

 

"Nonstop"

Jaehyun's rap at the beginning reminds me of "Yankin'" by Lady.

So this was the title track reject! And I'm glad it was rejected. Sounds a little too much like a Stray Kids song. Sorry.

Despite its rather unoriginal structure, it still outclasses other similar songs through the strength of its composition. I can appreciate a basic song that distinguishes itself by simply being good at what it does.

The "We Will Rock You" bridge is fine—doesn't hit too hard for me, though. It's probably better live. Doyoung's high note is very good. Last night I had a dream he came under fire for an old vlog where they were in Eastern Europe and he saluted a military parade, not knowing the leader of the country was a dictator. Haechan's "NOTHING AT ALL!" ad lib is a highlight.

How would I feel if someone told me this was their favorite NCT song? Seriously?

 

"Prelude"

Wasn't too fond of this one at first listen because I felt it was too on-the-nose. On second listen I was alright with it. I don't like a) the swing rhythm and b) the comical electronic "na na na". This probably hits harder listening for the first time without having heard "Kick It".

"Kick It"

Excellent. I go crazy every time. I didn't have the opportunity to grow old with this song like 2020 NCTzens did, so I can listen to and appreciate it as many times as I want without being transported to wretched 2020.

Some songs are just good as performance songs, only able to be appreciated when combined with a dance. "Kick It" is not one of those songs. There is so much to be appreciated in the buildup of the verses, in Mark and Taeyong's raps, in the prechorus. Even as the song dips in and out of the lower-stakes verses and bridge, the buildup of tension is so satisfying. 

Fuck, and it's jazzy, too. It could have ridden off of spectacle alone, but it doesn't. I knew I respected this song as soon as I heard the final chorus adlibs - they blend the harmony of the verses with the tonelessness of the chorus in the most unexpected way.

How would I feel if someone told me this was their favorite NCT song?  Appreciative, actually, considering how much flack 127's title tracks tend to get.

 

"Boom"

Really not sure what we're going for here. Starts out cute enough - Jaehyun is in good voice, and the melody in the prechorus charms me. I understand the temptation to change it up a little, but why insert a random anti-drop in a song that never builds up to it?

"Boom," says Mark, illustrating some kind of impact that fails to shift anything beside the chorus. It's like he's trying to pull the song into another genre but failing because Jaehyun drags it back home kicking and screaming.

Side note: why is it when producers don't like giving certain members lines, they randomly double their voices? I've heard this with ViVi from LOONA in "Rain 51db" and Jungwoo in this song. 

The bridge is very good. This is the rare circumstance in which I want to hear Mark sing for a decent amount of time in a 127 song. And then it goes back into the bullshit of the chorus. I am not mad at it; I can't even claim to be confused by it. But I have to say it kinda fails at what I think it's trying to do: tie together the whole album with a sense of intensity.

How would I feel if someone told me this was their favorite NCT song? Like, in all of NCT? Sure, I guess

 

"Pandora's Box"

On every K-pop album there has to be a song that relies on a silly little keyboard progression! See "Tasty" by ILY:1.

I could say that this song has too much bombast for what it is. Its general conceit doesn't warrant such a heavy beat and intense prechorus - this is the "Meaning of Love" of 2020, the cutiepie silly grown man aegyo song. Also, didn't Pandora's box release all the vices of man into the world?

I do understand the idea more than I do the idea of "Boom". I think an effort was made to make an archetypal song into something more, something that meshes a little better with the craziness of "Kick It". The vocals carry the song for me, though, not the beat. I love how their voices mesh in the chorus, especially the hint of vibrato at the end of every little phrase.  

It lowkey pisses me off how each mini-phrase ends on scale degree 4 instead of scale degree 3, even though it makes perfect sense in theory. 

How would I feel if someone told me this was their favorite NCT song? I mean, the high note is good. And I can understand the concept of comfort songs.

 

"Day Dream"

First heard this song when it played randomly while I was sorting laundry. What a beat! What a chord progression! What a hook at the beginning with that melody in Jaehyun's voice - what a perfect introduction! 

Even my dad, who has been singing his whole life, struggles to hit the notes that several 127 vocalists hit during the choruses of this song. There's nothing like hearing that high E for the first time. Someone in the comments of the official audio on YouTube also pointed out how rich the background vocals are, especially during the prechorus. One of NCT's best.

Briefly, its weaknesses. The "lo-ving-you-feels-like-I'm-dream-ing" in the chorus feels arbitrary, and I don't like the trend of prechoruses and bridges having a snapping beat in the background (though I like the quality of these snaps - they sound far-away and dreamy, as if they were chosen carefully and not just put in there to fill silence). Also don't care for the rap part. 

How would I feel if someone told me this was their favorite NCT song? Overjoyed.

 

OK bye see you tomorrow 

1/5/2026 Cookies or Brownies?

The answer is brownies. 

My friend, who is being bought off by Big Cookie, insists cookies are better because "the best cookie is better than the best brownie." Absurd. You can go looking all your life for the best cookie and come across a million stale sugar cookies. Meanwhile you go to your sibling's middle school graduation and suddenly your whole sad life is lit up by the presence of a plate of perfectly serviceable brownies.

Lofthouse-style cookies.

I suppose I can understand her argument, though. If I were offered to choose between a box of brownies and a box of those Lofthouse-style cookies from the grocery store, I'd choose the cookies! But the point is the average sample of each: you cannot live life seeking an endless peak. No; you have to consider the average. And the average brownie is a far rarer delicacy than the average cookie. A cookie is more of a gamble. Life isn't a gamble.

My graphic.

My friend and I engaged in a Twitter diva-off for the soul of the sweet treat. Her desperation in the face of my nonchalance assured me I had prevailed - however, I did lose sight of her argument along the way. I made a graphic presuming to convert her to the side of the brownie, not considering that she did concede to enjoying brownies. It kills the fun to have holes poked in my argument, so I did not reply to her last statement.

Don't the brownies look so good in the graphic, though? 

Which is your favorite?

1/5/2026 Test

Using this post to see if my fucking sidebar will show up on my main page again.

Fuck you, Google. 

Update: working very hard to get my "Punch" post to work. It does not want to work. 

1/4/2026 "Singin' in the Rain", Identity, Twitter, Autism Maybe

Tonight I watched Singin' in the Rain (1952), a movie I've seen over and over again since I was young. As with many of the classic musical films I've been rewatching this past year, I feel I have a proper grasp on the plot now. How interesting to see a film I've always taken for granted while newly aware of how people feel about it! On Twitter, which I have yet to escape, I find myself surrounded by the discourse of real movie fans - about storytelling, about acting, about visuals (a lot about visuals). Through my relatively brief career as Person on the Internet I have flitted from circle to circle and platform to platform and discovered what people who care about art actually think. For example, it was only a few years ago that I truly grasped that people care about pop music. The little It's a Wonderful Life (1946) craze this holiday season clued me in to the fact that people care about old films. Isn't it crazy? I feel like up till recently we were all about critiquing the stories of the past and building a better future - but then, I also didn't know we cared about the music that was currently on the radio - I suppose I don't know what I thought. 

I'm picking this apart too much. I don't know to what extent I should assume I am an outsider. Do you feel this too? I guess this is just called "discovering new interests". But this kind of stuff comes with big adjustments. It changes who you are. And the internet circles one trips into aren't always so insular. Sometimes they're temporal stages of how the internet on average thinks - like what behavior is considered acceptable at a party, or what's funny and not funny, or if we should like Ice Spice.

It's like this. It is very difficult to be naive. When you don't know how things work, you have to depend on others to teach you about them. I do not have the privilege of filtering out a piece of knowledge or advice. I hardly ever have the authority to judge what person's opinion is worth my time. Every opinion is a very big deal. An opinion can be a grand and satisfying affirmation, or it can be a cruel rejection. The rejections hurt bad. Scully from The X Files said, in the season 1 episode "Beyond the Sea", in which her father dies, that "there are other fathers". There are fathers on the internet, opinion leaders, upon whose word I hang, even if I have never interacted with them once in my life, on- or offline.

I feel myself overflowing with beliefs that are not mine. In the case of morality, I want to be influenced: I almost always leave myself at the whim of someone else's idea of what is right, which causes me much confusion and fear. But I'm distressed by what I thought about the color grading of Singin' in the Rain. On film Twitter, the vibrant Technicolor look of old movies is commonly compared to the muddy color grading of modern shows. To some extent I had probably just learned some new way to express my love for the movie, but I also felt inauthentic. I could not tell if I really in my heart of hearts cared about color grading. I never would have before! 

I'm not exactly sure how I should feel about Singin' in the Rain, or It's a Wonderful Life, or any movie I've seen lately. I mean, I know how I feel about them, especially since the latter made me cry. But I feel my own opinion to be tainted by the opinions of others.  

So do I give a fuck about Charli XCX? - perhaps there's a remnant of arbitrary elitism there. I used to listen to Mendelssohn 24/7 and now I care about Charli XCX? But also... do I give a fuck about Charli XCX? And do you understand my meaning here?

My journey these past few years has been to discover my own opinion, to discover how to feel strongly about things. I think I've felt strongly about things in the past, but not often so strongly as to ever seriously think those feelings mattered. Nowadays I fixate on opinions and the process of forming them. I form them loudly and carefully. I want to be honest and I don't want to be misrepresented. Please don't be mad at me.

What's your favorite old movie? 

1/4/2026 Endless Consonance and NCTs (Non-chord Tones)

WARNING: this blog post assumes some knowledge of the K-pop group NCT.

One of my first exposures to the Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich was this YouTube video about his fugue in A major from his 24 Preludes and Fugues. This particular piece is unique because it technically contains no harmonic dissonance; that is, within the context of every chord, implied or substantiated, no non-chord tones are played. That is, if the chord is A major, the melody will only contain the notes of an A major triad. There's a lot to be said about the subversiveness of writing an entirely consonant piece, especially considering Shostakovich's life and character. (Shostakovich composed the vast majority of his work while engaged with the complicated politics of the Soviet Union; scholarship on his music tends to focus on his relationship with the state and Stalin. For further reading I suggest The Lives and Times of the Great Composers by Michael Steen.) But the fugue a rather pretty work, which begs the question: to what point can one presume that something perfect and sweet is hiding something darker?

Hi guys. Today I want to talk about NCT's predebut track "Switch", featuring SR15B, which was later released in NCT 127's first mini album. 

I'm fucking obsessed with it. Look at the boys go. Half of these boys aren't even members of NCT 127 - not even Johnny or Doyoung (the latter of whom sings Most of the song), who join the group after the release of their first mini album. One of them, Hansol, doesn't even end up in NCT. What are we doing here. Why couldn't this have been released under the banner of NCT U?

What is there to smile about? Misogyny?

I came to write this blog post because "Switch" fascinates me musically. It is not entirely consonant like Shosty's fugue, but it contains a similar sickly sweetness given that it has no real chord progression: it remains in the tonic and never changes chords. One may argue that since some phrases end on non-chord tones (NCTs), different chords are implied, but the instrumental itself does not back that claim up. It remains doing its little bleep-bloop thing. 

Speaking of the instrumental - I find it a charming reminder that NCT did not have their start in the so-called "noise music" which many K-pop enjoyers associate with their "neo" branding. NCT 127 in particular could be the kings of 2010s corny with their similar songs "0 Mile", "Replay (PM 01:27)", and even the more downtempo "Sun and Moon". Not that I mind it. Perhaps "Switch" has its own subversiveness, though not quite as "in-your-face" in nature as their 2021 title track "Sticker". I for one recall the new "open" pop sound of 2014-2016 feeling very new and forward in comparison to the density of late 2000s and early 2010s hits. But then, I was like, ten.

What is "Switch" trying to do? For one, it's a dance song. Why else would all of NCT as it existed in 2016 be participating in a music video for a song that has maybe three people singing on it? It's also cute. It's fun. It brings a little taste of summer to the wintertime. 

Really what I'm asking is how far we are meant to read into "Switch". It's far easier to pull back the curtain of Shostakovich's fugue if one knows the context behind it (and if one ignores the possibility that Shosty could've just gotten a consonant feeling and/or been happy) - yet my father said the fugue felt like walking on clouds, and said that "Switch" was the work that came off as creepy. That's crazy. What do you think? I don't have any answers myself. So, as is on-brand for my casual writing, I leave this blog post empty of a conclusion. Like and subscribe and stream Shostakovich.