On 21 December 2022 StrayKids released their “REPLAY” Album.
This Album Contains of an A-side and B-side, the A-side has 10 songs on it.
The first track is an Korean version of a Japanese song they released 2 years a go… the other 8 songs are NEW SOLO songs of the members. The last track is #lovestay which came out on YouTube during the pandemic, written and composed by DanceRacha.
They all wrote their own songs with other producers so they could make a song they really wanted to make! This Album is an Emotional Rollercoaster and the members really put their heart and soul into it!
1) FAM (the whole group)
This song is re-release of an older Japanese song, released about 2 years a go. They just released this video in Korean, gladly this video has lyrics build in! In this song the members sing/rap about the other members! Everyone had to write their own part about one older member!
Bangchan starts this song talking about I.N. (the youngest member) and then they have to sing to the following member in age! The song is so wholesome and they talk about funny things but all the members show off their vocal and rapping skills on a really amazing beat! I really like this song and it’s really good animated with all the SKZOO characters and other animations added on the video!
2) Connected (by Bangchan)
In Korea they are really respectful to the age of people. So they tend to use ages as grades. So they start the solo songs with the Oldest member “Bangchan” He is normally the producer and the maker of all the beats of most of the StrayKids songs! For this song he made an amazing hyped beat which is a bit a CLUB-Banger!!! But the lyrics and his rap/sing abilities are really flawless!!! We all know he is an amazing artist but this song…
In the lyrics he talks about how he wants to get to know someone, then the chorus hits and it’s just an AMAZING DROP!!!
The lyrics are fully in English, Banchan is known as an Korean who moved to Australia when he was really young. So a lot of people think he is Fully Australian because he has an really amazing Australian accent! So it wasn’t a shock he writes songs in English!
3) Limbo (By Lee Know)
The 2nd song is made bij Lee Know and it’s called LIMBO. The first thing that came to mind was, the Limbo in the movie: INCEPTION! (amazing movie)
If you listen to this song on Spotify you will not think all of this song is sung by Lee Know. Normally in the SKZ songs Lee Know tends to bring in his amazing falsetto! In this song he can shine with all his vocal capability! So amazing to hear him sing in all these ranges!!! The song itself is in my opinion a bit like a “DAY6” song. (DAY6 is an other artist in the same label, they have amazing POP/Rock k-pop songs)
For the lyrics for this song I really like all the builds in this song, and at the end they left you hanging… longing for more… felt you are trapped in a kind of LIMBO!!! WOW, so amazing…
4) Doodle (By Changbing)
This Song is totally made to tell people… if you want to draw a perfect image, don’t come to me…
I DO IT MY OWN WAY!
Throughout the whole StrayKids discography the lyrics of the songs are fully about DON’T COMPARE YOU TO OTHERS… BE YOU…
Just love who you are!!! If people try to take you down, they are wrong! You are you and you DO you!
Changbin is known as the FAKE MAKNEA (which means youngest), he can be really playful and childish with the other guys. Although he is a FIERCEFULL rapper he loves to make jokes and fun with the other members!
In this song he literally talks about: “What’s the point of doing of just following the trends, It’s so average!” So amazing to see Changbin sticks to his own vision… He also says something like this in Thunderous. Changbin is really about sticking to your own JUTDEA (it kind of means being a “MAN OF YOUR PRINCIPLES!”)
5) Love Untold (By Hyunjin)
In the pre-debut days Hyunjin got scolded for not being good at pronunciation. In the survival show he was on the line of being eliminated, but with the help of Changbin he found a way to rap better with better pronunciation.
In the StrayKids player on youtube he showed his vocal and writing skills with the songs: MISS YOU and ICE.CREAM. With Felix and Lee Know a.k.a. Dance-Racha he wrote the song #LOVESTAY. It’s a song made by the three of them during the pandemic to be thankfull to the fans! (more on this on part 2 of this ALBUM LISTEN.
For this song Hyunjin really tried to show a lot of his skills… He can Sing really well in different ranges, and off course he can rap really nice. His rap-singing is amazing! The lyrics of this song are so amazing written about someone you lost… the longing of a person you like… but you can’t speak it out loud… He portraits the feelings really amazing in this song!
You hear him rap in kind of aggressive way to paint the picture you are a bit angry at yourself for not talking to that person! And I really love the part in the chorus he used the melody with his YE YE YE YE part!