Same Intro for Post Part2, for my reaction to Part 1 CLICK HERE!
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!
6) Run (By Han) (my favorite member)
On the internet I found a message about Han talking about this song and he said… He wrote this song when he was in a really dark period of his life! In 2019 he had to take a break from performing and he wrote this song about Running away from everything in life!!!
No he looks back on this song he said he puts hope from the lyrics about whatever happens to you don’t forget to RUN AND KEEP GOING! You are doing great. Han is really known for his melodic raps, when you hear him sing for the first time a lot of people think it’s the Main vocal of the group…
Han is an amazing artist and you can hear him hit the highest notes in the StrayKids discography! When the former member left the group the vocal lines has to be distributed different. With I.N. not that sure in his singing skills at that time, and Seungmin already had a lot of lines… Han took the higher register vocal lines! When Han writes a song you can really feel he wrote it. His songs tend to be really emotional or like BREAK UP SONG. Even he never has gone trough such pain. He portraits it amazing in his lyrics.
In the Lee Mujin’s Service he told he loves to watch webtoons/animes/K-Dramas and he thinks about how he would react in such situations and you can feel the emotion in his songs. So amazing to see him perform as wel!
This song is about the feeling of running from your worries and anxiety and suffocating feelings! The amazing melody tells you it’s a really happy song, because it has an totally ISLAND VIBE (like your on vacation). But Han tends to use HAPPY tunes on his deep songs. In the song you hear a distorted vocal who says:
RUN from my room
Run from my town
Run from my city
Run from my WORLD!!!
you can feel the emotion of desperation in this part of the song… We all know he is an amazing Artist. But I really feel sorry for him for having such a hard times…
7) DEEP END (By Felix) (the one with the deep voice)
If you talk about EMOTIONAL ROLLERCOASTERS… This song embodies that vibe… He starts the song with really raspy deep voice, and in the first verse he shows a lil bit of his “normal” singing voice. But the amazing part is for the end of the PRE-CHORUS and the CHORUS he uses his Falsetto, so you have three kind of voices in one song…
You think you will love his vocal technics in this song… When you listen to the lyrics… you will cry every time you hear this song.
Especially when you are a STAY (fan of StrayKids) and you watched the survival show. You will know what he has been trough when he wanted to debut. He had some really hard times before they even could debut.
For all the members of StrayKids they had really hard times and you can feel the emotions in their songs!!! I really became a big fan when I found out the meaning of their lyrics! For this song you really feel how Felix felt alone!!! And please someone give him a HUG!!! For the end of the song he sang IF I GAVE YOU ONE LAST CHANCE, CAN WE GO BACK AGAIN. When that sentence is over he really went back to his DEEP RASPY VOICE to end the song. This song is so AMAZING!!!
8) STARS AND RAINDROPS (By Seungmin)
If you know StrayKids during Kingdom Legendary War you know Seungmin for his AMAZING VOCALS!!! After Kingdom he also participated on one of the first episodes of LEE MUJINS SERVICE, where they talked about music and life in general! You could hear his amazing vocals when he did some covers of famous songs. At the end they always sing a DUET! After the show Seungmin got lot of recognition by NON-K-POP fans, and he deserves it!
For songs sang by Seungmin you tend to get a DAY6 vibe… He is one of their biggest fans! He likes to mix a ballad with some rock influences!
In this song he is singing about someone he lost, or someone who is out of his life. You can feel the emotion trough this song, although the song is really UP-BEAT and UPTEMPO. In this song you can hear the amazing range of his voice. Seungmin also sang the OST for the K-DRAMA HOMETOWN CHA CHA CHA (available on Netflix for a lot of countries). I really love it when you hear him go to really high notes even in chest voice! HE IS AN OUTSTANDING VOCALIST AND ONE OF THE BEST VOCALIST IN K-POP. (I think he and Jongho from ATEEZ are the two best vocalist out there…) I think a lot of people underestimate Seungmin because people know STRAYKIDS for their hard rap-unit. Try to give a listen to WAITING FOR US or GONE AWAY or NEVERENDING STORY and you know what they are capable of!!!
9) HUG ME (By I.N.)
The last Solo song on this album A-side is by the Maknea (youngest) of the group. In Korea they really like to order things on age, so the last song is for the youngest member!
For people who don’t know StrayKids, I.N. is 50% of VOCALracha! With Seungmin he is charge of the vocals in the songs. Although a lot of members sing a lot in StrayKids, I.N. will always be linked to VOCAL RACHA. And he is amazing!!! If you hear him end this album off with an amazing track that is upbeat and fun and with lyrics who make you want to HUG HIM!!! His duty as Maknea is to be charming and lovely! He understands his task in this.
In this song he mixes English with Korean a lot so people can relate to the parts he sings in English… Of course he asks for a HUG!!! So we need to give him what he asks for!