NCT 127 – Be There For Me December 28, 2023

Track Listing

1. Be There For Me
2. Home Alone
3. White Lie

1. Be There For Me

As this was the leading song for the Winter single, Be There For Me was going to have a much different sound to what NCT 127 has been throwing out at fans in the last couple of years.  That said, the group gives a warm mid-tempo track that just kind of keeps with their more R&B-ladened sound from their album songs which I suppose was a safe drive, I guess.  Of course Mark and Taeyong open things up with raps before the rest of the group enters the fray with the first run in the chorus.  The song keeps at a pretty calming ride through out and while it’s not the most bombastic piece of work NCT 127 has done, it’s passable as a wintry track.

2. Home Alone

The next track peps things up with a bit more of a brighter pop track here.  I kind of enjoyed the song a bit more as the vocals feel more alive in the song and I really enjoyed hearing Johnny and Yuta throughout this track.  It does feel like a 90’s boyband kind of winter song though and the cheesiness is pretty prevalent from the oddball ~slide to the left, slide to the right~ hooks found through the choruses.  It’s catchy I suppose and probably the best off the single at least.

3. White Lie

No surprise that one of the 3 songs had to be a ballad for the release and in this case, it’s White Lie that has that honor.  Unsurprisingly, I’m not too interested in ballad especially simplistic ones, but this does get some other instrumentation beyond the piano and strings.  In fact, it comes off as an R&B ballad with flourishes of some level of piano/strings.  It’s still a little too white for my tastes, but I do like the vocals in this one but at this point, that’s not a surprise.

NCT 127 closes out the year with a surprise Winter single to kind of just wrap up 2023 and it’s an OK release, not a release that’s here to wow fans, but just to release something for the season.  The only song I think I’ll keep around is Home Alone as it’s kind of the more upbeat NCT 127 sound I enjoy while Be There For Me and White Lie are kind of just standard songs you could find some place else in NCT in general, so eh?  Still, nice to see Taeil still involved despite the injury he got during the “Fact Check” era.

Shoko Nakagawa – 65535 December 12, 2023

Track Listing

1. 65535
2. Shoko Nakagawa
3. City Hunter ~Ai yo Kienai de~
4. 65535 -Instrumental-
5. Shoko Nakagawa -Instrumental-
6. City Hunter ~Ai yo Kienai de~ -Instrumental-

1. 65535

I was pretty surprised that the song that leads the single opened with 8bit sounds before going into kind of a synthpop sound throughout.  Luckily, Shokotan isn’t fully singing under auto-tune and filters for the song, but she is singing in a more cutesy tone versus other songs she’s done in the last few releases. That explains why it has an anime tie-in for sure and respectfully, I appreciate more of her lower, natural range songs versus the more peppy-cute tracks in her discography.  This is fine though, but not really amongst her best works.

2. Shoko Nakagawa

Interesting that we’re naming songs after ourselves, though I’m surprised it hasn’t happened any sooner, right?  In comparison, this is kind of more interesting because this is like Shokotan is taking on a mix between city-pop and dance and I found myself intrigued by the balls Shokotan took for this song because it’s fun, silly, and Shoko kind of just singing about herself is just a funny thing to see (and the PV is hilarious too seeing fans being the leads).  I actually enjoyed this quite a bit, much better than “65535” for sure.

3. City Hunter ~Ai yo Kienai de~

Last song off the single, I actually recognize this song as it’s a cover of an old anime song and last time I came across this, m.o.v.e had covered it.  I will say, Shokotan’s take on the song is a bit more faithful to the original with a bit more of an older style in the arrangement, but I also hear Shoko singing in a much lower tone versus the previous two tracks.  The whole nostalgic 80’s vibe of the song is very much present and Shokotan did a really good job covering this theme.

Kind of quietly snuck this single out back in November and I hadn’t noticed til now.  Anyways, kind of surprised at how little Shoko has been releasing (although she did release a self-cover best early this year so hmmm).  65535 is an OK single for the most part, the leading track is definitely the weak link here as it’s kind of quirky and cute which isn’t my thing entirely anymore.  The self-named track was pretty fun though and her City Hunter cover was pretty spot-on and stood out.  Overall pretty decent, wondering what this album era is going to look like though.