#Midsummer Velvet
Life is tiring and the tension is low, but I still live, I think, because the pink blood is flowing inside me. To confess, I’m not a true lover but rather a ‘puller’, but even so, whenever Red Velvet releases a new album, I always give it a go. This time, we’re back with a quarterly comeback after a long time. It’s the 12th anniversary of our debut and exactly 10 years since [The Velvet] came out. However, the title of the returning album is [Velvet Summer]. As soon as I saw the title, I skipped over it. That’s why I wore ‘velvet’ when it was the hottest. So you should ask me first. Why is it like this when only ‘velvet’ is added?
Red Velvet initially debuted with a ‘Red’ concept and a ‘Velvet’ concept. Although he later said that he was active without distinction, he continued to secretly reflect that result within his worldview. And I really like this velvet album. ‘Be Natural’, ‘Automatic’, and [The Velvet]’s ‘July 7th’ — these are really sad and beautiful songs that capture that era as a whole.
The same goes for Perfect Velvet and The Perfect Red Velvet, which must be included when choosing the best Korean K-pop repackages. ‘Bad Boy’ featured here is a song that I love as a famous song. What’s interesting is that Red Velvet has an unusually large number of ‘boy’ series. Really Bad Boy, Oh Boy… At the end of that lineage is this title, ‘Surfin’ Boy’. Velvet and boy were added, so it was over before I even started.
But the reason why I always stop in front of velvet is because it is not just sophisticated and luxurious, but has an eerie, quirky, and urban mood. There is jazz or neo-soul harmony underneath. I’m being careful when I say this because I’m still studying harmony, but this texture keeps reminding me of the nasty, melancholic R&B from the 90s to the 2000s, which was labeled ‘urban’ even though it’s a word I can’t use these days.
And this used to be just my imagination. I think it might have come from Janet Jackson [The Velvet Rope], but it was just about having fun alone. However, when I looked at the path that Red Velvet has taken so far, I realized that it was not my imagination. All of the producers this team has worked with are in that lineage. There are two main branches, one is Teddy Riley, who created New Jack Swing, and the Neptunes line came out under him. The other is the Minneapolis sound that goes from Prince to Jam & Lewis to Janet’s ‘Control’. These two streams met and became the ‘urban’.
For example, someone like Obi Kline. He is a producer descended from the Soul Shock and Carlin lineage, and is also known for his work on Essence. Chad Hugo, Stereotypes, Jinbo, Sumin, and Deeds. There have been hands like these along the path that Red Velvet has walked. So, there was a reason why Velvet was so gloomy and urban. Although it is a company project, this lineage actually flows through the sound.
The album itself exceeded my expectations. If you expect something provocative and hooky, you might get bored, but that’s Velvet. If Red Summer was a summer bursting with tropical house like ‘Red Flavor’, this ‘Surfin’ Boy’ lowered the tension significantly. It’s a summer where I become more mature and fondly remember those times. Summer ripening together.
And these days, SM is strangely obsessed with bossa nova and samba. It was the same with Joy’s album and during HaToha, and it was done here as well. But this is not a coincidence, since popular music from the 80s to the 00s originally contained a lot of bossa, and the generation that grew up listening to it is now the production team. In addition, Brazilian punk spread through TikTok and Latin pop became popular globally. When K-Pop Summer graduated from Tropical House and was looking for a ‘mature Summer’, the answer was Bosa.
The second song ‘Hot Girls Cool Vibe’ is a mix pop song written and composed by Kenji. I have different opinions on mix pop depending on whether it makes sense or not. It’s true that connecting different cultures is a unique aspect of K-pop’s imagination — like Hatuha’s ‘Iconic Heart’ attaching a full-length visual to Jersey Club – but I like it only when it makes sense. This song goes from a Calvin Harris-like disco sound to a hip-hop sound with a car vroom, and although it’s eerie, it makes sense that the two aren’t completely different. It’s not entirely my taste, but it was still good.
My favorite is ‘Orchestra’ in the back. For the unique elegance of Velvet, the rhythm used is Trecillo, which is used by Afrobeats. The rhythm reminds me of Chris Brown and Wizkid’s ‘Call Me Every Day’. But what’s really fun is the lyric writing. Lyricist Hwang Hyeon takes advantage of his major in composition and lists the lyrics using classical terms.
This is the same ‘aesthetics of listing’ as the listing of Michael Jackson song titles in ‘Dum Dum’. In addition, the composition department where lyricist Hwang Hyun came from is a line with great people, from Yoo Jae-ha to Kim Hyeong-seok, Shin Jae-hong, Sim Sang-won, and Jeong Jae-hyung, so it’s good that it continues in the context. Above it, a siren-like chorus comes from both sides as if enchanted. It’s creepy and freaky. So my favorite is ‘Orchestra’.
Looking back, ‘Hula Hoop’ is a song where the members have good harmony. The title keeps reminding me of Hyunsook, a dutiful daughter singer, and a strange remix pops up in my head, but I’ll put up with that. The last song, ‘Hawaii’, was written by Joy, and the progression and content feel like the old Tooniverse theme song. Like the ending song of ‘The Jungle is Always Sunny and Cloudy’ sung by Park Hye-kyung. Joy also sang a remake of Park Hye-kyung’s ‘Hello’, and she has covered many popular songs with pretty lyrics, so even as a lyricist, she came up with such beautiful lyrics.
But there is a real reason why I keep playing this album again. This album starts with the sound of waves and ends with the sound of waves. So, after listening to the end, the end comes back to the beginning, and if you keep playing it, it repeats forever. This is what comes to mind when I listen to that sumi-mi relationship. Ah, summer Red Velvet will never end. As long as I have this album, this summer will stay here forever.
In the past, I enjoyed imagining to myself that Velvet was good, but this time, the path I took proved it. So now I can say this with confidence. Summer is red velvet, and velvet always wins.