From Can’t You See Me to Puma, the choices around TXT’s latest mini album have easily been my biggest disappointments of 2020. But by promoting album-closer Eternally, Big Hit has finally done something right. Now, don’t get me wrong – although it has some cool, trippy moments, the music video is bloated as hell and stuffed with the kind of English Lit class symbolism that thinks it’s more clever than it is. But as a song, Eternally is the second-best on the mini album, and I’m happy to see it seize the spotlight.
Since debut, TXT have been lodged in this dreamlike, fantasy concept. It has resulted in some cool visual moments, but like most K-pop lore, it’s only grown more long-winded and convoluted with time. When it comes to music videos, the group has yet to replicate the succinct power of last year’s Nap Of A Star. Eternally bends over backward to be deep and meaningful, and that strain is honestly exhausting. Ideas that could be presented in three minutes are stretched out over twenty, most of which involve the members gazing moodily at the camera and walking slowly through hallways.
But, I digress. Eternally is most interesting when you consider its musicality. What begins as a typical Big Hit ballad morphs into a thomping electro track, borrowing elements from industrial music for a refrain that’s at once exciting and haunting. This dramatic switch-up makes Eternally a song of contrasts, which also makes it difficult to classify. Unsurprisingly, I prefer the more upbeat portions, but the song’s wispy production and vocal delivery make the slower moments pleasantly hazy as well. They actually remind me of the late-80’s dream-pop genre shoegaze, which I never thought I would say when it comes to a K-pop track. I only wish that Eternally pushed itself even farther, building to something truly avant garde rather than the interesting – but ultimately repetitive — stop/start structure it delivers.
| Hooks | 8 |
| Production | 9 |
| Longevity | 9 |
| Bias | 8 |
| RATING | 8.5 |
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The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion
Truthfully I don’t grasp all the lore but I appreciate the theatricality of the MV – better too much effort than none at all – and unlike Puma I will actually acknowledge this song exists lol
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Honestly this song is the perfect succcessor to Nap Of A Star and Magic island. They naurally brought in some darker elements and it sounds pretty good. The music video was also pretty cool but they didn’t translate the korean text so I had no idea what was going on. Though I think that scene in the beginning where the world was ruined was their future and each member got a taste of that. But then at the end they showed us another version of the dance scene where the bells stopped and they don’t end up finding out what happens in the future. I also beleive that Soobin stilll knows what will occur since he stared into the camera for over 10 seconds.
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So they have done it again. Long form mystical video, with occasional music. Lord knows what it means, but I can tell you it would go best with a dirty martini sipped slowly.
I don’t quite understand how this sort of thing squares with TXT of otherwise ordinary kpop. Its not quite The Who Tommy, or Beatles Help, which fit into their ouevre quite nicely. These long videos seem to stand outside of the TXT conventional kpop releases as something else yet again. It seems to be more the creative musings of someone big at BigHit who just wants to do something nifty. Last years Nap of a Star was Wes Anderson to me. This one here today is all weird French cinema circa 1970’s. Camus updated for 2020 Seoul. The sound going from music and then nothing but ambient noise. Now light now dark. Now dead, now alive. People walking through corridors opening doors, seeing things. And than at the end you really have no idea what it was supposed to be about but apparently something about the French war in Algiers, or something.
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My god, I love this comment so much.
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I honestly feel like TXT released one of the best mini albums in some time. CYSM and Puma have surprisingly grown on me quite a bit, especially Puma, which is honestly kind of shocking to me since I really didn’t like it at first. Drama and Fairy of Shampoo are both incredible, and Maze in the Mirror is convincingly emotional and smooth. And this song, what a thrill ride. This may be going too far, but it almost comes off as the ‘Sherlock’ of a new decade, because it is almost like a combination of different parts of MITM and Puma/CYSM (obviously, I don’t think the song is quite as good as ‘Sherlock,’ but I do find it to be a similar concept executed well). The contrast between the verses and the chorus is really well done, very close to being too much but done with just enough confidence and cohesion to make it work. The melodic swoon of MITM morphs into the rock and trap influenced verses of Puma and CYSM (especially resembling CYSM’s Billie Eilish-style 2nd verse), creating a jarring and memorable sonic/tonal shift. In my opinion, I think this is TXT’s best body of work yet. It’s a successful foray into trendier sounds that also manages to maintain the spark of their own, with just enough experimentation and sentiment to make it work exceedingly well.
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TxT seems to release one short-film type MV every comeback. (NOTS, Magic Island, and this) But NOTS still remains superior imo the other videos are dragged too long, in Magic Island I almost forgot I was watching a MV and not a live anime, haven’t watched this one yet but 20 MINUTES?? WHY
I just wanna say I enjoy reading your reviews, a golcha fan who reviews kpop songs and dislikes trap, can’t ask for a better combination.
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This type of long winded, bloated music video that’s about as deep as the comments made in an Intro to Philosophy class feels like the marketing team at BH wishes it could flash subliminal marketing text in the video saying “love this like people loved BS&T” if it was only legal. The song itself is one of my favorites off the mini, but I feel like these cinematic MVs are failing to craft an individual identity for TXT. Instead, I feel a sense of panic emanating from BH that they don’t yet have their successor to BTS with the countdown to military service getting uncomfortably close. Up through this mini, I felt like BH had something different up their sleeve for TXT and had more belief in their original concept. Now it’s starting to feel like they want more of an immediate duplicate than a group that finds unique success on its own terms.
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I think the mistake here was just that they called it an MV, because it isn’t. It’s a short film which used the song at times. I think it’s a great way of how to use a B-side and also get the opportunity to just focus on the lore/aesthetics. I’m not that into TXT so got incredibly off put when I first clicked and the video was 19 fricken minutes, but that was because I thought it was a title track.
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