#plus with the nails scraping sample. i think skinz was just mean to be offputting

[sanstropfremir]

So, naturally, someone has to ask you about onlyoneof's comeback. The whole thing has me incredibly confused. Firstly 8 songs were teased but only 4 released? Is this album actually supposed to be a prerelease? And then conceptually....the teasers weren't very coherent and the mv and song are just so strangly detached from each other? To be fair libido was also detached but the mv was coherent with itself while the skinz mv feels like it didn't have a core direction. The tech opening was great but then the pov section hit and just....idk the whole thing lost its plot. I will say the what I've seen of the choreo fits the song well, I just don't get how something that was openly a libido sequel felt so off when the material was right there.

I loved the outfits for the first stage, junji's jacket was fantastic. Someone said they were serving second gen and while I don't think they went that far I do love the copious and copiously cheap leather. I'm certain they'll release another guilty pleasure version that's just the choreo and I really wanna see the whole dance.

I love the three bsides we got I'm just so beyond confused on how they straight up dropped only half of the tracklist. That and the MV being super cheap genuinely made me wonder if the full comeback hasn't actually happened yet but there's just no news of anything like that so...??????

I actually do like skinz in the same way I liked libido- neither song appealed to me at ALL at first but infinite's the chaser made me make a two listen rule because I also somehow hated that song on first listen. On second listen...the 10 seconds of opening with the guitar that fades into the instrumental is SICK. I wish the guitar was more present in the song other than little pop ups here and there. It's def a weird song and the weakest of the 4 we got but also feels very derived from libido and sage. I think it could've been a great noise music song and I can hear what they were trying to do with it I just can't figure out if it's too empty or too crowded.

What are your thoughts?

oh this is so long! thank you!!

yea the whole comeback has been a bit scattered but honestly i think it's probably a money thing more than anything else. we know they are actually capable of doing full scale concepts since all their previous cbs have been more typical; i suspect they really took a hit domestically with libido and the fact that they doubled down instead of switching concepts to something that was less socially 'risque'. it's obviously a gamble they were willing to make in order to be their weird little indie boy selves and i applaud them for it. they've clearly got enough support to keep the lights on and if that lets them keep making music than i'll take some sacrifices.

as far as the mv goes, i don't actually mind it? well, i do mind it, but let me explain. i hate watching it because pov type stuff skeeves me the fuck out, but i also think they did that on purpose. the fact that they likely had a much smaller budget this time around means that they had to do some very creative problem solving to get a cohesive mv, and this is a perfect example of limitations breeding creativity. i think they're playing at something really interesting by reaching into the space of the whole voyeuristc fan experience and superimposing it with a 'storyline'/such obvious inter-group connections. although libido was decidedly western tinted, it still fell within the production standards of what we expect from a kpop mv. despite there being a rise in 'authentic' content from idols, there's usually a very clear distinction between 'performance' work and 'extra content', of which we see a visual distinction that usually comes down to things like rehearsal/casual clothes, tech quality, filming locations, etc. so even though the skinz mv ticks all the boxes of being easy-to-film cheap casual content, i don't actually think it is. there's a couple of really good vfx shots, there's two different aspect ratios, a lot of the shots are very purposefully framed, and the pov aspect, obviously. the fact that they all get into a company car but there's not a manager driving, and there's no accidental shots of staff at all, which all tell me this was a storyboarded and intentional mv. because of the high standard of production, a kpop mv presents an idol as a 'character' in a sense; they aren't wearing clothing they would usually wearing, they're in an artificial setting, and they aren't really 'acting' like themselves either. they're dressing up for work, yanno? customer service face etc. so by purposefully breaking the clearest visual boundary between 'work' and 'casual', skinz is directly questioning those boundaries. where exactly is the line between what's 'performance' and what isn't? how much do we see as fans and who are we to tell if what we're seeing is 'real' or not? it's a really interesting mv concept. not entirely sure it was totally successful, but it got there for me.

it is annoying that they only dropped half the tracklist and it is 100% my villain origin story but addy (@hoforwonho) told me that re-bido was a cd exclusive, which makes me think that the rest of them are as well. and i don't blame them for trying to drum up money any way they can. i'm just glad gaslighting was in the tracks they dropped for streaming because it was the one i was most excited about from the previews and it fucks supremely. ultimate bliss is also really good but gaslighing is my fave by far.

in terms of the actual title track itself, i LOVE the guitar and i think the instrumental has good bones but i don't like the vocal line (not the people, the actual melody+lyrics+arrangement) at all. i think where you're getting the too empty/too crowded from is that the vocals are doing a LOT and the instrumental is kinda bare under the guitar riff, but they're not working together at all. it bothers me less in the studio recording but the chaos is really obvious in the performances. i think i can see where they wanted it to go but it didn't make it all the way there for me, even if i can understand why it was meant to be offputting.

#kpop questions #onlyoneof #ooo w #in terms of the song not matching the aesthetics of the mv i think it was again them going for something as disarming as possible #like the lyrics that they do have in english are so........hm. well. 'wiggle with this parasite' sounds fuckin gross. personally #and we know they can write good english lyrics #in gaslighting there's 'grab me when im teetering/everything is being mirrored by your handling' which FUCKS #plus with the nails scraping sample. i think skinz was just mean to be offputting #also pretty sure the whole pov thing was intentionally meant to be unsettling. like looking into something you weren't supposed to #like i think it was directly confronting the whole weirdness of a bunch of dudes singing a love song to one person thing about boy bands #yanno? #like theyre really really directly beating at the whole celebrity/fan relationship thing #like i cannot imagine a larger group doing something like this it really is SO direct #like i thought maniac and cant control myself were on the nose but these boys really went the extra mile #i also want to see a stable cam of their choreo. i really love the ending pose a LOT #im sure one of the music shows has one up by now #text #answers