I am determined to get these posts out before my birthday. I know the album was released a while ago but I wrote notes on my thoughts and I will get this post out! *shakes fist at my brain* you will not stop me!

Ok, stand off with my brain aside, here are my thoughts on their comeback.

Icantfeelanything

This song is about breaking free from the darkness, bursting through, and it follows the themes of the shorts. They really put in a lot of effort for the pre promotion of the album. The story they created, the acting and the cinematography, I loved it all. They really conveyed their message well within a few minutes, because the episodes weren’t long at all.

I love the beat of the song and how stripped down it is.

Smoothie

When I first saw the lyrics to the song, I think when I watched their Studio Choom performance, I was like “Yoooo!” (you have to imagine that in a Mark sound). My mind was in the gutter. I hold my hands up and admit that.

They just sound so sus! At certain points they had me like, “Suuure, we’re talking about overcoming hardship and sticking it to the haters…. Of course *wink*”. However, having said that, I can see that in the lyrics, that whole theme of overcoming criticism and swallowing their haters.

The melody of the song is very title track and SM. If you’ve been a kpop fan long enough you get what I mean. It does it’s job, captures your attention and keeps it. I thought the bridge was really cool, SM never lets me down on bridges.

I really liked the MV. It carried on from their previous videos of escape. They each had a side quest and Chenle rode an actual horse! Jeno’s side quest was the weirdest though… not gonna lie. Throwing hands with a strawberry? Mark also had a pretty cool fight scene.

Box

I love a song I can quote! Don’t put me in a box!

There was a time I collected songs for occasions. So I had a song for a bitter break up (Apologise by One Republic), when I’m in a rainy New Moon mood (Rascall Flatts – What Hurts the Most), a song for when I find my soulmate back when I was a romantic (Gotta Be Somebody – Nickelback) etc… you get the idea. So this song is perfect for my collection, it’s for when people try to trap me in their preconceived notions of me. I’m not famous but people around me tend to try to put me in a box and it’s like no thanks, let me be free.

The idea of my list is I just play the song on the list and it perfectly conveys my emotions and what I’m thinking.

So in the song they too share my feelings. They’re like they will break free because they are too wild to be contained.

I love the beat and the melody. It is one of my favourite songs just melodically speaking. I loved it on first listen and I still love it now.

Carat Cake

I honestly thought they were singing about carrot cake. I had my first listen to the album at the gym and I misheard them. I was like, “Ooh I wonder why they’re singing about carrot cake but also flexing, so weird”.

So yeah, they’re not talking about cake lol.

The song has low key lo fi vibes. It’s a good song to space out to I felt. I feel like I say this a lot in this post but I love the beat. Honestly, the producer has me in the palm of their hands.

The lyrics just seem to be them flexing… but then in my notes I doubted myself and questioned if they were actually speaking in metaphors.

UNKNOWN

I love the vocals and how well they blend together. Dream has underrated harmonies. I love their falsettos and I love, LOVE, Jisung’s rich low toned voice. I thought Jeno and Mark’s part particularly flowed well together.

This, for me, is another song to space out to. The lyrics are uplifting and encouraging so the song feels like a hug.

Breathing

Hot take, but I prefer Jisung as a singer as opposed to a rapper. I really am in love with his voice. It’s so rich! Jeno also has a nice singing voice.

Renjun’s opening is *chef’s kiss* and I love how he bookends the song along with Chenle. They both start and finish the song. Their voices are gold in NCT Dream. Of course Haechan too.  

I am a ballad hater but this is one of my exceptions, it just hits! It’s so beautiful and aching. The song really took me on a journey.

I think this was an EP and it is one of my favourite from NCT Dream since Reload. Although, We Young is my favourite EP hands down. However, I honestly think Dream()scape may have dethroned it.

Oh, I loved it! It’s like they made it for me. My favourite is Box but honestly I can see Breathing or UNKNOWN taking the title away from Box. We shall see.