Korean music in recent years has had an allergy to full length albums. Everyone who has been around for more than two years has a full length album in their discography, but chances are it’s not from the past two years. Going against the recent grain of Korean music, DAY6 released full length album The Book of US: Entropy on Tuesday. The 11 track album saw title track “Sweet Chaos” take the spotlight, having a music video made for it.
The group previously put out mini-album The Book of Us: Gravity before starting a tour of North America.
Throughout this review, a trend can be seen. It’s never the basics of a song that DAY6 will get drilled for, but instead, the nitty-gritty nitpicks. Little parts of songs, aesthetics of a video, and playlist structure are the details that will get nailed. While the music was good, it would be a bold-faced lie to say that it was a perfect release.
A Review of DAY6’s New Album The Book of Us: Entropy
Tracklist:
- Deep in love
- Sweet Chaos (Title Track)
- EMERGENCY
- Rescue Me
- 365247
- About Now
- OUCH
- Not Fine
- Stop Talking
- Not Mine
- Like a flowing Wind
Track 1: Deep in love
Before the album shows it’s title track, we get an appetizer in “Deep in love.” The opening track is a wholesome and happy song with a catchy chorus. The song could have done with the editing which slightly chopped the vocals during the chorus, but it wasn’t a big deal. Unexpectedly, Jae absolutely steals the show before the second chorus, hitting a spectacularly high note in the pre-chorus. While “Deep in love” had the advantage of going first on this album, it was one of the most memorable ones by the end as well.
Track 2: Sweet Chaos
The title track for the album was named “Sweet Chaos.” The song has an amazing chorus. The words “Sweet Chaos” tie the pre-chorus and chorus together, with faster-paced lyrics following. The keyboard during the chorus stuck out more than any other part of the song. Actually, throughout the whole song, the keyboard felt like the best-heard instrument.
While the song was great, the music video felt a little uninspired. DAY6 often gets away with the lengthy performance shots since they’re an instrument based band, but they still mix things in which change it up. We saw this more than ever during the bridge of the song, but the first two minutes of the video is pure performance. DAY6 isn’t a new group or concept, so is the first half of a video being just performance bringing anything to the table? Not really. This isn’t to say that the video was low budget or not thought through, because that wasn’t as an issue (or even questioned, since this is JYP Entertainment after all).
Track 3: EMERGENCY
“EMERGENCY” starts abnormally, but it works for DAY6’s purposes. It holds a chiptune sound up until the pre-chorus, where it just switches to a normal pop song. The lyrics “breathe in and out, and in and out and out” got sort of tedious. The song’s instrumental and vocals were fun, although at times it felt too repetitive.
Track 4: Rescue Me
DAY6 moves on to a four-song streak of different genres with the next song, “Rescue Me.” The band makes a rare attempt to emulate a hard rock or even metal sound. Fittingly, a guitar was put in as the bridge. The final chorus which rode the momentum of the bridge was easily the highlight of the song. The group has the ability to deliver with this type of sound, but you have to ask what’s the identity of a release like this when it just keeps changing genres.
Track 5: 365247
The fifth track was “365247.” The song was another large change in sound, being almost like a tropical pop sound that seemingly every group has done by now. They executed the style well, with the chorus being the highlight.
Track 6: About Now
Maybe the most chill track on the album, “About Now,” was probably my favorite. The simplistic instrumental mixed with airy and light vocals made it a relaxing listen. While I’ve been fond of chill tracks from DAY6 before, this one easily is the best now.
Track 7: OUCH
Not going to lie, the opening of “OUCH” made me think I was listening to “SELFISH” by Seulgi and Moonbyul. It still tricks me at the start almost every time. This is a good song, besides the someone jarring “ay ya ya ya ya.” That downgraded the quality, making it definitely one of the weaker songs of the album.
Track 8: Not Fine
“Not Fine” was the eight-track on the album. The song sounds like a typical slower song from DAY6. I like the stutter in the chorus of “Not Fine.” Along with the opening song, I found this one running circles in my head while I was doing things at work or spacing out during a University lecture.
Track 9: Stop Talking
When you first hear “Stop Talking,” you think, “Okay, another slow one.” But then, when that chorus hits, it gets a little more intense. It could easily catch you off guard. I thought the rare rap verse within the song fitted well with it. The intensity builds throughout the song and definitely culminates in the end.
Track 10: Not Mine
“Not Mine” was another classic from DAY6 as the album was closing out. The song had great, challenging vocals throughout. The song had a dramatic change of energy from the verses to the chorus, but it had a flow to it that made it feel right.
Track 11: Like a flowing wind
As expected, the album was given a send-off with a ballad track from the group. It wasn’t anything groundbreaking, but it was definitely a good bow to put on this present of a project.
Sweet Chaos, Summarized
The best way to describe the album as a whole would be, just like the title track was named, “Sweet Chaos.” The songs were great besides the hiccup of “OUCH,” but there was no real structure to what sound or genres the group wanted to orbit. In this album, we saw DAY6 take a shot at nearly every genre they could get their hands on. It’s interesting how the final four tracks of the song seemingly kept a similar pace, although anything before then felt a little disorganized.
If everyone can copy something from DAY6, it’s to make full-length albums. It’s always a treat to unpack a release that touches the double digits with how many songs are on it. Sadly, I don’t think anyone will answer this plea. But that’s a whole different discussion to have another day.
As it stands, DAY6 continues to be the best Korean idol-rock band. As it’s been said before, it’s a niche. But with that being said, there sure is competition. And while other bands are good, DAY6 will hold the throne for a least a little longer.