Review Summary: Slow Dancing the worries away
Slow Dance is picturesque. It vividly paints the pictures of a slow lazy weekend where mundane activities are in place, be it sitting in front of the fireplace while reading your favorite book, enjoying that leftover sandwich from yesterday as breakfast, or sitting on the couch while watching some comedy movies with your loved ones. Based on those scenarios alone, it’s almost clear that Aseul is taking a step back from her previous works. Compared to this album, Yukari’s (her previous alias) Echo, is more pronounced; her previous album,
New Pop is also more experimental, both painting different settings and imagery.
Slow Dance leaves only a few traces of the aforementioned aspects, yet it’s brimming with the comfy lo-fi vibes of K-Pop indulgence.
The vocals and production highlight each other in
Slow Dance, striking a well-balanced composition. Compared to its predecessors, which heavily emphasize the instrumental while fusing it with Aseul’s subdued voice, the singing on this album is much bolder, more vibrant, and infectious. It also proudly wears the City Pop influence over the Electronic assortment: reverberating synths, sparkly drum loops, and vocal modulations. The peak examples are “Bye Bye Summer” and “2 Weeks” where Aseul sings her catchiest hooks over the funktastic melodies. The rest of the album follows a cutesy, playful atmosphere, a callback to those enjoyable moments that weren’t important enough to be remembered. If happiness is contagious, then
Slow Dance is a virus of lightheartedness, forcing her audience to chill down and cherish the remaining time.
Days are short after all. Sometimes a moment of reflection is needed to realize the things that we take for granted. Perhaps those moments that we look forward to may have already happened in the past. Or maybe we simply forgot things that were actually important to us. At least that appears to be the idea behind the nuanced closing track “Tell Me”, a ballad with a melancholic prospect. It’s an introspective break to remind that there is an end to both difficult and easy times, tying all of the chapters together.
In the end, during those uncertain times, we might as well do some
Slow Dance.
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