Note: This article was written for a university class assignment.
Over four months after the release of their fourth full-length album “2 Baddies,” K-pop sensation NCT 127 returned on January 30 with their repackaged album, “Ay-yo,” with three new tracks dispersed in the lot. But just like the first edition of this release, “Ay-yo” as an album falls flat, a revving of the engine without actually taking off.
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Unlike typical deluxe albums, which insert bonus tracks and remixes at the tail end of the project, K-pop repackaged albums re-release previous albums with a new title track, giving it the same amount of promotion as they did the first time around. The repackage’s title track often deviates from the first release’s, making it a true feat if the succeeding title and bonus tracks fit into the previous story with ease. Take NCT DREAM’s first album title track “Hot Sauce,” an Afrobeat-inspired hip-hop tune flaunting the group’s spicy confidence, which was then followed up by the sunshiny repackage title “Hello Future,” a completely different song that still delivers the same tingling euphoria as its predecessor.
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Unfortunately, “Ay-yo” as an album does not have this flawless execution, with the three new tracks feeling disconnected from the original album and arbitrarily placed along the journey. If anything, it only affirms my thoughts about the original “2 Baddies” album, which is that NCT 127 has reached a standstill with how “neo” they can get each year.
The original “2 Baddies” album took a car motif and the iconic phrase “2 baddies, 2 baddies, 1 Porsche” and smashed them together to create a title track of the same name that speaks of love and swag. NCT 127 member Johnny describes the song’s message as saying, “Be confident, don’t care about what others say about you, just keep on moving forward as fast as possible.” There’s a clear attempt to push the boundaries of enjoyable ridiculousness, with this show of confidence encapsulated by the engine revs and car honks layered into the bouncy synth.
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But nothing about it is particularly groundbreaking; they still follow the SM-title-track structure to a T, only making it different by stacking more obnoxious noises on top of each other. What resulted was a listening experience that was somehow both tumultuous and also, frankly, kind of boring.
While the repackaged album does little to redeem this overall disappointment, “Ay-yo” as a standalone song is one of the group’s most successful title tracks yet. “Ay-yo” dodges the issue I had with the “2 Baddies” title and immediately hooked me on the first listen. The song starts by blaring the warning chills of a siren and the disclaimer: “Things will never be the same / are you ready?” It’s far from simple, with a pulse reminiscent of the Grand Theft Auto San Andreas theme song laid over an ocean of scratchy stereo. Paired with a mixture of clear and echoed vocals, the project possesses the same qualities as those surround-sound 8D song edits on Youtube: omnipresent and damn near resurrecting.
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And it would be a disservice to say that all of their B-sides fail to impress. “DJ,” one of two new B-side tracks, somehow combines jazzy riffs with lyrical motifs of clubbing and makes those contrasting images work, a perfect song to play on the aux. “Time Lapse” and the repackage’s other addition “Skyscraper” are two more perfect Dem Jointz notches on the NCT 127 belt. And “Gold Dust” drives up to the mellow, heartfelt rest stop that all of their full-length albums have, taking us with them in their nighttime rumination of love.
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But while the various songs have their distinct color, the album as a whole doesn’t form a complementary palette. This becomes the most apparent in the last four tracks, which don’t add much to the previously established iconography of confidence and cars. “Tasty” and “Vitamin,” from the original “2 Baddies” album, introduce food metaphors too late into the album’s storyline (why are they singing about “butter and scones”?), and the final two songs don’t do much to add glamor, only there to close out the album with optimistic live-laugh-love anthems. The futuristic automobile motif is almost completely lost by the end of the album, leaving me confused and unsatisfied as the last lyrics lingered in my ears.
Photo: The Star Magazine/Twitter
Perhaps all of the album’s potholes reflect the current struggles faced by NCT 127’s record label SM Entertainment. With CEO Lee Sung Soo accusing his uncle and SM founder Lee Soo Man of embezzlement and tax evasion, as well as multiple corporations fighting to take over SM and become their biggest shareholder, it’s safe to assume that the company’s internal concerns interfered with the repackaged album’s construction. Though this doesn’t explain why NCT 127 was thrown under the bus with lousy promotion compared to other SM groups that released albums in close proximity, it’s possible that the height of the crisis occurred at the same time as their album preparation, leaving the group unfortunately caught in the crossfire.
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Do albums need to have a cohesive theme to be considered good? Not necessarily; all of the songs have grown on me with each listen, and objectively this album is not half bad. But in comparison to other artists under SM Entertainment who, despite all of the internal issues, are still being given fully fleshed-out concepts, NCT 127’s repackaged album is a blow, a disappointing result after a four-month-long wait. It’s as if their management put a big bow on top of a mangled Prius and then listed it as good as new.