I didn’t realize this was the “chokiwa” album, lmaooo. That’s craaazy ๐ฎ.
I love this clip of Sehun so much. In his defense, it does slap. Anyway, welcome to another #10YearsAgoToday article. I mentioned in the ATK newsletter this week (sign up here if you’re interested in getting weekly recaps of all the major news going in Kpop) that this article would be up slightly later than I originally intended.
When I started planning out this series, I was basing the release dates off the 2015 in South Korean Music Wiki, which has The Beat Goes On‘s release date as March 6th. While true, this is for the digital release of the album. Physically it released on March 9th everywhere, and the special edition was released on the 23rd with previously released songs.
So yeah, I got a few more days to work on the article before the day of. Did I take advantage of the time? No, not really, lmao. I’m such a fly by the seat of your pants’ writer. So I’m writing this the same day as it will go out.
I don’t really remember how I discovered this album, my favorite songs are the slower ballads, like “Sweater & Jeans” and “Still You” (์์ง๋ ๋). I don’t remember really checking for the super seniors until “Devil”, which will be discussed later this year, love that album. I want to say this might have been another Pandora find. But regardless, these are two of my favorite Super Junior songs ever. “Still You” is one of my favorite ballads period. So let’s get into this album.
There are so many genres, twists and turns, this album takes you. You go from sad boy hours to frat party so fast. On the Wiki they list the genre as R&B and Electro house. The SMTown Fandom lists it as Pop, dance, and R&B. The Fandom description is how I’d describe it. I guess because I’m not much of a SuJu girlie, it’s the pop-y-ness that threw me off on my first listen.
I wasn’t expecting that. Sometimes subunits/solos stray pretty far from the main group sound, and other times they’re just extensions of that sound. D&E are the latter. I think that’s why I enjoy this subunit so much. I love the R&B and ballad side of Super Junior when I do listen to them. I’m a huge fan of Eunhyuk’s vocals.
I’m also a huge fan of Super Junior-M (rip) as well, and D&E are members of that subunit as well. So let’s start with the title track, “Growing Pains” (lit. You’re as much as me”).
“Growing Pains” slaaaaps. My dudes were going through it. Donghae and Team One Sound ate with this and every song they worked on together for this album. I really love the juxtaposition of the dance scenes of them on the roof with the mini Kdrama we get in the rest of the music video. It really feels like you’re watching a movie. The styling is superb. I love this honey blonde Eunhyuk has. And Donghae’s pushed back hair looks great in the scenes we get that look.
I won’t be covering all the songs on The Beat Goes On, just my faves. But it’s another one of those albums where if you love the sound of one song, you’ll love the other songs on the album that sound similar to it.
I had to include this new one, well new to me, on the list. “1+1+LOVE”, one, that title is cute, and two, I love how dancy it is. You get a lot of up and down tempo songs on this album. Listening to it as a whole, you get a great mix of everything D&E has to offer in a short window of time with the regular edition. And then if you liked what you heard enough on that, the special edition adds to that. Donghae and Team One Sound wrote and created the music for “1+1+LOVE”. What a great team.
I love it when songs have someone speaking a line or lines in the song, and it flows so well with the story being told to us. I get the same tingles during GOT7’s “If You Do“.
“vintage sweater and jeans” as a line shouldn’t hit as hard as it does in this song, but it does. The melody and overall vibe is so happy and easy to dance and sing a long to. It’s great. Seo Jieum, of course, was one of the geniuses behind this, along with Meagan Cottone, Nathan Duvall, Mich Hansen, Daniel Davidsen, and Peter Wallevik.
I was the one who brought it up, so let me bring a bit more context to that Sehun video. So that’s the dance for “Can You Feel It” before dance challenges were really a thing we see all the time now in Kpop. I like they got other idols involved with it. Pretty much everyone within SM at the time is featured in the video, Super Junior members, SHINee, f(x), baby Red Velvet, EXO, and of course, different scenes of fans dancing along as well.
It’s a fun, catchy song. Super unserious. Works incredibly well into the rest of this album. Yeah. Not one I listen to much, but I get it. Sehun was at one of the concerts and was put on the spot to dance to it, lol.
The harmonies. Maannn if there’s one thing about SuJu, them boys can saaang. “Mother” is another late addition to my favorite songs from The Beat Goes On. Something I noticed listening to this album is how you can tell with some of the tracks they’re a product of SM’s 2015 sound. They have eras where the production has quirks that are so specific to that particular time. Like the use of autotune in brief spurts, for example, because it was trendy at the time.
There’s an effect in this song that reminds me a bit of that like ripple effect in Jonghyun’s “Love Belt” that was also released in 2015.
Staaaawp, Donghae and One Team made “Still You” as well??? What a crazy album run. I haven’t seen the music video for “Still You” in ages. I love London. I want to go back and visit again soon. The sepia filter on these music videos back in the day take me back, omg. I love the spilt screen effect too in this video, with both members having their own adventure, reconnecting occasionally throughout the video.
This song is perfect. The vocals, it’s such a jazzy, chill melody. Again, the lyrics are so catchy and easy to join in on. Easily one of my favorite songs ever. If you don’t listen to anything other song I’ve talked about on this album, you HAVE to listen to this one if you love a good midtempo R&B ballad.
Alright, that’s The Beat Goes On. This was such a surprise to visit in full. I probably would become more of a Super Junior fan if I were to dive more into their music. So if you are a fan, I’m curious to what your favorite full group songs are. What are your fave D&E songs? Heck, who are your fave members. Tell me everything in the comments!
Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Threads, & BlueSky. I’ve been trying to be a bit more active on Blue Sky more. Idk about Threads, I hate the notification system on there rn. I had like 7 likes on a Thread and I didn’t even know until the next time I posted on Threads ๐. Okay, I’m done rambling for now. See ya next article! Byyyyyeeee.
Ash๐ซ๐(they don’t have a sweater emoji?? Come on Apple๐คฆ๐พโโ๏ธ)