I can no longer delay the inevitable. It’s time to talk about The Star Chapter: Sanctuary. Not because I don’t like it. I do. But It’s growing on me more and more with each listen. And right now, I don’t really have much to say about it musically. I feel like on my first couple of listens, I should have been more hooked because of how R&B heavy this album is. And there’s a decent chunk of SM writers/producers I recognize. But it feels like an epilogue.
Visually, it’s a 10/10. I love and hate that HYBE keeps creating these album concepts where I gotta buy 20 different versions of the same album, but they all slap. I think the Knight concept is my favorite group concept. I love the love concept, but it’s whitewashed to hell and back. Savior and Angel are fantastic too. You can check out more pics here.
“Heaven” is the album opener and I love the happy, floaty vibes. It gives me cozy road trip music vibes as well. The whistle in the background adds to that cheerfulness going on. Soobin and Taehyun have writing credits on this one. Love that for us.
“Over The Moon” is our title track. I haven’t decided if I prefer the English version over the Korean version. But this is one of the few songs I know I’ll listen to both frequently. Typically, in this situation, I listen to the one I hear first more. I love a TXT outside music video. Idk if I agree with that tweet I saw that asked why that wasn’t the main music video. But it is refreshing. And makes more sense plot wise than whatever the heck was going on in the OG video, lol.
Also… Soobin thumbnail? OMGGGGG. Every day, I become more and more of a Soobin girl, *sighs happily*. He’s strong second fave member.
I’m listening to the remixes as I’m writing. The Deep House version slaps. I added that to my Deep House playlist immediately. I don’t like the R&B version at all, which is disappointing, but fine because isn’t that literally the original one anyway? The Rock version is also very okay. I think it’ll be better with a live band in person. But I don’t want it to replace the original version.
“Over The Moon” feels like an outro song. I love it. It reminds me of “Chasing That Feeling” in that it’s a chill song. But the vocals in the chorus in “Over The Moon” is wiiild. It really has that ethereal, airy vibe to it. It just sounds so damn pretty.
There are certain TXT songs where Yeonjun’s vocals really stand out to my ear, and “Danger” is one of them. Yeonjun, Beomgyu, and Taehyun have writing credits on this one. So makes sense I guess? Another tune. I like the slight distortion in the “dddanger” part in the song. The bass and beat for “Danger” is another highlight in the song. Oh! And the “damn, I’m so obsessed”. Bro thinks he’s me.
“Resist (Not Gonna Runaway)” That Nina Sky “Move Ya Body” beat is so good but distracting as hell for me, lol. Taehyun is all over this damn album, writing credits wise. What a time to be alive. Please keep him in the kitchen. I need him to continue cooking.
Soobin, Beomgyu, and Huening Kai are also in the credits. I remember some of the Beomgyu account girls I follow celebrating because he had two credits this time. I’m excited about that as well. I like that these two are line up like this on the album. They feel very hand in hand. I love the line delivery of “cause I don’t wanna live without ya” line.
“Forty One Winks” I think, at least as of writing, is my favorite song off The Star Chapter: Sanctuary. And what do ya know? Dem Joints produced it. Also, apparently Jordan Sparks is listed as one of the writers and wow. Was not expecting that. Nice surprise.
I love everything going on in this song. The ‘o-o-o’s the beat, the teaser video they had of the boys dancing to it. I wish it was longer. I wish this whole damn album was longer, really. But I hate when songs are long for no reason, too. So it is what it is 🥹.
Beomgyu center in that TikTok? We take all the wins we can get, lol. I’m happy Yeonjun still had his “GGUM” hair. I love everyone’s hair in the concepts and during promotions. I love Kai having slightly longer hair.
Now, when I watched that TikTok of the guy decoding the album track list. I rolled my eyes at two songs being having heaven on the same album. But the melodies for “Higher Than Heaven” and “Heaven” are very different and thankfully spaced apart far enough from each other. Probably not going to stop confusion for future MOAs discovering this album or song(s), but that’s a problem for a future date.
“Higher Than Heaven” continues that TXT sound of guitars and rock vibes I like. This is a bit more pop-rock. They don’t have anything like the rock version of “Deja Vu” or “0X1=LOVESONG” which is something I was looking for, but we did get a bit of that Rock fix with the remix of “Over The Moon”.
Overall, I do enjoy the album. I just don’t feel too strongly about it. Like it’s a tune (chune in my British accent). I have no idea where I would rank it on my favorite albums of the year. Maybe like 25?
Idk how many albums I’ll even include this year, lol. But I’m curious to what y’alls thought are on this album. What is your favorite song from The Star Chapter: Sanctuary? Let me know in the comments! Next up I think is ENHYPEN, and Daydream.
Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Threads, & BlueSky. See ya next article!
Ash💫