Ahhhhhh it’s finally time to talk about my favorite Ten song 🥰.
I talked about me being a 10vey and Ten being one of my fave NCT/WayV members in my NCT 2018 Empathy review. “New Heroes” released about a month after EMPATHY dropped. And it filled the Ten fixation quickly for me, lol.
But it really did feel like SM (at the time) was finally giving Ten and Kun the attention and work we’ve been begging SM to give them for years. We still had to wait until January 2019 for the official WayV debut (which we’ll talk about after the next article). But we had some crumbs to be excited about, with EMPATHY and “New Heroes”.
“New Heroes” just from the teasers had me hype. This one is one of my favorite images from this era:
I still love the color pallet and staging here. Shout out to nctinfo for their service. That’s where the thumbnail is from. They have more pics here too. I love this silver sparkly shirt Ten wears here.
This look is my favorite out of all his fits this era, but there aren’t really any bad fits this era either. I’m not much of a jewelry girlie, but I like the all sliver/white gold Ten wears here.
I think one of the piercings is an ear cuff. I like that one too. I wish I could wear ear cuffs, but they always end up making my ears hurt after a while.
I wanted to do a bit of research to find some additional info like who all worked on the song. But there really isn’t much out. Discogs came thru a bit. Andrew Choi, who’s worked on a ton of SM songs, is credited under backing vocals.
But I don’t see anyone credited under lyrics. Ten has a Discogs, but he’s not credited under lyrics, just vocals. So I’m not sure if it was just someone who SM uses regularly like a Jo Yookyung or what. But it’s odd that I can’t find anyone credited under that.
I have found a few sources talking about the song itself, include Ten’s page on SM musician profile…thing.
“New Heroes” is described as a future bass-based (they love describing NCT music this way, lol) EDM Pop song that harmonizes Ten’s matured vocals and electronic sound.
And when it comes to the lyrics, they say the lyrics are impressive with a strong will to become a new hero of this era by constantly working hard in any environment. By no mention of who wrote them 🤷🏾♀️. So it is what it is.
Going back to the genre of music, of course I would love this song, it’s right up my alley. I love these EDM SM songs, and I think Ten’s vocals work great with instrumentals like this. The instrumental drop happening at the same time Ten pauses to sing “the new he…roes” then the backing vocals following immediately after? Chef’s kiss.
The actual lyrics in the song is also one of the reasons why I love it so much. I remember my mom hearing it and liking the message behind the song too.
It’s catchy and fully in English, so that’s an additional win. Another reason why I’m surprised Ten’s solo music hasn’t popped off a bit more. Is it because of SM’s poor promotion of Ten? Is it just not that desirable for anyone outside of 10veys and WayV peeps? Idk.
I think all of Ten’s solo songs have been in English now that I think about it. I only got through like 30 seconds of “Paint Me Naked”, but I remember English in that one too. I just wasn’t vibing with it 😅.
I do get excited when Ten makes solo songs, I’m hoping an official mini album will be released soon, but nothing has topped “New Heroes” for me.
I know part of this was the rollout for the song. This is one of the shortest vlogs ever, but sooo much happens in this four minutes and twenty-eight seconds.
Hiiiiiiighly recomned watching, especially if you’re a newer Ten fan. You can see more of his personality here. This is a mix of vlog and behind the scenes video. This is a good way too to see the different outfits he wears in the music video.
OMG, I can’t believe I haven’t talked about his hair! I love this lavender/blue/slivery hair he has throughout. It suits him so well. Ten is another idol where I feel like every color manages to work amazingly well on him. Adds to his visuals, not takeaway or dimish.
Anyway, I watched this video so many times during this era. I still randomly think about Ten vibing to the street performer singing “Location” by Khalid.
Alright, so one last thing. I saw SuperM in concert back in November of 2019, and I have some low quality footage of Ten’s solo performances. I was thinking about including “Dream In A Dream” here, but it’s not that great.
Also, he did a condensed version of it. It was really just the first chours and instrumentals. With his introduction and his actual performance, I have 2:47 minutes of video. My footage of “New Heroes” is questionable as well. But it is the full song. Well, my actual recording.
But here’s a clip! For some reason, I can’t upload the full two minutes and something seconds I took 😭. But Ten sounded amazing, and it was wonderful seeing him perform both songs (along with SuperM stuff) in person after being a fan and watching his stuff online for so many years. Thre are lazors and bright lights, just a heads-up.
Man, as much as I and a lot of Kpop Twitter and Tumblr clowned some aspects of SuperM, this was such a fun ass concert. Idk when I will have the opportunity to see Baekhyun perform “Un Village” and “Betcha”.
The only thing that could have made it better was Kai performing some of his solo songs from his debut album (he performed “Confession” and it slaaaaped).
It really just made me want an SM Town concert in the US. I want all the collabs and groups (even a few Suju songs).
Going back to Ten. I want more songs like “New Heroes” and “Baby Don’t Stop” but I also like that he’s experimenting with other genres outside of his NCT/WayV duties. But whenever he decides to drop another bop like “New Heroes”, I will be ready.
So “New Heroes” was the last song of season 2 of SM Station songs, and what a send-off. I kinda want to do best of SM Station songs now. I’m gonna keep that in mind for a future article. But for now, I’m glad I spent a bit of time on “New Heroes”. I know there are still a lot of new fans to NCT and WayV, so there’s never a wrong time to show the old music love.
Let me know what y’all think about “New Heroes”? Is it a new song to you, or were you not really feeling it when it first dropped? I would love to know in the comments. Next up is Blackpink 🖤🩷.
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Take care!
Ash💫