Review: TXT – minisode 1: Blue Hour

Remember how I said last article I’ll have more time for blogging? I immediately started a new job right after I posted TEMPTATION that has me just as busy as I was before, lol. Then my last couple of weekends have been jam packed. So I’m back to square one, essentially.

So I’m just gonna do my best with my posting schedule. Follow me on Twitter/X for blog and life updates because they go hand in hand. I recently saw IU in concert and it was such a blast. I need to update Instagram, but I have a thread on Twitter where I posted some clips and merch, so please check that out if you’re interested. Let’s get back to TXT talk.

Ahh yes, my third favorite TXT album. Calling it my third favorite feels so off, considering it’s S tier for me. But if I were to recommend three albums to someone new to TXT, ETERNITY, TEMPTATION, and BLUE HOUR would be them.

I remember this era being my first really coming back to TXT after catching up with them back in May/June 2020 with The Dream Chapter: ETERNITY. So my hype and energy with TXT was very high. They couldn’t miss for me.

And minisode 1: Blue Hour was exactly everything I wanted from TXT at the time. They set the bar a little too high, and I was not ready for what would come next, The Chaos Chapter: FREEZE. But that’s a story for another day. Let’s start with the album opener, “Ghosting”.

I have to talk about the visuals this era. One of the main things, beside the flawless music, is the visuals. VISUALSSSSS. I feel like I have to keep defending myself for looking at Yeonjun more than I should, but this pink, cotton candy hair is EVERYTHING. I will never not talk about his mullet during

Ghosting

I’m gonna need a thesaurus near me while I’m writing this article. I’m gonna try to limit my use of obsessed, iconic, genius and legendary. But I can’t make any promises. I cannot stress enough how important the introduction to an album is. Especially in an era where attention spans are getting shorter and shorter.

“Ghosting” kicks things off with a blast. The distant, eerie, almost cassette style audio quality within the first like, what, three seconds of the song is such a great way to start the song and album. There’s an overarching theme of retro/80s sound throughout the album. But especially on “Ghosting”. I’m realizing the more I spend time in TXT’s discography, how much I just adore when they implement guitars, drums, and other “rock” instruments in their music.

There’s still enough pop and upbeat elements in “Ghosting” I think it’s easy to ignore or forget the band instruments going on in the background. I love the soft vocals in this song. They blend so well with the instrumentals. Really sells the 80s summer vibes. Big “The Boys of Summer” by Don Henley energy going on here.

As usual, I’m going to link the Wiki where you can read more about the creation of the album, and more context of what was going on during this era. And you can also see everyone who worked on this album in detail. I’m gonna keep it pretty light. Because there are a plethora of familiar faces in the credits.

El Capitxn, Slow Rabbit and Wonderkid are here of course. Oh, and can’t forget Hitman Bang. For “Ghosting” in particular, We have El Capitxn, but Taehyun and Soobin also have writing credits on this track. And I just get so fired up to see group members have song credits on their songs.

My favorite TXT album opener at the moment. There’s the perfect balance of other worldliness, sadness, and guitar to set the stage for our upcoming journey.

Blue Hour

I love this song so much. I love this song so much. I love this song so much. I love this song so much. I love this song so much. I love this song so much. I love this song so much.

Okay, now that I got that out of the way. THIS IS STILL MY FAVORITE BEOMGYU THUMBNAIL. I knew I’d be an incoherent mess when it came time to talk about “Blue Hour”. I have such a weakness for Disco/House music. One of my favorite music genres ever. And every time TXT makes music with aspects of house, it gets better every time. I’m still manifesting an LDN Noise TXT song in the future. It’s gonna happen. I know it.

And speaking of production and who worked on this track, might as well get that out of the way.

Hitman Bang and Slow Rabit are the main recognizable names in the credits for this synth laced groovy track. They really ate with this one. Every time I hear “Blue Hour” it sounds better. I still get the same joy and energy from it each listen.

I still smile and scream all the English lines, including the mix of Korean and English for “세상 하나뿐인 special (mmm)” and Yeonjun’s “너는 나만의 special, 하나뿐인 내 special” especially after that live where he was making fun of Beomgyu making fun of him and his line delivery during that part.

I didn’t know until looking at the Wiki that 5:53 pm is considered golden hour in Seoul in October. I was born at 5:53 am, so I can’t help but to find someway to make it about myself and destiny, blah blah blah.

But now that part in the song (when looking at the English lyrics) makes sense. Kyler Niko (mans got credits on ENHYPEN’s “Given-Taken” and SEVENTEEN’s “Ready to Love” I’ve seen enough. King status) and Lil 27 Club (also has credits on “Given-Taken”). At some point I do want to write some in depth articles on Enha, so we’ll be seeing these names again in the near future.

I do have to admit, I don’t listen to the dance break version of “Blue Hour”. I forget it exists unless I’m seeing it live or watching the music video. I have no idea why they haven’t released a studio version of that version yet. I’ve heard people ask for it. But hey, we also want that other version of “Dreamer” too, so I guess we’ll see what happens first.

Okay, I’ve talked enough about the music, we gotta get into the LOOKS. I strongly associate this era with three things. One, Yeonjun’s pink hair and matching pink cropped sweater. Two, Soobin’s blue hair (that I kept noticing changed shades so much in the music video, it was kinda funny) and his iconic “Blue Hour” photocard I cracked and bought last summer (?).

Just in case when I do finally buy my version of minisode1 Blue Hour, I get someone else. Which is fine because I talked about this on Twitter, but I have yet to get a Taehyun photocard yet in my album pulls yet. The only Taehyun one I have at the time of writing is the one that came with my lightstick (the first one, I don’t have the new version yet).

And speaking of Taehyun, to continue the praise train, I forgot he also had a cropped sweater in the music video! I love that styling for him, but he always looks good. Same with Huening Kai (happy birthday kiiiiiiingggg 💕💕💕🎂, so many things aligning in the timing of me releasing this article, lmao).

I’m a simple lass. I love dark brown hair on Huening Kai the most, even better when he has long bangs/hair with it. But he hardly wears his hair like that anymore, rip. But for me, that’s the ultimate Huening Kai look. Then when it’s his silver. That’s my second favorite hair on him.

Wait, I lied, I have an example, when I was looking for another clip, I found this one. I love long wavy bang Kai!!!

…also…like… wha what is going on here???? 👀 I am not responsible for the influx of Ningdungies after this article 👋🏾 but like welcome to the club. He’s great.

Rewatching “Blue Hour” music video, I’ve also realized that I love blonde on Taehyun so much. Why does it suit him and Yeonjun so well? Even that McDonald’s yellow blonde looks great on them. I don’t understand it. Soobin, Beomgyu and Huening Kai I have to give it a few washes with their blondes before I’m convinced. But I like the color on them too, but after its had a few weeks to set in.

I guess since we’re on the topic of favorite hair colors, I really love blue on Soobin. That was part of why I had to have that coveted Blue Hour photocard of him. I have a fake one that came with some concert freebies, but my real one is in my photocard binder. This is the photocard btw if you’re unsure which I’m referencing.

Hair wise, it’s 1000/10. Knocked it out of the park. I also am a dark brown hair Beomgyu enthusiast, so it’s still a win for me. It usually is, he’s yet to have a hair color I didn’t like.

Anyway, the third and final thing I strongly associate “Blue Hour” with is their cowboy outfits. One of my favorite TXT group looks ever. I love the black and white fit in particular.

COME OOOOOOOOOONNNN the stylists ate with this. The commitment and execution of this group look is perfect. I think the only thing I’d change would be to have Soobin’s hat be darker, like a sliver, gray to match closer with Beomgyu’s hounds tooth print.

The white hat and white shirt both being on the upper portion of his body is a bit much. It actually would have looked better with Huening Kai, Taehyun or Beomgyu’s fits. But oh well. I still love it overall.

…I think that’s everything I have to say about “Blue Hour”. It’s likely time to wrap it up anyway and get to the rest of the album. We have three more songs to go. But I know I’d have a brain dump of thoughts on one of my top three favorite TXT title tracks 💁🏾‍♀️.

On to “We Lost the Summer”.

We Lost the Summer

🎶 OOOO IT’S ALLL GONEEEE 🎶 What a 2020 music video. Gonna show my kids this as an example of ‘Rona media. In my Best Kpop Songs of October 2020 article, I said:

“We Lost The Summer” is my fourth favorite song on here. Not strong enough to beat the other 80s inspired songs but a clear victor between it and “Wishlist”.

And rereading that in 2024, my first thought was, “Huh, fourth?” But yeah, actually I still rank it fourth fave. And it’s sooo tough. I have a tuck load of love for it, but not more than “Way Home” or “Ghosting”. Sorry girl.

I will say I enjoy rewatching the video for “We Lost The Summer” more than “Blue Hour” just because there are loads of small details sprinkled into “We Lost The Summer”vs “Blue Hour”. I love the details and creativity put into the set design for “We Lost The Summer”. Plus long hair Yeonjun and that faded almost sliver blue situation Soobin has going on, chef’s kiss.

As much as I hated the early days of COVID and no vaccine (like they say in “WLTS”, so real for that), we wouldn’t have “We Lost The Summer” and other media unique to such a bizzare and scary time.

I feel timing wise, my delay in releasing this article has worked in my favor, because we are currently in Brat Summer, and Charli XCX cowrote the lyrics for “We Lost The Summer”.

I should have save some of those “365” TXT video edits, I retweeted them every time I saw one lol, but TXT really did get to have Brat summer before everyone else did.

I’m lazy, here’s a Yeonjun one I found doing a quick Twitter search:

If I run across some other edits again, I’ll link em. Pdogg, Llil 27 Club and Slow Rabbit also a few peeps who worked on this track.

Wishlist

This is such a Huening Kai song. Now that I know what to look for (sound wise), it’s sooo obvious he wrote lyrics for this one. But I didn’t know Yeonjun and Taehyun also participated in writing the lyrics. Melanie Joy Fontana (another fave writer of mine) was also on this track?? Slaaay.

And this video being a holiday version is super cute. I just love when multiple songs from an album get videos.

Now in the same article I talked about Blue Hour, I talked about “Wishlist” being my least favorite song on the album. And I still kinda feel the same way. I have grown to like it much more than in the past. This is so festival/Lolla of them. But it’s still not a song I crave or activitly seek out. And that’s okay.

Way Home

I’ve been trying to place why I love “Way Home” so fooking much. And it just hit me, it’s so old BTS. Like this could have been on The Most Beautiful Moment in Life pt.2 inbetween “Autum Leaves” and “Outro: House of Cards”.

And MAN I miss that era/sound from BTS so much. Maybe I’ll dive into this a bit more when I talk about The Most Beautiful Moment in Life pt.2 ( I need to start pulling a list together to talk about my favorite 2015 albums since next year will be 10 year anniversary of these albums). But other than Hitman Bang being on this track, I’m not sure if anyone else who worked on BTS’s music also worked on this track, and nailed the sound.

Well maybe Adora, because she’s listed on in the credits. So are Melanie Joy Fontana, Huening Kai, Yeonjun, Taehyun, and Wonderkid. It’s still one of my favorite TXT b-sides. I need to bring it back into rotation. I instantly start swaying when it’s on.

But I love the R&B vibes, probably my favorite TXT raps when it comes to flow. It’s just sooo smooth and chill. What a wonderful ending to a marvelous album. In my mind I had “Wishlist” as the ender so I was so confused when I went back to check that Wikipedia had the listing correct, lmao. I’m such a fake fan, not having the album order memorized by heart 😂.

Phew, it’s finally done! I’ve felt so guilty about not having this completed sooner. And my schedule just being blown to smitherings. But I’m determinded to get my shit together and be on here more. There’s so much new music I wanna talk about. I have so much planned I’m excited about. So thank y’all for hanging in there with me and my random post schedule.

If you don’t follow me on Twitter/X, you should because that’s where I’m the most active and you’ll be the first to know when a new article is coming.

I’m curious to what y’alls favorite song from Blue Hour is. Let me know in the comments. Next up is the last in this TXT series. Then I think it’s a bunch of Quick Thoughts articles.

See ya next time!

Take care,

Ash💫