akmu / 'sailing' neo-music community review

Two years and two months after their last musical release and member Chanhyuk’s enlistment, the third official album <SAILING> finds itself by no means restricted. Disregarding the mood for the season, and as though aware of the recent charts' ardent love for the ballads, their title track ‘How can I love the heartbreak, you’re the one I love’ cleverly avoids the public’s trap. The tempo is delicately controlled and unswayed by the lonely, cold feelings of the song, and it perfectly avoids a recent misunderstanding that only ‘the emphasis on the strength of the vocals’ reigns as ‘the biggest trend in ballads’. This calm, gloomy, AKMU-esque breakup song triumphantly brings about a new persona, surpassing any naïveté and childishness previously captured by their songs, beginning from the witty, bright, ‘Don’t Cross Your Legs’ in 2012’s <K-Pop Star Season 2>, to ‘Give love’, ‘200%’, and ‘Dinosaur’. 

 

With the theme of love and breakup as traces of the ripening of childlike innocence, there seems to be more than just a change in perspective. The genres show no hesitation, and there’s a freedom that's exemplified in choosing not to place any references, as shown first by the freshness of their first album, <PLAY>, followed by their sophomore album, <SPRING>. These works use their personal thoughts and worries regarding romantic confession as leverage, consequently elevating a sort of richness while continuing a colorful, diverse musical journey. Their first song, ‘Chantey’, is heavy and can easily pass for a mood of the ‘70s and ‘80s. ‘Fish In the Water’ can be seen as the perfect harmony of a ‘sing-a-long’ section with the hook, and inspired by none other than country music. The rockabilly air brought by the band in ’Should’ve loved you more’ refreshingly opens the door, and the superb mix of fingerstyle guitar melody, whistle, and clap beat found in ‘Whale’ is a good example of minimalism meeting addiction.

 

As such, the album joins not only the older and younger generations, but those belonging to AKMU’s own generation as well. It draws out an old-fashioned sentiment through the use of the acoustic guitar and harmonica in ‘Farewell’, and if the warmth of its lyrics like ‘the tea cup that you’ve grown used to, the faded colors of the wallpaper / leaving a trace is difficult, so don’t swap them out’ soothe and comfort your heart, ‘Freedom’ presents guitar cut-offs that build tension before eventually running into splashes of instruments. This seem to be making a pitstop at the colorful nature of youthful energy that can be found in Coldplay’s 7th album, <A Head Full of Dreams>. Using an electric guitar as its anchor, indie music’s primary drivers, loneliness and solitude, are expressed from time to time. The creative, original lyrics found in tracks like ‘Moon’, such as ‘I gaze at the night sky without subtitles, listen to the sounds of the wind without translations’, as well as those in ‘Endless Dream, Good Night’, show how this album is effortlessly performing backstrokes when it comes to genres and expressing them without any boundaries.

 

In short, this piece has no particular formula of creating hits that may be well known to those who usually know. There is an absence of a cry for love that makes you shed a single, hot tear, or an exacting choreography with a spectacular performance surrounded by a bright aura. The album surpasses folk, country, and rock, and leaves behind indie, pop, and the old-fashioned, to create an ‘AKMU-only’ kind of ‘mass-appeal’. Instead of an unforgettable first impression, it uses an independent spark to perfectly mix up various sounds, thus bringing a focus on Akdong Musician not only for their bright, life-like characteristic, but as ‘AKMU’ the musicians. Self-writing and producing all the songs are a given. We see Chanhyuk's growth as he puts his voice forward more than he has done in the past, as well as Suhyun’s development through her voice, dense with the many different feelings that can be found in life. Furthermore, this melts a deeper meaning within the record of achieving an all-kill in the charts. Rather than using mainstream methods to bring about reactions, they do accomplish this by using ‘my own methods’. This is an album that marks the apex of AKMU’s broadening spectrum.