by Kay Kim, junior editor in chief
To celebrate the spring months, BTOB has released its eighth mini album, Remember That. It was released at exactly 12 AM on March 28th in KST (Korean Standard Time).
“‘Remember That’ is a song that compliments the spring season. We will try our hardest so that this song can leave an impression on the audience every spring. We will do our best on our further activities so that we can be known as ‘Spring-To-B’ [Korean pun intended],” BTOB leader EunKwang said in an interview* with 10 Asia.
Continuing their ballad tradition since August of 2015, this album has also been released as a ballad album.
“Although it may seem risky [that we released a third ballad album], we are looking far ahead. Later, when we look back, the fact that we chose ballad songs as our title tracks for three consecutive albums, will only be a small part [of our careers],” BTOB member SungJae said in an interview.
BTOB’s performances for “Remember That” include very little choreography. They mostly sing with standing microphones.
Tracklist
The first track, “Killing Me”, is a R&B song with optimistic melodies and various repeating riffs. Although the song may sound hopeful, the lyrics expresses the hardships of recovering from a breakup.
After singing of a heartbreak, BTOB sings of hopefulness through, “Drawing (The Picture I Drew)”. Through the lyrics, the band encourages everyone to reach for their dreams and fill their lives with beautiful memories. Although this song is a ballad, it has strong drums beats, which seem to compliment strong hopes.
The title track, “Remember That”, is about a man who reminisces about his former girlfriend. He recalls the happy memories with her as he consoles himself in the shining sun and with the spring winds.
“I thought the song [“Remember That”] was really good and it was a nice break from the usual upbeat K-Pop songs that always come out. Some musical elements that caught my attention was the use of more natural instruments like the drums and acoustic guitar. I also liked the soft singing voice of the members,” freshman Jamila Tejada said.
“Remember That” seems to have given off a new vibe as a smooth-sounding ballad, composed of a lot soft guitar melodies.
While there are times, where artists sing mellow songs of unforgettable relationships, there are times when they freely sing about relationships that ended without any regrets. This type of mood is depicted in “Anymore”, which is a song that portrays the story of a man who is rather excited about his breakup. This is an upbeat hip-pop/rock song, with a lot of bass and electric guitar.
In the previous song, the man did not love his girlfriend. However, in “So Pretty”, the man is in love with his girlfriend to do the point that everything she does is simply lovely to him.
In the sixth track, BTOB comes back to the ballad songs. “Just Like You”, is a song about the aftermath of a breakup. The man in the song misses his ex-girlfriend so much that he sees her everywhere he goes.
The last track of this album is “Empty Space”. It is an uptempo song with electric piano and fanciful guitar melodies. In this song, a man asks his ex-girlfriend to give him another chance, so that he can return to her.
“Remember That” rose to 1st place in the Hanteo Chart almost immediately upon its release. The band had their first comeback stage on Show Champion on March 31st. The members will continue to promote their album through various live music shows and entertainment programs.
* Interview was conducted in Korean and translated by the reporter.
