The video is standard fare, but the track . . .
Phantom's latest track is absolutely beautiful. The vocals are flawless, the mix balances everything perfectly. The harmonic lines fill out the whole thing in a building sense of space, & it curls sweetly around the listener with warm undertones and crisp high notes. The sections are well timed, the perfect Goldilocks middle ground of not too long but long enough to feel solid, sure, and steady. The bridge sweeps out from under you, but gently enough so it doesn't feel like your falling. Rather, when the beat kicks back in, it feels like a conspiratorial smile and then being pulled off by the hand.
And then there's the lyrics. The sweetness in them is something that can't possibly be overlooked by any sane person. It's entirely pan-cultural, too. In the West the notion of 'I Know' is usually thought of as a reference to StarWars, but that's not it. There a reason that line is so sexy, so viscerally appealing. It goes deeper into the human consciousness, the human condition. Being understood on that kind of a level just feels good. And Phantom brings that idea to the table beautifully here. First of all there's the notion of just understanding another person without needing words to make the connection possible. And secondly, there's the promise that the boys of Phantom know and return the feelings of their fans. More than that even, they take the voiceless understanding even further, by saying that not only to they understand their fans' feelings (and the metaphorical girl's) they know that she/we already know; that it goes without saying that we all understand each other on such a deep level that words are entirely unnecessary.
As for the video itself, as I've said, it's pretty standard fare for a BTS video. Phantom is cute and sweet and serious about their work, but the fact that this video is BTS, instead of a story, implies beyond any doubt that the meaning of the song's 'girl' is the fans. It's implicit, just like the song is talking about. We understand that the single lover than Phantom is singing about is actually the fans in general, and they know that we'll be able to figure that out. Honestly, the fact that this video is BTS and not a story, that it connects like it does to the song . . . it's beautifully done and sweeter than any story they could have put to this track.
I can't give it too many bonus points, because it really doesn't have a story, and without the track behind it, the MV is nothing special at all, but it definitely gets a few because the decision to make it a BTS vid was a very conscious one and one that turned out better than any story would have.
And then there's the lyrics. The sweetness in them is something that can't possibly be overlooked by any sane person. It's entirely pan-cultural, too. In the West the notion of 'I Know' is usually thought of as a reference to StarWars, but that's not it. There a reason that line is so sexy, so viscerally appealing. It goes deeper into the human consciousness, the human condition. Being understood on that kind of a level just feels good. And Phantom brings that idea to the table beautifully here. First of all there's the notion of just understanding another person without needing words to make the connection possible. And secondly, there's the promise that the boys of Phantom know and return the feelings of their fans. More than that even, they take the voiceless understanding even further, by saying that not only to they understand their fans' feelings (and the metaphorical girl's) they know that she/we already know; that it goes without saying that we all understand each other on such a deep level that words are entirely unnecessary.
As for the video itself, as I've said, it's pretty standard fare for a BTS video. Phantom is cute and sweet and serious about their work, but the fact that this video is BTS, instead of a story, implies beyond any doubt that the meaning of the song's 'girl' is the fans. It's implicit, just like the song is talking about. We understand that the single lover than Phantom is singing about is actually the fans in general, and they know that we'll be able to figure that out. Honestly, the fact that this video is BTS and not a story, that it connects like it does to the song . . . it's beautifully done and sweeter than any story they could have put to this track.
I can't give it too many bonus points, because it really doesn't have a story, and without the track behind it, the MV is nothing special at all, but it definitely gets a few because the decision to make it a BTS vid was a very conscious one and one that turned out better than any story would have.
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