REVIEW Album Review: TXT — "The Dream Chapter: Eternity"

Polaris_Tae

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ALBUM REVIEW: TXT – “THE DREAM CHAPTER: ETERNITY”
Written by: Polaris_Tae
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TXT is a South Korean boy group under the management of BigHit Entertainment -- known for hosting the superstars that are BTS -- and are the first boy group following BTS to be produced by the label. On the 18th of May, TXT made their latest comeback with the mini-album "The Dream Chapter: Eternity", which is the third album in the continuation of their "Dream Chapter" series that began with their debut album, "The Dream Chapter: Star". The album tells the story of the confrontation of reality and the struggles of youth that have become synonymous with not just the group, but their label, as all of BigHit's idol groups are known to produce music targeted at the younger demographic ranging from teenagers to young adults. Throughout "The Dream Chapter: Eternity", there are multiple allusions to children's tales, such as Alice in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking Glass, as well as Peter Pan that help structure the narrative of youth that are struggling to find their place within today's society.

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'Drama'



"Drama" is the first track on the album and serves as a bold intro to "The Dream Chapter: Eternity"a bright and percussion-heavy pop-inspired track that serves as the perfect introduction to a youth-orientated album and draws you in from the first note! About living the drama that is their everyday lives and trying to escape the delusion of life. The song itself sounds like the opening to a teenage coming of age drama that talks about the struggles that happen during the best and worst time of one's life - their youth. I especially enjoyed the vocal layering from all the members and the use of falsetto in the pre-chorus that adds an airy quality to an already great song. The song had a natural progression where, as the song progresses, the vocals increase in their intensity. The song acts as the perfect introduction to an amazing album, going from playful one minute to complex and layered full of falsettos the next.

8.5/10


'Can't You See Me'



"Can't You See Me" serves as the main title track for the album and acts as the perfect title track to conclude ''The Dream Chapter'' trilogy on. That your experiences of friendship during the period of youth will not always be happy, but that there will be hardships that you will have to face along the way. It is an experimental trap infused song where the group sings about being misunderstood in life and feeling abandoned by the ones that should care about you the most wishing that they would stay by their side forever. I found that I enjoyed considerably more despite often not enjoying overly polished songs with sound distortions. It somehow manages to break that prejudice, as the song's effects are not done in a way that buries the vocalist's original voice but instead, adds an interesting quality to it instead.

10/10

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'Fairy of Shampoo'



"Fairy of Shampoo" is a remake of the hit 90s song of the same name by Light & Salt. The track is an easy listening jazz-influenced song about the titular "Fairy of Shampoo" and how she takes all of their worries and sadness away from them with just a smile. Of all the remakes and covers of this hit song, I think that TXT's version has one of the best arrangements. They rearranged it in a way that changes the overall feeling of the song, yet still makes it feel slightly dated as if it belongs in the Twentieth Century, which was possibly the aim of the arrangement -- to make the song reminiscent of the past, while at the same time acting as a timeless masterpiece.

8/10



'Maze in the Mirror'



"Maze in the Mirror" is an acoustic song that draws references from childhood fairytales, most prominently Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland (Through the Looking Glass). It is probably one of the best songs on the album, despite being less intense than the other tracks it manages to both give us a taste of the member's impressive vocals with Huening Kai and Beomgyu being especially remarkable. The song explores the groups feeling of being restricted and not fitting in with the broader entertainment industry as they have no opportunity to find their true selves. They talk about being trapped on opposite sides of the mirror and focuses on the group's worries and anxieties while navigating the maze that is life.

10/10

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'PUMA'



"Puma" is a trap-heavy song that talks about the mindset of ''getting back up whenever life finds its ways of knocking you down''. Unfortunately, despite this being one of my favourite tracks on the album, it is also one of the tracks that I have the most complaints about. One of the issues I had with "Puma" is that the song doesn't really give the vocals a chance to shine, as the song relies on the heavy use of autotune that can, at times, sound jarring and drown out the vocal qualities of the vocalists. It almost sounds like a song that BTS might have released during their 2014 School series. The song is focused more on the rap verse rather than the vocals -- though this could also be due to longtime BTS producer Supreme Boi taking part in the composition for "Puma" -- however, despite the heavy autotune, I found the overall message of the song, the conflicting thoughts between balancing their life as a celebrity and a regular citizen is one of the songs' most admirable qualities. Huening Kai's lines "After I escape the zoo / The world I face is too unfamiliar / No one even greets me " is especially great, as it displays the uncertainty of one's inner thoughts. When combined with the heavier hip-hop tone of the song, the message establishes a solid and relatable foundation to base both the hopes and fears of the group.

8/10



'Eternally'



"Eternally", is the final song of "The Dream Chapter: Eternity" and was also the song that I thought brought out the members' vocal abilities that I found were absolutely drowned out in the previous song. It has somehow found itself becoming both one of my favourite, but also one of the most alienating songs on the album. As the song itself acts as two separate songs combined into one -- a soft ballad, mixed with a light rock/hip-hop structure as a bridge between each of the verses -- it speaks of the group falling into the darkness of reality and wanting to see an end to the world following being heartbroken by someone that they cared for dearly. I'm not 100% compelled that it is pulled off accurately. However, I found it as a nice change that shows that the group and producers are establishing new and interesting techniques in order to find the sound that is uniquely TXT, even if that risks ruining the structure of a song.


9/10

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In conclusion, TXT's "Dream Chapter: Eternity" is an almost perfect album that serves as a solid entry to the group's relatively new career and establishes them as consistently growing artists. I have high expectations for the group and can't wait to see exactly how they improve and where they go from here.

__________________________________________________

Artistic Creativity: 9/10
Vocal Quality: 10/10
Music: 8.9/10


9.3/10
__________________________________________________


PROOFREAD BY: @Dragon of the West
GRAPHICS BY: @Aerith
 
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Dragon of the West

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Another great review! While I must admit, this album didn't impress me nearly as much as their first two, it was still a pretty good showing of their skills and diversity. Interested in seeing how they move forward onto new concepts now that they've finished this trilogy.
 

Stannie

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Never listened to TXT before but the review made me intrigued so I decided to check it out.

I enjoyed the title track, Drama and Eternally (this track sounds really interesting).
 

Polaris_Tae

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Never listened to TXT before but the review made me intrigued so I decided to check it out.

I enjoyed the title track, Drama and Eternally (this track sounds really interesting).

Me too!

The only song I'd only ever heard from them before deciding on reviewing this album was Run Away (I think that was it???)
I think that I enjoyed the album for the most part, and liked how they have a completely different style compared to the other artists at their label. Wishing them the best in the future

:wow: :wow: :wow:
 

Stannie

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Me too!

The only song I'd only ever heard from them before deciding on reviewing this album was Run Away (I think that was it???)
I think that I enjoyed the album for the most part, and liked how they have a completely different style compared to the other artists at their label. Wishing them the best in the future

:wow: :wow: :wow:

You...are still up :wut: jk

Oh yeah, I did mean to mention as well I liked how their sounds are different from BTS.

Thanks for the review btw! It helps me expand my playlist a bit. I'm so single fandom when it comes to kpop, it's tragic :jinjudge:
 

Saint Ren

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Most of the album was really a miss for me and yet it's the only boy group album that I still sometimes listen to which says a lot about the state of boy groups in Kpop right now

Drama

My fave song when I first listened to it but Drama really only lasted a couple of repeat listens before dropping. "The song itself sounds like the opening to a teenage coming of age drama" I agree, it's very youthful and has a lot of pop but it still has like a funk vibe. A solid 7/10 for me.

Can't You See Me - Title track

I've had a weird relationship with this song, I instantly love TXT's title track's and this is the first time that hasn't happened and yet CYSM has really grown on me and is the one song I repeat off the album. 8/10


Fairy of Shampoo

Okay I instantly hated this song because I was going through a bubblegum pop withdrawal and I just deleted it off the album but on re-listening, it's......pretty bad tbh. There's really not one part I liked, the jazz grated on my ears. A straight 0/10

Maze In the Mirror

I'm a sucker for an acoustic song but this just put me to sleep, it's vocally nice but nothing I'd be interested in listening to more than once. The chorus is really nice and the only reason I gave it such a high score. 5/10

Puma

I think this is a solid song but it's everything I hate about the current landscape of Kpop, the dark MV, the rap, the autotune, the noise, dear God make it stop. 3/10

Eternally

I think I'm traumatised to be honest. Reminds me of SNSD's I got a boy but at least I loved that. I really don't understand why they took two massively different songs and just threw them together, I love the soft song and I had such high hopes for it until that goddamn chorus dropped, we didn't even get any warning, it just turned up and God I hate it. 1/10

Overall a 4 / 10 from me, which is a shame because I've loved their last two albums so much, they were both 10/10's for me and I still listen to most of the songs off the Magic Album.

I liked your review Polaris, I think I would have preferred less of the song explanations and more of your opinion, because I really don't care about the arrangement and genre, and just wanted to know more about what you liked or disliked.​
 

Polaris_Tae

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Most of the album was really a miss for me and yet it's the only boy group album that I still sometimes listen to which says a lot about the state of boy groups in Kpop right now

Drama

My fave song when I first listened to it but Drama really only lasted a couple of repeat listens before dropping. "The song itself sounds like the opening to a teenage coming of age drama" I agree, it's very youthful and has a lot of pop but it still has like a funk vibe. A solid 7/10 for me.

Can't You See Me - Title track

I've had a weird relationship with this song, I instantly love TXT's title track's and this is the first time that hasn't happened and yet CYSM has really grown on me and is the one song I repeat off the album. 8/10


Fairy of Shampoo

Okay I instantly hated this song because I was going through a bubblegum pop withdrawal and I just deleted it off the album but on re-listening, it's......pretty bad tbh. There's really not one part I liked, the jazz grated on my ears. A straight 0/10

Maze In the Mirror

I'm a sucker for an acoustic song but this just put me to sleep, it's vocally nice but nothing I'd be interested in listening to more than once. The chorus is really nice and the only reason I gave it such a high score. 5/10

Puma

I think this is a solid song but it's everything I hate about the current landscape of Kpop, the dark MV, the rap, the autotune, the noise, dear God make it stop. 3/10

Eternally

I think I'm traumatised to be honest. Reminds me of SNSD's I got a boy but at least I loved that. I really don't understand why they took two massively different songs and just threw them together, I love the soft song and I had such high hopes for it until that goddamn chorus dropped, we didn't even get any warning, it just turned up and God I hate it. 1/10

Overall a 4 / 10 from me, which is a shame because I've loved their last two albums so much, they were both 10/10's for me and I still listen to most of the songs off the Magic Album.

I liked your review Polaris, I think I would have preferred less of the song explanations and more of your opinion, because I really don't care about the arrangement and genre, and just wanted to know more about what you liked or disliked.​

oof, honestly I feel the same way with Puma, Drama & Eternally ( the song as a combination is trash - why couldn't they just keep the softer version and throw out that god awful pre-chorus).

Opinion>>>>>>>>>> [ Great Wall of China ] >>>>>>>>> Song Descriptions

I'll keep that in mind for my next review. I just didn't really want to draw comparisons to BTS (which I likely would have if I was opinionated lol)

For Fairy of Shampoo, I actually looked up the OG song sung by Salt & Light which slightly influenced the score as they didn't just do a cover of the song but re-arranged the instrumentals as well. It's still not my favourite cover of the song though (that belongs to DICKPUNKS)


 

Saint Ren

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oof, honestly I feel the same way with Puma, Drama & Eternally ( the song as a combination is trash - why couldn't they just keep the softer version and throw out that god awful pre-chorus).

Opinion>>>>>>>>>> [ Great Wall of China ] >>>>>>>>> Song Descriptions

I'll keep that in mind for my next review. I just didn't really want to draw comparisons to BTS (which I likely would have if I was opinionated lol)

For Fairy of Shampoo, I actually looked up the OG song sung by Salt & Light which slightly influenced the score as they didn't just do a cover of the song but re-arranged the instrumentals as well. It's still not my favourite cover of the song though (that belongs to DICKPUNKS)




I know giving honest opinions can be tough as Kpop fans can be super over protective gdjkgfdk So I understand why people tend to not do but I like people telling me what they liked or disliked and the TXT thread is dead and @OutroTearTheFirst is so vague with her answers so I've latched on to your review gdfjkgd

But it was hella informative, you clearly did you research and it's a shame it's not getting more replies as I think people would really enjoy it. great work and I'll defo check out more of your reviews in the future !
 

OutroTearTheFirst

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I know giving honest opinions can be tough as Kpop fans can be super over protective gdjkgfdk So I understand why people tend to not do but I like people telling me what they liked or disliked and the TXT thread is dead and @OutroTearTheFirst is so vague with her answers so I've latched on to your review gdfjkgd

But it was hella informative, you clearly did you research and it's a shame it's not getting more replies as I think people would really enjoy it. great work and I'll defo check out more of your reviews in the future !
I don't even recall telling you any answers as to how i felt about this comeback :hagrene:
so they aren't vague, just non-existent :hagrene:​
 

Polaris_Tae

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I know giving honest opinions can be tough as Kpop fans can be super over protective gdjkgfdk So I understand why people tend to not do but I like people telling me what they liked or disliked and the TXT thread is dead and @OutroTearTheFirst is so vague with her answers so I've latched on to your review gdfjkgd

But it was hella informative, you clearly did you research and it's a shame it's not getting more replies as I think people would really enjoy it. great work and I'll defo check out more of your reviews in the future !


oof, true
Looks like people don't really like commenting on articles unless it's full of drama now I guess...
Maybe I should finally write that WayV editorial where I trash on sm and their consistent failures compared to other cpop groups and their companies lmao

That one would likely get comments

:okbye::okbye::okbye:
 

Saint Ren

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I don't even recall telling you any answers as to how i felt about this comeback :hagrene:
so they aren't vague, just non-existent :hagrene:​
talking to you is like pulling teeth woman!


oof, true
Looks like people don't really like commenting on articles unless it's full of drama now I guess...
Maybe I should finally write that WayV editorial where I trash on sm and their consistent failures compared to other cpop groups and their companies lmao

That one would likely get comments

:okbye::okbye::okbye:

Girl I will link it to Lemon and she'll have a whole WayV army signing up to comment hjgkdgfd

Did you hear that winwin auditioned for a drama, got it and then SM turned it down cos it clashed with promo's
 

Polaris_Tae

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talking to you is like pulling teeth woman!




Girl I will link it to Lemon and she'll have a whole WayV army signing up to comment hjgkdgfd

Did you hear that winwin auditioned for a drama, got it and then SM turned it down cos it clashed with promo's

SM's failure at promos in the cpop industry is honestly the worst. Even C-list cpop groups get more promo than WayV
Them not dorming in China once again proves SM's incompetence. They've lost at least 3 schedules this month bc of this. (T-mall 6/19, We Are Blazing, + one other I can't remember the name of lol)

:angry::angry::angry:
 
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