Little Pink Starfish

For a very long time, I’ve been pondering what makes a “good album.”

No, it’s not just pondering.
I’ve conducted many experiments.

I once released an album by compiling twelve singles that each reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

I once made a 50-minute song, split it into eight tracks, and released it that way.

I’ve done absurd things like placing hip-hop tracks in the first half, followed by hard rock tracks in the second half.

Some of my experiments yielded surprisingly good results, while others failed in ways I still can’t understand.

Some might think that by now, I would have found a definition of a good album…

But I still haven’t reached a conclusion.

I still don’t know what kind of album could sell 200 million copies.

But I have at least realized some essential elements.

First, you need an intro that drives people crazy.

The intro of Guns N’ Roses’ Sweet Child O’ Mine is perhaps the most successful guitar riff in human history.

Someone once said about Sweet Child O’ Mine:

Unless you’re in mortal danger, no one would stop the song after hearing just that intro.

But Guns N’ Roses’ guitarist isn’t the most skilled technician.

It’s not something impossibly difficult to replicate, nor is it built on some special chord progression.

Simple notes, simple chords.

But it drives people insane.

Our album’s first track is like that.

I don’t understand why people don’t shower more praise on our first track.

In the West, many pick Track 1 as the best, but not so much in Korea.

Maybe it’s a difference in sentiment.

We deserve greater praise.

We deserve raves, awe.

We have earned it.

And Goo Taehwan has earned it even more.

The only part during the recording where we got a one-take “okay” was right here.

When I was recording it, even Goo Taehwan’s breathing felt rhythmic.

He’s truly reached a new level.

I picked up after Goo Taehwan.

There are singers who shine more when compared with others.

Goo Taehwan is that kind of singer.

The better his comparison point, the more he sounds like a better singer.

Even though I sing multiple times better than him, when I filled the bar with a similar phrasing…

Normally, the opening rhythm would fade.

My voice would erase the previous singer’s presence.

But strangely, Goo Taehwan’s rhythm remained vivid.

Like Eric Scott’s guitar riff echoing with Goo Taehwan’s voice lingering behind it where it shouldn’t be.

Even I don’t know why.

It’s not something you can force.

And I’m deeply satisfied with that.

That there are elements in my team that even I, who’ve dedicated my life to music, don’t fully understand.

That these elements serve our album.

Meanwhile, I could feel the audience staring at us, mouths agape.

How is it?

Better than listening to the album, right?

If you haven’t bought it yet, you feel like you should now.

While Track 1 played, we hardly moved.

Whether it was Choi Jaesung singing, or Iion singing, we simply stood and sang.

A dereliction of duty as idols.

Idols are performers first and must fill the stage.

But just for this moment, it didn’t matter.

With Eric Scott’s guitar riff as a backdrop, Sedalbaekil’s voices filled the stage.

But that didn’t mean…

We didn’t want to dance.

Boom!

About a quarter into Track 1, as Onsaemiro was about to start her chorus, a shell explosion sound boomed with a rough synth blasting out.

The transition was smooth and spectacular.

Everyone seemed to recognize the intro immediately.

Why?

-Screaaaaaam!

-Woooooooow!

The screams erupted.

K-pop Struggle.

The group choreography began.

A choreography that subdivides beats yet incorporates grand movements.

Technically, Track 2 on the album is Colorful Struggle in its original version.

But since this is a performance, we pulled out the hidden track version: K-pop Struggle.

Ssssssh!

Our choreography grew more intense, and fireworks burst from one of the stage effects.

Since university festivals only allow sound checks, we hadn’t rehearsed with these pyrotechnics — but they were perfect.

Bang!

As the flames soared, our freeze-frame pose hit in sync with the fireworks.

The audience, who seemed ready to chant K-pop Struggle’s chorus, paused.

Sorry, not yet.

We’ve performed this song too many times on broadcast already, haven’t we?

From the freeze pose, we reversed our movements like rewinding tape.

Track 3, Freedom is not Free, began.

I co-composed with eight musicians, yet our album has more than eight tracks.

This one, like Resume, is an original.

Freedom isn’t free.

Each of us paid our own price to gain freedom for Sedalbaekil.

But it’s tacky to whine about how hard that was.

Behind the jersey club’s signature staccato beat, Choi Jaesung opened his mouth.

No Role Models
Tonight feels good
Dedede- Drive

It’s the only song on our album where someone other than Goo Taehwan opens the intro.

Why?

Jaesung simply suited this rhythm better.

By the way, this song has no choreography.

Just free dancing.

When Choi Jaesung sings, Iion dances; when Iion sings, Goo Taehwan dances.

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In the era of widespread live streaming, known as the “million streamers era,” naturally someone was live-streaming Sedalbaekil’s performance at Gunam University.

For an ordinary festival, even with Sedalbaekil’s popularity, not that many would have tuned in.

But Sedalbaekil had announced via SNS that they would perform only album tracks for the remaining university events — drawing people to seek out live streams.

-Oh, this one has the best video quality.

-Yep. Audio’s so-so, but the video’s good. Doesn’t seem like a phone stream.

-Isn’t this the student council’s official stream? The angle feels like it.

-Is that allowed?

-Who caresㅋㅋ University festivals don’t even have entrance fees anyway.

People bounced between streams and eventually gathered at the one with the best quality.

After all, personal streams had similar audio quality anyway.

Some had been watching from the start, but most tuned in just to see Sedalbaekil.

So as the festival reached its finale, viewer numbers grew.

And finally—

-Wowwwwwww

-They’re here!!

-SO CUTE!

-Why are there foreigners in here?

-They’re Billboard musicians, duh.

-Damn their outfits are slick.

When Sedalbaekil suddenly kicked off with Track 1, people watched curiously.

-This is good.

-Yep. I bought the album after hearing Track 1.

The First Day is undeniably a masterpiece.

Even critics who initially trashed the album had to retract or revise their reviews in embarrassment.

But that didn’t mean all tracks received equal attention…

-Wait, this is Track 3?

-Are they doing the tracks in order?

-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋHip Sion

-At this point it’s Hipdalbaekilㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ They’ve been influenced by him.

Of course, they weren’t performing every track in full.

Track 1 was only about a quarter.

K-pop Struggle was performed as pure choreography.

Track 3 was fairly long but only included the chorus and second verse.

Track 4, Resume, wasn’t sung at all.

They simply played the MR and enjoyed the audience’s mass singalong.

-Are they treating this like their own concert?ㅋㅋㅋ So cool.

-Wow, you rarely get crowd singalongs like this for boy groupsㅋㅋㅋ

–Resume is the song that Yang Seokhoon promoted.

-Can’t deny that.

-Yeahㅋㅋㅋ The re-recorded Resume edit was hilariousㅋㅋㅋ

-Where can you see that?

-It’s on their official contentㅋㅋㅋ Go to the main channel.

-Oh that oneㅋㅋㅋ Rhythm maniac Goo Taehwanㅋㅋㅋ Masterpiece.

By then, everyone was convinced.

They were following the album’s track order.

Though they sometimes mixed up the performances or only showed killing parts for famous songs, not a single track was skipped.

After Survival Tactics, they reached We made it, then the 7th track, which had been made into a music video:

-State of Mind!

-Please perform this one properlyㅠㅠㅠ

-I want to hear the full live version, not the broadcast versionㅠㅠㅠㅠ

State of Mind.

As if knowing exactly what people wanted, Sedalbaekil performed State of Mind nearly in full.

-Insane live vocalsㄷㄷㄷ

-Their vocal cords cutting through low-quality audio like butter.

-You really can’t criticize their skills. K-pop’s top talents for real.

-The funny part is there was even a debate about whether their recordings were polished too muchㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-And the news resolved itㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-Oh, now it’s Pinpoint.

-This one’s great.

But Track 8, the title song Pinpoint, began only near the end of the song.

Specifically, starting from the interlude near the end of verse 2, leading straight into the chorus.

Even though The First Day was already hailed as a masterpiece, it had one flaw.

Most critics pointed this out — from Tracks 9 to 11, the transition into the easy listening section felt awkward.

Especially the connection from Pinpoint into Track 9, Holiday, felt loose.

Pinpoint is an explosive techno-based song, while Holiday is a slow, chewy classic R&B.

But—

There was originally a transition mechanism planned here.

It didn’t make it into the album because time was too tight.

More accurately:

“Because I couldn’t do it.”

Iion had been quietly blaming himself for weeks.

If Han Sion’s first requirement for a masterpiece is the intro, the second is the trackjection.

Transaction.

Not a common word, but in album production, it refers to how one track connects to the next.

Good albums have good trackjections.

Anyone who’s listened to full-length albums knows that spine-chilling transition moment between tracks.

Especially for an album like Sedalbaekil’s, where the mood shifts dramatically between sections, this was essential.

Originally, Iion was supposed to handle it.

“Next time, hyung.”

He hadn’t managed to complete it during the recording period.

The schedule was just too tight.

But now.

Iion was about to pull it off.

The result of cutting his sleep short throughout the entire album cycle to practice—

That moment had arrived.

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Toad sings: OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH SWEET CHILD OF MIIIHIIINE