Lee Chanhyuk from the brother-sister duo AKMU, finally had his official solo debut with the full-length album ‘ERROR’. This album is an entire narrative where Chanhyuk is in a car crash, part of which you can see in the music video for ‘Panorama’.
Let’s dive right in!
ERROR
We start off with experimental EDM in the opening track ‘Eyewitness Account’. This feels like a racing song. The beat creates this fast-paced forward movement. It’s pretty cool!
After that comes ‘Siren‘. The layering of the instrumentals with the retro synth is literally everything. Chanhyuk’s vocals are great as well. This isa very dope track that will bring you to outer space.
The title track ‘PANORAMA’ is absolutely brilliant. We continue with the retro synths, but this time we’re creating a bit of a disco feel. The chorus is awesome and catchy and the music video feels like an actual movie.
‘TIME! STOP’ follows that. This is a plea to God to literally stop time, to stop his fading heartbeat. I loved the addition of the ‘ooh aah’s in the chorus.
‘If I can’t go see you right now’ is up next. This has a very funky sample in the instrumentation. This feels a bit more toned down, and quite whimsical and longing.
Next up
The follow track is ‘Goodbye, stay well’ which is featured by Chung Ha. What a lovely, unexpected collaboration! I love the way their vocals sound together. There are some beautiful harmonizations in there.
‘What the’ starts off with a very 90s church-like synth. This entire song feels like a flashback. It’s such a peculiar ambience Chanhyuk managed to create in this track, it’s wonderful!
Missed Call’ gives us a very intimate ambience. The instrumentation is very minimal in the beginning and slowly builds up throughout the rest of the song. It remains a very pure, simplistic track that feels quite vulnerable. The last minute of the ‘tuturu’ feels like stepping in a dream.
The following track ‘Castle in my dream’ brings a bit of tempo back. The happy-go-lucky, whimsical feel of this one is almost a dichotomy with the previous few tracks. It’s a very interesting placement.
‘A DAY’ had a very unexpected opening. The autotuned vocals had me very surprised. It’s a cool track though.
The closing track is ‘Funeral Hope’. This one also starts with the autotune. I wonder if it means that he has ‘passed on’ and is looking back from the afterlife. The gospel choir addition really gives it that extra dimension, the same goes for the organ in the backing track.
You can find the album ‘ERROR’ by Lee Chanhyuk on Spotify here.
