Taemin is back with his new mini-album ‘Never Gonna Dance Again : ACT 1’. We’ve been waiting anxiously for this one. Let’s check it out!
Never Gonna Dance Again : ACT 1
We start off with the title track ‘Criminal’. This is such a ‘Taemin’ track, there are no other words to describe it. It’s his classic sound while remaining fresh. I’m going to replay this to death.
Check out the music video here. The budget must have been insane.
The second song is ‘Black Rose’ featuring rapper Kid Milli. The rap verse starts the song off and that kind of took me by surprise. The instrumentation is so interesting! We get strings, a music box and some dark synth. What a stunning track!
‘Strangers’ follows that with a haunting opening. The footsteps enhance the driving beat and I love it. The chorus is really catchy and Taemin’s vocals fit this song so well.There’s a woman’s voice in the background and just WOW.
Next up is ‘Waiting For’. We get some Latin influences with some castanets and guitar. That bridge is excellent!! I would love to see a professional duo tango to this. SM, give it to me please!
We get the Korean version of ‘FAMOUS’. This was a Japanese release that was dropped last year in August. Here’s the Japanese music video.
‘Clockwork’ slows everything down with its ballad tempo. This track was co-written by none other than Suran, so I’m expecting feels when I read the English translation. The song by itself was already taking my places, especially when he’s belting it out.
We’re on the seventh track with ‘Just Me And You’. This electronic R&B vibe is so cool. This B-side is beautiful and I need a live performance.
‘Nemo’ is so smooth and it flows so well after ‘Just Me And You’. The play with the synths makes it a bit more uplifting.
We close the mini-album with the pre-release ‘2 KIDS’, which we wrote about here.
Overall
The mini-album ‘Never Gonna Dance Again : ACT 1’ by Taemin is brilliant and there’s not a song I didn’t like. Honestly, who else is doing it like Taemin?
Go ahead and listen to the full release on Spotify here.
