Super Junior, or SuJu, for short, is sometimes known as the “King Of Hallyu Wave”, a bridge between the 1st and 2nd generations of k-pop. They’ve had thirteen members during their time as a group: current members Leeteuk, Heechul, Shindong, Sungmin, Eunhyuk, Yesung, Donghae, Siwon, Kyuhyun, and Ryeowook, and former members Hangeng, Kibum, and Kangin. They debuted on November 9th, 2005, and thus, here I am, nineteen years on, writing this review!

Here are my credentials: If you’ve read my Yesung review, you’ll know that my interest in Super Junior all started because my lovely mother in her infinite wisdom (can you tell who my special guest is yet) accidentally bought me Yesung’s album during her trip to Japan, when she meant to buy me Jonghyun’s. Thus began our shared journey into the insanity that is SuJu, and so, since their 19th anniversary is coming up, I decided that now would be a good time for us to go through their discography together. So, I went home from college, and on a rainy day, we sat down and made our way through two decades of content. So, let’s get into it!

(Read Part One here) (Part Two) (Part Three)

Single #2: The Road; Winter For Spring

Alright, we enter the home stretch with Callin’, a special single from 2022. Acoustic guitar led, it’s a gentle song, tailor-made to be unobtrusive, played in the background at a coffee shop or while doing homework, something like that. The harmonizing is as good as ever, and to be frank, really is what makes the song. It has a beautiful music video to match, combining live-action and detailed animation in a way that feels very organic. I do hope that the sets weren’t actually as cold as they looked, by the way. It’s sweet, but there’s not much else to say; my mother gave it a resounding shrug, I’m afraid. (Woe befall the recipient; her shrugs are terrifying).

Album #12 (Part One): The Road; Keep On Going

Mango has more of a disco sound than they usually go for, more kpoppy than is common for them, and its build-up is among their better ones, especially the “let it burn” hook. Side note: I may have a somewhat concerning love of songs that say “let it burn”. Its second hook, the titular one, is less great. “Feels like a mango, who goes around feeling mangoes”, Mom demanded. The chorus is a bit of a letdown after that, to be honest, it just doesn’t have that special something that SuJu is capable of. “If this was the first MV I saw, I wouldn’t get the magic,” my mother noted. Solid underlying beat, works in little pops of funk, but nothing SuJu hasn’t done before and done better. It doesn’t stand out much in such a great discography. The best part is Ryeowook’s high note, and I stand by that. The man has pipes.

From the EP, while I enjoyed the hand-clap led chorus of Everyday, my hidden gem was the fast-paced, guitar-led Don’t Wait, which makes good use of its funk. I wish it was the single instead of Mango; it’s both more Super Junior and more unique in the 2020’s kpop landscape.

Album #12 (Part Two): The Road; Celebration

Celebrate is a holiday song at heart, and so it’s not really fair to judge it by the standards of Super Junior’s other singles. That being said, this is a review blog, and judge it I will. It feels like a spiritual successor to Callin’, albeit dusted in powdery snowing a bit of stardust. Seeing SuJu with the tiny children was cute as hell, I admit it, okay, I’m not made of stone. Even my mother was swayed by the kids, that’s how adorable they were. There’s not much I can say for the song itself, so I’ll just leave it with: it made me smile.

From this EP, I enjoyed the solid beat of Hate Christmas…and that’s about it. I’m not a holiday song person, so I confess that I didn’t like this release, but that’s more a personal thing than any fault of SuJu’s.

Single #3: Show Time

Show Time came out in June of ’24, just ahead of their 19th anniversary. This video is more laid-back than they usually are, both having them wear denim and working in some behind the scenes humor of them creating a project together. It’s absolutely a track from people far enough along in their career to just be having fun, and I love that for them. Ryeowook’s opening note is great, by the way, as is the resounding wince afterward. The song itself is bombastic and upbeat, but similar to Mango in that it’s nothing groundbreaking. My biggest gripe with it is one that I have with many kpop tracks, and that’s that we just do not need to be rapping. Otherwise, though, it too made me smile. The last moment of having them burst out onto the stage in the truest kpop fashion, lights blaring in bizarre outfits, made me a little emotional, truth be told.

Verdict: TL;DR

I’m glad I did this! I’m not kidding when I say that this is hands down, the most music I’ve listened to for a review, and I wouldn’t be shocked if SuJu becomes my most listened to artist for 2024. I’d say that it was fifteen hours of my life that I’m never getting back, but that makes it sound like I didn’t have a great time, which just isn’t true. We watched the SuJu documentary (alongside Yesung’s YouTube channel), and it’s safe to say that we fell even more in love. My mother, as always, summed it up the best: “That was a journey, and damn there were some bumps”. And, bumps there might have been, but toss me a grandma purse full of Werther’s Originals and a sapphire blue lighstick, because I can safely say I am, and likely always will be, an E.L.F..

My Top 5 songs are Devil, Mr. Simple, A-Cha, Show, and The Melody, with I Am, Rock N’ Shine, and Otra Vez as honorable mentions. Super Junior gets a 9 out of 10 from me. SuJu has been together longer than I’ve been alive, and as mentioned, I’m now a college student. So, how can you summarize a twenty year career in just under 10,000 words? Well, I have no idea, frankly, but I tried. I’m not going to pretend that their discography is perfect, or that there weren’t parts where I winced or rolled my eyes (looking at you, Mamacita), but on the whole, their body of work is very solid. I added so many songs to my library, from singles I’d never given the time of day before like Spy to the ones that grew on me like A-Cha to the b-sides I never would have discovered on my own like Sapphire Blue.

And besides my own personal love of them, there’s no denying just how much they’ve changed the kpop industry since 2005, from the breakneck editing of Sorry Sorry that’s now a staple to the willingness to debut bigger groups like LOONA or TripleS to the sharp choreo with even sharper beats. Not to mention their constant experimenting with solid pop, R & B, jazz, and electro, while still staying true to their roots. They’ve earned their flowers several times over, and while they certainly don’t need more from me, they have my deep respect too.

And if we’re doing flowers, which apparently we are, thanks to my wonderful mother, who absolutely had better things to do with her Sunday evening and yet chose to spend it sitting on the couch with her adult daughter, eating takeout and dying of laughter at a song called Sexy Free and Single. Love you, Mom!

Next time, we’re onto a girl group, because I think we may all need a break after four parts. Tschüss, and thanks for coming on this journey with me, everybody!