CW: discussion of sexual assault; I’d recommend reading Part 1 first for context.

Here are my credentials (again): I consider myself a fan of NCT Dream (see my review here), and while the music of NCT 127 isn’t always for me, I do know a fair bit about them, having done a review and having watched their documentary The Lost Boys. I also did a review on WayV, whose career I’m divided about. I don’t know much about either the music or the members of NCT Wish.

(Read Part One here)

Single #7: Universe

Universe is a bit difficult to review, because it doesn’t feel like one song. The verses are smooth and have a good blend of sing-talk and vocalizing and the central chorus is pretty strong. But then there’s this incomprehensible choice to have a hook that sounds like it’s designed to annoy the hell out of its audience. The vocals steal the show, courtesy of Haechan and Doyoung as usual; I’m glad they aren’t just consigned to the bridge but are in the verses and chorus too. But mostly, the song feels like some child smashed a great song and a terrible one together and then they decided it was good enough. We were so close!

Album #3: NCT Universe 2021

Beautiful is a great song, but I’ll be damned if that intro isn’t cringy as all hell. I just know Johnny was trying not to laugh while saying “you’re the most important person in your life…so be yourself. Be beautiful“. The fake snow falling was a nice touch too. But I digress; I really do like this song, quite a lot actually. Its chorus is fleshed out and really sounds like there’s twenty people singing, which is what you want with such a large group. The vocals carry so much warmth, too, soaring through your ears in just the way they should.

It feels grand and momentous, and I think it says a lot that they achieved this while encouraging their audience, not singing about how great they are. The MV is lovely too, keeping the comforting core of From Home and contrasting it with the monotony of everyday life that they’re trying to combat. Also, while I’m not the most experienced filmmaker out there, I appreciate the amount of work that clearly went into giving every member screen time and making it look effortless and relaxed. Kudos. One last compliment: the bridge is so wonderfully sprawling, just like Broken Melodies’ is, and it’s the cherry on top of an already great song.

From the album, I enjoyed more parts of songs rather than full tracks, like the inclusive lyrics of Miracle, or the buildup in Birthday Party, or the great vocals of Know Now. My hidden gem was probably Round & Round, which manages to have all three of those things and still sound unique, but it’s not like it had much competition. This release, in general, is more focused on the NCT sound I’m not really a fan of, and so I enjoyed it less than their other outings. Songs like New Axis or OK just grate on my ears, and there’s nothing I can do about it.

Single #8: Baggy Jeans

Baggy Jeans features the same team from the 7th Sense, marking the first time that a team has repeated (at least that I know of). Unfortunately, despite the amount of talent in this song and the group in general, I think that Baggy Jeans is one of the worst songs NCT U has ever created. Firstly, the name’s terrible. Secondly, it’s just not pleasant to listen to. I don’t care how good of rappers they are; no one could make the line “in my baggy, baggy, baggy, baggy, baggy baggy jeans” work. No one. IU, Wendy, Suga, no one. I never want to hear this again, especially after seeing what NCT are capable of with Beautiful. Burn it.

Single #9: Rain Day

I was expecting a subdued, ballady track with Rain Day, and I was pleasantly surprised that I was proved wrong. There are of course ballad elements to it, but there’s also bits of rap worked in and the chorus is delightfully funky and upbeat. The vocals are the star of the show, as they would be with Taeil and Kun, but Yangyang also has an opportunity to sing, which is a fun change since he’s usually a rapper and has a very nice tone. The MV too is lovely, mixing sun and rain and blues and yellows in a soothing, relaxed palette.

(TW reinforced)

I’m reminded, with this song, how painfully easy it is to forget Taeil’s existence in a group of twenty-something people, and how hard it is to confront his smiling face and beautiful voice in a song like this, knowing now the horrible things he’s done. Against my will, I found myself smiling back at him, because he’s damn charming. It’s a strange experience for me, someone who could barely be called a fan, and I can’t imagine what that dissonance would be like if you were one of his victims instead, having to watch him play around with an adorable corgi and sing about true love and be adored on a huge screen all while he inflicted so much pain on you. My heart goes out to them.

Album #4: Golden Age

Golden Age is the official single from NCT’s 2023 album, and doesn’t start off how I was expecting, with surprisingly soft vocalizing and a gentle piano that’s honestly quite lovely—-nope, no, nevermind, we’re NCT-ing. I should’ve known. So, now we’re on Mark and Yangyang’s rapping. Except no! The song fakes you out yet again, going for neither a completely harsh-on-the-ears 127 sound or a completely soft one. Instead, its verses are sing-talk, but its chorus is sprawling and open…and it doesn’t quite work? Rather than feel like a carefully planned melding of the two styles, it feels poorly thought out and messy, which is unfortunate because that chorus is really good. I just wish the song lived up to it.

This album has a much smaller selection of singles than the first two, or even Universe, for that matter, but for an album on the shorter side, it’s fairly strong. I enjoyed both the build up of Kangaroo and the tenderness of Not Your Fault, but my hidden gem was Pado, with its simple yet catchy beat and whistling hook.

Single #10: N.Y.C.T.

(TW reinforced)

N.Y.C.T. is what I thought Rain Day would be, mellow and laid-back with a jaunty piano and jazzy interpolations and really driven by vocals. The MV is colorful and almost cartoonish in the way it’s shot, which is a good fit. The kids are adorable too, and brought more than a few smiles to my face. Haechan and Taeil’s voices honestly sound gorgeous together, and it kills me. How do you square those things together, the joy of this track and the things he’s done?

Single #11: Marine Turtle

Marine Turtle was actually written by Chenle and Mark, and you can see their personalities in the lyrics, even though it’s in Mandarin. If a scrapbook was a song, it’d be this one; it feels just like the water in the way it gently crests and falls. It’s not the kind of song I’d listen to often, unless I was in the mood, but it’s very good. As someone who grew up near the ocean, it honestly made me miss it.

Verdict: TL;DR / Outro

I’m glad I did this. NCT is a bit of an intimidating prospect to cover, but I learned as much about them as I could. Of course, there being 25 members it’s a bit of a Herculean task to get to know them, and so I watched a few key performances, some behind the scenes of their full group music videos, and the classic: edits made on YouTube of them being chaotic. I had a lot of fun with it, that’s for sure.

Less fun, of course, is dong this in the wake of August 28th 2024. As much as I’d like to claim that Taeil was untalented or brought nothing to the team, that’s not true. He’s got a fantastic voice and clearly, he was a good actor. I watched him fold paper airplanes with little kids, dance with a corgi wearing a little yellow jacket in the rain, and talk about how his friendship with Haechan will last forever. It’s a difficult, painful thing to reconcile, and I want to make it clear that I am not the person suffering the most here. That is of course the women he hurt, who I hope can begin to find some healing and can find justice too.

My Top 5 songs are Without U, Misfit, 90’s Love, Beautiful, and Rain Day, with Yestoday as an honorable mention. NCT U gets an 8.25 out of 10 from me, though I didn’t really know how to rate them, since this was such a mixed bag. NCT combines both the things I love about NCT Dream—excellent vocals and melodies—and the things I hate about NCT 127—sing talk and harsh on the ears anti-drops—so their discography ranges from songs that sound like they could fit in either group. Because of that, an average score feels right.

Next time, we’re onto a girl group—and not just any girl group, but a band! Tschüss!