KEY – 'I WANNA BE'

Track List:

1. I Wanna Be (Feat. SOYEON of (G)I-DLE)

2. Show Me

3. One of Those Nights) (Feat. Crush)

4. Good Good

5. Honest

6. Forever Yours (Feat. Soyou)

7. Imagine

8. Chemicals

9. I Will Fight (Feat. VINXEN)

10. Easy To Love

11. The Duty of Love

12. This Life

13. Cold (Feat. Hanhae)

Peek-a-boo!

Key has just released the repackage of last November's 'Face.' That one did quite well, reaching #18 in Japan and #9 on the U.S. World Albums chart. Now he's back with a new title track and three brand new songs. This is in addition to the other songs from 'Face,' just in case you missed it last time around.

"I Wanna Be" is some soft R&B. Key's voice goes quite well with the higher-pitched notes and the pulsing beat. Soyeon from (G)I-DLE guests on here, and she doesn't really rap so much as sing, and she throws out some adorable ad-libs. The times when their voices combine is pure liquid gold. "Show Me" is kind of an R&B/rock fusion. It's got the beats of an R&B tune, but the guitars kind of throw that away. But I like this one. It's got some harder rock sensibilities and is playful at the same time.

This is an 'SM Station 3' release, not part of the original album. "Cold" is soft pop, and Key handles it with his trademark tenor. Here he doesn't try too many vocal pyrotechnics, choosing instead to sing tenderly. This kind of restraint really works in the song's favor and lets us see a different side of the singer. Hanhae does his turn on the rapping part and delivers a competent performance if nothing special.

These three tunes fit quite well into the mix. They seem heavy on the R&B that Key seems right at home performing. The nice thing is that they don't sound similar at all -- you won't mistake one for the other easily. And they're all performed flawlessly.

MV REVIEW

This video is a lot better than it had any right to be.

On its surface, you see several tropes, like the boy in the box, and the plastic blisters on the wall. Pretty standard stuff. But the devil here is in the details.

And maybe it's a hastily constructed set, but you get the impression of space and different rooms. Perhaps it's illusion, perhaps not. But they still do a great job of this. It's kind of a crazy looking place, but that's part of the point.

They drown you in vibrant hues here, sometimes red, sometimes green. All these colors are super bright and in your face. So you always have something to look at (unless you're color-blind).

We have shots of Key doing his thing as well, whether dancing in a room, walking through doorways, or sitting in a chair in front of a stack of monitors. They deck him out in different outfits in this MV, and I could see three right off the bat. Most of them at least semi-ostentatious, all of them are dynamic and interesting.

Soyeon gets a short amount of screen time compared to Key, but that's because her parts are comparatively short. She is as alluring as ever, dark and mysterious, and extremely well put together. She's far more than just icing on the cake. I would have liked to have seen more of her, but you can't always get what you want.

Key dances his heart out. He really has some moves, and they're on full display here. Unlike other recent MVs, they play this up a lot, and you get plenty of arresting kinetic scenes with him and his fancy footwork. They didn't skimp on that, at least.

Okay, I was pretty impressed. Maybe it's because I went in with low expectations, and the teasers did nothing for me. Still, this MV gets high marks in my book, at any rate.

Score

MV Relevance............9

MV Production...........9

MV Concept...............9

MV SCORE: 9.0

Album Production.....8

Album Concept..........9

Tracklisting................8

ALBUM SCORE: 8.3

OVERALL.................8.6