DAY6 – 'THE BOOK OF US: ENTROPY'

Track List:

1. Deep in love

2. Sweet Chaos *Title

3. EMERGENCY

4. Rescue Me

5. 365247

6. About Now

7. OUCH

8. Not Fine

9. Stop Talking

10. Not Mine

11. Like a Flowing Wind

DAY6 has just released their 4th full album 'The Book of Us: Entropy.' In the days before its release, the band and LP were trending on Twitter, and you were seeing the hashtags #day6, #DAY6, #Sweet_Chaos, #Entropy, and #The_Book_of_Us everywhere. The first half of the album is said to be the happy side of love, while the rest of the tunes are the flipside of that. This is their first full album in a little more than a year, and fan response has been good. The album hit the iTunes charts running, occupying the top 10 in Russia and Turkey, and the top 20 in Austria.

"Sweet Chaos" starts with an appropriately chaotic intro. After that, they jump right into the song, and I like how hard they get here, reminding me of some of FT Island's better stuff. It kind of changes once they hit the second verse, more sing-songy and less energetic. Still a pretty good title track. They don't let up with "Deep in Love." It still has that intensity, energy, and guitar-driven melody that we heard in "Sweet Chaos." This is catchy and more a straight-ahead rocker than the first one, and I think I like it better. "Emergency" is a very different song than the other two. It's lighter, more playful, and more frantic. It's also more repetitive and the first two, featuring the insistent refrain "breathe in breathe out." Spoiler alert: it's not about a real emergency. Now "Rescue Me" is way more my speed. With crunchy guitars and picture-perfect guitars on the chorus, that song is my jam. I'm not as much of a fan when they hit the main verses. I don't know why, but they seem to lose their way around the second verse. The energy is gone, almost like they tired themselves out. Or they may be holding back. I wish they hadn't. 

They slow things down with "365247." It's still guitar-driven, but those don't really hit until the chorus. It's also primarily sung in falsetto, which didn't particularly the song to me. What does this song mean? Disentangled, the numbers are 365 and 24/7. "About Now" sounds about as different from the others as a song could. It's got more of a reggae type beat but adapted for a more pop-rock sound. It's a song tinged with regret, as they ruminate about what a former lover might be doing about now. The acoustic "Ouch" is more of a soft rock piece. It's a pleasant-sounding song for all that, eschewing the electric guitars for a lighter sound. In case you couldn't figure it out, it's a song about a break-up. "Not Fine" is another song about a break-up. It's a lot more synth-heavy and they save the guitars for the chorus. But even those are muted somewhat.

"Stop Talking" is again a different beast. The guitars are a little pluckier on here, at least during the main verses. But they don't throw that rock sound completely out the window -- it returns with a vengeance for the chorus. I love the screaming guitars. That just pumps me up. "Not Mine" sounds a little bit more like their previous output, except for the keyboards. It's a return to their old sound, at least during the chorus, and it's like they never left. The keyboards are actually pretty compelling too, building the tension in the main verses. "Like A Flowing Wind" is a good finisher. It's got that uplifting sound, the inspiring melody, and is just an overall feel-good song. The guitars serve a very different function for this song and are dialed back to allow the emotions to shine through.

One thing I like is that they don't stick with any consistent style. They've got the hard rock on here, soft rock, dance-pop, and even acoustic pop. I won't venture to guess why some of the second verses were not as good or as action-packed as the first. I figure that's between the boys and their fans. What I can say is this album is packed to the gills with solid songs, and should definitely not disappoint.

MV REVIEW

The boys come apart (literally) in their newest MV, "Sweet Chaos."

And that's no lie. At first glance, it's a performance video. Sungjin and Jae are on their guitars, Young K is manning the bass, Wonpil is on keyboards, and maknae Do Woon is banging those drums. So far, so good.

Then it all starts to unravel.

At first, you don't realize anything is wrong. There are the band shots, the individual shots. Then, explosions begin to bloom behind them. Subtle, blending in with the background.

And weird things start to happen. The boys start to "clip," stretching in places. Miniature versions of themselves approach the stage where they're playing and watch them. Of course, no one seems to notice any of this.

For the finale, they shake the sweat from their heads, and that's when you notice the explosions surrounding their heads, and a camera delay, where, briefly, two heads can be seen in different positions, before fading to normal.

So all of this supposed to represent "entropy" and "chaos." Well, I can tell you it was a little unsettling to watch it, though it wasn't terribly explicit. The only explanation was that there was a "wrongness" to it, which is the best way they could have done this.

Nice job.

Score

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

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

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

MV SCORE: 9.0

Album Production.....8

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

Tracklisting...............9

ALBUM SCORE: 8.6

OVERALL................8.8