#30daysofateezchallenge

Seonghwa bias wrecking thots In the same way that it took me months to realize Hongjoong was my bias, because I cannot think properly when staring at him, I expect I will eventually encounter a moment of lucidity while witnessing Seonghwa in which I realize he has been my ult all along. Or ult line, or something. I am not resisting. I just genuinely enter a headspace akin to a mental fae realm any time I think about Seonghwa.

Yeosang bias wrecking thots Listen. I had a visceral reaction that brought me to tears when I first saw him sitting cross-legged in the beginning of the choreography for Legacy. The more I find out about his probable experiences at BigHit, his resistance and gritting through his parents wishes for purely academic achievement, and just how happy he is with all that he's manage to make for himself - oh god, I am actually crying again writing this. Kang Yeosang I am so so so proud of you and love you and hope you get everything you want out of this life.

San bias wrecking thots San was actually my first bias wrecker of the bunch! I saw the video where he's jokingly angry about how easy he is to draw and was so smitten with this buff lil softy. I went pretty deep into his poetry, book, and movie recs this Spring - and am half wanting to attempt to learn some Korean and Hangul through just slowly translating the poetry myself.

Mingi bias wrecking thots One of the only dreams I've had involving Ateez was one where Mingi and I woke up having body switched. This led me to realizing how similar we are, because the only thing my roommate could think of to tell us apart is our reaction to being called princess. Obviously there is a lot of skills, lived experience, etc. at play but I do not think there is very much that Mingi could do while inhabiting my body that would make anyone that knows me raise an eyebrow. Vice versa, probably. I love that weird tall dude.

Wooyoung bias wrecking thots My siren. His voice is my personal favorite of Ateez. Which is really saying something considering how wildly and widely talented they all are, and my resistance to pinning myself down to favorites. There are plenty of moments in which my heart feels like it's being shorn through in their discography, and most of them are just Wooyoung's vocals. His parts in Mist? Gut wrenching work, my dude. Sagittarius remains my most listened to of their solos. It's You, Tippy Toes, Hala Hala. Ugh. His tone.

Jongho bias wrecking thots Everything kinda clicked for me in understanding Jongho when I found out he was born 8 years and 1 day after me. That's my twin. In that we are not the same, but I feel like yeah, I know what's up there.

It’s impossible for me to pick a single favorite between their songs, cause there are too many I wholeheartedly love and it really depends on my mood and sometimes it changes multiple times a day.

On the other hand I also promised myself to really challenge myself with these prompts and try to find only one answer for each one, so, to force myself in doing it, I asked myself: if their entire discography is going to be erased tomorrow and you could only save one of their songs to listen to in the future, what will it be? Well, in this case it was a lot easier, Autobahn immediately came to my mind, so I suppose I can actually consider it my favorite for the purpose of this challenge.

Why Autobahn you ask? 

Well, if we're talking in general about music, composition and production, as well as aesthetic, I already said on Day 3 that Mingi's personal style (inspired by rock and grunge vibes) is a bit more up my alley than atz's one.

>>> That I also love atz’s style it's a given, but in case you needed to be sure yeah, I love their style A LOT, I simply like Mingi's one a little bit more. <<<

I also already said that his desire project trilogy is something beautiful and for me extremely fulfilling both artistically and emotionally speaking so yeah, this is the first part of why my answer is Autobahn. 

If we're talking about why specifically Autobahn out of the three desire project songs, instead, let me try to describe it to you, so you can understand what I see (hear).

It has extremely dark vibes but at the same time really soft and delicate parts, the synths and sources it uses are so damn interesting, the emotional piano in the background is beautiful and haunting, the rock electric guitar slaps, it has an addicting bass line which to me seems someway hip hop adjacent more than anything else and which, mixed with the rest, leaves me wondering what kind of genre the song even is. 

Add to this the perfect contrast between Mingi's and Yunmin's voice tones and energy (which still compliment each other in a perfect match tho) and you have a mix of really different stuff (both in the music production and the topline) that on paper shouldn't work, but that instead is perfectly blended.

Moreover the mv aesthetic and cinematography are fire (despite the blatant low budget) and the lyrics and theme of the song could be the summary of my life in the last three years, so I feel them very deeply. 

Here, have a bite of my fav bits:

“ Here on the boundary between oppression and anxiety I push forward on my own. 

[...]

Escape the oppression that drags you down heavily.

I paint the road like a canvas.

Color it, this is history in the making.

Everything will come to an end when you stop in this game.

Get started, this is autobahn. ” 

Inception

Prefacing this (and all my choices) with a big factor for why I love these songs- I’m coming in from a (western) musical theater lens. So the combination of narrative + epic dramatic sounds = high chance of an immediate love from me. Learning that Ateez has all this lore in their album booklets and music videos hooked me in (I once spent an entire night reading through atiny-for-life’s lore posts and yelling about Big Dramatic Events with my roommate).

Since Fever part 1 is where the lore officially began, Inception as its flagship introductory MV was the first to really catch my eye. The video itself is so much fun with all the different scenes showing lore ateez’s backstories, and the practical set with the flooded classroom. The song itself, wow- The instrumental is mesmerizing, the slow quiet build to an intense chorus, THE BRIDGE, the YEARNING. I love the lyrics as they’re a solid example of the dual meanings you can find in their songs-considering the song by itself, and then the layer connecting it to the lore.

I wrote a ramble about how Inception works perfect as an “I Want” song from musicals.

Answer (Ode To Joy)

The original MV and the Kingdom performance both informed my growing love for this song. This arrangement specifically is absolute favorite. The orchestration, the heavenly vocals of LA POEM (Did you know that the higher voice you can hear vocalizing over the start of their ode to joy section, is their countertenor Choi Sunghoon?), the kickass choreography that references their previous Kingdom performances and their lore. My favorite choreo moment is when Ateez are paralleled by their Halateez counterparts (You can see a Black Pirate standing behind San, mirroring how he raises his glass). I’d love for them to perform this live again in a similar form.

Answer itself is an epic, adventurous finale-sounding song. The “We’ve been through rough seas, we’ve been through pain, and we keep pushing forward” message that shows us their spirit. The beautiful layers of harmonies (another way to capture my musical theater heart). Mingi and Hongjoong eventually rapping back and forth gets you so hyped up for that Unity. My first repeat listens of the discography where specifically the Kingdom rearrangements, they’re so intertwined I just HAVE to play them in order and listen all the way through.

Halazia

Where do I even begin. Repeating what I’ve said before of the Epic Story, with a heavy emphasis on what a sonical experience this song is. The tolling bells, the mysterious vibes, the thing the music video does where it plays a measure of instrumental before the chorus hits-prolonging the tension. The spellbinding choreography featuring Seonghwa rolling his eyes in the back of his head. Yeosang’s low voice in the prechorus building this foundation followed by Jongho’s soaring voice harmonizing with him. And of course, the outro.

What I would give to be experiencing this as it released, to not understand Anything That’s Happening. Who is the Witness??? What’s that ball????