#so much range

source : Deadline

I’m going to say something controversial but truly madly deeply accurate: when he was active in IKON, Kim Hanbin was the most complete 3rd generation idol composer/producer. Amongst his peers at the time, there was no idol who produced this many good tracks (he participated in 100% of their title tracks and 99% of all their releases) with this much range. He doesn’t have the most credits with KOMCA but that is more to do with opportunity rather than lack of talent or material. 

I was going to write a whole essay about how great he and IKON are but I don’t even need their entire discography as examples. I can do it with one song and I’m not even going to cheat and use a famous title track. I’m going to go for a B-Side. Live version. In their second language (Japanese). 

Just Go, was released in 2018 with the Return album. Hanbin is the sole lyricist and I believe he wrote majority of the music himself but there is one other person co-credited with him. He was 21 years old when this was released. 

The studio version is flawless of course. The song is deceptively basic and simple. The repetition of those few piano chords sets the perfect foundation for each member’s unique performance to stand out. The production on this is so clean and minimalist bro, there’s nowhere to hide if any of the parts are terrible. 

This song is my favourite from them (yes, really) because the chords are so familiar in their major and minor keys. Even if you haven’t experienced love before, the familiarity of the song does provide something that sounds like either bittersweet nostalgia or resigned comfort (depending on how you feel about love haha). 

Secondly, every single part of this song went to the right member. One of the reasons IKON were brilliant was because Hanbin knew their strengths and wrote parts specifically with a member in mind. It’s not just a members tone of voice or their personality, it’s even as specific as how they deliver certain words. He spoke about this when he wrote their debut song (he also wrote on the debut songs for both Winner and Blackpink. You know, in his spare time.)

I’m sure you all know Leonard Cohen/Jeff Buckley’s ‘Hallelujah’? The line about the minor fall and the major lift? Just Go does this over and over and it is so satisfying to listen to the back and forth between Donghyuk’s sweet clean falsetto and Bobby’s deep dirty rasp, then all the sudden BOOM! You’re hit with the bomb that is June’s powerhouse vocals. I don’t think he even needs a mic most of the time. The arrangement of this song is so effortlessly good that you almost think it’s by accident but no, it’s got Hanbin’s signature all over it.

Performing live is a litmus test for many kpop groups, especially ones that want to be taken seriously. Some groups struggle and some groups excel. IKON though? They are a live performance group. I’ve come to understand why YG insisted they tour so much; they absolutely shine live on stage. When you start preferring live versions to the studio version, that’s when you really know you have a legit music group. And yes, I absolutely prefer the live version of Just Go to the official studio audio because you do not get this kind of raw energy and emotion and it’s all these random ad libs and idiosyncrasies that makes a good group great. 

Apart from Taemin (who is a whole other level), I’m not really into that many Japanese releases that Kpop does. Just Go lost nothing in translation. The members perform it like it’s their actual first language and it’s not startlingly awkward enough for you to really notice that it’s not immediately korean. I used to be obsessed with how Bobby delivers his line, ‘He’s still in your heart’ in the korean version but it’s still just as good in Japanese. It lost absolutely nothing.

Ferrets, otters, weasels all the best thank you for acknowledging and spreading the good word of our saviours