Review

Song Review: WayV (NCT) – Love Talk

Unlike K-pop, it’s not unusual for C-pop albums to be promoted by more than one music video. WayV were quite a tease in this regard, dropping their mini album with Moonwalk as the title track last week, only to reveal additional teasers for Love Talk (秘语). They made a smart choice in picking this song, as it’s easily one of the album’s standouts. With that said, I think I’ll stick with the original Chinese version, as the English lyrics in the newly released music video are… a downgrade.

Love Talk appeals to my nostalgia for late-90’s r&b. It’s trussed up with modern trap elements and Latin flourishes, but its roots lie in smooth, mid-tempo pop. This includes a standout chorus, which melds an insanely catchy melody with a beautiful vocal blend. The song retains the edgy performance style that characterizes most NCT units, but never at the expense of musical continuity. The producers have found a satisfying groove and build everything around that. Even when the instrumental roughs up during the second verse, it feels like a natural progression.

Like Moonwalk, there’s probably a bit too much rap padding Love Talk’s running time, but it’s not jarring or counter to the song’s general vibe. Still, Talk’s vocal moments are so good that I just want them to continue throughout the entire track. Oddly enough, the chorus actually reminds me of a more subdued echo of NCT 127’s Regular, drawing from the same hodgepodge of influences but arranging them into a completely different tone. It’s subtle through-lines like this that tie the whole NCT universe together, and ensure that quality remains high regardless of country or language.

**Review and rating are for the song’s Chinese version. The English version would score a little lower due to those lame lyrics.

 Hooks 9
 Production 8
 Longevity 9
 Bias 8
 RATING 8.5

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6 thoughts on “Song Review: WayV (NCT) – Love Talk

  1. First of all Ten = Ten.

    The Chinese version is pretty good. It is very 90’s boy band, isn’t it, plus a rap and trap to make it more au courant. The vibe, the groove, the high vocal harmony touches. I am not very familiar with the NSync BSB ouevre, so if you said this is a cover of a b-side of “Its gonna be me”, I would believe it.

    The English version. Oof. Doof. Come to think of it “oof” and “doof” would be an improvement, because they actually do rhyme.
    It is as if a room full of monkeys type some concepts in a Swedish computer, pass them through google translate to Korean to get the home office approval. Then through to Chinese, then through to English. A which point, the Swede wanders over and realizes that songs in English must rhyme, at least in a Swedish accent, so change this ending here that one there and oof doof poof “gracious” and “Vegas” appear. Yeah, sure close enough.

    I am beginning to think that SM really don’t care about lyrics at all, as long as there are visuals, the 60-different versions of bundled sales, and the appearances on Ellen.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. I think i prefer the english version because of the boys’ flow and enunciation, but only without taking the lyrics into account. Since it seems to be a SM pattern, i would be very scared to hear a full English take of SuperM’s Jopping.

    Like

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