Song Review: Taeyeon – To. X | The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion

Though she’s featured in SM Entertainment’s super group Got The Beat and made a successful return with Girls’ Generation last summer, it’s been a long wait for new solo music from Taeyeon. It’s hard to believe INVU was nearly two years ago! Now, she’s back with a new mini album and title track To. X.

Taeyeon is the kind of artist I admire greatly but often struggle to connect to musically. Her voice is one for the ages and imbues any song with plenty of emotion and character. And when a song lets her lean into that cathartic quality, we end up with a masterpiece.

Sadly, To. X is an underwhelming midtempo. I’m surprised it was chosen as a title track at all, as nothing about it draws much attention to itself. Strummed guitar meets a languid r&b beat, over which Taeyeon supplies a subdued melody. It’s executed well, but draws too close to that dread “coffeehouse” sound I tend to dislike. Her rhythmic phrasing gives this a different charm than most Taeyeon tracks, but I keep waiting for something to reach out and grab me. I guess SM is playing toward the Korean charts with this one. The listening public seems to love this restrained approach.

Hooks	8
Production	7
Longevity	8
Bias	7
RATING	7.5

Grade: C

7 thoughts on “Song Review: Taeyeon – To. X”

will pretend this album doesn’t exist. If INVU was AOTY, this was a 2/10. Not unpleasant, but so overly bland and forgettable. I’m low-key upset by this cb as waiting almost 2 years…

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I love, love, love Taeyeon, but I don’t find this interesting. There’s hardly anything to differentiate the chorus and verse it makes To. X seem like it’s hookless. The chorus, also, doesn’t have a nice melody.

It’s not so bad if I use it as a background study music, but that’s how less potential this is to be an exciting hit for Taeyeon.

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don’t like this at all. the instrumental is FLAT. I’ll just listen to 11:11 if I wanted to listen to a midtempo song from Taeyeon. Melt Away is the only good song on the album.

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I have the same problem with her. Respect the talent, but the music most of the time just doesn’t click with me. The song? Perfectly fine, radio friendly pop, but so colourless. There are some good songs on this album tho, but this one is imo not one of them.

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I had no idea she had anything coming out. This completely slipped by me. I like it though. Its inoffensive. I wish she went with something a bit bigger. This one feels like album filler but its not bad.

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