Last week, AKMU’s Chanhyuk pre-released the slow burn Out Of My Mind as a teaser for his second full length album. The album has a retro, synth-kissed sound with an idiosyncratic flair different from the hyper-commercialized 80’s revivalism that took over pop music in the early-2020s. With that said, title track Vivid LaLa Love (비비드라라러브) is less dependent on synth and more focused on Chanhyuk’s quirky delivery.
Ever since his debut as part of AKMU, Chanhyuk’s songwriting has boasted a unique flavor that can’t be found anywhere else. I could easily imagine Vivid LaLa Love as an AKMU single and it might actually work better with two distinct voices driving it. As a solo Chanhyuk track, it still pops. Vivid LaLa Love invites us into his world in an easygoing way. The melody is immediately hummable and repeated so often that it’ll be lodged in your brain whether you want it there or not. The strummed percussion adds to this rhythm, giving the song an obvious throughline.
On the negative side, all this repetition is… well, repetitive. There’s only so many times you can sing “vivid lala love” and make it sound fresh. The track wears out its ideas quickly and loses inspiration about halfway through. What starts out as a genuine toe-tapper ends with me getting distracted by whatever else is going on around me because the song never really goes anywhere.
| Hooks | 8 |
| Production | 8 |
| Longevity | 7 |
| Bias | 8 |
| RATING | 7.75 |
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
On road trip this weekend, we tuned into some college radio. The DJ was playing all sorts of eclectic stuff, afrobeats followed by Wes Montgomery followed by some indie who sounded like Florence followed by Keith Jarrett. Clearly a live person picked out the mix. This would have fit right into the playlist.
Agree, this is for everyone or for all times. It is more like that concept of the phrase “bi bi di la la la buh” surrounded by instrumental vibes like trying stuff out with friends in the studio. This is the sound of a musician who has the time and money to try stuff out.
I dig it. Big L Like. Rating is maybe a flat 8 for me.
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I haven’t listened through the whole album yet, but so far this seems to be made just for me. I love the 80s textures he’s playing with on basically every track so much that it’s great even just as vibey background music (which I know can get stale fast, but for me personally his distinct voice and delivery carries it far over the line….i could listen to him sing almost anything but this particular style had me going back to his first album over and over and it’s looking to be the case with this one too!)
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what did you think of music by lee chanhyuk and big naughty?
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I really like it.
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