#Park Jeup

[ace-net]

참아본다 - I Still

[acesubs]

(Eng Sub) Lee Donghun & Park Jeup introducing their new single 'I Still"

[boysplanetrecaps]

Build Up Episode 1: Don’t Go

Hello and welcome back to my Build Up recaps! In the last one, we covered the first two “Pre-4” Mission performances -- If You and Every Moment of You. In this post, we’ll cover Don’t Go (Kajima) and wrap up episode 1, finally!

I found some decent links to watch the episodes. 

Episode 1

Episode 2

I’m deliberately hiding them behind a read more since I’m not sure if MNET knows about them and/or if they’ll be there forever, so watch while you can! 

Just a little note before we dive in -- I noticed after I had posted the previous one that Seunghun from CIX has braces! 

I’m just really surprised, because I would have guessed that his agency would have made him take them off for this show, or something. I’m glad he has them if he needs them, for sure -- it’s just a surprise. Knowing this helps explain why he smiles so strangely sometimes. 

Anyway! 

Don’t Go

The next performance is Kajima, Kajima (Don’t Go, Don’t Go). 

A little about the song before we get to the performance. It was originally performed by a singing duo called Brown Eyes, which, per Wikipedia, is “considered one of South Korea's most important R&B groups, given their immense commercial success.” The duo consists of Yoon Gun and Naul, both of whom have gone on to do other stuff. Naul recently did a duo with Sung Sikyung, the guy who first sang Every Moment of You (the previous song on this show). The song Kajima, Kajima won the Best Ballad/R&B Performance award at the 2008 MNET Asian Music awards.

Kajima, Kajima is the miserable wail of a deserted lover begging their partner to come back. Some of the lyrics, per a blog I found: “Stupidly / I still live for you / Where are you? / I need you so much / Oh baby, my only one / Please stop and come back now / Just tell me this is a joke / Simply return to me.” 

Mini Korean lesson: You might recognize the -jima ending from the GOT7 song Stop It, when they say “hajima, hajima” over and over (“hajima” means “don’t). And you heard the “ka” verb at the beginning of the Oneus song Lit, when they say, “Kaja!” (let’s go!) So ka is for go, and -jima is a negative command, so kajima is “don’t go”. Woot! 

Kajima, Kajima is known for a really high note -- a high G#5. I would have to warm up to hit that note at all -- and I’m not confident I could hit it with much resonance. And I’m a mezzo-soprano -- it would be insane to hit that note as a tenor!  Like the other ballads on this show, it’s known for being particularly emotional, but in this case it’s also tricky to sing. That’s why the other guys call it a “hell song.”

So, who would want to take this song on? Why, mister high notes himself, Park Jeup.

Park Jeup was second to choose and chose this song right off, but it took a while for anyone else to join him, to the point that he started to get nervous. But after a bit, 16th ranked Detective Donghun from A.C.E. chose it while there were still spots open in every song. It turns out that Donghun really wanted to sing Breath but chose this song so that he could work with Jeup. Aww! They were on I Can See Your Voice 4 together, so Donghun may have admired Jeup’s voice for a while. They’re “chingus” in the sense that they were born in the same year, 1993, and in Korean culture having someone around who is the same age as you is sort of meaningful, almost like when you meet someone from your home country when you’re abroad.

“Will I be able to sing this song well?” … “I’m sure you’ll do well.”

Also, Donghun proved he’s not scared to tackle tough material when he did an EXO song for his teaser performance. 

By the time Neon chose the song, Ditto, Tomboy, and Shall I Love You Again  were closed, but he seems to choose this song without hesitation. By the time 36th place Hyukjin choose it, the only songs open were this song, Every Moment Of You (the one we just saw), or Breath, but I think he might have really wanted this song anyway. Based on his teaser performance -- that wild metal performance -- he also likes to tackle tough material. (Hyukjin was also born in 1993, making him also a chingu to Jeup and Donghun. Neon is a little younger, about 28 years old.)

In my original assessment of Jeup, I noted that I loved his technique but wasn’t sure about his timbre, but that I’d give him a chance to grow on me. For Hyukjin, I recognized the ambition of what he tried to do and again decided to reserve judgment. About Neon, I said that he has nice, clean vocals, with good technique and a lot of power. And I said that Donghun has an appealing warm vocal color with good breath support, but strains his throat a bit. If I had to pick a favorite voice of the four based on their teaser song, I’d choose Neon, but Donghun wouldn’t be too far behind. This is a group of powerful vocalists, regardless of the category they chose, and I am hopeful that it will turn out well.

The group seems pretty happy to all be working together, and they view each other as talented colleagues, which might make it tricky to divvy up the parts. They’re all really good, so who should sing what? 

Look at how shiny Hyukjin’s suit is! Those gray lines are just lights reflecting off of creases in the material. 

They begin singing the song a bit to test out the waters, and Jeup’s strong clear tenor fills the studio. Over in team Beautiful, Lim Sang Hyun wonders out loud, “Is that the original song playing?” 

LTR: Lim Sanghyun, Taewoo, Jeong Yunseo, Kim Minseo 

They take turns singing a bit and they all sound fantastic. They’re not really sure what to do, because Jeup doesn’t want to take the verse, which he thinks is too low for him, and so he wants to do the chorus, which is a long part. Donghun also wants to do that long part, but decides that it suits Jeup more and decides to do a different part that is more emotional, even if it’s shorter. The rest of the part distribution goes well.

Then we go into a mini montage of Donghun’s struggles in his life. He’s always wanted to sing, and went on various shows to make that happen, but though he made top 10 of Superstar K5 that wasn’t quite good enough, and then he made the debut lineup of that shitshow that was MIXNINE but of course that group didn’t debut. He thought that debuting (in A.C.E.) would make it ok, but it didn’t. I beg to differ, sir! People really like A.C.E.! But I guess it’s not like A.C.E. have hit the highs of BTS and Seventeen, so I understand what he’s saying. “Actually the survival program itself was a bit of a trauma for me,” he adds, and I feel that. These shows seriously should gift each contestant at least 20 hours of a post-show mental health counseling. 

The guys are meeting in some sort of staff room, probably at one of their agencies. Looks like three of them were drinking something cool, but smart Jeup is drinking something hot. Cold stuff is bad for your throat, my friends. Jeup knows where it’s at.

Left to right: Hyukjin, Neon, Donghun, and Jeup

Also, I think Jeup looks so much nicer with his hair this way, sort of parted and brushed back, instead of down over his face like bangs.

Anyway, at this meeting, Donghun is saying, “I want us to decide what kind of thoughts we’ll have when we sing this song, so that we have a unified approach. The song title is Don’t Go, Don’t Go. We can make it about our dreams. I haven’t seen my dream lately, and I hope it comes to me now.”    

The editors play some sad piano music as Donghun’s words sink in. All four of them know what he’s talking about. Honestly, Hyukjin and Jeup know what he means even more than he does -- A.C.E. is about 100x more popular than Jeup’s group was, and about 100,000x more popular than Hyukjin’s current group. 

Hyukjin, partly quoting from the song, says, “Living like a fool is heartbreaking. But we keep living like fools.” Then he smiles incredulously, as if he almost can’t believe that he’s made that connection. Donghun has really hit a nerve here. 

Donghun agrees with Hyukjin, and says, “yes, we keep singing like fools.” He interviews that he wants to reclaim his dream and get it back. 

As the lights go down on performance day, Donghun voiceovers, I want to sing my heart out with no regrets. 

Here’s the full version, no reactions. 

My thoughts:

Damn, that was good. 

Let me nitpick for just a few seconds. Yes, Hyukjin’s voice is a little thin and he strained on the highest notes, and Jeup’s voice is a bit too high in timbre to be my favorite, and Donghun’s voice still sounds strained, like he must be hurting his throat. 

But it all ended up working. I don’t know, man, this was good. For one thing, all the voices are really good individually, and then they also are a great mix. You’ve got the slightly tart Jeup, like a strawberry. You’ve got the bright voice of Hyukjin, like a raspberry. You’ve got the slightly challenging voice of Donghun, a pineapple. And then the smoothest voice, Neon, as a slice of banana mixed in to smooth the whole thing down. It fucking works. I don’t even like this song and I liked listening to their performance. I mean, this is going on my playlist, you guys. This is good shit.

I particularly like Neon’s voice, even though I recognize that it’s not quite as powerful or well trained as the others’. To me, he sounds just a little like Do Kyungsoo and that’s just about the highest compliment I can give to a singer. 

Also, damn, I don’t normally talk about this kind of thing exactly but Park Jeup, in addition to being a real sweetheart, is a really good looking dude. I’m not made of steel, you guys. 

Those cheekbones! Those shoulders! Am I alone on this…? 

The MNET edit, like all the edits so far, is pretty restrained. I guess they told their editors to not do a whole bag of coke before they sat down to their editing control panel. There are a few instant replays of high notes, but they’re blended in to the background mix so it’s not so jarring to listen to. 

All the reaction shots are positive. We see the judges just loving all of them. Vocal Coach Guy even asks, “wait, is this live or playback?” The love seems slightly more focused on Jeup and Donghun, less so on Neon and even less so on Hyukjin, but all four of them get some love, which is nice. 

Solar likes it. I think. I guess? Not sure.

She’s excited Jeup hit that one high note! She tries to hit it too and kind of can’t! 

Backstage, the guys all kind of fall over hearing Jeup’s high note. They almost can’t believe it. Hwanhee kind of hits his own knees with his hands involuntarily. 

When they’re done, the judges give them a standing ovation!

They lavish praise on all of them, again focusing a little less on Hyukjin and a little more on Donghun. They think that the four of them could just debut as a group the way they are. Basically, the judges agree with me, so that’s good.

Vocal Coach Guy points out that Jeup doesn’t just hit high notes -- he sings with emotions. Then he adds that Jeup has nice shoulders, so that was funny. Wendy asks about Jeup’s range, and he says that he can sing any male song, that they’re all in his range. 

Dahee says that it was nothing but compliments, so the question is, who could win? Backstage, the boys aren’t sure either. No one floats Hyukjin’s name as top tier, but the other three get named, and the boys think that all four were excellent. 

So, who wins…?

Baekho, Solar, and Vocal Coach Guy all vote for Donghun from A.C.E. 

Eunkwang and Jaehwan vote for Neon, and Wendy votes for Park Jeup. 

So, Donghun wins! Vocal Coach Guy lavishes a bit more praise on him, saying that it was an easy choice to pick Donghun because his voice is so good. 

And then, oh guys, it’s so sad. Donghun starts to cry, saying it’s the first time he’s been recognized like this. 

The judges are a little uncomfortable because the “win” is kind of a minor one, and they’re surprised at his reaction. It’s like this is what Donghun has been waiting his whole life to hear. 

Donghun adds that he didn’t expect to win, that he was focusing on working well with his team.

Backstage, the guys are like, oof, wouldn’t want to have to follow that! 

So who is up next? Team Breath. The editors do that thing like they’re trying to trick you into thinking that the performance is starting, but the episode is almost over and this obviously just a teaser. Thanks, editors. Theditors. 

Since we’re at the end of the episode, I’ll end the post here. Woo! Finally to the end of the first episode! I'm only two full episodes behind... great! Anyway, I'll see you in the next one, and thanks as always for reading. <3

[sewooonz]

imfact 'nanana' behind photo

[club-cheongyang]

[missingjonghyun]

my husband

[itzsarahhh]

I haven’t really watched any shows recently, except for Build Up. And now that Build Up is over I don’t know what to watch. Also, I am so sad Jeup/Partners didn’t win, he deserves success and I hope he continues his career as a singer. But I do like HunMinJayBit as a team, they work really well together. So I’m interested to see what type of music they will release.

Also WaterFire team is debuting too? We love to see it. They really said “screw Mnet, we will debut ourselves,” and I love that for them.

I kinda wanna do a post with my top ten favorite performances from the show, but I’d probably have to watch all the performances again and not sure when I’d have the time to do that. Would most of Jeup’s performances end up in my top ten? It is very likely. He’s just too good.

[bubblegeon]

💌 The KH Company's first Christmas album, "Confessions on Christmas", will be released on December 18, 2023, featuring Lee Woo, Kim Hankyul, Kim Dohee, Park Jeup, and Choi Nakta.

[ace-net]

2024.07.23 I Still Jacket Behind

[bemybaebaebae]

Jeup

[boysplanetrecaps]

just keeping my readers happy

💖 here you go, you weirdos 💖

check out my post with my full recap of this performance

or check out my Build Up recaps

[emeraldbabygirl]

[dryedmangoez]

Music Monday, November 11, 2024 – Sungjin, EPEX, Park Jeup, EVNNE, Kino

Great new music from Sungjin, EPEX, Park Jeup, EVNNE, Kino. Continue reading Music Monday, November 11, 2024 – Sungjin, EPEX, Park Jeup, EVNNE, Kino

[wishheroes]

Weekly K-pop Round-Up (20240515-20240522) pt.1

hello everyone! today i will be reviewing kpop (etc) releases from week 3 of may which is may 15th until may 22nd. it's my first review post so i hope you can enjoy it! now let's get into the reviews.

Baby Step - We;Na

this song was so much fun! i went in with zero expectations since i have never listened to we;na before, but i really enjoyed the instrumental on this. its a fun upbeat song perfect for the summer. there's nothing extraordinary about it per se, but it's still great.

Algorhythm - ITZY

with itzy korean releases, it's usually a hit or miss with me. but their japanese releases have never disappointed me! again, this was a great japanese song from them. i think it might be one of my favourite releases from them in general. i enjoy the melody a lot, it's nice to the ear and easy to listen to while still being enjoyable and fun. i loved the little change up part near the end, it was the cherry on top!

Accendio - IVE

honestly no words. this is an amazing song. truth, i prefer heya over accendio by a lot. heya was just perfect. but this song is amazing as well. i especially loved the music video as well as the dreamy vibe the song has. the whole concept of both the song and the music video is super cool to me.

Sirius Part 2 - The Wind

correct me if im wrong, but this is a continuation of sirius, right? you can definitely hear sirius in this song and i absolutely love it! sirius was my favourite the wind song so i absolutely loved sirius part 2 as well. the wind in general have such amazing songs, they're so refreshing and they never fail to make me smile. i am so happy they're bringing back this sound in kpop! i really hope they make it big in the future.

200 - MARK

mark lee the legend you are.. im a huge rock fan so this is right up my alley. i can't tell if i prefer this or golden hour, but the song is GOOD. as in, REALLY GOOD. honestly i can't describe this song in words, it's an amazing song and it's definitely a release you shouldn't miss out on.

Orange Juice - Ryu Sujeong (ft. YEIN)

seems like this release doesn't have a music video or anything of those sorts so spotify link it is! when the song started i didn't expect to like it. i thought it would be another one of those really bland songs. while i wasn't completely wrong, this song has those 2014-2017 vibes that i miss a lot. i could totally imagine myself listening to this in the summer. it feels really nostalgic and the chorus is just really great. i think this song deserves your attention and at least a few streams!

BLACK OUT - 257

it's actually my first time giving this group a listen and also my first time finding out about their existence. it seems this is their debut? the song itself is just, well, okay. there's nothing special about it. you have your typical trending pinkpantheress type of beat as the instrumental and that's kind of it. i like their vocals, but i'm not completely sure if i like their vocals paired together. either way, i don't hate this song, but i don't see myself listening to this on a daily basis. congratulations on your debut!

crazy stupid love - Sorn, Hongseok, WILD

i don't think i'll ever enjoy any sorn song at this point. this is a no for me. sure, it's cute! but it's quite boring to me. i honestly can't even write a good review of this song because it's just boring to me. there's nothing else i can say. probably won't listen to this song ever again.

My Everything - Park JeUp

the moment the instrumental started playing i was sold. then he started singing and i was even more sold. his voice is lovely! i love myself a good ballad, and this one was very good. the song is very pretty. i will definitely add this to my ballad playlist.

PAIN - Hyunwoo

when the song started playing i had to double check if this came out in 2024. the 2nd gen vibes i get from this are crazy! i'm actually not sure what i think of this song. i love the sound, i love the 2nd/early 3rd gen vibe, but something is missing. i'm also not sure if i like his voice or not. either way, this is a solid song! it's a bit on the lower quality side but i still enjoyed it.

Ride The Vibe - NEXZ

WOW!! i'm actually so pleasantly surprised!!! i had zero expectations for this especially since, again, jyp releases are very hit or miss for me. or maybe not necessarily releases but jyp groups and their music. but this song is really great. i also expected a completely different sound from what we got. i like it so much that i suddenly want to stan this group which i had zero interest in just 5 minutes ago. i love the instrumental and their vocals so much. the song reminds me of these songs that i used to listen to on youtube back in like 2017? from a channel called galaxy. they always had anime thumbnails on them and i swear half of those songs sounded exactly like this!! i absolutely love this song and i will definitely be adding this into my playlists and looking into this group.

Cheese - SUHO, WENDY

one thing about me is i love cheese. so it only makes sense for me to enjoy this song. cheese out of the way, can we talk about how insanely good suho looks in this music video? such a serve. moving on to the actual song now, at first listen i was a bit lost as to if i like it or not. second listen, i like it. a lot. i especially like that guitar part near the end of the song i think it made the song complete. i vibe with this A LOT. the melody is nice, fun, and catchy. the vocals are of course top tier as expected from suho and wendy. i have nothing negative to say about this release. i think the concept, music video, and song are all fantastic. i do think sm's obsession with ai should stop though.

Tasty - B.I

it definitely sounds b.i! i like the beat and i do like the vibes but to me the song is just a bit too empty. however i do know that many rap songs are made with a simple beat so i will not criticise the instrumental too much. i do enjoy his rapping in this. personally though, i don't think this song is for me. i'm usually into rap songs that are more upbeat with a more interesting instrumental.

part two of the post here

[itzsarahhh]

Current obsession: Mnet’s Build Up

Seriously this show is really great. I love being able to see vocalists do what they do best and SING. There have been so many amazing performances that give me so many emotions.

PARK JEUP IS MY KING!!! I literally have loved this man’s voice since I watched his I Can See Your Voice cover of Park Hyoshin’s Wildflower (everybody needs to watch this video). He has been serving us amazing performances each round and I am blessed with his performances being on Spotify. Mnet doing something right for once. I need him in the final lineup or I will riot.

Other than Jeup though I don’t mind any of the remaining contestants becoming part of the group. They have all proved themselves in terms of vocal and performance, and any combination would be really interesting to see (That said I am rooting for Jay, Donghun, Seunghun, Bain, Suhwan, and Bitsaeon to make it). But I hope all of them succeed in their careers even if they don’t make the group.