#look out jagu's on her atiny bullshit again

[yuuana]

Music Monday #184: ATEEZ - Deja Vu release: September 2021 genre: Kpop

I ... I had a plan to make up for missing all of last week that involved featuring a couple other releases before coming back to my precious 4th gen kings, but then they did a Mid-Autumn Festival Special Relay version for Deja Vu and seeing as that's kinda time-sensitive, here we are. Sorry not sorry for subjecting y'all to my ATINY-ness yet again. XD warning: I get into lore spoilers towards the end of this, so if you want to be unspoiled for the MV, watch it before reading the last two full paragraphs.

So in the run up to the release of their latest album, ZERO:FEVER part 3, ATEEZ asked fans and quite a few celebs to vote between two tracks, Deja Vu (preview: performance version) and Eternal Sunshine (preview: performance version), to pick which would be the A-title (some streaming services mark both as title tracks). In the end, the votes went to Deja Vu and while we expect to see Eternal Sunshine eventually, since we know they shot MVs for both, for now we've just got Deja Vu. Oh noes. Dark concept ATEEZ in the rain? However will we cope. XD Not well, actually - the members wanted to, in their words, explore unrestrained sexy for Deja Vu and oh boy are they ever. The song starts out a little brassy and with my beloved syncopation ... and then the bass drops as the song really gets going and within a few bars I'm having a hard time not chair dancing my way through the rest of the song. Deja Vu manages to hit in just the right way to give my stupid ADHD brain a much-craved hit of The Endorphins (it's probably the bass), so I've been listening to it a lot even before today. The whole album is on fire, I've been in some sort of weird Proud Auntie mode since it dropped last week ... even if "Not Too Late" (performed on M!Countdown, 210916) tends to make me want to cry. Because of all the work Mingi did before his hiatus that meant in effect he was only totally missing off the one release this year (Japanese single "Dreamers"), I didn't expect his full return to hit me as hard as it did. In fact, after the last eight plus months of seven man configurations, it took the guys mentioning it on the release showcase for it to register in my head that the dance sections of the MV are also seven man configurations due to Jongho being injured at the time of shooting - my brain was used to those formations after so many months and dozens of performances and I wasn't counting bodies because why would I? And yet something about seeing all eight together again is making this round of stages something special. Of course it's not an ATEEZ release if we're not talking about where this video (and it's post-action scene) fits into the lore story. As ever, the guys are still playing it a bit coy as far as where in the lore this fits, but right now at least, it feels like we're looking at another piece of HALATEEZ backstory? I can't put my finger on exactly why. We know (or at least we strongly think) red is connected to Halateez and previous hints have said the Fever saga is all backstory for what came before with Treasure. In fact, I would tentatively put this video ahead of Fireworks (I'm the One) in the timeline, although even that is a bit iffy - the glass case we see in the middle of the second rap verse has appeared before, most strongly in connection with Say My Name and Yeosang, but what exactly it does, how he got in there or even which Yeosang is in there are all question marks right now, so seeing it again, this time with two versions of Hongjoong ... answers nothing. As for the post-action scene ... well that's a whole ass problem all right. The chromer, the proper name for the mystical hourglass that is ATEEZ's symbolic item (see also: lightiny, the official light stick), is supposed to be unique, a singular key that accesses the different lines of the multiverse. But since we've seen the chromer whole and functioning just fine several times now in videos and stages that are definitely post-FEVER era, either the post scene is at the very end of the timeline, unlike the rest of the video (which then begets even more questions), or the chromer isn't as singular as we previously thought. OR ... this entire video has not, in fact, been backstory for either of the two main crews we've seen up to now (HEROTEEZ, aka normal Ateez and HALATEEZ, aka black Ateez). Between the original music video and now four live stages (M!Countdown (9.16), You Heeyeol's Sketchbook (9.17), Music Bank (9.17), and Inkigayo (9.19)), that moment between San and Wooyoung on the rooftop has gotten increasingly vampiric ... which could mean we're looking at another version of Ateez entirely? As if sorting out the chromer lore wasn't already hard enough, between dreamscapes and the Halateez revolutionaries and everything else! Oh to have a half an hour to sit down with Hongjoong and/or San and get them to tell me the whole story. I can keep a secret, honest! XD ZERO : FEVER part 3 is out now on all the major streaming platforms, breaking company records and taking names. Want to see Music Monday deep dives more often? Sponsor a song selection! For the low, low price of one (1) KoFi, I'll write up the song of your choice. ANY song of your choice. Yes, even that one that's been played to death. Yes, your obscure faves too. With sponsors, I can stop skipping weeks and falling further and further behind in the releases! Sponsor a current CB for the next open Music Monday slot (if I get enough, I'll open Song Sundays so waits aren't more than 4 weeks). Or sponsor a flashback for a Friday feature! But seriously, if you've been enjoying my selections and analyses, we (me and the foster kittens) would love a KoFi in thanks. DW | Twitter | Ko-fi | Patreon | Discord | Twitch