Taemin is back with the second act of his 3rd full-length album Never Gonna Dance Again and we can’t get enough! The album includes some fan favorites Shawols have waited for for a long time! Also, the title track ‘IDEA:理想’ is something we haven’t heard before! In true Taemin tradition, the music video has us utterly breathless! Make sure you watch the music video and listen to the entire album here.
‘You Are My Messiah’
‘IDEA’ is a song with a structure that is unique! The groovy pop song has a string instrumental as its chorus and Taemin gets supported by no other than BoA for the choruses killing part. And we love to see it! Taemin shows off quite interesting verses and vocal skills during the entire song. The chorus is quite catchy and so we have “My I-DE-A” stuck in our heads.
The choreography is also absolutely out of this world and just gets us more excited for live stages. The music video is a contrast to Taemin’s title song ‘Criminal’ from September. This time around he is portrayed in the in-between of the underworld and heaven and is trying to find himself. The colors of the video switch from white and light blues to dark colors like red and black, which underline this search and struggle. It is breathtaking! And black haired Taemin in a crop top is something we can’t help but swoon over. Our favorite scenes in the music video have to be the ones of Taemin in a skirt in front of the wall of fire. He looks so good!
Never Gonna Dance Again Act 2: The B-sides
The entire album consists of 9 songs which each show off various styles of music and that’s why we had to review each one of them as non is like the other. They all have the Taemin print of awesomeness! Some of the tracks are studio versions of fan favorites and some are completely new and Taemin has written the lyrics to them. All in all, this is a fantastic follow up to Act 1 and we can’t wait for the live stages of ‘IDEA’ and more!
‘Heaven’
‘Heaven’ is the second track on this album and we think it was the most anticipated b-side on the entire Never Gonna Dance Again era! Shawols first heard this amazing song during Taemin’s solo concert T1001101. And this medium-tempo pop song has us obsessed! The new studio version has a newly added bridge which makes this new song an entirely new out of body experience!
‘Impressionable’
‘Impressionable’ is a song not usual for Taemin. It is a minimalistic pop song with bass elements and it gives us creepy vibes. Taemin sings in a rather low tone during the entire track and we love it. The mysterious feeling suits the entire mood of the album and we love seeing new sides of Taemin! During Taemin’s comeback live he mentioned that this song was only included due to copyright issues with the original song. We wonder what other hidden gems Taemin is keeping from us.
‘Be Your Enemy’ ft. Red Velvet’s Wendy
This song feels like a warm hug. ‘Be Your Enemy’ is a pop song with electric guitar elements and it is featuring no other than Red Vekevt’s Wendy. Her warm vocals give us a lot of comfort during this rollercoaster of a year and we will make sure to listen to this beautiful song regularly. Taemin made this song with fans in mind to comfort them. And rather than singing it on his own, he thought the song needed a female voice and since he likes Wendy’s vocal tone he asked her. And we say thank you, sir! We are living for this collab.
‘Think Of You’
‘Think Of You’ has lyrics written by Taemin himself and it is giving us SHINee-like ballad feels. This electronic pop ballad is very personal to Taemin and he said he would love to have this song sung back to him by fans at the next concert! The lyrics to ‘Think Of You’ mention someone to “Hug Me [Taemin]” and this refers to his fans hugging his heart! We are completely soft for this song.
‘Exclusive’
‘Exclusive’ is already well-loved and known by Shawols. This groovy pop song was already included in Taemin’s Japanese album Famous last year. And this is the Korean version of this bop! The song keeps aging like fine wine and if corona wouldn’t have happened we could have gotten a live performance of it at his Never Gonna Dance Again concert in March! We hope we will eventually get this performance as we expect it to be epic. While we wait we shall listen to this on repeat!
‘Pansy’
This country-based pop song is a song Taemin co-wrote the lyrics to and he had only his fans in mind. The song was mostly written in the past tense and is for Shawols to look back on in the future. Shawols will reminisce about how active Taemin was during his twenties and we already have tears streaming down our face just thinking about a time where Taemin won’t feed us on a regular. A little fun fact is that pansies are the birth flower of May 25th which is SHINee’s debut date. Now that’s what we call fate!
‘I Think It’s Love’
‘I Think It’s Love’ is another Taemin power ballad and we love those! We would like to compare this one to power ballads like ‘Rise’ on Taemin’s second album Move. It’s a song about love from the people closest to you, like your family, friends, or fans. And it’s a warm hug along with Taemin’s power vocals. We can’t stop listening to it.
‘Identity’
‘Identity’ is another song we know from Taemin’s solo concert T1001101. This R’N’B pop song was already planned during ‘Want’ promotions but we only got the studio version today! The song’s most important factor is its focus on emotions. And we feel them. ‘Identity’ is the perfect way to close this album and can’t wait to see what is next for Taemin.
We can’t get enough of this album, that’s for sure! We are unable to pick a favorite. So we simply refuse to! Taemin delivers every time! What do you think about Never Gonna Dance Again Act 2? Which is your favorite track? Let us know in the comments below or tweet us @TheHoneyPOP or talk to us on Facebook or Instagram!
Need more KPOP content? We got you!
To Learn More About SHINee:
FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | TWITTER | WEBSITE | YOUTUBE
TAEMIN is undeniably one of the best soloists ever in the world right now.
I love how he experiments with different sounds and concepts than just going along with the trends. I respect and admire him so much.