I.M Will ‘LURE’ You In With His New EP Off The Beat

Sony Music Entertainment Korea Inc

editor, interviewer, columnist, writer, and all-around obsessive music lover.

In old news, I.M is a triple threat! This time, though, we’re not talking about just his performing, writing, and composing skills. Today, we’re talking about I.M’s third EP, Off The Beat, the follow-up to predecessors Duality and Overdrive.

The six-track EP follows the pattern that his other solo work has, by which we mean it follows no pattern at all. I.M is as experimental as ever, and we always love how Changkyun comes across as so liberated in these albums. This time, in Off The Beat, I.M interrogates the different aspects of temptation and fuses together genres such as Latin pop, trap, and hip-hop.

‘LURE’

Perhaps the most overt ode to temptation is in title track and album opener, ‘LURE.’ For a start, we get to hear I.M’s falsetto in the chorus, which is absolutely gorgeous. We’d love to hear this way more often than we do, but with how much it feels like a siren’s call, perhaps it’s for safety’s sake that we don’t. The Latin-pop-influenced track truly does what it sets out to do – ‘LURE’ you in. With lyrics like “Sip me like a wine, I’ll treat you right,” and “One bite, I can’t satisfy,” I.M embodies the nonchalant brand of seduction he’s known for in Monsta X.

Off The Beat

Image Source: Sony Music Entertainment Korea Inc

‘LURE’ isn’t the only killer track on Off The Beat! We reckon this is his best and most cohesive body of work yet, with each song representing a different aspect of temptation. Where ‘Bust It’ embodies impressive self-confidence over a trap beat, ‘MMI’ (which stands for me, myself, and I) is enchantingly vulnerable, as is album closer ‘nbdy.’ ‘X0,’ we’ll be honest, is basically late-night pillow talk. And if ‘X0’ is pillow talk… we don’t even know what ‘Skyline’ is.

So, we’re all in agreement that I.M, aka Changkyun, is as smooth and suave as ever, right? We’re down bad for Off The Beat, an album that we genuinely believe is I.M’s best yet.

Are you as obsessed with the ‘LURE’ music video as we are? What’s your favorite b-side from Off The Beat? Let us know on Twitter, @TheHoneyPOP, or on Instagram and Facebook.