Album Review: Lucy- Childhood
Lucy is back! I don’t talk about them too much in my general articles, typically because I am fairly girl group biased, but I think Lucy is the best band in kpop currently, which is impressive when they have incredibly talented competition like The Rose, Onewe, N.Flying, and more. I love the dynamic that the violin brings, and I really like how three of the members sing, which really allows the group's vocals to cover a wide range, both musically and emotionally. Moving on from how great Lucy is musically though, let’s dive into the album because it is a whopper, an entire 15 songs to get through totally nearly an hour of playtime. I won’t be doing a separate section for the music video this time around, but the title track from the album is called Play and the video does a really great job of hitting the nostalgic tone it’s looking for, and yet feels quite sad. With that, let’s hop into the album!
Knowhow- What a fun start to the album! This is how you get a listener’s attention, the bass line is so groovy, absolutely my favorite part of the instrumental. The violin has a lot of fun staccato and generally quick and flighty notes which is also fantastic. The vocals balance that soft sound with a pleasant touch of emotion too that keeps your head and heart together in the music, excellent.
MP3- Another fun track, the keyboard is so incredibly playful in sections of the song, it almost is having a conversation with the other instruments and the vocals. The energy is not as much my taste as Knowhow, but MP3 is still an absolute blast.
Play- The title track of the whole album. Holy moly, the vocals are outstanding on this track, a great showcase of how emotive Lucy can be, they evoke feelings and emotions so effectively. They do nostalgia like nobody else can in my opinion, it’s just a gift. I also like the chanting coming back as an echo of how MP3 ends, tying the album together nicely thus far. Chorus vocals in particular though, just excellent.
10sec- I should have done a reaction video to this song, the opening drums into the full instrumental just had me bopping so hard. The groove on some of these tracks is just out of this world, that violin riff and the bass line just hit the spot perfectly. I haven’t mentioned the drums much so far, but the cymbals crash just right and the fills are excellent too, the whole group definitely was on the same groovy page. The violin solo is also great here, and I like some of the vocal experimentation going on, the rappy section and the more hoarse moments.
You & Me- This is probably one of the best examples of the interplay between all of the vocalists across the group, they let each play to their strengths and come together to build something great that one person wouldn’t be able to necessarily do on their own. Compared to the other songs thus far on the album, You & Me isn’t the strongest for me overall, but it does have some cool little moments.
Domino (feat. D-Hack)- This song is more of a theatrical experience than a standard song for me, it’s very fun to listen to, but probably won’t be in my regular rotation. I do like the little ghostly background vocals on the chorus in particular here, they’re a cool touch to an already very unusual song.
Foul- This is more of a slow chill jam for the most part… until you get to the incredibly emotive chorus vocals, he really goes for it and it’s awesome. The verses are kinda lullaby-like in mood too, which makes a pretty strong contrast, the dynamic is very cool, although it is a little jarring. The very epic, arena-rock instrumental leading up to the final chorus is great too, very Queen.
My Warm Loneliness- A true ballad compared to the more power-ballad nature of Foul, this whole track gives me very Hayao Miyazaki, Howl’s Moving Castle vibes, and I love that as somebody who is less favorable to ballads overall. I like the more classical expression of the violin here, it’s fairly unique in Lucy’s discography, which gives it a sense of originality. It’s also fun to get one of the non-main vocals to take the lead on a song, and he does a fantastic job.
Prequel- This song starts slow and has a wonderful build up before taking off, and ending softly, really they wrote this song exactly as a good story is traditionally structured, which is very effective in music too. Credit to the vocals here for really helping to bring that emotional range to help tell the story that the instrumental supports.
Don’t Forget Our Night- This song uses quietness effectively in helping tell the story of the song, contrasting it beautifully with everything around it. This also picks up a more moderate-slow pace which helps the build up from My Warm Loneliness, so far the album is paced really well. Another nice tying point here is the little chanty ending, repeated from a few earlier songs.
Colorless- Another beautiful and emotive ballad, this time just vocals and piano. This song is really pretty, and absolutely moves your soul. There’s something about the simple combination of a voice with a complimentary piano that just works, and has for so long, it just strikes one’s heartstrings the right way. That said, this slower song section in the middle is ready to be sped up.
Opening- Oh look! It’s the much needed change of pace! A little bit of a rock anime title song feeling here, which I can definitely vibe with. Some of the vibrato on the violin is really fantastic here, and the bassline and drums are crushing it too, that driving, running forward pace is so much fun. A great energy booster.
Ending- Logically, the Ending follows the Opening… illogically, the Ending still proceeds two more songs. Anyways, despite the clear intention to be paired with Opening across the song titles, Ending has its own flavor entirely, softer, but not really a ballad either. Something that I really like is that the instrumental at the end almost all walks hand-in-hand together, really feels like they’re all walking into the sunset together.
We Will Fly Away (feat. Song Eun Hye)- An English song, and a duet that almost feels like it’s out of Disney, Lucy is really diverse on this album while somehow keeping everything incredibly cohesive. I love the center third of this song, which is just a large instrumental, it’s dramatic and has a great sense of going forward. It actually almost feels like the vocals are a prologue and epilogue to the instrumental, which is either good or bad depending on how much you like these sorts of instrumental sections.
You Are My Light- Rounding out our little energy kick from the previous four songs is one last ballad. What a lovely blend of all the members' vocals and the violin, all of it comes together just beautifully. Listening to this song, I can just imagine swaying in an audience with all our lighters up, it has that sort of energy. My biggest critique of this song is that it’s too short at 4 minutes of runtime, I get so carried away listening to it that I just want it to keep going. This leaves such a pleasant taste in my ears and is a fantastic way to close an album out.
There you have it! The whole album through, pretty well paced compared to most kpop albums, although the 4 back-to-back ballads probably could have used one song in the middle to break up the pacing a bit. I think that Lucy did a wonderful job on this overall, obviously not every song will end up in playlists, but there’s so much to love here, from the great groovy energy of the first half to the quiet contemplation of the second half. And man, just what a fantastic way to open and close an album, just an incredible first and last impression, leaves me feeling so happy just to have listened along to it.
Overall rating- 9/10
Not every song was for me, but that’s an unrealistic expectation. I had a blast going through it and there are some really great tracks. In a year where I have struggled to enjoy b-sides this shines through with almost an hour of goodness. Definitely the best kpop album of the entire year so far.
