[TUNE IN] AKMU – Melted

YG’s new harmonic sibling duo, Akdong Musician (or AKMU) have finally made their debut!

During K-Pop Star 2, brother and sister Lee Chan Hyuk and Lee Soo Hyun have been recognised for having the ability to write and perform self written music which majorly impressed the public due to their young age. When it comes to their debut album, Lee Chan Hyuk wrote all 11 songs with little or no input from YG himself – thankfully. Of course YG is a mainstream K-Pop entertainment company so there are a few songs in the album (200%, Give Love) which follow the mainstream K-Pop flow, but there’s one that stood out for me and that’s Melted. I’m so happy they’ve chosen this as one of their title tracks because it’s one of my favourite songs coming out of YG Entertainment this year.

Song

This song is about the adult world from the point of view of these teenagers, they portray it as a cold place meaning the song is quite dark compared to other YG music. It almost feels like something that’s just come out of a Tim Burton movie.

The piano with the cello at the beginning gives off a calm vibe, especially as it follows 200% on the album but at the same time has a very dark feeling to it. The eerie cello then slowly comes in and sets the mood of the song. The sibling’s voices are beautifully harmonized, her voice is very sweet whereas his is a bit more rough, making a perfect balance between the two. Melted is very chorus based, but the way they’ve sung it differently each time with the amount of emotion they put in, it’s barely noticeable how 70% of it is chorus.

Just like any other K-Pop song, there’s the random English phrases with a hint of a Korean accent, but nonetheless work well in the song and don’t feel too awkward.

Overall, this is a very calming yet emotional song with beautiful lyrics and a unique feel to it.

Video

The video was released quite recently. After listening to the song a few times and seeing the stage setup on Ingikayo and K-Pop Star, I expected an “It Hurts”(2NE1) style video. Something dark and symbolic but instead, YG have surprised us with a story led music video. Another thing that surprised me was the lack of Koreans in it, for the main part the actors were international. I feel it might have been done to help prove their point, no matter who you are and where you’re from,  adulthood is still cold and uninviting from a young person’s point of view. It tells the story how blunt and cold adults appear to be through the boy’s eyes, but nearer the end he finds someone who can “melt his cold heart”. The rest is up to interpretation. After watching it for the first time, I felt like I’ve just watched a feature length film. Not because it feels long but because I was going through the emotions I would go through whilst watching a feature length film, only YG have managed to do it in the space of 5 minutes.

With the video’s story line together with the meaningful lyrics and the emotive singing, this mv will surely bring you to tears.

Overall UK potential: 3/5

This is a difficult one to judge how well it’ll do in the UK. I feel that the song alone wouldn’t do as well due to the fact many people have fallen in love with it for its meaning – being British we wouldn’t understand the meaning behind and some people might even get bored with the slow pace. The music video on the other hand is something a lot of young teens can relate with despite the language, so it might get more attention.

What do you think of it? Let us know in the comments below!