The Star Chapter: SANCTUARY - EP

-


The Star Chapter: SANCTUARY - EP

Album ∙ K-Pop ∙ 2024

TOMORROW X TOGETHER

In late 2024, TOMORROW X TOGETHER (aka TXT) released their seventh mini album. The Star Chapter: SANCTUARY marks the launch of the fourth “chapter” for the fourth-generation K-pop group, known for a discography that broadly follows the growing pains from boyhood to adulthood. In SANCTUARY, members Soobin, Yeonjun, Beomgyu, Taehyun, and Hueningkai call on the “language of the stars” to tell the story of a lofty love.

In the smooth album opener “Heaven,” the twentysomething members sing of a love that transforms their lives into something euphoric (“Heaven is not far away now/The moment we kissed”), while lead single “Over the Moon” continues the sky-high metaphor to depict a divine connection (“Over the moon/Over the stars/Fly up when you're in my arms”). Groovy “Danger” brings attraction back down to visceral earth with the husky hook “What you doin’ to me?” while “Resist (Not Gonna Run Away)” uses reggaetón and evocative falsettos to explore a push-and-pull attraction.

Coming of age is filled with its ups and downs, and TXT has leaned into a fair degree of emo expression in their exploration of the theme. But—in The Star Chapter: SANCTUARY, at least—TXT’s ongoing story of emerging adulthood is more dizzy delight than darkness.

Listen on Apple Music

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

GNX

-
Image
GNX Album ∙ Hip-Hop/Rap ∙ 2024 Kendrick Lamar If there were any remaining doubts as to hip-hop’s MVP, consider the decision stamped: Kendrick Lamar officially won 2024. There were whispers that Compton’s finest was working on an album in the wake of his feud with Drake, a once-in-a-generation beef that kept jaws dropped for months. (Perhaps you’ve heard of a little song called “Not Like Us,” an immediate entry into the canon of all-time great diss tracks.) After a sold-out celebration at the Kia Forum, an armful of Grammy nods and streaming records, and the headlining slot at next year’s Super Bowl, Lamar ties up his biggest year yet with a bow with his sixth album,   GNX , the most legitimately surprising surprise drop since   BEYONCÉ   in 2013. Named for his beloved classic Buick,   GNX   finds Kendrick wielding a hatchet he’s by no means ready to bury, still channeling this summer’s cranked-to-11 energy. On “wacced out murals,” he’s riding around listening to...
Listen »

Trill Bill

-
Image
Trill Bill Album ∙ Hip-Hop/Rap ∙ 2024 Kodak Black Despite the rollercoaster that is the Florida rapper’s personal life, Kodak Black’s steady stream of new music never falters. Just a month after the release of a mixtape,   Dieuson Octave , which took its title from his birth name, arrives   Trill Bill , his eighth studio album. For a man still in his twenties with such a world-weary rasp it’s surprising to hear just how nimble his flow can be, with a knack for unpredictable wordplay reminiscent of mixtape-era Wayne. (Kudos if you saw it coming when he rhymes “Make my gat go bang” with “Kurt Cobain” on “Maybach Van.”) Surprising too are   Trill Bill ’s many tender moments—as he croons over sweet piano chords on “One Piece Left” (“I got one more piece of my heart left/And I’ve been saving it for you”), or recounts a meet-cute on “Dirty Revolver”: “She said, ‘You Haitian and a Gemini, boy, I already know you trouble, but LOL, text me.’”
Listen »