In the lead up to the release of the SM rotational group’s first repackaged album ‘Regulate’, NCT 127 dropped the official M/V for the title track ‘Simon Says‘. We’ll be looking at the said song in our review below!
Much like with a first listen with some of NCT 127’s songs, it’s usually a hit or a miss. Or at least, it’ll take more than a few listens to win the listener over. This unit in particular is the most promoted in the entirety of NCT and they’re known for being almost the ‘experimental’ music type of group, unafraid of exploring new territory and trying out new sounds for each of their comebacks.
With ‘Simon Says‘, it opens up with the usage of the chants of New Zealand’s haka, this is regarded as a traditional war cry and it is often seen during rugby matches as a method of intimidation. This could be a implied that the NCT members used the sample of this to serve as a prelude for this track, to almost lay a claim to something. The track has an underlying hypnotic feel to it, especially during the chorus the beat comes out more strongly and the impact makes it pretty catchy. While it may have come across as being all over place on a first listen, the music smoothly transits throughout the song.
The title track of ‘Simon Says‘ is a reference to the children’s game, in which you follow along the directions of the leader to their followers. In the video, just as the song kicks in, Taeyong can be seen in the middle, while the other members are moving around a circle in sync. This could just show that as he is the leader of NCT, it could be a sign of respect shown towards him. However, another take on this is that later on in the video, it could switch the meaning by it being a play on words. Instead of blindly following the instructions of the leader, like how NCT started, there’s another choice to walk a different path. They’re all wearing masks at the beginning, but they eventually discard them, along with the ideologies that they previously thought to be true.
What did you think of NCT 127’s comeback song?
