SHINee members are known to shine both as a group and as soloists; from Taemin’s smooth moves and addictive tracks to the late Jonghyun’s beautiful legacy. However, another member has joined the slowly growing roster of SM Artists becoming solo stars in their own right. Key has finally unveiled his own work with his title track; “Forever Yours” along with his upcoming album. He did prove his worth previously with his Fashion Week debut, “Chemicals” and his collaboration remix with Years & Years earlier this year, but now he has stepped into the spotlight with a catchy house track featuring SISTAR member and solo artist, Soyou.
In true SHINee fashion, the music video is all about the cinematography. Dream-like filters, retro style CGI and a little cheeky nod to pop culture is laced throughout the video. Even the first cinema poster seen in the video as cute little references to old school style media such as Stranger Things – i.e the creepy house, the font of the title etc.
In relation to the other movie posters, UKP HQ did do a little bonus search if the posters were real productions but these searchers were fruitless. The film titled Moonwalker was not a Sci-Fi spy movie but in fact the infamous anthology film starring Michael Jackson. The poster stating “I’m On Cloud Nine” appears to not be a film at all but interestingly features the car that Key travels in throughout the video. Maybe it is an advertisement displayed since Key is working as a mechanic. The only poster that brought any existing productions was “La Ballon Rouge”; a short film directed by Albert Lamorisse, which told the story of a young boy travelling through the streets of Paris with a sentient red balloon. Overall, the designs do appear to be made by the producers of the video to set the scene.
However, production soon escalates as well as the vehicle’s horsepower as it soon takes flight into space with a bewildered Key at the steering wheel. From this point onward, it is a smorgasbord of green screens, random graphics, texts and beautiful galactic scenery. The story is very minimal overall which is almost expected from Key. The track itself is front and centre so it can fall in perfectly with the music video’s visual delights which melts both retro and futuristic styles together. For example; Soyou’s soft R’n’B voice & the catchy Tropical chorus sung by Key are often equally represented by the calm travelling through space and suddenly rushing through black holes & clusters of stars.
Aside from the visual equaliser made by the graphics, Key does get his time to shine with his own 90s style and is clearly having fun showing the various sides that fans have grown to love. Hopefully, the video will overall continue the same themes when his album is officially released as it does leave an open ending of Key finding himself in the desert after his intergalactic travels. Only time will tell as word of this said album but if this pre-release is anything to go by, we certainly cannot wait to hear more from Key this month.
The pre-release track; “Forever Yours” is now available to buy on iTunes and to stream on Spotify and Apple Music.
