NCT 2021 Motivates Us For a Dreamy New Year with Third Album Universe
NCT isn’t a city or a ZONE anymore; they definitely grew into a whole Universe this past year, and SM Entertainment knows it well. NCT 2021 gives us the encouragement we needed for the upcoming new year with their hip-hop and R&B-heavy third album that dropped December 14.
Tracklist:
“New Axis” by NCT U - Taeyong, Mark, Yangyang*
“Universe (Let's Play Ball)” by NCT U - Doyoung, Jungwoo, Mark, Xiaojun, Jeno, Haechan, Jaemin, Yangyang, Shotaro
“Earthquake” by NCT 127
“OK!” by NCT U - Taeyong, Mark, Yuta, Ten, Hendery, Yangyang, Jeno*
“Birthday Party” by NCT U - Johnny, Jungwoo, Yuta, Hendery, Jaemin, Shotaro, Chenle, Jisung*
“Know Now” by NCT U - Johnny, Doyoung, Mark, Yangyang, Renjun, Jeno, Jaemin, Sungchan
“Dreaming” by NCT Dream*
“Round&Round” by NCT U - Taeil, Ten, Jaehyun, Xiaojun, Haechan, Sungchan
“Miracle” by WayV*
“Vroom” by NCT U - Kun, Jaehyun, Jungwoo, Hendery, Shotaro, Chenle, Jisung
“Sweet Dream” by NCT U - Taeil, Kun, Jaehyun, Haechan, Chenle*
“별자리 (Good Night)” by NCT U - Taeil, Doyoung, Xiaojun, Renjun
“Beautiful” by NCT 2021*
*Author’s Favorite Picks
The Universe of NCT 2021
NCT 2021
NCTzen are used to getting new members, so the reduction from 23 to 21 for this year’s full-group project wasn’t easy to swallow for many. But having such a busy and hectic year, we should all just appreciate that at least Taeyong, Taeil, Johnny, Yuta, Kun, Doyoung, Ten, Jaehyun, Jungwoo, Mark, Xiaojun, Hendery, Renjun, Jeno, Haechan, Jaemin, Yangyang, Shotaro, Sungchan, Chenle, and Jisung could come together for this release, especially since the previous time we had to wait two years in between.
But what happened to Winwin and Lucas? Winwin is currently in China, working on his first acting project in the fantasy drama The Shadow, but we still got to see him in the teaser videos and we are definitely rooting for him! Lucas, on the other hand, is still on hiatus following his scandal this summer. There is still no official statement on when or if he will return to the group.
While Ten is also in China currently for his individual schedules, to the greatest delight of the fans, he managed to take part in the album. He’s also included in the title song’s music video and even joined the live countdown prior to the album’s drop for a few minutes through a phone call.
The Third Album, Universe
The YearDream teaser videos brought back many elements and memories from NCT’s five-year journey, including the group’s first-ever teaser. This already gave us a hint that instead of touching into new territories, this comeback was going to be something that we are rather familiar with. Following NCT 2018’s Empathy and NCT 2020’s Resonance, this is the group’s third full-group project. The album includes 13 tracks that mainly focus on hip-hop and R&B, including one song dedicated to each official sub-unit, one dedicated to NCT 2021 altogether, and nine NCT U tracks.
This year has been very busy and strong for all three NCT units, with WayV’s mini-album Kick Back, NCT Dream’s first full-length album Hot Sauce (and the Hello Future repackage), NCT 127’s most recent full-length album Sticker (and its repackage Favorite), and not to mention all the individual schedules of the members. 2021 definitely brought never-seen-before attention to NCT, bringing many new fans to Neo City. Universe surely shows them what NCT is like when they are mixed and matched all together. The excitement of fans all over the world is also shown in the charts. Universe debuted at No. 1 on iTunes Worldwide, No. 2 on iTunes United States, and reached No. 1 in 26 countries total on the first day of its release.
While “universe” is an obvious keyword for the album, we have to talk about “dream” as well. The full-length album kinda works like an axis between universes, an axis that turns dreams into reality (and “axis” could easily be the third keyword), giving the message that your dreams can become reality if you pull them into your own universe and touching the topics of both the dreams you dream at night and the dreams you see for your future while being wide awake.
Double Title
“Universe (Let's Play Ball)”
The first title track “Universe (Let’s Play Ball)” was revealed days before the album dropped and is a hip-hop, R&B, and dance song with a hooking chant. It was written and composed by KENZIE, who we definitely don’t have to introduce to those who are familiar with NCT, while Mark also participated in writing the rap. “Universe (Let’s Play Ball)” is an NCT U song by Doyoung, Jungwoo, Mark, Xiaojun, Jeno, Haechan, Jaemin, Yangyang, and Shotaro, who already showed an exciting stage for this track at the 2021 Mnet Asian Music Awards.
We are probably getting used to the “interesting” or “in-your-face” intros of SM Entertainment title tracks by now, so no surprise there. And to be honest, the overall song has no surprises either, it just brings a formula that we already know. I’m not saying I don’t like this song, but it was not as strong or mature as I expected. In some ways, it doesn’t feel enough, while in other ways it feels like there is too much going on, which could easily be the result of trying to mix current trends with second gen SM-vibes. It’s still a cool song with a very catchy, and undoubtedly satisfying chorus, and a nice harmony between the selected members. The music video—which reached 24.8 million views in 24 hours—also left me a bit underwhelmed. Although I really loved the styling, as it was very nice and hip-hop for sure. Maybe I need to get into baseball to appreciate it a bit more? Still loving the choreography and the performance, though!
“Beautiful”
Now on the other hand, “Beautiful” was an unexpected love at first listen for me. It is a pop ballad with rhythmic piano and band sound. It’s really hard to highlight 21 members in one song, but honestly, everyone stands out in NCT and they all shine together on this track. The lyrics—in which Taeyong, Mark, Johnny, Jeno, and Hendery participated in writing, by the way—also sucked me in right away, throwing so many encouraging words to the listeners that I’m sure many of us needed to hear. It’s definitely a great push to start the new year strong and motivated. Although the intro might be a bit too much, like a motivational corny ad, but still…thank you, Johnny, we appreciate the nice words! It’s definitely a sentimental, vocal-heavy song, and also brings back some older SM-vibes, which I’m totally here for.
But here comes the music video again, which wasn’t my favorite from NCT. It feels like a musical scene from a romantic university play (with another baseball game, of course). But considering how busy NCT was all year, I’m okay with the simplicity, and I honestly just appreciate that Ten got to be a part of it even all the way from China. Even if I won’t be rewatching the music video every hour, the song is definitely going to be on repeat for a while.
B-Sides
The album starts off with “New Axis” by Taeyong, Mark, and Yangyang. This track literally opens the gates of NCT’s Universe, showing the ambition of the group with heavy bass and powerful rap lyrics as they “got the world under their belt.” The three rappers all participated in writing the lyrics, but the fun fact is that they all wrote their thoughts individually and only shared and mixed them together at the last minute. This is followed by the first title track of the album, “Universe (Let's Play Ball)” by NCT U.
The third track on the album is NCT 127’s “Earthquake”. As heard in the track video, it’s a hip-hop dance song with enticing vocals and some D&B elements. The lyrics imply that we have to be confident to move on from the past and start a new journey. Basically, “if you avoid change, you'll easily get stuck,” so you gotta shake things up sometimes and “change the rotation of this dream” for it to become reality.
Following that, comes another unit song, “OK!” sung by Taeyong, Mark, Yuta, Ten, Hendery, Yangyang, and Jeno. You know a song is gonna scream NCT if KENZIE took part in creating it. That being said, “OK!” is a cool R&B hip-hop song with intense 808 bass and various synths, starting straight off with unique instrumentation, which we are definitely getting used to by now in Neo City following their title tracks this year. The song is about a relationship that turned cold, slowly coming to an end, where the “okay” is full of attitude rather than bowing to the situation, as they still have feelings towards the other.
The next unit song is performed by Johnny, Jungwoo, Yuta, Hendery, Jaemin, Shotaro, Chenle, and Jisung. “Birthday Party” has you moving from the beginning. It’s a hip-hop dance track with an exciting beat and catchy hook that delivers vibrant energy. The lyrics suggest that we let go of our worries and just enjoy the day as if it was our birthday.
Coming to the middle of the album, we find one of the few pop songs on the tracklist, still with R&B in the focus. “Know Now” by Johnny, Doyoung, Mark, Yangyang, Renjun, Jeno, Jaemin, and Sungchan has a repetitive signature plug sound and intense synth base. The raps written by Mark, along with the rest of the song, create a warming track, giving a promise that they will always stay by the listeners’ side, helping them dream freely.
Next up is NCT Dream’s house, R&B, and dance song composed of a contrasting main riff with dreamy sound at the first half and intense bass at the second half. The lively beat of “Dreaming” makes you smile. The youngest unit’s song is about the members being connected in a dream and starting to dream a new dream together. This song fits 7DREAM perfectly, giving a nice extension to their releases from this year.
The next unit song is “Round&Round” by Taeil, Ten, Jaehyun, Xiaojun, Haechan, and Sungchan. Their astonishing vocals mix together really well in the mid-tempo R&B song with a synth lead and bass drop. The laid-back track is about not being brave enough to take a step further from the friendzone and just circling around the loved one at a safe distance. We still get the universe metaphor in this song, as they are comparing the situation to the orbit and the sun.
“Miracle” is the only full English track on the album by Kun, Ten, Hendery, Xiaojun, and Yangyang. WayV’s song is a mid-tempo R&B with falsetto and rap over the EP source and 808 bass glide. The catchy chorus talks about believing in miracles. While we are still in the orbit and realize that, “dreams can take you far / find out who you really are,” if we open up our consciousness, the dream will be what others call life. Hendery’s rap in this song is one of the highlights in the whole album for me. I could also go into how much I wish NCT 2021’s WayV track included Winwin and Lucas, but instead I’m just gonna say that regardless, this is a fire song and made WayV become the first Chinese group to debut a song on MelOn TOP100.
“Miracle” is followed by another mid-tempo R&B song. “Vroom” has a harmony of minimal beat and warm keyboard. Members Kun, Jaehyun, Jungwoo, Hendery, Shotaro, Chenle, and Jisung blend together really well as they express pure love. The song is so sweet that it kinda makes me want to fall in love…
With the last two unit songs on the album, we are reaching the literal meaning of the word “dream”. JUNNY and minGtion worked together on creating “Sweet Dream,” another mid-tempo R&B song. The track sung by Taeil, Kun, Jaehyun, Haechan, and Chenle has a jazzy brass and keyboard sound over a groovy beat. It’s a very dreamy, charming sound as you would expect from the sweet voices of this unit, absolutely lovely. The last unit song, “별자리 (Good Night)” is an even softer, acoustic ballad with an elegant melody, emotional guitar, and piano, added with abundant D&B sound as it reaches the second half. The way this song highlights Taeil, Doyoung, Xiaojun, and Renjun’s vocals is just immaculate. The Korean title means “constellation” in English, which together with the English title connects the whole story of the album as it unites the horizon (universe) with the dreams. This song lifts your worries and gives immediate comfort.
And as a closing track, we get the second title track “Beautiful” by all 21 participants of NCT 2021, who flood us with words most of us probably really needed to hear coming close to the end of yet another interesting year, helping us believe that we can make the best of 2022. Let’s do this, NCTzens!