ZICO Completes Thinking Album with Release of Second Half
No longer bound by any company control since leaving Seven Seasons to create his own agency, KOZ Entertainment, ZICO has complete artistic freedom to release his music in any way he pleases. As such, his first full album Thinking has been released in two parts, with the first part dropping the first half of the album a month ago. Along with the first five tracks, ZICO has dropped three music videos to go along with them. With the second half dropped November 8, the soloist also released two new music videos, one as a pre-release of “Balloon” the final day of October.
This release truly has no title track, though that could be argued of the first part as well. Instead, ZICO has chosen to highlight two of his softer ballad tracks with music videos, both of which do not feature the artist himself. He’s clearly making a very deliberate statement with this artistic choice, wanting to put more focus on the music than himself.
The pre-release, “Balloon,” is definitely something that branches away from ZICO’s usual style. As a moderate tempo acoustic track, “Balloon,” features the softer, sentimental vocals of the former-idol rapper. Though light and airy in melody, the lyrics hold a deeper, more tormented inflection that highlights the daily struggle of life. The video shows an animated version of ZICO desperately climbing the stairs to heaven, a feat he manages to achieve only to find that it’s not the paradise he had been expecting. “Balloon” certainly shows the deeper, intense side of the artist that helps to prove not only his internal struggle, but the depth of his creativity as well.
“Being Left,” featuring Dvwn, is a track similar in style and tempo, with a more melancholy feel. It’s somewhat surprising considering how intense “Balloon” is, but “Being Left” manages to take that a step even further into the feelings of loneliness and emotion. From the beginning the song sounds more like a drama OST than expected, especially considering that it’s coming from ZICO. The track leaves a feeling of gloom, but in a way it’s still incredibly beautiful, especially with the rap verse within it that is definitely not present in “Balloon.” The video itself is simple, used really only as a showcase of the intense loneliness portrayed within the song itself. More than anything, it makes a very clear statement on what the song is attempting to portray, in the simplest of ways.
Even with these two songs released alongside their videos, there’s three more to explore on the release. Part.2 begins with “another level,” a much more traditional rap influenced track that features fellow FANXY CHILD member penemeco. If you’re a fan of ZICO’s traditional solo releases, you’ll definitely enjoy this. penemeco’s vocals add a nice contrast on top of ZICO’s rapping, and help to balance out the more somber video releases. “Being Left” follows before the next new track “Dystopia,” a more upbeat modern track that blends hip-hop and EDM genres together. In a sense, the melody is something that would be commonly spotted in any K-Pop release, though the addition of the string melodic line helps to add a special flavor to the songl. The tempo also drives faster, creating a pattern of fast, slow, fast, then back to slow with “Balloon” following the track. The final song on the album, “꽃말,” both breaks this trend and ends the album on an even softer note. A ballad feature through and through, “꽃말” features the vocals of Lee Jaehwi, a man with a voice made for drama OSTs. It’s an unexpected turn for an album from well-known hip-hop master ZICO, and if someone didn’t know any better, they wouldn’t even realize that this track came from his own album. The ballad itself is incredibly moving and passionate, leaving the listener with a sense of melancholy as the track comes to an end. Knowing ZICO as an artist, I never would have guessed that this song would be his work, but that says something rather profound about him as an artist.
Fans of ZICO may be surprised by what the artist has in store for the second half of his album. With a much more heavy feature on both the artist’s vocals and ballad tracks, the mini shows a whole new side to the artist as a singer, in a way we have never seen before. ZICO’s solo releases began as intense hip-hop tracks boldly declaring how great he was, a trope often seen in the rap scene. But this side of ZICO truly showcases him as both a human and an artist overall, someone willing to expose their true emotions through their work, even if it’s not on brand or is outside of their usual musical work. In that sense, I think that Thinking as a whole is an incredibly important album for ZICO, showing how much he has grown in his time in the industry. Regardless of whether or not his added sound is your cup of tea, there’s no denying the impact of his ability to journey into new routes in his music.