Super Junior 05, Boyband-iest Album Ever

With their member count being best described as “several”, rocker-lite fashion and over-the-top vocal style, Super Junior as they were in their first two years is my ideal boyband. This, in many ways, and for many reasons is a controversial statement considering the group’s many (many) transgressions and personal missteps. Most fans within the K-Pop sphere never got to witness their peak and only know them as the seemingly invulnerable yet hollowed out remains of the group older fans knew. But I was there. And it was magical. Nowhere was it more magical than on their debut album, Super Junior 05.

The hairstyles were all over the place. The acting in the music videos was dramatic (especially Heechul’s). The music was campy, cheesy, poorly mixed and quite dated even for its time. Expect to hear late 90’s post-New Jack Swing drum sounds, record scratches, distorted electric guitar over clean Teen Beat instrumentals, Janet Jackson-esque harmonies, announcements of “verse one!” “verse two!”, corny but endearing and earnestly performed rap verses, etc. All of that is beautiful. Whereas a K-Pop album in today's market will more often than not aim for specific subgenres and trendy sounds (often as its selling point!), the music here is as pure as ‘96-’08 bubblegum pop could get. That means no EDM Flavor-of-the-Week sounds, no serious attempts at Hip-Hop, nothing here even comes close to trying to communicate “authenticity” to the listener or establishing any sort of credibility. This was a time before the world’s eyes were on the industry, before the script was written, before the formula was anywhere near perfected.

The group itself was something of a “trainee dump”, put together out of members who had been put in various combinations not only amongst themselves but also with members of their predecessors TVXQ prior to their debut. A few members had been sitting on the trainee shelf for several years wondering if their time would ever come. But somehow it worked like nothing else before or after it. When it came to TVXQ themselves, their music was far more polished. The production values were higher. They had far less members so the guys who could really Capital S Sing got a lot more time to show it. They were, at that time, much more popular. Their slow jam capability was and is one most groups couldn’t hold a candle to. Their upbeat songs were in the same vein, even. They are in the traditional mold of The Boyband (as in, five guys who can harmonize and dance) but Super Junior took that and dialed everything up to 12. Whereas TVXQ albums were often rollercoasters stuffed to the brim with ballads (Seriously, ballads dominate the latter half of most of their albums as a five-piece), Super Junior 05 only has two slow songs. The rest is pure undistilled Max Martin meets Kandi Burruss pop perfection. The fact that on several songs one may hear six guys belt their hearts out within twenty seconds with more to come in verse two all on the least serious sounding beat imaginable is a big part of the appeal.

Every time I listen to this album, I’m charmed all over again by how much passion is in every note. Members whose roles would have been definitely described as things like “Visual”, “Sub Vocalist”, “Main Dancer” or “Mood Maker” if kprofiles.com existed back then not only have lines, but those lines are challenging and performed with the same gusto as the lead singers (who put on a rousing performance, mind you!). Even when a particular note doesn’t land in a technical sense because the person singing it wasn’t much of a “singer” to begin with, it still lands in a sentimental one just because one can hear how much heart is put into every single note. They aren’t doing the usual Boyz-II-Men influenced style or even the boyish Backstreet Boys sound. The vocal styles themselves are just as much of a grab bag as the members themselves. Some of them sound like they just simply walked in the booth and could handle the song. Somehow, this works and they sound great together. The poor mixing actually helps in this regard as it leaves their voices right there to be easily heard almost like you’re hearing the studio session itself or a live performance. Everyone’s voices are unique and free of the sheen and studio magic that often comes with a modern music release; Yesung’s being husky and raspy, Ryeowook’s angelic, feather-light and almost androgynous, Kangin’s airy yet full and robust, just to name a few. Everyone sounds unmistakably like themselves. They hadn’t even gained their most skilled vocalist and member of their vocal-focused subunit Super Junior KRY, Kyuhyun at this point and they already had a strong foundation vocally.

Super Junior was not only my first Korean boyband, they were my first boyband. I didn't have an interest in pop music beyond a song here and there growing up so there were many times over the years since hearing this album where I just assumed my undying love for this album was one of those “the first one you see will likely be your favorite” nostalgia trip kind of things all the way until about two years ago. One day, I just decided to give it a listen for some reason or another after several years of not really listening to it and it struck me. There's a reason that this pulled me in. It spoke to me. This wasn't just A Boyband. This wasn't even The Boyband (at the time that was TVXQ, by the way). This was Super Junior, a strange one-off experiment that exploded in the beaker. If I heard anything else first I may have actually taken longer to get into the whole Idol Music thing.

The first song I heard by them (and the first K-Pop song I ever heard) was U, their comeback single on which they were joined by their 13th member Kyuhyun. It was exactly what I needed to hear; the kind of song that said “Boyband” so much it almost sounded like a parody from a TV show or commercial. The sheer size of the group, the variation of the members, the well-executed choreography and the adept vocals all came together in a way I never heard before. This wasn't the barely dancing, only one or two people out of five singing and no one looks very interesting kind of groups I had seen as a child. This was thirteen(!!) larger than life performers. All with a purpose. I couldn't resist. Of course, over time I heard other groups and got deeper into the genre but nothing scratched that same itch. For the most part, not even Super Junior themselves could. Once in a while over the next few years they made a song or two that felt close to what happened here and usually their singles were great fun and to this day are some of my favorite K-Pop songs. But the moment was over before I even witnessed it. And that is fine because I can relive it anyway every time I listen to Super Junior 05 or watch either of its two music videos. Good times.