My Top Ten TVXQ Songs

TVXQ was for the lack of a better word a group I found overrated when I first found them in 2009 watching a video of Mirotic(yeah the video is very nice as but musically why would you jam to that instead of Sorry Sorry), however as the boy band known for legendary accomplishments such as singing two One piece ops, breaking into the Japanese market, selling a ton of albums(as SM bgs do) and opening the 2nd gen I decided to make a top ten of my fave songs from them.

HM:

Choosey Lover

This song almost made it on the list for two reasons, Jaejoong looks great smirking in the music video plus the song is decent funky dance song kinda proto-Shinee in a way.

10. Share the World

Probably the best opening for the One Piece anime that guitar rift emphasizes the sense of adventure which fits the show. The chorus also has a soaring feel that generally fits the boy's adventure feel of the manga and anime quite well.

9. Keep Your Head Down

This song simply sounds epic, the instrumental is a grandiose mixture of electric guitar, strong beats, and brass to a powerful march of a song.

8. O Jang Ban Hap

Though not as good as Rising Sun which will appear later on this list this is still a pretty good SMP song, it's pretty similar to Exo's History as they both have a jagged beat The percussion in this song sounds awesome especially when combined with electric guitar and a cold electro synth. It's a mysterious, atmospheric and eventful piece of music that's for sure.

7. Mirotic

This is the group's most covered song though the main reason I noticed it back in the day was the sexy music video(I mean Super junior videos didn't have hot muscular men showing their abs all around to this extent), it's a voyeuristic video as it's essentially 4 hot guys getting sadistically tortured and tormented by some demon lady. I think I enjoyed seeing Jaejoong shirtless and chained up too much for the time as it was probably the kinkyest thing I've seen in kpop at that point that I understood as such. Mirotic is a great song on it's own without the visual appeal, with a interesting reverse beat, jerky swerving verses and a highly addicting chorus.

6. Spellbond

I'll make this clear I've probably been brainwashed into liking jazz due to band class and overeager band teachers, however I wasn't a fan of the Bebop influenced Something that came out in the same year as Spellbond. Great instrumental that song had, horrible melody. Anyways, Spellbond fixes these problem by having an even more groovy instrumental that I honestly could listen to without the vocals and still enjoy and an addicting chorus with a better smoother melody.

5. Humanoids

Once again Yoo Young Jin is amazing at instrumentals when he wants to be and isn't writing some ballad or a mess of a song like IGAB. The electropop instrumental that runs consistently throughout this song with subtle changes is a gift which of course is always improved by the random electric guitar. It's sharp and with a subtle frigid intensity. As a dance song it's great to bop your head too.

4. The Chance of Love

Similar to the amazing Super Junior song Black Suit as in being a kpop electro-swing song . The whole song is a polished pile of hooks even if some people expect all bg songs to have a loud grandiose chorus generally I love the nuance of the vocals when paired with an intricate instramental, it's dramatic in it's subtly and I'm happy Yoo Young Jin who worked on this didn't have some screaming chorus like Something did to ruin the groove.

3. Rising Sun

The best thing TVXQ ever did as five hands down. It's like a 30 minute soundtrack stuffed into 4 minutes but it does it well(looking at you IGAB). Changmin's screams are highly entertaining in this one as the instrumental actually fits with so much crazy stuff going on, beginning as orchestral electro -rock(perfect for the screams tbh), the interlude of a really fun bhangra breakdown, before returning to form then concluding. Also the "somebody talks" refrain is catchy as heck. This song is a headbanger for sure.

2. Catch Me

Over the top Electro club instrumental plus great use of the vocoder plus a dubstep breakdown actually INTEGRATED into the song equals a very happy me. Structurally it's similar to Rising Sun utilizing a cyclic form of sorts but with a better melody and a crazier instrumental.

1. Hot Hot Hot

Ah,hot dogs how we love them delicious mixture of pork and beef in a bun, perfect for a summer's day. Suprisingly my fave TVXQ song isn't some grandiose piece of Yoo Young Jin probably playing around in a studio but a hot dog ad song. The song is pure fun with a chugging synth, a sparkling bass, hooks upon hooks, and a stomping chorus which was rare in 2019 the year of forced half-time beat drops. This song is proof that hypercapitalism in pop music is good for something after all.

Note: I like TVXQ now of course but in 2009 I don't know weather it was due to my western sensibilities or something I kinda found them odd in their popularity thus the overrated part(as in I didn't understand it, cultural differences I guess). TBF I was like 8 so that was more me remembering my opinion at that time.

Note 2: Wrong Number would probably be number 12 on this list out of the remaining TVXQ tracks it has a sinistar feel that works really well with the mv that has made it stuck in my head(honestly maybe their needs to be a list of creepy kpop mvs but that mv creeps me out with the security cameras and such and just the lyrics about some ex-lover calling you nonstop ) The "I wanna touch myself" in purple line makes me unable to jam to it even with the killer beat (my brain always goes to the most perverted thing and then I laugh and then people look at me weird happens all the time in public). I'm not a big fan of ballads in general but if I had to pick a top TVXQ ballad it would be Bolero due to the instrumental working really well with the vocalizing but I'm not really a ballad person as it is.