What's the final verdict on NCT's album "Universe"?

    Because 2 days are enough time to have a final verdict on an album :pepe-notes:


    How does this album compare to the other albums NCT released this year as units, and to Empathy and Resonance? And what are your favorite songs so far, what are the weakest tracks in the album, and any kind of commentary really.


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    I had 12 hour to listen. I started listen only tonight but i listen mostly this album.

    :pepe-life-support:


    No skip.

    Also it’s fighting for Empathy’s crown.

    I’m obsessed with New Axis. I thought me looping Universe was bad. Nah. I was stuck on Axis for half hour.

    :pepe-life-support:


    My favorite songs:

    New Axis

    Dreaming

    Round&Round

    Know Now

    Ok!

    Beautiful (daaaamn this one is bigger then life sounding anthem thing)


    Maybe a weaker one is Good night. It’s still great but I think I was waiting for something like Timeless 2.0. Another tearjerker.

    :peperain:


    Birthday party also fun. And sweet dreams.

    :pepecute:

    And Vroom. Vroom is a grower, I can tell. It’s not on the top of my list but the more I listen the more I like it?

    We all know birthday party is the best b-side on Universe right butterbutterfly

    Sweet Dream and Good Night are a bit weaker than the rest but still solid 7/10 tracks. Overall the album is very good and i like it, but just like the others im not sure its better than some other albums nct has released

    ▓▒░⋮⋅ Ν Ξ Ο ⋅ Ϲ Ι Τ Υ ⋅⋮░▒▓

    div-st-bt-600.png

    no skip album for sure.


    ok!, dreaming, new axis, and know now might be my favorite tracks.

    A wonderful album. Time will tell if it will pass Resonance for me. My top songs are Beautiful, Universe, Birthday Party, OK, Dreaming, and Round&Round.


    I love the way this album used some members. Yuta may have the least lines, but he is fucking incredible on OK!. Jeno is another standout. He has come so far with his rap. Jaemin stole the whole show on almost every song he was on and his "wooooooow" in Birthday Party may be the best moment in the whole album. Yangyang came through to have his Xiaojun "let me snatch you up" moment. We got Jisung vocals in Dreaming and Johnny vocals in Know Now. :pleading: Not to mention Ten showing up as the R&B king and I want to kiss whoever paired him with Jaehyun on Round&Round on the mouth because I ascended.

    This probably makes me a heretic in Neo City but I think this album is better than Empathy. Some of my all-time faves are on Empathy, but that doesn't offset the rest of the album for me (either songs I like but don't love and songs I don't care for).


    I'm with Quarkie here that listenability over the long term will be the true measure. So far though, I think it's a great album! Tbf, this album may have been made specifically for me, with a heavy emphasis on R&B, even in the slower jams.


    I can't choose a fave yet, but here we go:


    LOVE IT AND OFF TO VEGAS TO MARRY IT:

    - New Axis. 🔥 I was hopeful we'd get another Misfit and they gave us the next Mad City - awesome rappers over a sweet beat.


    - Round&Round. A sultry, sexy R&B groove with silky vocal perfection from Taeil, Ten, Jaehyun, Xiaojun, Haechan. That list of vocalists on an R&B song already made my mouth water and those mfs delivered.


    - Dreaming. I'm a new convert to the Gospel of Grown NCT Dream and they just keep snatching my wig EVERY 👏 DAMNED 👏 TIME. This is shimmery dance pop by way of R&B shades by way of vocal supremacy.


    - Miracle. Dear SM, please let Ten and Kun and Xiaojun sing R&B like this forever and ever. It's excellent ol skool 90s R&B flava where the vocals and the beats shine.


    - OK. What does it mean? I don't know but I'm dropping to this dirty, dark beat with an unexpected little xylophone (?) in there.


    LOVE THEM, BUT WOULDN'T MARRY THEM

    - Birthday Party. Just a party banger executed really well.


    - Sweet Dream. This was another one I was really looking forward for the vocal mix: Taeil, Kun, Jaehyun, Haechan, Chenle. While not the vocal show or velvet goodness I was expecting, this is a lovely R&B slow jam, which is a weakness of mine, especially when the vocals are gorgeous like they are here. That la la la la is so lovely.


    - Good Night. This is really beautiful and simple - it reminds me of "My Everything," which is a little underappreciated gem on Resonance. Three of those same singers return: Taeil, Xiaojun and Renjun and they've added Doyoung. It's very spare and simple and focused on pure, emotional, lovely vocals.


    FRIENDZONE

    I like all of these songs, but I don't love them.


    - Beautiful. I really like it better than I thought I would, but for my taste, it's not in that upper echelon. Tbf, this could be a grower? I know some people were surprised but this is not unusual in the NCT disco - this reminds me of songs off the first few NCT 127 EPs or a lot of Dream.


    - Earthquake. I like it but in a world with so many phenomenal NCT 127 tracks, this feels like a mid-tier song. I don't know that it would move into my heavy 127 rotation.


    - Universe (Let's Play Ball) I warmed up to this one, but I have to say if it had maintained that hard driving direction it has in the opening portion, this would be in my top tracks. I always appreciate the vocal show but I think it slowed some of the momentum here.


    SKIPS

    - Vroom. Man, I was so excited to have Kun, Jaehyun and Chenle on a song together but.. anticipointment. It's alright - it's similar to some of those "filler" songs on Resonance (You know which they are).


    - Know Now. I appreciate the retro R&B vibe but this one just doesn't land for me. Maybe a few more vocalists and a few less rappers?


    EDITED TO ADD: If it's not clear, I loved this album and think it's a great album!

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    However, it landed in a year where to me, the sub-units have some of the best works of their career, my overall kpop year and heading into my all-time list.


    Sticker/Favorite are amazing and Hot Sauce/Hello Future exceptional, so while I like this album, the bar has definitely been set here. (I prefer Favorite to Sticker because the additional songs make the already very tight pacing even better, but prefer Hot Sauce to Hello Future because I think the additional songs there throw off the pacing. I like the additional songs but not enough to prefer that repack over HS.)

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    Check it out....


    You will, to your surprise, find 2 reviews... Because Kaikat decided to be extra and invaded my thread :pepenomad::pepe-cut:



    Thread
    NCT [Universe] Live Album First Listen/Review
    Let's see what NCT 2021 has in store for us....

    open.spotify.com/album/3oc1LdV…_j3g&utm_source=copy-link
    daniel-cruz

    I love Pikachu.

    Always have, Always will.


    "Pika-Pi"

    Edited once, last by daniel-cruz ().

    Quote from the101

    Beautiful. I really like it better than I thought I would, but for my taste, it's not in that upper echelon. Tbf, this could be a grower? I know some people were surprised but this is not unusual in the NCT disco - this reminds me of songs off the first few NCT 127 EPs or a lot of Dream.

    Beautiful reminded me of Without you with how it made me feel. They don’t sound alike but it somehow makes me feel the same so this comment made me happy.


    Quote from the101

    LOVE IT AND OFF TO VEGAS TO MARRY IT:

    All of this in this list is my top songs at the moment.

    :groovins:

    I think the fact that I’m quiet new to NCT doesn’t help me deciding which NCT album I like better. For me Empathy and Resonance both still something fresh because I have been listening NCT for maybe two month?


    Is Resonance generally more preferred over Empathy? Personally I have more favourites in Empathy then Resonance. Songs that I could listen on a loop for hours.

    Need to give this time to decide where is it for me.

    For favourites for me it’s between Yestoday vs New Axis, Timeless vs Good Night.

    But Empathy has Black on Black, Baby don’t stop, Boss, Dream in a Dream.

    Then Universe has Round&Round, Miracle, Earthquake, Sweet Dreams.

    :/

    I think it’s very split. Even here on AKP, it was only a 1 vote difference in my poll. It’s feels like a lot of newer Czennies, particularly those that came in on Resonance, prefer Resonance but Empathy certainly has some of the best of the best tracks in the disco (like Boss and Baby Don’t Stop.) I came in on Empathy but as I said, there is a lot on that album that I’m more 🤷🏽‍♀️ about. I don’t care for Yestoday (which I know is a popular bside with our AKP Czennies) nor Dream in a Dream. Some of the other tracks I like and have a nostalgic affection for, but I don’t wear out a song like Without You the way I do From Home or Nectar for instance.

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    Quote from daniel-cruz

    Check it out....


    You will, to your surprise, find 2 reviews... Because Kaikat decided to be extra and invaded my thread :pepenomad::pepe-cut:



    Thread
    NCT [Universe] Live Album First Listen/Review
    Let's see what NCT 2021 has in store for us....

    open.spotify.com/album/3oc1LdV…_j3g&utm_source=copy-link
    daniel-cruz

    I liked her reviews tho


    :aespa46:

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    Quote from laleria

    Why so you all hate Vroom? I kinda like this song ;(

    I’m taken through these three awesome songs - Dreaming, Round&Round and Miracle - then this. It’s very All About You - it’s there but it’s not anything memorable.

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    Quote from the101

    I think it’s very split. Even here on AKP, it was only a 1 vote difference in my poll. It’s feels like a lot of newer Czennies, particularly those that came in on Resonance, prefer Resonance but Empathy certainly has some of the best of the best tracks in the disco (like Boss and Baby Don’t Stop.) I came in on Empathy but as I said, there is a lot on that album that I’m more 🤷🏽‍♀️ about. I don’t care for Yestoday (which I know is a popular bside with our AKP Czennies) nor Dream in a Dream. Some of the other tracks I like and have a nostalgic affection for, but I don’t wear out a song like Without You the way I do From Home or Nectar for instance.

    :/


    Make sense. For those who come in during Resonance to like it better. I came in in a strange time Between Sticker and Favorite and Favorite is indeed one of my favourite from NCT127. The other is their mini album. But that might be because during fire truck I was an NCT Life fan and I do remember loving that song.


    (Don’t think I’m ever gonna wear out Without you. I was looking for that song (forgot the title) for a long time even when I wasn’t interested in NCT.)

    This album slaps hard. The first 2/3rds gave me the hiphop sound I wanted from NCT all year.

    Recency bias may be playing a role here - but for me it's better than resonance and may be my second favourite album from NCT this year (including all units).


    My favourites are New axis, Universe, OK!, Know now, closely followed by dreaming & round and round.


    I'm not a big fan of the ballads - sweet dream, good night and think they are the weakest tracks on this album but that's just my preference.


    And yeah ... Mark killed it with the rapping. It was really great!

    I found the album pretty weak as most tracks did not stand out to me. I think I would place the weakest track as Good Night and the strongest tracks as Universe(let's play Ball),Birthday Party, and Beautiful.

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