HoMin - Thank You My Girl
I had to link a totally unrelated fanvid of the song because it's just impossible to find this song otherwise, but I love the new twist on Canon they have going on with this song. ^.^ Please also note that I've put it in "Kpop" because HoMin are Korean - but this song is actually in Japanese. You may need to click the CC button on the video to see the subs.
Unrelated Fanvid (eng subs)
Click to viewSo, I have to admit that I RAVE about this song whenever I get started on it. LOL I think the biggest reason why I LOVE this so much is because Pachelbel's Canon is hands down one of my all-time top favourite songs and has been ever since I heard it the first time as a child. In my opinion, it's one of the most simplistic yet brilliant pieces of artwork via sound I've ever heard. So, in turn... I'm pretty picky when it comes to remakes/samples/covers/etc. of it and the majority of ones I've heard just haven't done it justice for me. I honestly do think that HoMin (and the songwriter/composer) managed to hit that mark for me here, though.
I've got to also admit that I'm in love with the arrangement of this song. Classical music in general has kind of an offset tempo to it with odd pauses and shifts sometimes, whereas more modern music follows pretty standard (occasionally mixed) progression. It's difficult to explain knowing the concept but not the terminology, but the point is that mixing the two can get hella sketchy if it's not done right. Out of most of the classical music I like, Canon is probably one of the most normally-progressed ones (steady and basically repeats lol) ... but there's still something about it that just doesn't match modern music for me in most of the attempts I've heard that try to blend genres with it. But again... I'm *extremely* picky about Canon because of how attached I am to it. LOL At any rate, this might actually be the first "hip hop themed" one that managed to blend in modern pop as well and NOT sound awkward to me.
This blending of genres is the point where most attempts to shift Canon into a more modern feel and genre fall short for me, because it's just really REALLY hard to manage to capture the feeling, the SOUL of this song as it was originally written inside any kind of modern progression and flow and not lose that "something" the original composition has that makes an emotional connection for me. Somehow, though, Thank You My Girl managed to keep the *feeling* of Canon and transcend that into a funky modern sound - successfully.
The tempo shifts kind of fascinate me. lol The flow is just spot-on; and, that they managed that with this arrangement while still keeping the most important melodies and tempos of Canon AND reinventing that into a more modern sound - all while blending genres like this - is just fascinating to me. lol Not only that, but that you can clearly hear what is -purely- Canon inside the *vocals* in the chorus (it's in the backing music as well, though) is just awesome to me, too.
Aside from all of this, I also love that even though it's so heavily influenced by Canon - it is purely and wholly it's own entity as well. The writers and composers of this actually managed to not only do Canon justice, but also create something new with it's own identity as well - and THAT is damned impressive. I think out of anyone who could attempt singing this song with this arrangement at all, DB5K members are probably some of the very few who could manage to succeed because of the calibre of their vocals and talent. What makes it even more amazing for me is that HoMin managed this so well, because honestly they're the lower-key vocalists from the 5 members. As much as I dislike the group's split, I have to say that I'm incredibly impressed with all of the members' work post-lawsuit regardless (I couldn't imagine ever NOT being impressed by them, though LOL), but this is definitely on a level I just hadn't expected from HoMin as a unit before this album came out.
I honestly think the slightly odd mixture of both members' higher registers, Changmin's signature style, and Yunho's lighter vocals was just strange enough to pull this off to perfection, if that makes sense. All of it - this, the genre-blending, the tempo changes, the instrumentals vs. electronic sounds, and pairing old vs. new - is what I feel contributed to this just capturing the light, airy, melodic chaos that is Canon perfectly. lol
PS - I love the whole album, but this post/review is only for this song XD