Now that GOT7 has finished their massive world tour, and taken a break for a hot sec, they have gone and repackaged like crazy their GOT7: Present You album (review here and unboxing here). I, personally, love GOT7! Heck, I drove all the way to Canada to see them this past summer, and I’m a member of their official fan club! So, them deciding us to grace our ears with new music during the holiday season is a great early Christmas present.
I couldn’t decide which copy of the album that I wanted to have, so I ordered all 3 copies of the album from an eBay seller in Korea. This is a link to the exact one I’ve ordered. I got all 3 for $75.99 plus free shipping. Plus, with eBay, you can save a little bit of money by using the E-Bates extension on your browser, as it will save you 2% on all album purchases, which definitely adds up.
What is E-Bates?
E-Bates is a cashback site that gives you money for purchases you may have already made. They even have an extension for multiple browsers so when you go to a website that uses Ebates, it will automatically pop up the cashback button to make sure you are saving money. I use this all the time, and I got over 80$ back from them for purchases I was going to make anyways. That’s about 3 more albums I can buy!
If you’ve never used EBates before, you can use this link to get $10 when making a qualified purchase of $25 when using EBates. You will also get whatever percent cashback is being offered from the site you are purchasing from. Sephora, typically has 4% cashback, through here. Sokoglam typically has 3%. These percentages Many other major retailers are on there as well.
Can I get it on Amazon?
Yes! You can pick up a copy using this link here for about $34 dollars (not as good of a deal), with free shipping if you have Amazon Prime.
If you don’t have Amazon Prime, you can get a 30-day free trial using this link here. I will not lie, the free 2-day shipping, plus all of the free music and videos are totally worth it. I also now use it for books for my Kindle Paper White too, and it is honestly a life saver. They have a program called Kindle Unlimited where you can check out 10 books at a time, read them, and put them back in the Kindle library. The program cost $7.99 a month, and you get the first 30 days for free with this link.
How do I read this post?
Since this is a repackage, I will only be writing reviews of the new tracks added to the album. If you want to read my thoughts on the other tracks, you can read those here.
After this point, I recommend that you put the album on in the background, and read through it while listening to the track that I am talking about. This is what I recommend for all of my song reviews.
GOT7 Present: You and Me Track by Track
Miracle
So I did actually post a video on my thoughts of the music video, which had to be recorded twice due to a corrupted file. You can watch it here:
I think this is the first time that we have heard a true ballad from GOT7 in a hot minute! I love how the main instrument used on the track is the piano. It has a nice, simple sound that really highlights the members’ voices. The mixing on this track is great. I love how you have to listen carefully to hear the subtle harmonies from the vocalists, which are as tight as Kai’s abs.
Once we get to the second verse, I enjoy how the track continues to move forward with the edition of violin. I also greatly enjoy how the track, unlike a lot of GOT7 tracks is very light on percussion. The only percussion you hear on the tinkling chimes and the occasional cymbal as the song switches from section to section.
Very solid track from GOT7, and definitely a bit out of their new comfort zone that I was afraid they were falling into.
Take Me To You
This song, yet again is very different for GOT7 from other tracks they have previously released! I like how the track starts with the piano doing octave jump chords and some simple guitar riffs. I love how the 2nd octave jump in the piano is offbeat in the measure. It also sounds like they may have added a grace note in the
Once we get to the chorus, I love the use of syncopation with the vocals that is offset by the instrumentation all coming in in like a round (there’s probably an actual term for that, but I’m blanking). What I mean is that one piece of instrumentation starts on beat, then the next instrument starts a quarter of a beat later, the next one is a quarter of a beat after that. It creates a really cool ripple effect on the track, so it feels a bit like waves hitting the shore.
Other things that I really enjoy include the echoing harmonies during the verses, and how they added in a harmony about an octave lower at points in the chorus as well. It adds strength to the song, help it build, propels it forward, and reinforces the point of the lyrics. Overall it is a really nice track.
안 보여 (Come On)
Okay, this song immediately starts with the gorgeous, sexy sound to it. I love the accented beats at the beginning. The echoing, light guitar chords that sound as though they are coming in and out are also fantastic. All of this, and the snapping, enhances the sexiness. Once the vocalists come in, the song really drives forward with its heavy accented rhythm.
As the song continues on that sexy, sultry R&B mixed with an EDM sound really continues to build. Once you get to the chorus, I was actually slightly shocked that Jackson was tasked with singing first in the chorus! I feel like the group doesn’t typically do that because their choruses typically have a wide vocal range. I like the change though. It’s nice.
1:31AM (잘 지내야해)
Another ballad! Yay! GOT7 has such strong vocalists that they can do ballads quite well. This song is just YoungJae and JB. Things that I like from the start: They start with a lot of air in their singing voices to portray emotion. I love how the track showcases the deeper parts of Youngjae’s range too. I feel like we don’t get to see that very often from him, so it is a nice change.
Once we get the chorus, Youngjae and JB gorgeously hit all of those notes. One critique of my boy JB is that for the chorus, I wish he had focused the sound towards the front of his mouth just a little bit more, as there is a little bit too much air in his voice in some of those higher notes. It creates a bit too much contrast when he has to switch to falsetto. Youngjae, on the other hand, every note he sings is gorgeous and clear throughout the entirety of the song, especially at the key change in the track. That is a hard note to hit, and he hits it beautifully.
Good job gentlemen!
Higher
Okay, this track is a bop! Even though this track has only Mark and Jinyoung on it, I’m totally digging it. The echoing piano chords at the beginning are legit. You can tell that the track is going to build into a serious jump up and down dance track.
Musically, speaking, I love all of the layers to the electronic beat. The echoing flute in the background is on point too. Although it has lots of layers and it is a serious dance track, this song doesn’t play with the beat and syncopation as much as a number of other tracks on the album. It’s catchy and it fits the genre well, but it definitely isn’t my favorite track on the album.
I Love It
Okay, the clock and the snapping at the beginning of this track are very interesting. What’s interesting about the beginning of this track is that it only has percussion and vocals. There are no other instruments. Simple piano doesn’t get added until the hook. Other than that, this track is only a minute plus long, so I cannot analyze it much further.
Since this is a really long post, I’m adding a gif break for you. Please enjoy staring at GOT7 wiggling back and forth like the crazy boys they are.
WOLO
Okay, the beginning of this track is interesting. You can tell that they want the track to be hard because of the staccato chords at the beginning. The use of silence to paint an image as the chords echo out into space is interesting. These tangy chords are contrasted quite well by Jackson’s husky rap. His rap is a lot more legato, so it creates a juxtaposition against the heavily staccato instrumentation. Yugyeom continues this trend.
I love how when we get to the hook, they stacked Yugyeom’s voice to create these really nice harmonies that help push you to the chorus where the beat seriously breaks down. What’s interesting about the chorus is that the instrumentation for it has less going on at the same time than the hook. To add that movement forward though, they drop the pitch of all the sounds by about an octave.
You can tell how much Jackson had writing this song, as it has his name all over it. I can dig it. Not on an every day basis, but if I need a serious pick me up before martial arts, this is the way to go.
King
I’m digging the simple stomp clap that this song starts off with! Yet again, GOT7 had a ton of fun writing this song. It has me doing this:
I love the heavy bass kick at the beginning of each beat with the tuba on top of it it makes you want to “Drop it Low” with a big ol’ crown on your head.
This song was very clearly written to be a club song for people to break it down to. As such, it’s a bit harder to analyze it musically. It’s not very complicated. It has a heavy beat to it. It is very repetitive lyrically. This is 100% a “Let’s pump up the crowd” song.
Note: When this track was performed at the concert, they came out on stage in a giant throne that took up more than half the stage.
Think About It
This song is really interesting it starts out with a car driving by on what sounds like a rainy day. The light echoing chords at the beginning are interesting and create a strong contrast between sound and silence. Once Youngjae’s clear, legato, but still accented, voice enters the song, it makes a nice contrast between the instrumentation and the vocals. I also really like how they use that whizzing sound from the beginning to easily transition the track into the chorus.
In regards to the instrumentation, the song is relatively simple. You have the chords, and the echoing descant in the background that harmonizes with JB and Youngjae. You can tell in this album with the percussion that GOT7 is pulling heavily from the street influences that JYP wanted them to have.
Honestly, I really like this song. It would be a lot of fun to do a modern partner dance to this track because it has a lot of vocal
이젠 (From Now)
The way this track starts out is interesting. Yugyeom immediately creates a contrast between old and new by putting what sounds like a record player sound on top of very new, futuristic sounding chords. The way that he uses the whistle to move the song forward and slides adds a lot of color to the track.
The instrumentation of this track with the heavy deep bass and light guitar chords sounds like it was purposefully composed to contrasted Yugyeom clear tenor voice. It was also purposefully written of Yugyeom to dance to, as he performed this track at the concert. The accented beats were expertly used to show off his popping abilities. Overall, this tracks shows off his Michael Jackson-esque flair with his vocals, accented beats and dancing style.
Hunger
Yet again, another very Jackson sounding track that displays his hyper masculine style. Even though this track is short, and is more like an introduction to the next one, it screams Jackson with the very heavy sounding beat. It sounds like it came out of the fiery pits of hell. Once Jackson starts rapping, his raspy deep voice actually sounds relatively high pitched in comparison to the instrumentation. Since the track is only a minute and a half long, I don’t have much else to say about it besides it’s interesting how this person writes stuff like this, since he is such a goof! Look:
Phoenix
This track was actually performed at the GOT7 concert in Toronto, so I have heard it once before. I am totally excited that they finally put it on an album! When Jackson performed this track, I’m pretty sure that he ripped his shirt off at one point, and every teenage girl went WILD.
What I find interesting about this song is the Jackson Yugyeom combination that is going on here. Their voices are so different, but they surprisingly work well together in this track. It’s the contrast of high-pitched and low-pitched. It’s also the contrast of clear-toned and husky. Their voices are actually about 95% opposite. The only similarities are that they are both male.
On top of that, somehow this track seamlessly feeds into Lullaby, which I totally wasn’t expecting. That is still an AMAZING GOT7 song.
K-Point: 273/5
I love how GOT7 has really gone for filling their albums with all of their own, individual personal
So, should you get yourself a copy of this album? Well, this album has 27 tracks, so you would definitely be getting your money’s worth. On top of that, this album has a little bit of everything, so I’m totally a fan. Should you just stream it? Absolutely! It’s a great album. If there is 1 album that really displays the fun, beagle-y personalities of the GOT7 members, it’s this one.
Which track on the GOT7 repackage is your favorite, K-Nuggets? Let me know in the comments down below!
사랑합니다!
–Rachel
