“WHERE ARE WE?” SEVENTEEN leader S.COUPS sees in words projected on a building as Speak Up, the trailer for the group’s 12th mini album, SPILL THE FEELS, opens. The answer seems to lie in the title of the lead single, “LOVE, MONEY, FAME,” featuring DJ Khaled. Last year, SEVENTEEN sold roughly 16 million albums, posing serious competition to Taylor Swift’s record sales. This year, the idol group graced the main stages at Glastonbury in the UK and Lollapalooza Berlin, some of the world’s biggest festivals, captivating concertgoers as their singalongs and cheers filled the audience. But “LOVE, MONEY, FAME” isn’t actually a song about the “love, money, fame” SEVENTEEN has seen in their career. “I don’t need money or fame, to me that don’t mean a thing / I just need your love, that’s more than enough,” the boys sing, and the object of that love becomes clearer in the album’s third track, “1 TO 13”: “When I first met you / Every season from May forward, it’s only you.” Those who know SEVENTEEN debuted on May 26, 2015 will understand that “you” here refers to SEVENTEEN’s fandom, CARAT, and that the “13 promises” come from the hearts of the group’s 13 members. When a pop star or hip hop musician sings about “love, money, fame,” they’re typically boasting about themselves, but for SEVENTEEN, they form the basis of how the group proves their sincerity and dedication.
To achieve that “love, money, fame,” SEVENTEEN spent a good nine years performing tirelessly through the sweat onstage. Their passion and exuberance is their group signature, perhaps best captured in their traditional concert closer: an infinitely repeating performance of the chorus from their song “VERY NICE.” However, as the Speak Up teaser reveals, that doesn’t come without its worries hidden behind the scenes. Just like THE 8 chooses a t-shirt among so many reading “THE REAL ME?” and strolls the streets with it on, the boys may end up questioning who they truly are as entertainers whose whole job is expressing many different things, or feel pressured by “HIGH EXPECTATIONS,” as the group’s producer WOOZI spray paints on a window, because of all their accomplishments. But SEVENTEEN’s own concerns become universal truths when JEONGHAN, stepping off a bus labeled “HOW TO LOVE” asks the listener, “So I wonder, what is it that you want to spill out?” The idol’s question ties directly into the opening track off SPILL THE FEELS, “Eyes on you,” with its line, “Tell me more about yourself.” The house beat backing “Eyes on you” conjures up images of people growing to like and learn about each other as they lose themselves to dance. Although the beat grows faster as excitement builds in the pre-chorus, the centerpiece in the chorus—“Eyes on you, Eyes on me”—isn’t one the group members sing in elaborate high pitches. Instead, their vocals are simple and straightforward, focused exclusively on conveying their emotions fully. At this point, they’re only at the “wanna know you, not a second to spare” phase, but seeing how sincere they are—they already want to know about “your first scar” and compare the luck at having met to other “miracles”—it goes to show that SEVENTEEN continues to consider “HOW TO LOVE” and even how to listen as someone who might not know them yet speaks.
When SEVENTEEN calls themselves “MAESTRO,” they aren’t just playing a part—the label is a genuinely apt one for them. “MAESTRO,” the lead single off their best-of album 17 IS RIGHT HERE released this past April, captures the essence of the origins of K-pop style. Lyrics like, “From the beat to the melody / Mix and match, it’s our thing,” are a direct shout-out to K-pop’s ability to seamlessly weave genres as diverse as classical, hip hop, and techno, and the song’s paired with a remarkable group performance of SEVENTEEN’s signature synchronized choreography. Conversely, in the DJ Khaled collaboration “LOVE, MONEY, FAME,” the boys don’t sing or dance in a way that tries to prove how much they’ve come to excel at these K-pop techniques. With music that sticks to the basics of R&B/hip hop, the song doesn’t particularly explode with energy at any point, being better described as an easy listen with a good, laid-back rhythm. The way the boys dance is also free and expressive—a perfect fit with music that already takes a different approach to how the group uses rhythm and vibes in their body of work. But precise movements, like spinning into a seated position then getting back on their feet with perfect timing, or taking big, swift strides to come back together as a group, are only possible through a blend of the SEVENTEEN members’ hard work and natural talent. During the chorus, with the crux of the song’s message—“But only want you baby baby baby / I only want you baby baby baby”—the group continues on with simple, loose movements to draw attention to the song’s message rather than the dance itself. Apart from those straightforward parts, they also make the performance exciting through an entire array of moves executed in perfect step with the fast beat of the song, with rhythmic twists and turns measured down to the exact angle. More so than emphasize the unique dynamics of K-pop, every track off the new album symbolizes the group’s dedication to honoring each genre. When it comes time to fully open themselves up, SEVENTEEN eschews overly flashy displays of skill and instead opts for a chill song and dance, bringing the message and overall vibe of each track into focus. In a nutshell, SPILL THE FEELS not only reflects their musical evolution through collaborations with other artists and evolving trends—it also finds entirely new ways to demonstrate the group’s amazing talents and sincerity.
The album title was devised as an anagram of the phrase “I FELT HELPLESS,” which acted as the starting point. The first three tracks show how, even despite their immense success, SEVENTEEN remains committed to hearing other people out, while the remaining three—all unit songs—seem to give an honest glimpse into the group’s innermost feelings, as also suggested by the phrase “I FELT HELPLESS.” They may be a beloved boy group with a decade of history behind them already, but as the vocal team's ballad “Candy” proves—“Is it childish to want your whole heart?”—the struggle to win over hearts remains as real as ever. The group might exhaust themselves passionately singing “VERY NICE” onstage over and over again, but as the performance team’s song “Rain” suggests, “even the loudest song” has “unexciting nights.” They may have stood and watched amazed as countless fans at famous festivals in places outside K-pop’s home turf sang along to their songs, but like the hip hop team says in their track “Water,” they’re “thirsty as ever” for more success. To revisit S.COUPS’s question, “WHERE ARE WE?”: They’ve already achieved “love, money, fame,” and perhaps the message “I FELT HELPLESS” may sound foreign coming from them. But SEVENTEEN takes that message as it appears in their three unit songs and rearranges it into SPILL THE FEELS for its first three tracks. Despite all their “love, money, fame,” they’ll never forget they “just need your love, that’s more than enough.” As artists, they SPILL THE FEELS through their own songs, but they never forget to ask their audience, “Tell me more about yourself.” It’s the ultimate show of sincerity that an artist can give to their fans and to the world.
