Released March 23, 1992 | Length 33:18 Label Bando Records | |
Recorded 1992 at Techno Mix Studio in Seoul Genre Pop, new jack swing, dance, R&B, hip hop | ||
Seo Taiji and Boys is the debut studio album by Korean musical trio Seo Taiji and Boys. The album brought the group major success, which would continue through the band's next three albums and even frontman Seo Taiji's solo career.
Contents
Overview
The first track, "Yo! Taiji," begins the album. Songs of the same name would later appear at the beginning of the trio's other three albums. The song is less than a minute long and consists of beatboxing and synthesized rhythms. It serves as sort of a segue for the album's second track. "Nan Arayo" was the album's lead single. It was a massive hit in South Korea and was often performed on various talk shows throughout 1992. In 2004, a heavy metal version was performed by Seo Taiji during his Zero Tour, in promotion of 7th Issue.
The third track, "You, In the Fantasy", is a dance song reminiscent of American dance music. A remix version was featured on the 2007 anniversary edition of the album. The fourth track, "In the Time Spent With You," is a soft song that features female backing vocals and a synthesized saxophone. "Through Tonight Growing Late" is another soft song. It features a piano. A remix of this song is featured on the 2007 anniversary edition of the album. "My Everything" is a love song and is the sixth track. "Now" is the seventh track and is arguably the slowest and most emotional song. Following this is "Blind Love", which is an English-language version of "Nan Arayo." It details Seo Taiji finding a girl and then losing her.
The ninth track is one of the more popular songs from the album. "Rock'n Roll Dance" utilizes AC/DC's classic guitar riff from "Back in Black". Harder rock elements like this would occur throughout the group's career and would be the primary element in Seo Taiji's first three studio albums, Seo Tai Ji, Ultramania, and 7th Issue, respectively. The final track, "Missing," is just over a minute long. It is an instrumental that has a police siren playing over a synthesized rhythm.
Reception
In April 1996, Billboard reported that the album had sold over 1.6 million copies.
Kyunghyang Shinmun ranked the album number 24 on its 2007 list of the Top 100 Pop Albums.
Spin named "Nan Arayo" number 4 on their 2012 list of the 21 Greatest K-Pop Songs of All Time.
Mnet chose "Nan Arayo" as the number 1 song on their 2014 countdown Legend 100 Songs, a list of the most influential songs in Korean pop music history.
In 2015, Rolling Stone named the same song number 36 on its list of the 50 Greatest Boy Band Songs of All Time.
Track listing
All songs written and composed by Seo Taiji, except track 5 written by Yang Hyun-suk, track 8 written by William. B, and track 9 composed by Angus Young.