jwds mix

[liptinted]

since the art of sharing fanmixes on 8tracks is dead, here it is in this post. plus i'm in the mood to share and talk about music.

this is basically just my spotify playlist for them. i've made plenty of fic-specific playlists for background listening, but not really for ships. the only ship i've ever bothered making a playlist for was for seventeen's wonwoo/jun which was the height of my svt phase in 2019 so uh...says a lot that i'm putting in the energy to write up a post of the track list + commentary. obviously, the music here is going to be moderately depressing!

i. The Carnival of the Animals, R. 125: XIII. The Swan - Camille Saint-Saens (Piano Arrangement)

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the entire show is about the breadth of like, humanity, i guess, but i think there's something very animalistic about it all. every fight or flight impulse, every inclination and blood instinct to want to survive and protect and defend. i grabbed this from the shared classical music playlist my sister and i add to while i was writing the world's great big injustice because something about it struck me. it's a very haunting piece TO ME and the gentle rise of it and the soft notes 2:55 onwards feels tragic and BEAUTIFUL.
 

ii. 내이름은 이동식 - Ha Geun Young, Very Berry

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this is a copout i know. translated, it's just "my name is lee dongsik". i think i'm just putting this here purely because of looping it too many times to get in the mood for writing dongsik pov. but it also feels representative of small lonely town manyang in a way, and the actual track in the OST related to manyang feels too sinister for a jwds mix lol. so i'm including this one here. it's just a good "character" track i guess, and depicts the solemn day-to-day lone living that dongsik has gotten so used to.



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isn't this track so epilogue han juwon of it??! the bouts of self-loathing he must go through. cacophony has really good music if you're looking for something very ethereal. i also like their 'harmony' album. it's mostly just pure vibes but also this part of the lyrics: "all this time / i kept it to myself [...] i shouldn’t have met you / you were already perfect without me." the lyrics alone don't really hit but it's just the irrational self-loathing and unworthiness that does.

iv. 비가 (Nocturne) - Ashmute

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the piano here sounds playful at one point + the sweetness of the singing comes off as almost forgiving and nurturing but also just like, good for pining or even the established relationship scenario. "everyone is so cautious / everyone is so cautious / i'm being so cautious / why am i being so cautious" - i love the repetition here...the more unusual a relationship's circumstances, the more unsure the parties involved will feel about it, despite the intensity of their feelings for one another: "can we simply resent that? / we got hurt and hid / we live on". but also i really love how it ends: "it's a rainy night, it's a rainy night / how is your night? / how are you this night?" fuckkkkkkkkkk i'm going through it ;;

v. 미안하단 말 (Don't We All) - HLIN

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the original title literally translates to "saying sorry." i listened to this just this morning and made the latest addition to this playlist lol whereas the rest of the tracks were already there but kept getting switched out then put back in as i was curating this over the past two months since i started writing BE fic. i think of this somewhere during canon, towards the end of the show in the last few episodes - han kihwan's recording, juwon pleading he'd go to hell in dongsik's place, and then post-canon, i think it still holds during the early beginnings of jwds meeting again then and trying to figure out where they stand in each others' lives while dongsik is still properly grieving for the first time in his life after 20 years. i can't find any decent english translation of the lyrics so what i gleaned from it is sadly through a machine translation, but i think the emotions here convey enough complications that the word "sorry" carries.
 

vi. Time Walking on a Memory - NELL

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universally, nell makes music for any kind of grief and feelings of separation, which is why i could include it here and think about all the grief that dongsik holds. it's a very understated and repetitive song but it works. this is also one of their most popular songs and deservedly so i guess, a lot of idols and other k-artists have covered this but i haven't found a cover yet that can hold a candle to how haunting nell's version will always be. i think it's just kim jongwan's voice. i always loveee the synth they put in. the first release that came out 10 years ago was very different but i like this remastered slower one much more with the synth.

vii. Urban Green - Lim Kim (English Ver.)

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love the nature and green imagery in the lyrics but also these lines: "a break in nature, we're not feeling it / but i know that's the only way to grow old together / is it funny that i know this?" the song as a whole doesn't have to make sense to me lol, but the vibes alone are appropriately bittersweet and more comforting than the korean version, which sounds a lot sadder when i read the translation. anyway, i think there's nothing else you can do but spend the rest of your life trying to heal alongside your friends and the one you love.

Comments

[aractys]

omg another cacophony fan! harmony is such a gem of an album, the piano lines in it are sooo good. I remember getting chills when I listened to 'breath' the first few times around... so good. (have you heard ahn yeeun's changgwi? very haunting, different but not dissimilar in sound to cacophony's more aggressive songs.)
going through it reading this post tbh. it's just such a lovely tribute to BE, its themes and its characters. the more unusual a relationship's circumstances, the more unsure the parties involved will feel about it, despite the intensity of their feelings for one another: "can we simply resent that? / we got hurt and hid / we live on". but also i really love how it ends: "it's a rainy night, it's a rainy night / how is your night? / how are you this night?" THE post-canon jwds thesis... sorry I'm just quoting your own post back at you. but also i think there's nothing else you can do but spend the rest of your life trying to heal alongside your friends and the one you love. YEAH... going through it. but also it's 2 am

[liptinted]

omg CACOPHONY being what we have in common with tastes here *__* so pleasantly surprised hello.. it was honestly so hard trying to pick one (1) cacophony song for the mix, the music is just so perfect for BE's themes. i hadn't heard of changgwi but i listened to it, and i keep replaying the 2nd half--this is MUSIC... i love orchestral swells when i'm feeling a little crazy, thank you for mentioning this! the ashmute song really made me sob inside when i looked up the lyrics, this is their post-canon thesis, their r/s is such an interesting complicated marriage (not literally but also literally) of both doubt and so much trust. why are they perfect ;;;; i almost glossed over the lim kim song and didn't include it before realising there were 2 versions--so glad i read through the lyrics of the english version.. truly nothing left but to heal!