Seo Taiji 7th Issue

Infobox Album | Name = Seo Taiji 7th Issue
Type = Album
Artist = 서태지


Released = January 7, 2004
Recorded = Sound City Studio
Genre = Rock
Length = 33:35
Label = SEOTAIJI COMPANY
Producer = 서태지
Reviews =
Last album = "Seo Taiji Vol. 1"
(2004)
This album = "Seo Taiji 7th Issue"
(2004)
Next album = "Seo Taiji Live Tour ZERO 04 (2004) |

'Seo Taiji 7th Issue' is the name of a full-length album by the K-Rock star Seo Taiji released in 2004. All lyrics and music written by Seo Taiji. Strings on "0 (Zero)" arranged and conducted by Takayuki Hattori (Face Music). Many fans have noted that the whole CD sounds like one very long song. This is because the majority of the CD is played in dropped C tuning with similar chord structures.

Track listing

#"Intro" – 1:01
#"Heffy End" (Happy End) – 3:22
#"Nothing" – 0:17
#"Victim" – 3:30
#"DB" – 0:36
#"Live Wire" – 3:53
#"로보트" (Robot) – 5:01
#"Down" – 0:24
#"10월 4일" (October 4th) – 3:43
#"F.M Business" – 4:02
#"0" (Zero) – 5:30
#"Outro" – 2:09

ong information

Heffy End

"Heffy End" is perhaps one of the fan favorites on this album. It is essentially a sad love song where a woman obessively stalks and confines her lover. Although the title "Heffy End" might indicate a bit of irony, and Taiji justifies their deviated love from the norm by using purposely misspelled "Heffy." Also note that the name of his drummer is Heff "The Machine" Holter. Whether Heff's name has any influence on the song's name is anybody's guess.

Nothing

Man's voice mocking about women's rights in Korea. (This is not Taiji speaking)The voice comments that sexism is becoming an issue because of such things as women rights campaigns, but he disagrees with the efforts that women put it that women are placed at higher level than men in (Korean) society. However, one should note that Taiji has put this as sarcasm, or to reflect what most men are thinking in South Korea.

Victim

A tribute song to women's rights directly following "Nothing" track. There has been controversy over this song because it was banned for TV performances due to explicit lyrics. Many of Taiji's fans protested against the censorship and questioned the freedom of expression.

Live Wire

A song celebrating musical freedom. It is also the title track of the album. Taiji hails to his fans "You feel me? Here I come to show you love", referring to his steadfast devotion to music. The lyrics contain lots of poetic devices; the overall motif is the feeling of emo rock.

로보트

Story about a boy, or Taiji himself, who is destroyed by the cruelty that exists in the current overly digitalized society. After he has stopped checking his height on the doorway with his mom, he feels that his emotions are gone and can only think "illogically"; where the metaphor "logical" Taiji's view is things that are emotional and analogical, as his fans can easily catch from his previous works.

10월 4일

"October 4th" represents a shift in his usual heavy metal style. Also, if expressed in numerical form, October 4th would be 1004, which is read "천사"("chun-sa", where "chun" is thousand and "sa"), and that reading of 1004 spells the same to mean "angel".

The song is lightly driven by two guitars, one playing chords at complex rhythms and the other plays a repetitive (yet catchy) melody line. It later makes a transition into a full ensemble with heavy percussion and a bass guitar.

The pensive lyrics tell the story of a man whose mind is flooded with memories of a lost love. He still regrets having lost her but acknowledges that she is "like a fox" (in the Korean culture, someone who is like a fox is sly and deceitful). In the end, he enjoys holding on to the memories and watches his former lover from afar, commenting how she's more beautiful than ever.

F.M Business

In the title, "F.M" is short form of "fucked up music" as the lyric suggest, however FM could also represent the radio and music business in more general view.

Taiji makes various accusations regarding the current direction Korean pop music is heading. In early 90's, Taiji introduced the concept of "American" music, such as Hip-hop and Rock. His ideology makes him detest the current trend in the Korean music scene. According to Taiji, idol groups (aka "boybands") were borne for the sole purpose of making profit out of music. While he admits making the same mistake in the past, he is more concerned with asking musicians to take a look at themselves ("You and me... Why are we here?").

0 (Zero)

A symphonic rock piece that spans five minutes and thirty seconds, the longest song on the album. Unlike the other songs, which follow a simple formula with guitar chords and a memorable melody line, 0 (Zero) consists of a noticeably more complex composition. A demanding song that showcases Taiji's mastery of music-writing as well as endurance when performed live, it features distortion guitars as well as clean guitar riffs during the vocals and harmonizing part. Strings were arranged by Takayuki Hattori of Face Music.