PLAVE Caligo Pt 1 review

None of my friends listen to PLAVE as religiously as I do so it's time to scream into the void about my feelings about their latest album. I LOOOOOOOOOOOVE IT!!!! This opinion is heavily biased by the fact that I just really love PLAVE. I also just really like how they've expanded their range. Until now, their songs have been on the chiller side, with PUTV showing their slight transition to more explosive, very upbeat sounds. Not only just chill but also more cutesy and fluff-focused like "I Just Love Ya" and "Our Movie". I think Caligo pt 1 is so fun and just overall I love the vibe. I do think it's really funny that the album cover has this really metal/dark feel to it while the album is majority chiller songs (Island, 12:32, and Chroma). Even RIZZ is on the more colorful side... (disregard the song title...) Anyway! The ratings!

Chroma Drift: 100000/10, I love city pop so much- JJBA is actually what got me into city pop but that's beside the point. I haven't heard a city pop k-pop song before so it was really refreshing. Granted, I only listen to three k-pop groups... Anyway, I absolutely adore Chroma. The fact that it's the name of the webtoon that Bamby and Eunho are from??? Makes it even better. The way PLAVE executes their lore is incredible. There's this one part of the song where there's this really interesting vocal riff (is that a valid way to describe it???) and I love it when someone uses a unique technique in their work. In a way, it reminds me of Tokai by Taeko Onuki because of how "different" the vocals are from your average city pop song. Chroma Drift is such an incredible addition to PLAVE's discography.

Dash: 8/10, ok I will admit it's not my favorite... I think it's interesting and it's VERY different from what I'm used to in a PLAVE song. Honestly, that's really the main reason I'm not the biggest fan of it. I do like how lore-heavy the MV for it is though... Idk... I do really love the raps though- PLAVE is really good when it comes to a rap section when they include one. The growl??? So good, so smooth. HOWEVER. Rhyming "now" with itself was a bit of a push. I do understand that English is very much all of them's second language but I trust Eunho enough to know that other words rhyme with "now"... English being his second language does take priority as rhyming in another language is very difficult. It reminds me of "Ice on My Teeth" by ATEEZ and how they rhymed "tennis" with itself... "tennis" is a difficult word though... Going back to Dash, I think they could have replaced the second "now" with "bow". I think that would've been epic. Also, I have to give them points for the choreography. A literal masterpiece. The part where Hamin looks like he's aiming a gun? Beautiful. I love how theatrical PLAVE is. I would like to ask though... isn't one of the moves they do really similar to Jojo Siwa...like the part where they're "scooping up" with their arms? Also also, the starting instrumentals sound really similar to "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" by They Might Be Giants. Shout out to that song btw I've loved it since middle school. Other than that the instrumentals for Dash is so like chef's kiss. Incredible.

RIZZ: 7.9/10, honestly... I don't know what to rate it... It's such a good fucking song but the name is so unfortunate and the "freaky cheeky freaky" part is even worse I fear... Again, though, such an incredible song. A very big 180 from their usual songs. When I first listened to it and caught the word "climax" it made me look up the lyrics. I knew they had that dawg in them but guys I didn't expect them to reveal it so soon or ever- OH MY GOD HAMIN'S VROOM IS SO FJDSLKJFKFJDLK SOOOO GOOOOOOOOOD The title makes me so sad... of all the words they could have picked...

Island: 100/10, It makes me want to get into dating or just fall in love with someone (I'm very aro-ace and can't convince myself to start dating for the life of me). They took all my favorite troupes and put them in a nice little package of a song by tying it up with a nice little bow. It's beautiful. I love it. The whole "my life was black and white until you came in"? I eat it up every time. This song is what I think falling in love feels like. Also the line "Two scattered pictures/ Now pictures complete"??? So fucking good man. I love anything related to using photography as a metaphor for love. If someone played that song for me, I think I would revoke my aro-ace-ness. I wouldn't but you get the idea.

12:32 (A to T): 11/10, We've known what this song was like since last year but it's still so good. I just love how Eunho, Noah, and Yejun worked on it live and they actually kept it. I just love how close you can feel to them. I'm sure there's some meaning to the 12:32 but I'm too lazy to look into it (as in I deleted TikTok because I thought they would actually ban it for longer). I love the call back to "WAY 4 LUV" for the A to T. I just love how connected everything is in PLAVE. I also love love love it when artists use celestials bodies to represent love. Always such a solid comparison. The clicking at the end of the song too???? Soooooo good. I love it when songs include like a phone hangup or something... like "Collision" by Stray Kids.

And that be my full review of Caligo Pt. 1. Incredible album, I'm so in love with it. I'm excited to see if they'll make other songs named after the webtoons the members are from. I'm also curious to see what they'll do for Hamin since his webtoon was never named or released. GAHH i love my baddies...