A slight change to the review schedule for today. Sliding in a scheduled post instead of what I had planned for today. Back to normal for tomorrow!

Kang Daniel made his last comeback way back in May of this year, with the studio album The Story, and the title track Upside Down. In the months following the release of the album and promotion of the title track, Kang Daniel has released a series of music videos to accompany some side tracks from The Story. I will be covering these releases in anticipation for an album review for The Story next weekend. The first side track with a music video I wish to cover is Parade, the fourth song from The Story’s tracklist. It was the first side track to receive a music video, which dropped at the start of June of this year.

Parade is one of my favourite side tracks from The Story album, and I quite glad it got the music video treatment (more on the video in the next section). The track begins quite eerie with the organs. Kang Daniel’s wispy vocals works really well with this instrumental backing. This vibe lasts for the whole first verse. The chorus then changes the momentum of Parade from eerie into pop territory, which I thought was very interesting. The instrumental is amplified and Kang Daniel’s vocals are given definition with the help of backing vocals. There was a pleasant and yet an almost monotonous vibe to the chorus. But the relatively more dynamic backing to the chorus helped made it appealing and aesthetic to my taste. The eerie vibe and organs return in the second verse with the added trap to follow on neatly from the first chorus. The second chorus repeats. For the bridge, we get that eerie organ back for a brief moment, before the song launches back into the chorus. Even though it sounds repetitive in words, I always found the choruses to be a fascinating contrast to the verses and this is the reason to why I kept on repeating Parade upon its release. The way Kang Daniel ends the song with that “Yeah~” was quite different to the rest of the song, surprising me with something unexpected once again. Overall, Parade is a well crafted song that just sounds better very time you listen to it.

Parade talks about embracing our differences and taking a stand against the world that feels plain and non-autonomous. In the video, Kang Daniel is depicted in a world of office workers, travelling into the office and working a typical 9 to 5 job. He dons a black suit and pretty much looks like everyone else. But when we get to the choruses, the scenes in which he looks plain in changes. Instead of Kang Daniel blending in with everyone, he becomes the centre of attention. The people around him on the train and in the office start dancing with him. Ironically, I quite like how it isn’t freestyled. But rather the choreography feels set and follows a routine. However, I did like how aesthetic it felt. Also, Kang Daniel looks really good in a suit. Like really handsome.

I quite enjoyed the choreography for this release. There isn’t much going on in terms of moves, but you can definitely feel that the thought behind it was definitely present and carefully considered. The lack of emotions somehow added more fuel to the performance and the fact that chorus felt controlled and lacked freedom was still an interesting aspect of the performance, overall.

Song – 9/10
Music Video – 9/10
Performance – 9/10
Overall Rating – 9/10