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Also making her comeback on Monday was TAEYEON, who returns for the first time since her February 2022 INVU comeback. TAEYEON’s solo comeback is with the single To. X and her 5th mini-album of the same name.

To. X takes us straight forwardly to R&B land. The guitar work was very nice and provides a mellow vibe. The beat gives the song a nice bounce that anchors down the song. We also hear some very subtle atmospheric synths in the background (which becomes more profound in the bridge). But other than that, while it does feel extremely pleasant to listen to, I wished that there was a bit more to the instrumentation for To. X. It feels lackluster and repetitive. We do get a weird autotuned voice in the background just before the choruses as an interesting tidbit, but it doesn’t really add much to To. X other than help fill in the space. TAEYEON’s vocals do add a lot of substance and oomph to the song, never faltering in To. X. To me, this aids the message that TAEYEON delivers in the lyrics of the song, which is about moving on from a toxic and controlling relationship. The crisp and clearness shows her determination behind the lyrics. Her vocals also help bring great melodies and rhythm to the track, overall. The only aspect of her vocals that I am not keen on is that her high note felt awkwardly processed and tinny. I wished it was blended better into the song to really feel cohesive. That is only a minor issue, if you look at To. X overall – straight forward yet still an effective listen, though To. X could have been more interesting.

This music video is is amazing and speaks directly towards the lyrics of To. X. We see TAEYEON inside the house for a lot of a video, as if she has been trapped inside by her partner. We don’t see anything forceful or physical to limit her movements, so it looks like that there is a lot of gaslighting and manipulation happening between her partner and TAEYEON. The shots of him in the background outside was very creepy, which represents his true nature. But she isn’t aware of this. The shots of her walking on the streets, finding the car upside down and a road leading to nowhere could have two representations. One is that it represents the fear he instilled into her (as she did look concern) and gaslighting I mentioned earlier. The other is that she realises that the world she is living in with him leads to nowhere (i.e., she is stuck or there is no future), but the flipped car and his ongoing presence shows us how far into her mind he has gotten. This leads to the events at the end, where he tries to remind her of how dangerous the world is via the upside imagery of the city (and it looks like she almost falls for it again with the fearful expression we see) and the happy memories they had. But TAEYEON has none of it and proceeds to burn down the house (and the memories of her now ex, based on his silhouette we see behind the house) that she once lived in with him. The dark lighting and imagery we also see throughout the video were all really aesthetic, but also provides further hints towards the fake world he built around her and his controlling nature that she didn’t come to realise at first.

Song – 7/10
Music Video – 10/10
Overall Rating – 8.2/10 [Updated on 3/12/2023 due to calculation error]