The two-headed Janus. The god of beginnings, transitions and changes, with two heads guarding both the future and the lost eras simultaneously, predicting the ending of time in itself. Such profoundness and almost complex simplicity in the depiction of such a character; everything makes sense with two heads overseeing two points, yet the power in it actions far supersede the superficial meanings of the duplicate heads, the power to alter existence.
Just the thought of all that in a song slays my very existence, and overwhelms all my senses. Would I believe there is an added pressure of having to abide by historical accuracy and mythological understandings by naming a song after a certain god? Yes, I would think so. A title serves two purposes in a song. First, to simply state out the catchiest line and/or second, to serve as a satisfactory, conclusive phrase to encapsulate the meaning of the entire song. Just thinking about the titles of some songs, the shallowness, the irrelevance, simply induce rapturous forced coughing from me.
With this said, having a Roman god of such admirable impact to our very existence as a title for Boyfriend's latest track simply adds some pressure for a song with a message perfectly symbolic of everything that the legendary bipolar Janus stands for. The splits. The hidden sides to people. The message that things have layers of depth to them, and that simplicity is complexity in disguise. Hearing Boyfriend's latest single, I would have to say that they have done a pretty decent job at doing just that.
Let's analyse the song in little sections. The start of the song honestly, doesn't really do it for me. I'm not sure why. Even after reviewing the song over and over, some part of it just seems a bit to weak for me. It doesn't exactly draw me into the song as quickly as that of quite a number of other songs. Look at 'Beautiful Night', it starts with some hard-ass, slightly pitchy wailing from Gikwang, and it gets me on my feet, squirming to the beat frantically. As for 'Janus', well...it starts of well enough with a mixture of sad violin squeals, but then it jarringly moves on to these odd shooting sounds and the singing portions in here are really not that great. They seem a bit too melo and slow to start the song.
When the electric guitar riffs drop in, it just adds more of this superfluous complexity to the song, which I not only underappreciate, but I also think it just adds this sort of cheesiness to the intro that I really do not like. Some may argue that some songs start slow as well and that I'm probably speaking poppycock. But look at 'Cleansing Cream' for example. The start is just dripping with emotion and backings that really complement the feeling of the song really well.
As for Janus, they don't work. And the lines delivered just seem really 90s, Westlife to me. Just a little dull and boring in my opinion. The next verses follow the same, syllabic style, with frequent pauses and a mass of orchestrals in the background. An orchestra depicts grandeur, right? So why utilise such brassness to describe stories of such shallow, heartless, soulless, trivial matters?
The pre-chorus however turns the whole song around.
After a break from the rock tracks, the electric guitar kicks in again, by this time instead of serving as an unnecessary side, it serves a start, a beginning of each line, a kick of adrenaline before each syllable is uttered. It really lifts the song from the previously melondramatic feel, almost like an elephant previously jogging in molasses to one skidding on grease. It slowly builds up pace with the notes getting stronger, richer, longer and the background pace getting more and more frantic. It IS a frantic build up to the chorus that I thoroughly appreciate, and serves as a foreboding sense of danger and mystery for the chorus that lies ahead.
The chorus is brilliant. An intense explosion of emotion, completely worthy of the stellar build-up before it. The emotion is now a lot more evident. One can sense anger, confusion and slight sadness, all of which delivered brilliantly throughout everyone's long notes and sharp yells. It's also really really catchy, another plus point.
The rest of the point use raps as interesting fillers and thankfully make do without the boringly slow introduction. The verses are all really masculine and meaty, with tons of feeling oozing out of each line. The raps, while not the best top-notch, do a decent job of ensuring the pacing of the song doesn't slip, also making sure the feel and the beat of the song continue abiding by the progressively booming orchestra track behind the vocalists, ensuring a continually strong progression to the end.
In conclusion, this is a really great song by Boyfriend, a great change from their previous songs and image. If they could focus more on a strong beginning, but keep the intense progressions, I am very certain that they could create some pop magic. In all, disappointing intro but shocking amazing build-ups.
Fantastic song.
Sorry, for not posting in a while. To make up for it, in a couple of days, I'll be posting a review of that new, rawesomely sick B1A4 song! So please suscribe! And share this with your friends!
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