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boysplanetrecaps · 2 months

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Build Up, Ep 5 Recap: Team Blue Sweater vs Team Beige Sport Coat

Hello and welcome back to the series that upwards of two people like: BPR Unnie’s Build Up recaps! In the previous one, we saw the cool kids take on the nerds and wrapped up episode 4. In this one, we’ll head into episode 5, where the editing gets a bit more frantic and where it looks like some terrible things might happen. But before we get to the 3x3 Death Matches we have a few more 2x2 Rival Missions. We’re going to start with Hong Sungwon x Taehwan from Vanner versus Lim Junhyeok (briefly of Day6) x Yeo One of Pentagon. Let’s do it!

Watch along if you like!

The episode begins with a recap and a preview of the next round, the triple death mission. I looked away and tried not to understand anything I heard for a bit. But almost immediately we dive into our next performance round.

As the two teams come out, accompanied by rock music, Choi Haram backstage is like, “Oh, yeah, Lim Junhyeok – I sent that guy to the low tier.” He’s grinning, but I think he’s uncomfortable.

LTR: Inhyuk, Haram, Euibin, and Joohee. Why would Inhyuk and Joohee be sitting so far apart when they were besties last round? We'll find out next round!

Interestingly, before we’ve even seen who the other team is, we jump straight into a flashback.

We’re reminded that Junhyeok was devastated to be put in the Low Tier. He wants to show what he can do.

The guys are in the rival match-up stage, and Hong Sungwon x Taehwan, aka Team Blue Sweater, approach Junhyeok’s team and suggest a sentimental x sentimental match.

“We want to compete with a matching team,” they all say – while of course they’re confident about the matchup.

“I think my team will do better,” Taehwan interviews. “They’re my sunbaes but I think we’ll do better.”

We head right back into the rival match, where the teams are introducing themselves. Sungwon and Taehwan have combined their names in a way to make the word cheerful. Cute, and appropriate.

Junhyeok kind of messes up their intro thing, which is kind of funny.

Solar asks Taehwan about how he wanted to perform with Sungwon. Apparently, Taehwan liked Sungwon’s performance in the first round. I like Sungwon too – I don’t get why he isn’t doing well on the show because I loved his voice check performance (Desperado) and I think he’s just adorable. Apparently, Taehwan and Sungwon think each other are adorable, and they’re right! They have so much in common – voices I like, cute smiles, and a love for blue sweaters. They’re asked how their practice went, and Taehwan says, “Just as expected. Our voices suited very well so we practiced without any problem.”

What was this smiley team like?

They’re just smiling all over the place like they’re on a first date with their biggest crush. “We got really close,” Sungwon says. “I really like him! Nomu numu nomu nomu!”

And that’s all we get for the background info montage package thing!

The song they’ve chosen is Play, originally by Lucy. If you’re not familiar with Lucy, they’re a K-boy-band and they named their band after a dog. They’re known for having a violist, which adds a sweet texture to their songs. My favorite song of theirs is called I Got You. My fella likes it too, for what it’s worth, so if you trust our shared tastes, maybe check it out!

I hadn’t heard the song Play before, so I looked up the lyrics. It seems to be sort of about coming of age, something like that? Or nostalgia for being young…? Here are some of the lyrics:

“An image of an adult / that I thought when I was young/ is telling me that it was a mirage/ and like a broken clock hand, / I’m still living in childhood /as if I’m the same.

Although the sky is getting heavy / I used to play like I’m flying in the sky / even without knowing my knees hurt / I’m still the same, nothing had changed

… Please smile like you did back when we used to play / I’ll find again the days we left behind / Please smile like you did back when we used to play.”

The song is sweet, but I can’t imagine it performed as a purely vocal performance. So much of the charm of Lucy’s music is the texture provided by their violist and just the sort of, I don’t know, the cuteness of a band playing a song. It’s got has a complicated melody that is hard to grasp on a first listen, and while I think it would grow on you if you put the song on a mix and listened to it often as background music, I’m not so sure how this will go as a one-and-done vocal performance. Also, there’s not as much opportunity for varied tones and powerful displays. I think its sweet, nostalgic tone isn’t the kind of thing the judges are likely to respond to. But let’s see!

The performance begins.

Full version without reactions.

My thoughts:

Oof, I don’t know.

I have to say for the record that I really like both these guys, even if they inexplicably decided not to wear sweaters for this performance. I think they’re both cute as humans, and they both have sweet voices that I really enjoy listening to. I just think that they chose the wrong song, for pretty much the reasons that I said before.

Sungwon’s voice is so pretty. It’s slightly textured, but not in an overwhelming way that say Kang Hayoon’s voice is. It’s a little sweet, but not all the way to say, Jay or Neon’s level. He’s not at all nasal and he It’s kind of just right to be able to start anywhere and sing anything. I don’t notice him doing the “musical actor” stuff that Kim Seohyung did in the previous battle.

Taehwan is such a cutie pie -- I mean, just look at him-- but I really wish that he would work on his facial expressions when he’s singing.

He has a habit of scrunching up his face a lot, especially when he’s hitting higher notes, and I mean, when you’ve got a nuclear weapon smile, you should use it every chance you get. Just nuke us, baby. Nuke us good with that smile.

Ah yeah, that’s the stuff.

Anyway, Taehwan’s voice is actually quite similar to Sungwon’s, and I’m not sure if that ends up good or bad here. Maybe it made the performance a little dull, to have two similar voices dueting? I know that sometimes I like a duet between two really distinct voices, like Young by Baekhyun x Loco, or Don’t by Hwasa x Loco, or At Night by Simon Dominic x Loco. I’m sure there’s a duet I like that doesn’t involve Loco, but I can’t think of it right now.

But yeah, Taehwan’s voice is also light, sweet, slightly textured, well controlled, with a good upper mix and all those good things. It’s a little lighter, less sharp than Sungwon’s, but it’s a tiny bit more nasal, so I can’t really say if I prefer one to the other. Taehwan does sound a tiny bit strained on the high note he hits right after the key change, but that’s such a minor thing.

I even like the background they chose with the stars falling like they’re in Howl’s Moving Castle.

So why is this performance so… not quite it? I just think it’s the song. That’s the whole problem. And that’s weird since the song is cute. It’s just not right.

In the MNET edit, the second that Sungwon starts singing, everyone reacts as if they never heard him before….

…. which is bizarre because he’s been great the whole time. Am I the only one who remembers his Desperado? We see Jaehwan nodding, and Wendy smiling.

Backstage, the guys like to the way Sungwon and Taehwan interact on stage, and I do too.

They get the judges and the guys backstage all clapping. That’s something!

Lee Minwook from Newkidd says, “This is therapeutic.”

The judges applaud sweetly when they’re done. Backstage the guys say it felt like an anime, that it made them smile. But the judges look a little uncertain about how to grade.

Turns out that their high score is 87 high and their low is 75. Oh no!! Everyone seems surprised by how low the score is, even Dahee.

Sungwon and Taehwan nod and take deep breaths.

Baekho gave the highest score, and VCG, who I am always surprised to find out is named Lee Seokhoon, gave the lowest score, which is also surprising. You’d think VCG would appreciate their excellent technique.

VCG explains that the performance was difficult to evaluate because “you two aren’t bad singers. You’re good. And you didn’t choose a wrong song for your voices. It was a great song, but still…. It didn’t move me.” He says he liked the energy they showed in the last chorus, after the key change. But before that, it lacked energy, and that’s all he can say. He seems apologetic that he can’t better explain what was wrong. I think it’s difficult to explain an absence, right? A presence is easy. Too much salt, too much heat, too much pressure – understood, right? But when something is missing, what is it?

A melody?

A sweater?

Baekho, who I think is surprised to be giving the highest score, says, “There were some parts that were shaky. But more than that, I could feel that you were really into the song. You were talking about youth, and it was very pleasant.” VCG agrees with that.

Eunkwang asks Taehwan about his smile at the end – was it strategic? Ha! No one is immune to the smile! He answers, “I just tend to smile a lot.” At least his smile is top tier.

And… that’s all we get! The editors are exhausted from editing the other montages and just want to get it done at this point.

Next up is Lim Junhyeok, briefly of Day6, and Yeo One of Pentagon, who come out in almost matching beige blazers.

Where. Are. The. Sweaters??

Team Pledis (Baekho and Seungkwan) talk a bit as the duo takes the stage.

“This song is so hard,” Seungkwan says.

Baekho says that Junhyeok is good at high notes but that his high notes in the Pre4 mission prevented him, Baekho, from being “immersed in the performance.” The notes were too loud, too powerful, the editors remind us via flashback.

I think that the singing they’re highlighting in the flashback sounds really good, if maybe like 5% too shrill, so I don’t know what the big deal is. VCG says, and I have no idea what this means: “When it comes to breathing, it has to work like dominoes falling down in order. It was a bit disappointing to hear your strong modal voice.” Modal voice is your “normal” voice, for lack of a better term. I don’t know why a modal voice in particular is the problem. I think this technical discussion loses a lot in the translation.

Junhyeok interviews, “The last thing I wanted to hear was ‘my part sticks out too much’.” At least that much makes sense.

We jump back to the duo matching phase. Junhyeok is in Low Tier, but Yeo One heads straight towards him and just takes his hand.

We’re reminded of how Yeo One kept his head down while the top tiers were choosing partners, and it was all because he wanted to work with no one else but Junhyeok. I did a bit of research and from what I can tell, Yeo One never trained at JYP with Junyheok, but there are apparently a lot of members of Pentagon who did train at JYP, including Hui, and a lot of these guys all know each other through one thing and another, so it’s not impossible that Yeo One and Junhyeok met before this.

Junhyeok is super relieved that someone wants to work with him, and Yeo One being arguably the most famous contestant on the show makes it a bit sweater, I’d imagine. Sorry, I meant, a bit sweeter. Although making things more sweater sounds great, too.

Junhyeok and Yeo One begin chatting as some of the other teams continue to match. Junhyeok says, kind of apologetically, “I’ll do my best to cater to you, but you will be pretty surprised by how loud I am.” He’s hyper aware that the judges feel that he sings too loudly or too harshly.

Yeo One interviews, “Like Junhyeok, the judges gave me a lot more criticism than I’d expected.” We see the judges telling him “I thought you should dig into the song in more detail” – whatever the heck that means.

Junhyeok says, “You have to push harder, and I have to pull back.” This is either a match made in heaven or in hell. I guess we’ll find out…

So, I should say this. I like Yeo One and Junhyeok. However, I’m not necessarily rooting for either of them to make the final lineup. I think Junhyeok would be a lot happier writing and performing his own songs, and I think Yeo One would be best as a soloist who continues to ride on, and build on, his Pentagon success. I hope that their exposure on the show gives them both a boost that allows their solo careers to really take off. They both have talents and charms that I think an audience might enjoy.

They agree that the song choice will be important -- glad they know that! -- and they decide on My Sea by I.U., which is a song that I know most from reality competition shows like this one. I like I.U. a lot; in case you’re not familiar with her, she’s basically the Korean Taylor Swift in that she’s admired for her voice, her looks, and her ability to capture the human experience – especially the experience of young women – in lyrical form. I think her song Lilac is absolutely brilliant. It’s all about how part of life is having your heart broken and how, in a weird way, it’s fun to experience a deep emotion, even a really sad one. I look back on this one summer fling I had with a French guy and think, “Wow, that was dumb, but isn’t it great that I had that happen? That I had some French guy break my heart? What an experience – a brightly colored patch to add to the quilt of my life.”

But we’re not here to talk about Lilac, or my French guy. We’re here to talk about My Sea, which is also pretty extraordinary. It’s hard to summarize its meaning, so I’d recommend clicking that link, which takes you to a really good lyrics video. Basically it’s about the feeling that as you grow up you lose touch with who you once were as a child, and how you can reconnect to that inner core of who you are and give yourself strength and the freedom to move on.

Kind of interesting that both teams chose songs about the bittersweet reality of growing up, huh? Regardless, I think this is a really smart song choice. It’s beautiful and emotional in a way that affects me even though I don’t understand Korean (much). I can read the lyrics to many of the emotional ballads sung on this show so far without much effect, but this song makes me tear up just hearing it, and even more so if I read the lyrics as I listen. I think that’s what you want in a song for this show.

Once they’ve selected the song, they begin practicing.

Just everything BUT a sweater at this point.

They both feel a lot of regret about how things went with the first performance and don’t want that to happen again, which means they’re in a defensive mode, which isn’t ideal -- but at least they’re taking it super seriously. We see that they’re rehearsing with mics in their hands instead of water bottles -- nice choice!

Also there’s a fire extinguisher right there in case someone spontaneously combusts. You just never know when someone might spontaneously combust.

The performance begins.

Full version without reactions.

My thoughts:

Oh, that was so pretty. The first time I listened, it sounded a little strange in a lower key, but once I settled into it, it was really stunning. I actually found myself tearing up a bit, so you know it worked. It’s on my playlist, which is a big compliment. Even so, I can’t say that either vocal performance was perfect.

Yeo One starts things off with a soft, sweet tone. He really does have a nice vocal color, especially on lower notes, but he seriously lacks breath control, and often runs out of breath at the end of a line. This means that right where he needs to make the tone grow, it fades off instead. Also, on a show where everyone is really good, Yeo One’s comparative lack of agility stands out -- he has an awkward transition from falsetto to chest voice. He’s also a bit more nasal than some of the other singers.

Junhyeok, left, and Yeo One

Junhyeok’s performance here made me understand him as a vocalist, rather than just a songwriter and keyboardist who can also sing. His vocal color takes more getting used to than Yeo One’s does; there’s a slight shrillness to his voice that may be a matter of opinion, almost like blue cheese or olives. I am aware of its deficiencies -- it’s not as clean and smooth as say, Jay or Neon’s voices are, and it’s not hyper trained and resonant like some of the musical actors’ voices are. But I like blue cheese, and I like olives, and I like Junhyeok’s voice.

During their harmonies, Junhyeok comes through louder of course, but you can still hear Yeo One, so all their practice worked out. I wonder if they recorded themselves singing into the mic to make sure that their voices blended properly, and adjusted from there? I noticed Junhyeok holding his microphone almost at the end of his arm’s reach to make sure he wasn’t too loud on that one long note. I think they may both have made adjustments to make sure they both could be heard. And it was really worth it, because the harmonies were definitely the best part of the performance.

I know that at least part of the reason that this was successful is that the song itself is so gangbusters, but they did it justice. It would have been even better if Yeo One had a bit more breath control to hold notes for just a second or two longer here or there, but no matter what, this was good.

I'm editing this in later, because I wrote this recap over the course of several days while traveling for work -- pulling out my laptop on airplanes and in hotel rooms -- and I've had a few days to think about it, and the more times I listen to My Sea, the more I like it. I think you have to be in the mood to be moved, if that makes sense, but the song is so gorgeous and their performance of it is too. Picture me listening to it in my dumb rental car as I drive to my next appointment for work, not wanting to mess up my makeup but getting all teary. That's the power of this song.

In the MNET edit, we can see the judges nodding and the guys backstage smiling.

Eunkwang in particular seems to be into it. He stays in this position for the whole second half of the song.

When they’re done, there’s a thoughtful, almost stunned silence and then the judges start applauding. It’s hard to know what they’re thinking.

Backstage, the guys are caught up in the emotion, and a few of them do the Korean throat clearing noise that’s roughly equivalent to “wow.”

Choi Haram says, “My heart got really moist.” (He’s using the word that means your metaphorical heart, not your literal heart.) One of their “rivals”, sweet Taehwan, says “They did a good job,” and smiles, while Sungwon gulps down water nervously. Woong looks proud of his hyung from his JYP days and says “I think the score will be very high.”

Then Eunkwang turns to Wendy and says that it was good, better than he’d expected. Wendy asks about their first performances, the ones she missed, and Eunkwang says he was very disappointed in them but that today was much better, at least as far as he was concerned.

It seems, however, that Team Pledis isn’t exactly in the same boat – they feel “vague” about it. Aww.

Backstage, Bitsaeon says “The atmosphere was good, but there were parts that I wasn’t satisfied with in terms of music.” I wonder if he’s talking more about Yeo One or Junhyeok?

But there doesn’t seem to be a consensus among anyone, either the other guys or the judges, as to whether this was a good performance or not. Wendy says “I’m going crazy,” and Eunkwang grins at her.

Eunkwang transforms into a goblin from this angle. I guess he hangs out in Canada. Where in Canada, you ask? You know, Canada Town, Canada. Where it is always early fall and everyone wears sweaters.

The scores are revealed.

Team Pledis both gave 75s, while Eunkwang gave a 91.

Seungkwan says, “I have liked these two vocalists enough to listen to them. But there were some points that bothered me a little bit. It felt like it was a little bit over the top.”

Baekho says, “The part that bothered me the most was when it was about to get emotional, the song died.” We get a flashback to the moment when the song builds up and then abruptly falls back to earth -- but that’s the SONG, dude.

Backstage, the guys agree that this happened twice during the song, but THAT’S THE SONG! Tell me this song isn’t in your playlist without telling me, everyone!. Go and complain to IU. She’ll probably stare at you blankly and then calmly walk directly through you as if you were a ghost. And you were! Somehow, IU's glance would be so withering that you have become a ghost from Victorian England. On second thought, maybe don’t complain to IU.

Eunkwang says, “To be honest, the two of you, compared to last time… I think you did a much better job. I think you worked hard to fix the things we told you about last time. You also reinterpreted the song a lot to suit you. I felt the sincerity of the performance, so I was happy about it. I want to say that you’ve worked hard. Keep fighting!”

Dahee is ready to ask the next question when she suddenly notices that both guys are crying.

Aww, Dahee is the best.

Junhyeok tries to just sort of look up at the ceiling to get rid of his tears, while Yeo One gives up and faces away. Soon Junyheok is facing away too, and all four of us are crying -- Junhyeok, Yeo One, me, and you. Also, I think maybe Wendy.

In a voice-over that must have been recorded later, Junhyeok says he thinks that the tears were tears of relief. I like that he says he thinks -- he isn’t sure. Yeo One says, “Eunkwang knows how I sing. I wanted to show him that I sing with sincerity.” We cut back and forth between the two guys as they agree that Eunkwang-sunbaenim gives honest, sharp, direct feedback, so essentially, getting appreciative feedback from him is deeply meaningful to them.

I've noticed this before, that Eunkwang is the sunbae that all the guys are most interested in getting praise from. I think Eunkwang and Taeyeon from SNSD are roughly equivalent that way. Both are excellent vocalists, truly, but also are just sort of symbolic of second gen excellence. Up-and-coming singers tend to idolize them, even though it could be argued that there are third and fourth gen idols who are even better, like Chen, D.O., Wendy, and Lily. There's nothing like getting praise from your personal hero!

It’s time for both teams to come back up on stage to find out who won between the two of them. When the overall scores are revealed, everyone reacts really strongly.

And why?

Because only one point separates the group. Junhyeok and Yeo One take the match, 579 to 578.

(Just doing some math for you -- if you subtract out the highest and lowest scores and find the average of the remaining scores, Junhyeok and Yeo One have an average of 82.6 and and Taehwan and Sungwon have an average of 83.2, so it really was Eunkwang's high score of 91 that gave Junhyeok and Yeo One their victory.)

I really don’t know what’s worse -- losing by a point or losing by 100 points. If you lose by a point, that one point will haunt you. “If I had just smiled one more time, if I had just held that note a little longer…” But if you lose by 100 points, you were completely demolished. Not a good feeling either.

It reminds me of when you’re watching a Western competition show, like Top Chef or Project Runway or something, where one person goes home each week. It’s awful to be the first one who goes home, but it’s a different kind of awful to go home right before the finale. I guess in the end, losing or being eliminated is always not great, and it’s just different flavors of awful.

I’m bummed for Sungwon and Taehwan, in part because I like them and I like their singing voices, and in part because they have to deal with this weird situation of losing by one point.

The judges are still reeling from it. In some ways they can defer responsibility for who wins and loses because it was a group decision, but here, if any one of them had given two additional points to the first team, the result would have been the opposite, and the responsibility is probably settling heavily on their shoulders.

Dahee asks the winners how they feel. Junhyeok says he assumed that with a one point difference he would have lost, like that’s his luck, but he thinks they won because they prepared well together.

Taehwan smiles, but I think he’s overwhelmed. “I never thought I’d lose by a point,” he says. The judges and the other contestants agree that it must be really hard to lose by just one point. Taehwan goes on to compliment the other team, and Sungwon, who is obviously a bit upset, holds it together enough to give them the thumbs up too.

Everyone applauds and congratulates everyone for their hard work, and Sungwon and Taehwan walk off arm in arm.

“Weak-hearted baby judge” (that’s what the show calls him, not me) Seungkwan feels bad about the whole thing. “Who am I to make such a decision?” he asks. The other judges tease him about his 500 million in sales in his first week as a debuted idol. It's cute.

And that’s the end of this segment!

There are six more performances to go -- I don’t know how the editors are going to fit them all in. I think that they’re going to have to skip a bunch! Oh no!

But I’ll see you in the next post, when I cover the Inhyuk and Joohee grudge match. Take care until then!

#mnet build up #bpr recaps build up #vanner #day6 #pentagon #yeo one #my sea

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