I'm slowly getting my hands on all of Taemin's past albums, and this week I want to share with you Taemin's 1st full length album Press it.
On the 15th of February 2016, SM Entertainment announced that Taemin would be releasing his 1st full length album. A couple of days later on the 17th of February 2016, the Press Your Number M/V teaser was released.
On the 23rd of February 2016, the Press Your Number M/V was released along with the physical and digital release of Taemin's 1st full length album Press It.
Press It was produced over the course of a year and a half. Title track Press Your Number, was originally written by Bruno Mars with a composition by The Stereotypes. The demo was originally made years prior to Taemin's release and the track was purchased by SM Entertainment. Taemin has stated that he did not actually meet Bruno Mars to work on the song, he did however pen new lyrics to appeal to the Korean market.
While on bandmate Jonghyun's Blue Night radio show, Taemin talked about how he took special care in selecting every song on the album himself, even though he didn't write them all. During an interview Taemin mentioned that one of the song's from this album was originally supposed to be on his debut mini album Ace, but he decided to save it for later, he later revealed that the song was 최면 (Hypnosis).
The first week of sales in Korea ended with Press It breaking the record for 1st week physical album sales for a solo artist with 68,500 copies sold.
Press Your Number won Taemin 4 music show trophies, taking 1st place on The Show, Show Champion, M! Countdown and Music Bank.
Taemin wrote the lyrics for track Soldier, and co-wrote the lyrics for title track Press Your Number.
Press It peaked at No.1 on the Gaon Albums Chart, No.8 on the Oricon Albums Chart, No.1 on the YinYueTai Albums Chart, No.7 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums Chart and No.2 on the Billboard World Albums Chart.
Gaon Sales = 116,232+
Oricon Sales = 2,682+
Giving the album a total of 118,914+ in sales.
*YouTube views correct at time of writing post* The M/V for Press Your Number has so far gained 13,039,528 million views so far, with the views still continuing to increase.
Press It is set out in a fabric hardback book style case and comes with the Cd, photo book and a random photo card. There are 4 different covers, but all the photo books are exactly the same.
Track List:
Drip Drop
Press Your Number
Soldier
벌써 (Already)
Guess Who
One By One
Mystery Lover
Sexuality (Rearranged Version)
오늘까지만 (Until Today)
최면 (Hypnosis)
I've been wanting this album for so long, that I've now finally got round to buying it, I got mine from eBay, with the photo card removed hence why there is no pictures of a photo card. When I'm looking for older albums I don't mind if their 2nd hand and minus the goodies, because I just want it in my collection. The layout for the album is pretty much the same as his debut mini album, the only difference is that this album has a fabric cover compared to a normal hardback cover and a slipcase.
The album itself is pure Taemin, knowing that he likes to take part in the selection processes for his albums, shows that he wants his albums to be a part of him and tell a story whether he writes the lyrics or not.
I love how calming Drip Drop is at the beginning of the track, then the beat drops in the chorus. I love that each verse calms down then starts to build up for the chorus, I also love the female background vocals against Taemin's it really fits the song really well.
Whenever I listen to Press Your Number now, the start always makes me think of how Move starts, like Drip Drop, it's starts off pretty calming and builds up for the chorus. Even though I's not really listened to this album on it's release, I always got the chorus stuck in my head for this song. Personally for me listening to this song, even though I'm always blown away by Taemin's voice, I can hear how his voice has strengthened and grown over the years.
Just from the first note of Soldier you can tell it's going to be a breath taking song, for me this song shows when it comes to music there is no language barrier, I can hear Taemin's emotions through his voice. Listening to it now it makes me think about how he's had to go through so much at such a young age.
Whenever I listen to 벌써 (Already) my head and heart hears Jonghyun singing with him. Some people may find it odd, but while I love Taemin's more upbeat tracks because he's an amazing dancer, I always tend to fall in love more with his slower tracks, because he has such a stunning voice. This track is one of those songs that as soon as he starts singing I'm speechless.
The start of Guess Who is so eerie that I was in love before the melody even started, but once it starts I think it actually sounds sexy. For me this song would fit perfectly with a thriller drama.
One By One, is another one of those songs that as soon as it starts you know it's going to be an amazing song. I love the guitar melody and mixing that with Taemin's voice is just pure perfection. Even though this song is just shy of 4 minutes, it's still way too short for me.
The melody for Mystery Lover sounds really familiar to me, maybe it's because I've listened to it many times before without noticing it was this song playing. It has a lullaby feel to it, like what you would here from a wind up jewellery box as well as the wind up ballerina's. It also gives me Michael Jackson vibes.
As soon as Sexuality starts you know it's going to be an intense song. There's no secret that Taemin's presence on stage is something else, it's like he becomes someone else when he performs, for me Taemin is one of the only performers that can pull off songs like these. He knows how to make a song sound sensual and sexy, which when you see him off stage throws you off as he still acts as the sweet, innocent and fun loving maknae.
From the arousal of Sexuality, Taemin calms down the atmosphere with 오늘까지만 (Until Today), it's another song where we get to focus on his voice and vocal talent.
Taemin ends the album with the ballad 최면 (Hypnosis), if any song is going to show off his vocal talent, it's this song. I'm glad he decided to wait to use this song as I think it fits this album so much more and better than it would with his debut mini album. It gives me big Korean drama feels and I'd love to see Taemin on a drama OST.
Taemin knows how to tell a story with his albums, and it's with his solo music he is able to be himself and show us sides of himself that we are yet to explore, he is often labelled the Korean Michael Jackson, which for me shows he's really one of a kind, just like there will never be another MJ, there will never be another Taemin and that's what I love about his music and albums.
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