"나만 그래" (Am I the Only One?) by SF9, Monday, September 2022 (Partial Repost)

 

Sensational Feeling 9, better known by the acronym SF9, debuted in 2016. Before their debut, the group performed in Japan with 11 members, but ultimately only 9 members would make the final cut when they released their Feeling Sensation single. The group enjoyed modest success in Korea and toured Japan, Taiwan, and the U.S. In January 2020, they released their first full-length studio album, titled First Collection.

This record has been the band's most successful release, shattering their previous record sales and chart placements. The group also garnered award nominations. 

THE DAY IS QUITE LONG. EVEN WHEN I CLOSE MY EYES, IT'S ALWAYS THE SAME DAY.  Not to be confused with what Todd in the Shadows deemed 2021's worst song of the year, the racist single by former Staind lead singer-turned outlaw Country singer Aaron Lewis, "Am I the Only One," is the second track on SF9's First Collection. The song wasn't a single, but its accessible smooth harmonies, minor key, and edgy rap parts, give the song an early '00s feel, making the song hard to place with its 2020 release. Whether released in 2002 or 2020, the theme of pining over a lost love will be relevant forever. This pinning looks different at different ages in our lives, though. It feels like the end of the world at 13 when a cross country move makes a relationship untenable. Or maybe it's a crush on someone and the feelings aren't reciprocated. Maybe it's illogical because the crush is much older and immoral if the other person reciprocated. At an older age, it's two people who want different things. Sometimes it's ending a longterm, mature relationship that you tried to make work by sacrificing who you are and your life's goals, only to find that you don't like the person you've become.

I PRAY THESE FEELINGS OF LONGING TURN INTO HATE. But today I heard a rather disturbing story about an acquaintance who has been involved in a toxic, controlling relationship. Without sharing too many details, it's a story about being controlled by a partner who has cut him off from friends and family, all because he thought he found the one. And what does the one look like in one's early 20s when you've been sold this idolatrous idea that somehow sex is the most fragile thing and that if you slip up you will most certainly be broken forever and that all your future relationships will be cursed? As I was listening to this crazy love sick story, I thought about my own experiences, how in my late 20s I decided that I was going to forsake all of my friends' advice and pursue sex first. I thought about how guilt and my beliefs eventually forced their way back into my life from time to time. I thought about how dangerous it could have been going completely solo into the realm of Internet dating. And I thought about how lucky I was to have found love. Certainly there are some parallels between my gay dating experience and a kid who has fallen in love with the wrong girl, how sex changed him in a very negative way. But who created this perfect storm of a situation?

Read “나만 그래 (Am I The Only One)” by SF9 on Genius

Read “SF9 - 나만 그래 (Am I the Only One) (English Translation)” by Genius English Translations on Genius