Hello BAYOG Fam! It’s Mondayyyy~ Time for another Music Monday post! Sorry I haven’t been as active in posting. Alot of things happened. I’m here now though~ It is spoopy season, so I tried to pick something kind of relevant to spoopy vibes. Today I chose to highlight DPR IAN and his debut solo album Moodswings In This Order (MITO).

DPR IAN is also known as Christian Yu or Yu Barom (유바롬). He was born and raised in Australia before he moved to Korea to pursue his musical career. He was originally a K-Pop idol, well-known as Rome(롬) of the group [C-Clown (씨클라운)]. The group had debuted in July 2012 under Yedang, but unfortunately, they disbanded in October 2015. You all might find Christian a bit familiar from my [previous Music Monday post] with CL’s [‘+5 Star+’]. He starred in the music video as CL’s boyfriend. Her music video is actually by DPR (Dream Perfect Regime), a multi-genre music and video group based in Seoul. It was founded in 2015 by DPR IAN (Christian Yu), [DPR LIVE] (Hong Dabin), DPR REM (Scott Kim), [DPR CREAM] (Kim Kyungmo), DPR CLINE (Lee Sungjoo), and several others. They “create produce and edit all types of visual work as well as curate artists that derive from various musical backgrounds and influences.” If y’all are more interested in DPR, I recommend checking out this [little documentary by JREKML]. DPR IAN is one of the founders of Dream Perfect Regime, and is known as the “creative genius”, director, and chief editor. You might also recognize some of the projects in which he was the visual director of: Taeyang‘s [‘WAKE ME UP’], BOBBY‘s [‘HOLUP!’], Amber Liu‘s [‘BORDERS’], Phantom’s [‘COULD YOU BE MINE(확신을 줘)’], Loco’s [‘Movie Shoot (Feat. DPR LIVE)’], and MINO‘s [‘BODY’]. He was also included on [Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings: The Album] with [‘Diamonds + and Pearls’] alongside DPR Live and peace. The dude is honestly super talented, especially when it comes to his vision of art. I also find his voice to give off a very unique vibe. It makes me feel like it’s very laid back, yet very interesting. It’s like the same kinda feeling I feel when I listen to chillhop.

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Anyway, today’s album recommendation for Music Monday is Moodswings In This Order, aka MITO. It is his debut solo album. The completely English album (minus the DPR LIVE’s Korean rap bits in ‘No Blueberries’) was released on March 12, 2021. It included singles that were dropped months before the album release. The first one to drop was ‘So Beautiful’. It was actually his solo debut digital single and dropped on October 26, 2020. While I do like DPR and the music they release, I admit that I’m not like super heavy into them. So I wasn’t totally familiar with them. Again, I recognized DPR IAN because of C-Clown. Before the songs on this album, I was only really familiar with tracks from DPR LIVE. So I originally saw and thought of DPR as being more of the hip-hop and R&B scene. I was pretty surprised with this album because it’s actually a variety of genres and sounds. You have hip-hop and R&B influences. But there are also other genres and influences like rock, jazz, and soul. It makes it really interesting. Especially because this album seems to be a very personal kind of album. It’s heavily influenced by his very personal thoughts and experiences. It’s an album that tells a story, a journey, and really captures one’s fears, anxieties, anger, regrets, doubt, and moments of struggle. It really explored the idea of the darkness within oneself. It also explored different things like his experience with his relationships and all. I personally love these kinds of albums that are influenced or heavily centered around personal stories and experiences.

Christian said that he felt like he always had someone inside of him that he had always been battling. He also said that his world had felt so monotone. So he decided to bring this individual to life, and he called it MITO. There’s also a very interesting little documentary on the MITO album called “Memories In Disorder” that I recommend to check out. It covers in detail Christian’s thoughts, feelings, and background of each track. The album would normally be something that I wouldn’t have expected to be something I’d listen to regularly. However, I ended up really liking it. It’s not my usual taste, but I find the tracks and the stories behind them to be so interesting. Again, I’m also just a sucker for very personal albums. I think it’s such a beautiful thing to pour in such personal things into your craft and make art from it. It’s also amazing to take things that would be seen as negative and turn it into something like that. Also, those kinds of feelings and experiences are something that are incredibly relatable and resonates with the listener. Which is always a amazing thing in my book. Now on to favorites. My ultimate favorite was definitely “No Blueberries” which featured CL and DPR LIVE. I loved the fusion of nova bossa with hip-hop and R&B. It was a track that was totally my taste. My other favorites would be “So Beautiful”, “Scaredy Cat”, and “Welcome to the Show”. Also, on another note… the physical copy of the album is pretty cool. Apparently, it’s heat-sensitive. It’s black and once it hits some heat, it’ll reveal the word MITO and the album design.

You can find DPR +IAN’s Moodswings In This Order on Spotify, here:

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VIDEOS

Normally I talk about the music videos and the lyrics, but I’mma keep it short for today. I want to note that I dropped the music videos in the order that they were released. I also want to mention that the music videos are connected and tell this story or journey regarding MITO. It’s very cinematic really. It’s basically like a short film There’s a lot of interesting details, and it’s a really well made visual experience. Although, again, my ultimate favorite would have to be ‘No Blueberries’. I also want to kind of mention that these videos, particularly ‘So Beautiful’ (and therefore “No Blueberries” too) seem to kind of have a connection to CL’s [‘+5 STAR+’] video. It’s not officially confirmed. However, you do see the same shots and locations in that video. Christian also seems to be wearing the same thing in some shots in CL’s video. Also, CL makes a brief split-second cameo in ‘So Beautiful’.

SO BEAUTIFUL

This is a pretty interesting video since it seems to kind of show one’s struggle and breakdown. Basically the birth of MITO. We see Christian struggling as MITO emerges. It fits the song since Christian said the idea of the song was “inspired by the idea that something so dark and sinister is actually something that’s usually the most misunderstood.” Christian said he wanted the video to portray MITO in his darkest form. Honestly, I think it did a great job at doing that. Also, agani, if you watch this video and CL’s video, you’ll recognize the settings/locations. I think it includes that area with the sofa, and very obviously the woods. CL makes her brief cameo in this video around the 2:53 mark. Admittedly, I didn’t really care for this song on my first listening. However, it did end up growing on me. I found it to be really interesting with a lot of funky aspects to it. I loved the kind of orchestral bits to it and then the upbeat funky parts to it.

NO BLUEBERRIES (Feat. DPR LIVE, CL)

Again, with ‘No Blueberries” we see this kind of struggle and battle with MITO. This one is my favorite because of how it’s very cinematic. I really love the transitions and effects too. Apparently, it also has a lot of references to different DPR stuff. For this song, Christian said it was inspired by anger and how he just couldn’t really connect with some people. He associated that with blueberries apparently. But yeah, this is my favorite. I love the bossa nova vibes with that hip-hop/r&b. It’s also just very catchy.

WELCOME TO THE SHOW

“Welcome to the Show” is Christian welcoming people in, but also disclosing that there’s alot of stress, anxiety, fear, doubt, and things he can’t really explain to others. However, he does note that this is who he is. He still wants to welcome people to the show. As for the video, I think that again, it does a great job of visually representing this story and journey that Christian is trying to show throughout the album. MITO is supposed to represent darkness. You see he’s all battered. There’s a bit of uncertainty. However, there’s also the accpetance and aknoweldgement that this is also part of who he is. As he accepts this, you also see the light shine through the darkness.

NERVES

With “Nerves”, Christian admits that he has done some bad decisions in his life. He does understand and see that it’s all helped him become who he is now. However, he also can’t help but still feel some regrets. Which is honestly a normal thing that I think we can all relate to. In the video we can see different sides of Christian and as he kind of breaks down into recklessness, desair, anger, and other things…eventually leading up to his transformation as MITO.

SCAREDY CAT

“Scaredy Cat” is one of my favorites and it’s inspired by Christians fear and fear of everything. It’s about always being scared, yet curious. Again, I think it’s something that we can all relate to. I love how this track is kind of fun and that’s seen in the video as well. It’s funky and also kind of trippy. Again, it displays different sides of Chrstian, and shows him in his moments of fear. But again, despite that kind of creepiness, there’s also this kind fun in everything. It’s like you’re scared, but also trying to pull through it. It’s definitely something I relate to. Also, I just love this video cuz the sets and everything kind of reminds me of the drama Hotel Del Luna.

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Sorry, I know I’m rushing through this. To be honest my brain is fried. I’m like dead tired…lol But I really do enjoy this album and I wanted to share it with y’all. Again, I really adore albums and music that you can tell are very personal and tell a story. It prompts you to think, and I really appreciate that. I think we can all relate to those messages and experiences. I’m pretty sure we all have had moments of our own version of MITO too. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the album! What were your favorite songs? How about your favorite videos? Let me know in the comments, my socials, or hit me up on Discord!~ I know I’m also slacking for Spoop Fest. I promise I’m trying to work and push out some stuff. I just need to catch up on some rest. Y’all take care of yourselves too! Stay safe and have a lovely day!

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