Observatoire de Terre is the Featured Release of January 2025
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Observatoire de Terre is rm8z's fourth studio album. It was released on December 1st, 2024.
Digital Ver
Moonlight Sky Ver
Starlit Sky Ver
Tracklist[]
| # | Title | Lyr. | Comp. | Arr. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Skyward | JWon | Jaeseok | Chae, Jaeseok |
| 2 | Right Here and Now | Sun | Chae, Jaeseok, b.z | Chae, Jaeseok, SiMusic |
| 3 | 운명의 끈 (String Of Fate) | Sun, JWon | Chae, Jaeseok | Chae, Jaeseok |
| 4 | 분필 그림 (Chalk) | Sun, Do Young | Chae, Jaeseok | Chae, Jaeseok |
| 5 | 잊혀진 고향 (Forgotten Hometown) | Eunhyun, JWon | Chae, Jaeseok | Jaeseok |
| 6 | 포부 (Aspiration) | Yeon Su, JWon, Jaeseok | Chae, Jaeseok, SiMusic | Chae, Jaeseok |
| 7 | Telescope | Sun, Chae | Chae, Park Taeyoon | Chae, Park Taeyoon |
| 8 | So-called Prestige | Yeon Su, Sun, Eunhyun, Do Young, JWon | Chae, Jaeseok | Chae, Jaeseok |
| 9 | Myths | Chae, JWon, Jaeseok | Chae, Do Young, Jaeseok | Chae, Jaeseok |
| 10 | 감사의 말 (Acknowledgements) | Sun, JWon | Chae, Jaeseok, GYU | Chae, Jaeseok, Park Taeyoon |
| 11 | You See Right Through Me | JWon, Jaeseok | Jaeseok, b.z | Jaeseok, b.z |
| 12 | The Astronaut | Sun, JWon | Chae, Jaeseok | Chae, Jaeseok |
Instrumental reference: String of Fate
Background[]
Observatoire de Terre was first teased on August 17th, 2024, at rm8z 5th Anniversary Concert in Seoul World Cup Stadium where the date of the comeback was announced. In a press conference a few days later, it was announced that the comeback would be a studio album. In September, rm8z announced their “rm8z Observing the Earth Challenge”, where they challenged their fans to show off the environment and culture of where they live through creative videos. The winners, picked by rm8z themselves, received the opportunity to participate in the title track’s music video.The winners received an e-mail with confirmation that they had been chosen in early October.
On November 1st, the official announcement of Observatoire de Terre was posted, revealing the album’s title. Album pre-orders began three days later on November 4th, with the physical album covers revealed the same day. The twelve-song tracklist was posted in two parts on November 11th. From November 12th to 18th, the individual concept photos for each member were posted. Teaser videos for the tracks, grouped in threes, were posted from November 23rd to 26th. The highlight medley was uploaded to YouTube on November 28th. The music video teasers were uploaded on November 29th and 30th.
Concept[]
From rm8z Notes - Observatoire de Terre
“The core thematic idea of Observatoire de Terre is the idea that who you are and who you will become are shaped by the people, environment, and culture around you. Every part of you can be traced back to someone else, whether it’s obvious or not. The idea for this concept stemmed from a few conversations we’ve had as a group over the past five years. When we did our world tour in 2023, I think we all experienced some sort of epiphany related to this concept.
The title Observatoire de Terre is French for “Earth Observatory”. When you think of an observatory, you probably think of the space observatories that look towards the stars, towards the unknown vastness of the universe, everything we don’t know but want to know. There’s also ocean observatories, again looking into what we don’t know and somewhere we can’t quite reach yet. People spend so much time looking towards what they don’t know that sometimes we get lost in the stars and forget our roots. The concept of an “Earth Observatory” paints a picture of someone up in space looking down at the Earth, observing and analyzing all of its beauty and wonder. All seven of us were very intrigued about exploring the theme of observing the world around us with this lens, as well as with the thematic idea of being shaped by everyone and everything around you. People tend to ignore the beauty in the world around them - which is why we dream so much of space exploration. Our world is too familiar, too ordinary. We crave the unique, the extraordinary. An alien looking at Earth through a telescope wouldn’t think that of our planet. Their observations would be that the Earth is wonderful - vast oceans, sprawling forests, towering mountains. You can take this aspect of the theme as a message of environmental protection and advocation as well as one of realizing that there is so much to appreciate around you.
As much as Sun and JWon include truths from their own lives in our lyrics, they create stories and narratives to mask it into the song. Outside of songs explicitly written to express our gratitude towards gr8z, we try to have our songs be meaningful yet relatable to many people. Selfless songwriting rather than self-focused, if you will. This album, we decided as a group to tell our own experiences from our own viewpoints, not from the viewpoint of a character that listeners can detach from us. It’s cathartic but terrifying to be so vulnerable through music, but all seven of us agreed that this was the album to start doing so without holding ourselves back. Yeon Su, Eunhyun, and Do Young - the three members who are less involved in production and songwriting - all contributed to sharing their experiences through lyrics as well. I even tried my hand at it, as much as I try to stand away from lyrics.
There are two main topics that we centered our self-experience lyrics around. The first is experiences that have shaped us. Childhood memories and such. I challenged the group to dig deep and explore what makes them who they are. As I’ve mentioned, this notion of everything you are and everything you will be being formed by everything around you is the central theme of the album. The second is our perspective of the industry now that we’ve been a group for five years. To us, five years hasn’t felt very long, but when we look back at how we were when we debuted, so much has changed. Not just us, but the people around us as well. rm8z in 2019 looked at the industry with a vastly different lens than us now.
The musical concept for Observatoire de Terre is rock. Our group’s sound has always been rock mixed in with traditional K-pop electronica and dance, but that pushed us into the box of being the “pop rock K-pop group”. Jaeseok, as much as he specializes in electronic production, approached me with the idea of creating an album with no pop songs in 2022. At the time, I was skeptical of how it would be received - I was too focused on public opinion back then - and we decided to put the idea to the side. He brought it up again when we decided on Observatoire de Terre’s lyrical topics, and this time, I agreed. Observatoire de Terre’s tracklist only contains songs within the rock genre. We have some alternative rock, some art rock, some shoegaze, but no “pop” rock. We’re not doing this to act as if we’re above typical pop music, we’re doing this because it’s fun and experimental for us. Our next album may be only pop and electronica, who knows.
For our production approach, Jaeseok suggested that we only arrange with real instruments rather than digital instruments. Sometimes I look at him and see the sixteen-year-old kid who clung to his MIDI software like his life depended on it, and other times I look at him and realize how much he’s grown as a producer - this was one of those times. There was a bit of a learning curve for him throughout the arrangement process, but I think we’ve both improved as artists because of this album. I normally record a lot of the guitar and piano myself, but bringing my clarinet into the recording booth was a first. Outside of bands, it’s difficult to find K-pop albums that only use real instruments, so Jaeseok and I hope that our little experiment connects with the listeners.” - Chae
Production[]
Writing for Observatoire de Terre began in 2023 during rm8z’s first world tour, before the album itself was conceptualized. The first track to be written was “잊혀진 고향 (Forgotten Hometown)” in June 2023. Eunhyun wrote the chorus and several variations of verses throughout the group’s concert stop in France. The opening lines of “Skyward” were penned by JWon in the months following their tour. “Telescope” was adapted in mid-2023 from notes Chae wrote earlier in the year. The lyrics for these songs were developed further once rm8z decided on the album’s lyrical concept in early 2024.
“분필 그림 (Chalk)”, “You See Right Through Me”, and “Myths” were the first songs written with the album in mind. Although most of the tracks were written through rm8z’s traditional approach of having the lyricists write on their own before bringing their lyrics together and iterating, the rap unit song “포부 (Aspiration)” was adapted from a freestyle session with the rap line members. Another song that was written uniquely from the other tracks was “So-called Prestige” which was written in two group sessions where the members cut up reviews of their music and randomly arranged them into verses.
The production of the instrumentals started a few weeks after the concept was decided. Most of the songs were composed after the initial version of their lyrics were written, though a handful were developed alongside their lyrics. “포부 (Aspiration)” was the first track to be composed, as the rap unit needed it in order to start their freestyle sessions. According to Chae, “감사의 말 (Acknowledgements)” was the first instrumental to be fully composed and arranged, followed by “Skyward”. “운명의 끈 (String of Fate)” and “The Astronaut” took the longest to produce; “운명의 끈 (String of Fate)” due to its importance to the album and “The Astronaut” due to experimentation. This stage of production overlapped with the production of some songs from SUPERVIGILANTE and lasted for a few months. With every song being arranged with live instruments, a significant amount of time was dedicated to Chae recording the guitar and piano parts for each song and scouting out musicians.
Recording began in May with “포부 (Aspiration)”, but most of the recording took place from July to October. Chae and Jaeseok handled the majority of the vocal direction, with Sun and Do Young trying their hand at it as well. “Right Here and Now” was the shortest recording session, only taking an hour to record all seven members. “Telescope” was the most challenging song to record, as Sun decided during recording that he wanted every line to be sung in harmony.
The visual side of production started around the same time as recording. Yeon Su, Eunhyun, and Do Young were the members responsible for working with their creative team to plan out the visual concept.
Song Descriptions[]
From rm8z Notes - Observatoire de Terre
Skyward[]
“gr8z!!! Welcome to the rm8z Notes for Observatoire de Terre! There are a lot of notes this time around, so be prepared. Let’s get started! Skyward is the opening track for the album, but it’s also my pride and joy this time around. I started writing Skyward shortly after our world tour in 2023. We had never done a big tour before, and the change from the chaos of traveling to the calm of taking time off left me feeling a little too reflective. At that time, the world tour was the biggest achievement of our careers. When we debuted, it was something I could only dream of. I tried to imagine what the 2019 version of me would think about the current me, and that’s how Skyward came about. A lot of who I am as an artist comes from having big dreams and big goals, but also from feeling like I set the bar too high. 2019 JWon was looking at the vast sky above him, thinking that the stars were impossible to reach. 2024 JWon still looks at those stars, except they are all around me, and there are many, many more stars waiting in the distance. The lyrics are a conversation with myself about how even if a goal seems too far away, it’s not impossible to achieve, even if sometimes my current self can’t grasp that. You have to keep moving skyward if you want to reach the stars.
I trust Jaeseok with my life, and my songs, so I let him handle the composition for Skyward. To capture the idea of going towards the sky, we settled on a very atmospheric and gentle composition. For the arrangement, Chae was enthusiastic about having a symphonic rock song open the album and brought in VALERIAN’s Ha Jihoon to perform the violin sections. The members told me to write that the highlight of the song is my rap verse where we removed all of the instruments except for the piano, but I think the entire song itself is a highlight.” - JWon
Right Here and Now[]
“The second track of Observatoire de Terre is Right Here and Now, which is a song that I had full responsibility of writing. When faced with the theme of the album, I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to convey about my own past and present. Music and writing have been my whole life. That’s what shaped me, and what continues to guide me. I wouldn’t be “right here, right now” if it wasn’t for music, whether that be the youth music camps I used to attend, the concert that made me decide I wanted to be an idol, or the fantastic group of people I get to call my groupmates. Right Here and Now is about appreciating all of these important moments that shape you, and that the you right now is different from the you in the next moment. Although the song conveys this in reference to my personal perspectives, I think many people will be able to place themselves as the protagonist of the song.
For the production, Chae and Jaeseok felt like a “concert song” vibe would work best with the lyrics: something sentimental that fans can shout along to. Chae spent a long time trying to capture the right guitar melodies for the verses. I think he spent about three hours one day trying to fix the song. When we discussed the details of the song’s vibe, I settled on “slightly 2000’s alternative rock”, so I may have put too much pressure on Chae to find what that actually sounds like.” - Sun
Instrumental Reference (but with less electronic elements)
운명의 끈 (String of Fate)[]
“Creating a title track for an album with such a deep and complex theme is…a bit daunting. When discussing the song with the group, before writing or production started, none of us really knew what we wanted from it. It was Eunhyun who brought up the “red string of fate”, which was part of our branding for C4CT. That “red string of fate” concept was a bit of a pain point for the group. We were so excited to brand that entire comeback around it, but then switched it up at the last second because we felt like we weren’t doing it justice. All of us have wanted to give it another go, but nobody has brought it up in the four years since C4CT…until Eunhyun. The seven of us have an inside joke that rm8z was brought together by the string of fate: somehow, some way, all of us found our way to Bee Entertainment, became friends, and then debuted together. Jo Bisung, our CEO, has said to us multiple times that he often thinks back on when he was forming the group. He couldn’t imagine any other combination of trainees other than us seven. We were the original test group members and we were the debuting members.
운명의 끈 (String of Fate) takes the overall theme of the album and summarizes it into “all that I am, all that I ever was, all that I will become”. Sun and JWon deeply considered the idea that everything is guided, but not controlled, by fate. Fate leads you to the people and places that have the opportunity to change and shape who you are. If you feel like you’ve lost sight of who you are or where you belong, fate will show you the way because you are connected to so many people and experiences. The song opens from the perspective of someone who feels this way, and feels like they’ll never escape it. This “someone” is us as trainees, us before becoming trainees. Us before finding each other. Slowly, but surely, we notice the string of fate beckoning us to follow it, despite how useless it feels. It guides us to each other. It guides us to where we belong. And then it guides all of us forwards, into this wonderful journey we’re on together and will continue on. Sun and JWon outdid themselves in capturing the emotions of all seven of us.
Jaeseok and I both felt emotionally overwhelmed and driven when reading the initial lyrics for String of Fate. We wanted the song to match the emotional journey of the lyrics, but also the emotional depth and vulnerability. The two of us spent hours in my recording studio just recording different instruments while reading the lyrics over and over: this is where the piano riff bridge was created. As soon as I played it, Jaeseok saved the recording and told me that we were going to use it as the emotional peak of the song, and that I had no say in the matter because he was sure it would work. From there, we had the monumental task of building the song around that point. Because it needed to be a quiet point, we chose to do a layered production approach: adding more and more elements as the song progresses, removing them all for the piano riff, and then bringing them all back with even more layers. It grows and grows and swells with emotion…Jaeseok started tearing up the first time we played the full instrumental demo. I teared up during every single recording session I had for the guitar and additional piano sections. Maybe this song is only emotional to us because the lyrics tell our perspective, but I hope everyone can connect to these emotions as well.” - Chae
Instrumental Reference
분필 그림 (Chalk)[]
“As soon as we decided on Observatoire de Terre’s concept, I knew immediately that I wanted to write the lyrics for one of the songs. Sometime in 2023, I was walking down a residential street and I saw a chalk-drawn hop-scotch board. It was followed by lines and arrows leading up to a very complex and over-the-top map. There were drawings of apartment buildings, schools, a castle, a lake, everything a child would want to put in an imaginary city. I had to stop myself and tour around the chalk city for a few minutes because it reminded me so much of my own childhood. Back in Vancouver, when I was in elementary school, I would spend hours in the summer drawing cities and unconventional hop-scotch boards and whatever I could think of on the sidewalk. Chalk brought together me and some of the other kids in my neighbourhood. Seeing this chalk city reminded me of how much I miss the whimsy of being a kid, not thinking about adult things. 분필 그림 (Chalk) is about that weird nostalgic ache and the fear of losing that childlike wonder.
Because of the song’s connection to summer and childhood, Chae and Jaeseok decided to go for a more upbeat and summery sound. I tried to convince Chae to add a ukulele riff somewhere in the song, but he told me I was pushing it. There were a couple iterations of the song where it just sounded too sad. I know the lyrics are wistful, but I don’t want people to be sad while listening to it. Chae let me try vocal directing to get rid of the sadness I was hearing. I think I did pretty good for not usually being allowed to vocal direct.” - Do Young
잊혀진 고향 (Forgotten Hometown)[]
“I started writing 잊혀진 고향 (Forgotten Hometown) in June 2023. We were in Paris for the final two concerts of our first world tour. Although it was the first time the other members had been to France, it was not the first time for me. My mother is French and many of my relatives live near Paris, so I travelled with my family to meet them countless times as a child. Growing up, my father joked about us moving to France. As much as I loved my friends and South Korea, part of me always wanted it not to be a joke. In my head, I saw Paris as my second home. I saw it as somewhere where I belonged just as much as I belonged in Seoul. I would replay my memories of France all the time and constantly wonder when I’d visit there next.
When I became a trainee, we stopped visiting France. I was busy with school and training, so even if I wanted to go, I didn’t want to fall behind with my responsibilities. My mother would travel there once in a while just for a few days, but not for long trips like we used to. By the time I debuted, it had been five years since I last was in France. By the time our first world tour rolled around, it had been nine years since I last was in France. As I looked out of the window of our touring van and pointed out locations I remembered, it hit me just how much this place had shaped who I was. Yet, it felt so distant. 잊혀진 고향 (Forgotten Hometown) was written about this feeling. It’s about reflecting on something that has made you who you are but now feels distant. Not just places, but experiences as well.
Chae and Jaeseok did a wonderful job of translating that feeling into music. Chae recorded several layers of guitar and bass to create a shoegaze sound, but if you listen to each layer individually, you can hear the emotion in the composition. Jaeseok’s vocal and rap direction was so considerate towards the song’s material and vulnerability. I went into this a bit hesitant about releasing the song, but now, I think I want people to hear it.” - Eunhyun
포부 (Aspiration)[]
“For our rap unit song, we decided to try something a little different than normal for our lyrics. JWon, Jaeseok, and I had several discussions about what theme we wanted the song to be about. Because the idols I looked up to were a huge part of why I followed this career path, I suggested the theme to be around that and they both agreed. JWon thought the song would be best if we used the most raw, natural version of our thoughts about the people we aspired to be like as trainees, and to do that, he wanted us to freestyle. JWon and Jaeseok are both very skilled rappers, with JWon being gifted at freestyling and Jaeseok having enough lyric experience and musical knowledge to try his hand at it. I, on the other hand, am not a freestyler. Jaeseok created a beat for the song and we gathered around JWon’s phone to record several verses of freestyle. It was very awkward at first, but because JWon and Jaeseok were so enthusiastic about it, I became more comfortable with my freestyle, although I’m still far from being good at it. From those recorded verses, we transcripted everything and sorted it to figure out which parts we liked and which parts we didn’t, and then JWon edited it with our input. Each of our verses talk about vague ideas of what type of people we’ve looked up to and how we feel about them now. JWon looked up to a rapper with his own style, and now JWon can see how that affected his own technique and artistry. Jaeseok looked up to the people training around him and continues to look up to them now. I was a fan of a popular idol who inspired me to dance, and now I’m an idol who inspires others to dance.
The beat for 포부 (Aspiration) started from what Jaeseok created for the freestyle. To fit the album, he and Chae transformed it into a rap rock song. The beats were rearranged to real drums and a bass line, and a loud, edgy guitar was added into the chorus. The song is very energetic to match the energy of our raps, but almost angry. I guess there is some anger to be had at idolizing someone your whole time as a trainee and never reaching the high standard you set for yourself, only to realize that you should have been kinder to yourself because you’ve surpassed that level already.” - Yeon Su
Telescope[]
“The next song on the album is Telescope. This is the vocal unit song for the album, with me yet again choosing vocals over rap. I prefer writing vocal lyrics, and I wanted to write a song with Chae, so that’s what happened. During our world tour in 2023, I noticed that Chae kept writing notes but hiding them from me. Chae hates showing his lyrics to other people before he’s happy with them, but I’m usually the exception, so I found it very strange. Following the tour, Chae invited me to his studio where he finally showed me what the notes were for. He had written the chorus of a song about looking at the Earth through a telescope and realizing what was actually important to you, and wanted me to help him with the verses. Chae had hid the lyrics from me because the original version referenced how the two of us met as children, and he felt embarrassed about showing me lyrics that talked about me. When the album concept was decided, I workshopped the verses I wrote to be more applicable to all four members of the vocal unit. To us, our fans are what is important, so that’s what we see when we look through the telescope.
To let our voices do the work, Chae arranged the song to be acoustic rock, with only his acoustic guitar and a simple beat as the instrumentation. I tried my hand at vocal direction and ended up turning most of the song into harmonies. There are no actual solo lines in the song because every line has someone else singing a harmony. I think it’s a song that will be very impressive live because of that.” - Sun
So-called Prestige[]
“I’m hoping this song becomes a fan favourite. So-called Prestige had the weirdest writing process we’ve ever done. Everyone except for Chae and Jaeseok was involved in writing, but that was because of how much work it was. Jaeseok had found a very old, very obscure article about us from 2019 that called us “just another boy group who everyone will forget about in a year”, which he thought was hilarious. He then found a different article with the line “I’m sure all these lovely self-producing groups will lose popularity and disappear” and joked about how they rhyme when translated to English, so he could use them in a rap verse to diss those reviewers about how wrong they were. As much as we respect music journalism and differing opinions, over the years we’ve read a lot of reviews of our music that we’ve felt the need to call out. So, instead of calling them out in our own words, we used theirs. So-called Prestige is a collection of lines from many, many reviews of our music that we’ve rearranged and edited slightly to be more lyrical. The title comes from a review that’s infamous to us but probably too obscure for the fans to find easily. It claimed that we would never be respected by the industry because our music sucked, and that the prestige bestowed upon other groups who debuted around us or had a similar self-producing concept would never be given to us. But is that so-called “prestige” really important? If we’re making this music for our own enjoyment and for our fans, then why would we need to fuss over how much recognition we get? It’s crazy. So we address that.
So-called Prestige is mostly rap verses. We don’t have other songs like this, so it was a fun experience recording our lines. Eunhyun, who is the only member who doesn’t rap, had to suffer through all of us watching him record. And he did a great job! Because each member’s verse is about something in the reviews important to them, all of the vocal direction is unique and fits each member individually. Chae and Jaeseok kept it simple but fun for the instrumental. It’s not as rap rock sounding as 포부 (Aspiration), but has the same edgy feel to the arrangement.” - Do Young
Myths[]
“They made me wait until the 9th song to write this time! I guess that’s my fault for insisting this song be farther in the tracklist. For a change of pace in our discography, Chae and I wrote the lyrics for Myths with JWon’s help. We both have some experience in lyrics, but it’s not our strong suit. We wanted to break the myth that all we do is produce without writing. I guess that’s what Myths is about - the myths that people make up about idols that aren’t actually true. Chae and I focused specifically on our experiences as idol producers and the expectations people make up in their minds about how we should be. You can sometimes get trapped in those false ideas people try to paint you as, and it really affects your creativity. You begin to think “I’m never going to be considered a serious producer because I’m an idol” or “People will never find value in my music because they see it as not made out of love” or “All of these other producers get noticed but not me because I don’t make good music”. It’s a spiral of terrible thoughts, and those myths begin to seem not like myths. It takes a lot of encouragement to break out of those thought patterns.
We had Ha Jihoon play violins for Skyward, but we brought in one of Chae’s friends for this song’s violin riff. Do Young helped with composition, and although he didn’t arrange, he kept saying that the song needed violin. He has a great ear for these kinds of things. The song is pretty dark in musical tone for the verses to represent the dark thought patterns, and it brightens slightly in the chorus to represent hope. I think it was the most difficult song on the album to produce for me because I had to break out of the thoughts expressed in the song to produce it. A journey of self-reflection. I had to figure out what that hope felt like so I could translate it into the song.” - Jaeseok
Instrumental Reference
감사의 말 (Acknowledgements)[]
“In our first five years as a group, the most painful thing we’ve experienced in the industry is watching other idols - full of talent, full of hope - slowly fade away into obscurity because nobody was willing to give them a chance. It feels like every day there is some new contender in the ring for the top spot of the charts. Popular artists keep popping up to rightfully claim the spotlight just in time for another artist to shove them out of it. But as all the attention falls on them, you don’t notice the artists standing in the back row of the stage as a music show winner is announced. You don’t notice the artists who weren’t even invited in the first place because the show’s producers haven’t heard of them. If you look at a list of artists who debuted in 2019, you’ll notice how many you don’t remember or how many have disbanded. Shuren of VALERIAN will probably hate me for bringing this up, but the group Tasakaal debuted just ten days after us, and yet they disbanded before their contracts were even up with very few songs to their name. Every music show we go to, I look at the rookies and I can’t help but wonder how many of them will still be in the industry in a year. In a month. The ones with good songs? The ones with skilled members? Neither of those things guarantee recognition, even though they should/ 감사의 말 (Acknowledgements) is about all of those artists throughout the years who deserved to be recognized for their effort. They deserve to be acknowledged. They deserve their time in the spotlight. They deserve to keep following their dreams. It’s so difficult to fight for your dream when nobody seems to care. I care. We care.
Jaeseok and I wanted to avoid a ballad because this song isn’t sad. This song is angry. We’re expressing our frustration for the sake of other artists. I tried to channel that into my guitar recordings, but it turned out a bit more groovy than expected, so instead of boiling frustration, the song changed to a sassy, pointed call-out of the industry. We use a lot of breaks in the music to allow for emphasis of certain phrases. It’s light on the drums and heavy on the bass line. Do Young said it sounds like a professional version of a song by a garage band in the 2000’s.” - Chae
You See Right Through Me[]
“When people use the phrase “you see right through me”, they usually mean it as someone seeing through their lies or secrets. For this song, I mean it in a literal way. When I was younger, I knew I wanted to be important. I was one of those “academically gifted kids”. You know, the ones who “think outside the box” and are “role model students” until they leave elementary school and realize they weren’t special at all. When that feeling of “being special” was taken away from me, my barely-formed self-image crumbled. How was I going to be important to anybody when nothing about me was special? I tried so hard to be liked, to be noticed, but I was invisible. I was just another person in the crowd. None of my efforts were really acknowledged because I wasn’t someone worth paying attention to. Other people were more interesting than a sad kid who thought he was going to be special.
Of course, I don’t feel like that now. I know my own worth. But that persistent feeling of being invisible shaped me as a person because it gave me this deep-seeded motivation to always push myself to be seen. I know it’s something a lot of people struggle with. Wanting to be important is part of being human, as much as we hate to admit it. You See Right Through Me is about a particular experience from back then, when I had a friend who preferred their other friends over me. I wondered if when they looked at me, they saw nothing but the walls behind. I never want to feel like that again, and I know I never will because of the friends I have now.
I challenged myself with the composition and arrangement to not use my MIDI for anything, not even the demo. b.z helped with producing, but encouraged me to show how much I’ve learned since 2019. I wanted the song to be expressive but not too emotional, so I used a higher tempo and a very complex beat mixed in with sweeping, layered instruments. Chae swooped in to save the song with a genuinely insane guitar solo that somehow captured everything I wanted from the song.” - Jaeseok
The Astronaut[]
“And we’re at the album closer! As I said at the start, this was a long read, so I’ll keep it simple for this song. The Astronaut is written from our perspective as a group now reflecting on our 2019 selves. We’ve grown a lot as artists and performers, but you don’t really notice it unless you’re trying to. Sun and I watched so many performances from our debut promotions while writing the song. We noted down how much we cringed, how much we laughed, and how weird it felt to see a version of yourself that you can barely recognize. We are astronauts among the stars looking back down at Earth where we started. We can’t forget our roots or else we’ll never be able to find our way home.
Chae and Jaeseok had a bit too much fun with the arrangement. I didn’t think the flute qualified as a rock instrument, but there is a flute riff. And a clarinet solo. And somehow it still sounds like a rock arrangement. It’s a bit of a silly song all around, but we want you to end the album with a smile on your face after all of the emotional songs.” - JWon
Music Video Description[]
운명의 끈 (String Of Fate) (Main Version)[]
Intro + First Verse + First Chorus[]
The music video opens on a bird’s-eye view shot of Do Young laying on concrete ground in a white suit. Snow faintly dusts the ground around him and is falling from the sky. For the one bar of the song’s intro, the camera zooms out slowly, revealing a myriad of background dancers in white costumes and elaborate white masks that look like spikes of rime frost on tree branches. The dancers are also laying on the ground, forming a distant circle around Do Young.
As the first verse begins, the other members are shown, also wearing white suits. Each member is in their own set where everything is gray, desatured, and snowy, with their own groups of background dancers. Yeon Su is on the stage in a dance hall under a spotlight, but the audience seats are left empty. Sun walks through rows of empty seats in a stadium, looking out to where a concert stage stands lonely and untouched as if a concert had finished days ago. Eunhyun walks down a street lined with shops. Chae stands in a music room void of instruments. JWon is in a trainless underground metro station. Jaeseok is in an empty classroom where each desk has a blank piece of paper on top. When Do Young stands up, he is in an empty area in front of a tall concrete wall.
Throughout the verse, the members wander around their respective sets with solemn expressions, as if they are searching for any sense of light or colour. This wandering is mixed with expressive contemporary choreography. The background dancers follow all of the members from a distance with a more interpretive style of contemporary choreography, with strange formations. There is a sense that these background dancers represent something unwanted by the members that is holding them back.
The first chorus continues this same format, except the members’ choreography becomes more emotion-filled and interpretive as well. Their sets become more incorporated into the choreography.
Second Verse[]
As the second verse starts, the members stop dancing one by one. They all look into the sky or towards the distance with a sorrowful hope as the background dancers creep ever closer, as if accepting their fate. Suddenly, a vibrant red line, the same shade of red as one of rm8z’s official colours, breaks through the starry sky. The line is an ethereal twist of strings that form a glowing thread. The thread approaches each member and hovers in front of them, not forcing them to follow it but encouraging them to consider it. The members are all hesitant but curious, and they all come to the conclusion that they must follow the red string. As they touch the string, it wraps around one of their fingers. The string pulls the members away from the background dancers and out of their sets. It guides them through snowy streets and landscapes.
Second Chorus[]
The members continue to run with the string. Yeon Su sees a floating, red glow in the distance that the string is connected to, and just beyond that, he sees another person. Chae is that other person, who almost stops in his tracks if not for the string forcing him forwards. The red glow hovers above a piano that sits in an open area and extends in seven different directions. The members all come to a stop around the piano and the strings connecting to the red glow unravel from their fingers. The glow shifts from red to the same purple as rm8z’s other official colour before bursting into sparkles. As the members watch the sparkles fall to the ground in awe, Chae steps forward and positions himself in front of the piano’s keys.
Bridge[]
Chae presses the keys of the piano that match the first part of the piano riff in the bridge. As he does, the keys glow in response. A glowing path of light shoots out from the piano. The members run along the path together, even though they don’t know where it leads. Around them are white-capped mountains and fields of fluffy snow. In the sky, the northern lights dance among the stars in vibrant greens and purples. The slightest blue of a sunrise peeks up from the horizon. At the last note of the bridge, the members make a leap together and the video transitions with a spray of snow.
Third Chorus[]
The video shifts into full, vibrant colours. The members are now in a field of snow in the clearing of a pine tree forest, where the sky is bright blue. With the seven members are a large group of people of all ages and cultures. These people are the gr8z who won the video contest rm8z held before their comeback. rm8z perform the first half of the third chorus’ choreography with the gr8z. More of the focus is on the gr8z and their smiling faces than rm8z.
The second half of the third chorus is a montage of rm8z and the gr8z having fun together in the snow. There is a huge fight of loose snow being thrown around, some gr8z make snow angels, and many hugs are shared.
Outro[]
While the gr8z continue the snow fight in the background, the rm8z members stand together in a line with their arms around each other’s shoulders. Do Young lipsyncs his outro lines as the camera zooms in to have rm8z as the focus of the frame, but he struggles to do so because the members are leaning into each other too much and it’s throwing everyone off balance. As soon as his line is done, Eunhyun trips back into the snow, bringing a laughing Yeon Su down with him. The other five members join them on the ground.
Promotions[]
rm8z began their promotions for “운명의 끈 (String Of Fate)” on December 1st when the music video for “운명의 끈 (String Of Fate)” was released at 7AM KST. The day’s promotion continued through a showcase at Jamsil Indoor Stadium. Tickets were only sold to fans who held official fanclub memberships due to the venue size. 10,000 fans attended the two hour showcase, where an alternative music video was revealed. The showcase consisted of performances of several songs from the album, a Q&A session with fan questions, and a couple variety segments. After the event, a high-five meet-and-greet was held for a select amount of fans who had won special tickets.
“운명의 끈 (String Of Fate)” was promoted on music shows starting on December 2nd. During the first week of promotions, rm8z included special intros in their performances.
Showcase Setlist[]
| Setlist |
|---|
|
TikTok Challenge[]
Following their format of having two types of TikTok challenges for their title track from SUPERVIGILANTE, rm8z decided to have two for “운명의 끈 (String of Fate)”. The first version was the normal dance version. All participants in the video would start by holding pieces of string that connect in the middle of the frame and walking towards each other. When they meet in the center, they throw the string into the air as a transition into the choreography. The second version is the vocal version. As rm8z wanted a way to showcase the vocal skills of other idols, they created a challenge where participants sing the song live. Both versions use the third chorus of the song.
Videos featuring some of the VALERIAN members were posted as “examples” for the challenge.
| Participants | Caption | Version | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ha Jihoon (VALERIAN) Shuren (VALERIAN) Sun |
String of Fate’s Vocal challenge with two of the company’s best vocalists! #HaJihoon #Shuren #SUN | Vocal | 12.01.2024 |
| Kas (VALERIAN) Oliver (VALERIAN) B.yeol (VALERIAN) Yeon Su |
Brings back memories of them being background dancers at our concerts <3 #Kas #Oliver #B.yeol #YEONSU | Dance | 12.01.2024 |
| DEC Do Young |
DEC deserves all the year-end awards for this performance <3 #DEC #DOYOUNG | Dance | 12.02.2024 |
| Jay (R3THR0) Do Young |
Vocal | 12.02.2024 | |
| Sorane (ODYSSEIA) Chae |
Good thing Chae always has a guitar with him! #Sorane #CHAE | Vocal | 12.04.2024 |
| Aria (Nabi) Eunhyun |
Fresh vocals like ice cream~ #Aria #EUNHYUN | Vocal | 12.05.2024 |
| Iroha (Nabi) Yeon Su |
Thread of fate~ #Iroha #YEONSU | Dance | 12.05.2024 |
| Hong Jiyoon (VIIXEN) Jang Miyeon (VIIXEN) Chae |
Powerful idols with powerful vocals~ #HongJiyoon #JangMiyeon #CHAE | Vocal | 12.07.2024 |
| Tatev (VIIXEN) Amélie (VIIXEN) Jaeseok |
Maknaes unite!! #Tatev #Amelie #JAESEOK | Dance | 12.08.2024 |
| Seungwoo (MERAVI) Chae |
Vocal | 12.08.2024 | |
| Saara (NVRFOUL) JWon |
Vocal | 12.09.2024 | |
| Ji Xan (NVRFOUL) Jaeseok |
Dance | 12.09.2024 | |
| Daerin (JΣПΣЯΛƬIӨП) Aster (JΣПΣЯΛƬIӨП) Yeon Su |
Dance | 12.09.2024 | |
| Wooju (CELOSIA) Mikey (CELOSIA) Yeon Su |
Dance | 12.11.2024 | |
| Delaney (NFB) Manon (NFB) Do Young |
Dance | 12.12.2024 | |
| Shizuru (NFB) Allen (NFB) Sun |
Vocal | 12.12.2024 | |
| Arthur (CASE1) Conner (CASE1) Jaeseok |
Dance | 12.14.2024 | |
| Seohyuk (ZÆRO) JWon |
Vocal | 12.14.2024 | |
| Park Eunwoo Eunhyun |
Vocal | 12.20.2024 | |
| Kai (khaos) Yuuri (khaos) Jaeseok |
Dance | 12.31.2024 |
Commercial Performance[]
When pre-orders for Observatoire de Terre were announced, initial predictions pointed towards over 900,000 copies for first day sales. On December 2nd, the total first day sales for the album surpassed 1 million copies, with a total of 1.2 million copies sold. This broke rm8z’s first day sale record set by SUPERVIGILANTE by over 400,000. As SUPERVIGILANTE was expected to break 2 million copies in its first week and failed to do so, Observatoire de Terre had lower expectations. The album managed to do what SUPERVIGILANTE could not and sold a total of 2.25 million copies by December 8th. For the week of December 1st to 7th, Observatoire de Terre topped the Circle Physical Chart. It held this peak of #1 for two weeks, with an additional 430k copies being sold in the week after.
Digital charting expectations were mixed, as “I’m No Superhero” had trailed off quickly after its peak in July, but its matching b-side “Boring” had been successful. “운명의 끈 (String Of Fate)” proved to resonate more with casual listeners than “I’m No Superhero” and debuted modestly on the daily domestic charts. On December 2nd, “운명의 끈 (String Of Fate)” experienced a sharp and unexpected rise in unique listeners as the song circulated more online spaces. “운명의 끈 (String Of Fate)” debuted at #5 on the Circle Digital Chart for the week of December 1st to 7th. As the song was promoted, it continued to accumulate more listeners, and on December 9th, “운명의 끈 (String Of Fate)” rose to #1 on both the Genie and MelOn daily charts. This made “운명의 끈 (String Of Fate)” the first rm8z song to reach #1 on any domestic chart. “운명의 끈 (String Of Fate)” peaked at #1 on the Circle Digital Chart for the weeks of December 8th to 14th and December 15th to 21st.
“운명의 끈 (String Of Fate)”, due to its virality in South Korea, also found success on international charts.
“운명의 끈 (String of Fate)” received its first win on the December 9th episode of Beat Bop. Over the song’s music show promotions, it received [] wins, surpassing “Crystallization”, “CARNIVAL”, and “검투사 (Gladiator)” to become their title track with the most music show wins.
A screenshot of the moment where 운명의 끈 (String Of Fate) reached #1 for the first time on the MelOn Top 100
| Chart | Peak | Week(s) at peak |
|---|---|---|
| Circle (Physical) | 1 | 12.01.2024 - 12.07.2024 |
| 12.08.2024 - 12.14.2024 | ||
| Circle (Digital) | 1 | 12.08.2024 - 12.14.2024 |
| 12.15.2024 - 12.21.2024 | ||
| Billboard Hot 100 | 87 | 12.08.2024 - 12.14.2024 |
| Billboard Japan Hot 100 | 7 | 12.15.2024 - 12.21.2024 |
| Oricon | 12 | 12.16.2024 - 12.23.2024 |
| Canadian Hot 100 | 74 | 12.15.2024 - 12.21.2024 |
| Date | Show | Place |
|---|---|---|
| 12.06.2024 | Smile Groove Music Show | 2nd |
| 12.08.2024 | Hallyumak | 3rd |
| 12.09.2024 | Beat Bop | 1st |
| 12.10.2024 | Battleground K: Music Dojang! | 1st |
| 12.11.2024 | K-Pop On Top | 2nd |
| 12.13.2024 | Smile Groove Music Show | 2nd |
| 12.14.2024 | Rankdown @ MBS | 1st |
| 12.15.2024 | Hallyumak | 1st |
| 12.16.2024 | Beat Bop | 1st |
| 12.17.2024 | Battleground K: Music Dojang! | 1st |
| 12.20.2024 | Smile Groove Music Show | 2nd |
| 12.21.2024 | Rankdown @ MBS | 2nd |
| 12.22.2024 | Hallyumak | 1st |
| 12.27.2024 | Smile Groove Music Show | 1st |
| 12.28.2024 | Rankdown @ MBS | 1st |
Acceptance Speeches[]
TBA
| Date | Theme |
|---|---|
| 12.09.2024 | Full-out performance with choreography to prove live vocals |
| 12.10.2024 | Acapella version |
| 12.14.2024 | |
| 12.15.2024 | Snowflake stickers on everyone's faces |
| 12.16.2024 | |
| 12.17.2024 | |
| 12.22.2024 | No guitar track in the instrumental with Chae playing the entire guitar track in-person |
| 12.27.2024 | N/A |
Critical Reception[]
Observatoire de Terre received critical acclaim upon release, who considered the album to be one of rm8z’s “most impressive” releases. The album was praised by most critics for its cohesive and developed concept, both in terms of music and theming. Observatoire de Terre’s solid focus on rock-based songs, without drifting into pop or other non-rock genres like their previous releases, was hailed as the album’s standout quality by several reviewers. Critics agreed that while an album with a single genre focus, specifically in the K-pop sphere, is prone to having “songs that sound the same”, Observatoire de Terre delivered a range of unique songs that all had their own impact and avoided this problem. rm8z’s deep dive into the genre rather than relying on their typical pop rock sound was seen as a step in the correct direction for the group. NME wrote “Observatoire de Terre has a sense of professionalism to it that had been naturally evolving through rm8z’s work. The album feels like a start to a second phase in the group’s career where they are becoming musicians in their own right rather than purely idols”.
Chae and Jaeseok were applauded for their efforts to keep the album’s instrumentation solely natural rather than relying on electronic arrangement. Rolling Stone said of this, “It’s becoming increasingly rare to find an entire album recorded with live instruments in South Korean popular music outside of K-rock bands. rm8z have taken that risk to showcase their pure compositional skill without the use of samples, loops, or digitally manipulated melodies”. Chae in particular was hailed for his live instrument performances on several of the tracks. “We’ve heard Chae’s live guitar before in several songs,” commented THE K-POP GENERATION Magazine, “But he’s really come into his own in this album. You can hear just how much he’s improved as a musician, even from last year’s “Gladiator” where his guitar solo was the centerpiece of the song. He’s one of those K-pop idols where everyone can agree that he is a music genius”. In particular, Chae was praised for “운명의 끈 (String of Fate)” and “Telescope”. His contributions to “운명의 끈 (String of Fate)” through piano and guitar for the entire song was labeled “a masterful display of raw skill and expressivity”. For “Telescope”, Chae was lauded for his solo recording of every instrument in the song, “a feat that few in K-pop have done to this level thus far”.
The main criticisms about the album’s production regarded track ordering, relation to rm8z’s other releases, and song length. Exclaim! questioned some of the choices about the order of the tracks, saying “the placement of some tracks feels unintuitive. A song like “Right Here and Now”, in my opinion, should be near the closing track rather than following the opening track”. The placement of “Telescope” - between “포부 (Aspiration)” and “So-called Prestige” - was viewed as jarring due to “Telescope”’s ballad-like qualities and the rap rock influences of the other two songs. PopStream Magazine viewed the shift from rm8z’s usual blend of rock and pop genres under one concept to solely focusing on rock as a decision that could alienate some fans who just found the group through their most recent release. One reviewer also felt that the album was, in their terms, “Grammy reaching”, or trying too hard to be artistic for the sake of reviewers. Some reviewers criticized the length of the tracks. K Connoisseur Magazine commented that “although every song nowadays is under 3 minutes and we’re tired of it, if you want all of the songs on an album to stick with the mainstream listener, they need to be short enough to keep their attention. We are past the time of long songs. There are several songs on Observatoire de Terre that extend past the 4 minute mark, and I’m not sure if the casual listener will appreciate that”.TBA
Best songs based on aggregated data: 운명의 끈 (String Of Fate), So-called Prestige, You See Right Through Me
Music Video Views[]
Performances[]
Gallery[]
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