exo comeback + sehun's birthday

So, as usual, there's barely any time for EXO to recover from their punishing tour and from the Luhan + Kris drama of 2014 that they staged a comeback again. I guess, for the most part, there was no choice in the matter. Fan love is a delicate thing, especially for impressionable teenagers. So you can never afford to lose momentum, especially for those subset of fans (myself included) whose connection to the group has waned given an underwhelming (in my opinion) Overdose comeback and the tiring emotional rollercoaster from the member changes.

The EXODUS (very apt title I might add, although please SM, stop with the butthurt imagery with the two marbles and stuff) era has arrived with a vengeance. A full album, along with high production value teasers that led a lot of fans to doing more detective work on the subliminal messages (they have more time than I do, I think. I just admired how awesome they look, and the fact that Sehun's location is in Edinburgh), plus an adorable marketing play (seriously, those mascots are crazy cute) -- I guess that's enough at least to pique MY interest. Because honestly, I was really close to checking out of the fandom if it weren't for my active fics that I've yet to finish hihi.

So...the album was good, better than I thought it would be. Very reminiscent of 90s rnb style, and more sexing up of their images which I guess was introduced during the Overdose era. I miss the Growl era though, how tight the concept is, how every song can be a single in itself (except for Wolf. Still have a love-hate relationship with that). The sound in Exodus is a 180 degree turn from Growl, that I'm not sure right now what their brand of sound is.

I winced at first when they said that the title track is called Call me baby...errr okay. But the track is catchy. The music video also has a lot of movement and interesting points, and way better choreography than Overdose. There are some questionable styling though (but again, better than the billowy white shirt of Overdose). I seriously don't know why they keep on giving hideous clothes to Kai. But yay on Sehun's black hair. My favorite tracks in the album are My Answer and Beautiful (all ballads, I know *sigh)

So I'm just checking in to usher the new EXO era. I guess it's sort of safe to assume that they'll be promoting as 10 moving forward. They are also doing a webdrama, EXO Next Door, from the same people behind the Oh Boy! project. I was preparing myself from the cheese but surprisingly it was really cute.

Lastly, Happy Birthday Sehun!!!