Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
TXT captured my attention in 2021 when they took a rock turn for a bit, and even since then it’s been nice that they at least try to rely on melodies to power their music while many of their contemporaries have focused on bombast. Now they’re back with “Deja Vu“, which didn’t capture my attention for long, but whose remix sorta does.
TXT are at their best in more energetic productions, so “Deja Vu” doesn’t play to their strengths since it carries a more reserved soundscape. It’s built on a predictable trap beat, but the synths were more of a highlight and sorta get drowned out in the mix. It mostly bets everything on the melodic chorus being sing-able, and while nice I found it to mostly be more safe and repetitive than anthemic in nature. My preference for energy from them likely lies in the fact that the effects on their vocals bother me significantly less when the instrumentals are livelier, but when they’re stripped back like this they become almost highlighted and it’s a major turnoff when it’s attempting to convey emotional depth.
That said, hearing the remix, I’m kinda salty. This instrumental is much livelier and leans into that sadboi emo rock edge that the original clearly wants. However, it’s also clearly not performed for that instrumental, and the guitars clash with the vocal melodies and all kinds of issues like that. If the stripped down version was the remix and the emo version was the single, I think “Deja Vu” would’ve worked exceptionally. And it’s interesting enough that I still might end up revisiting it later, because I can imagine it working extremely well in concert kind of settings.
