"Less lyrics, more dialogue" — ONEW & YUJU's 'Mind Games'

ONEW and YUJU's duet 'Mind Games' leaves its accompaniment almost bare. Over a single acoustic guitar, the two go back and forth like actors playing a couple whose pride gets ahead of their love. We chose it as today's pick because, in a week crowded with dazzling comeback stages, it shows that taking sound away can actually give you more to hear.

Released on September 29 at 6 PM KST, the song is the first of the title tracks from ONEW's first single album, '착각' (roughly, "misconception"). ONEW's label described it as "a minimal arrangement led by vocals and a single acoustic guitar," and ONEW wrote the lyrics with Jiggy. In a commentary video posted on ONEW's official YouTube channel, YUJU said, "I kind of practiced this one thinking of it less as lyrics and more as lines of dialogue." YUJU wanted listeners to come away with "the feeling of two people having a conversation."

You can hear that conversation most clearly at 0:20. The guitar stops completely for 1.7 seconds, leaving only the vocals: the longest stretch without accompaniment in the whole song. At 1:58, the same kind of gap comes around once more, for about 1.5 seconds. The ending works the same way. At 2:16 the guitar lets go first, and the vocals hold on alone for just over a second before the song ends. Right to the very end, it never tells you who won.

In the same video, YUJU recalled being a "real fan" of SHINee since elementary school. "It's been about 11 years since I debuted, and I felt so good thinking, 'So things like this can happen, too,'" YUJU added. YUJU also hoped it becomes a song where, in ONEW's soft voice and YUJU's own crisp, refreshing one, people "can discover, 'Oh, they had this dark, alluring side?'" The full single album '착각' comes out October 20 at 6 PM KST. Once you've caught this evening's big stages, let this song give your ears a rest.