The drums return the moment 'It's gonna be fine' becomes 'How can I be fine': Dragon Pony's 'Calling back'

Today's NONOL PICK is 'Calling back', the single Dragon Pony released on November 5. It's the first record An Tae-gyu, Kwon Se-hyuk and Ko Gang-hun have made as a trio since bassist Pyun Sung-hyun left the band in August, and the Bugs credits (a Korean music site) list Dragon Pony in all three slots: lyrics, composition and arrangement. The song empties out the most in its last chorus. For nearly 19 seconds the drums and bass are held back, and then they all come back at once the moment the lyric changes from 'It's gonna be fine' to 'How can I be fine'. Times follow the official music video, which starts about 14 seconds before the audio version does.

0:35 · A first verse that opens with voice and guitar

The first lyric, '영원은 어제가 되고' ("forever turns into yesterday"), arrives at 0:35. For the 20 seconds after that, the drums and bass are barely audible and only the voice and the guitar-side sound carry on, until the drums join at 0:55 and the bass at 1:05, one after the other. The second verse opens with '불안은 현실이 되고' ("anxiety becomes reality"). The next line follows the same mold: the first verse's '시간은 나 없이 흘러가' ("time flows on without me") turns into '세상은 나 없이 돌아가' ("the world turns without me"), the same frame with only the words swapped in.

3:12 · The 19 seconds before 'How can I be fine'

The last chorus starts at 3:11 with 'It's gonna be fine'. From 3:12 to 3:31 the drums and bass drop out, and only the voice and the guitar-side sound remain. In the first chorus, '이제 다시 돌아갈 수도 없잖아' ("there's no going back now, is there") was followed by one more 'It's gonna be fine'. In the last one, that spot becomes '이젠 다시 돌이킬 수도 없잖아' ("there's no undoing it now, is there") and then 'How can I be fine'. At exactly that 3:31, the drums and bass return all at once, and the line that used to be '널 볼 수 있다면' ("if I could see you") becomes '날 안아준다면' ("if you'd hold me"). Meanwhile the picture stays on a close-up of a face singing in a red-lit room, then at 3:33 moves to someone playing drums outside in the dusk. The photo at the top is from 2:36: three people seen from behind, looking out over a ridge.

On the second song, 'Back when we were young', the lyrics slot lists Dragon Pony and Yoo Hee Yeol together (Apple Music). The path from the debut song to just before this single is laid out in the November 3 beginner's guide. Apple Music