[#11] Se7en - "Make Good Love"

From: "2nd Mini Album"
Format: EP
Released: March
Territory: South Korea
Previous Best of Appearances: #31 - "Better Together" (2010)

While SM baby-making songs are generally very heavy and caramel-like, YG ones are much lighter, and more like butter. That's not to say that one is inferior, but their differing takes on a similar style says a lot about their musical directions.

"Make Good Love", for me, is one of this year's most effortlessly beautiful songs. I mean without batting an eyelash I found that melody drop-dead gorgeous. It has these beautiful glides, these gorgeous long lines, and that hook as as easy to hum as it is stunning.

Se7en's delivery takes all that gorgeous one step further -- his voice is rather light compared to people like SHINee's Jonghyun or DBSK's Changmin, but that just means that he can deliver the melody with more grace. You notice how he hits the longer notes and they're more like glides than they are screams or belts -- his vocals are very calm, but at the same time they're firm.

The arrangement, although strong enough to stand on its own, goes and supports the melody even more than it needs to be -- there are all these little explosions and snaps whenever the melody switches parts or between lines, and they make the song that much better. But even the arrangement is very calm, very collected -- no big fireworks, no overwhelming synth lines.

It's that calmness to everything that allows the groove and the effortlessness of the entire production to really show through, even if you're not concentrating. It lets Se7en's vocals work their magic, and it lets us really feel all these tiny explosions, explosions that wouldn't even be audible otherwise. It's that effortlessness that makes this such a beautiful song.