Review: Epik High’s Tablo (feat. BIGBANG’s Taeyang)–“Tomorrow”

Tablo and Taeyang are stuck in the desert with only expensive cars and helicopters to help them escape.


Did you like the song?
Tablo is on a roll here, releasing two music videos within a week of each other. While I enjoyed the former one (“Bad”) more, I’m glad that he seems to be coming back to prominence and collaborating with much-loved artists like BIGBANG’s Taeyang.

I did like Tablo’s rap in this song better than the rap in “Bad,” but the main riff in “Tomorrow” just wasn’t interesting enough for me. (“Baby, there’s no no no no no tomorrow.”) It gets stuck in my head, sure, but it was too repetitive and frankly a little dull. And I really didn’t like the slow bridge, which seemed to consist entirely of the word “no” and light piano notes.

Tablo and Taeyang
What was your favorite part of the song?
I love how Tablo’s raps end on the same word or rhyme in quick succession, like in this passage. It gives the rhythym a nice punch during those sections. Most of my favorite rappers do this, but Tablo does it particularly memorably.

Does the English make you want to rip your eardrums out?
Absolutely not. The English is perfect. Tablo grew up partially in Canada, but I am very impressed by Taeyang’s English here. I guess I shouldn’t be that surprised, as BIGBANG members are usually very good with English.

Did you like the video?
Man, Taeyang just can’t get out of the desert. He was stuck there in BIGBANG’s “Love Song,” too. At least this time he was eventually rescued.

Yay! A rescue operation! (Why are we out here again?)
I have an awful feeling I’m about to get bricked by both Epik High and BIGBANG fans, but I was totally bored by this video. I was expecting the sports cars to be making a cool pattern in the sand that we’d get to see at the end, but instead they were just driving randomly and cutting so close to both Tablo and Taeyang that I was actually a little (irrationally) frightened at times watching this that they would be run over.

Too close for comfort.
Was there a storyline? If so, did it make sense?
You can basically spin any interpretation that you want onto this. Here are two:

Interpretation 1: It’s “deep” and “symbolic.” The desert represents how horribly empty it feels once you’ve broken up with someone. The cars represent two people who used to be in love but are now just going in circles around each other, never meeting face-to-face to talk.

Interpretation 2: There is no meaning. Tablo was talking to some people at YG and was like, “You know what’s cool? Cars are cool. Also helicopters. Everybody loves helicopters. Let’s go film somewhere can we just go nuts with some goddamn cars and helicopters.”

Literally the entire music video is like this.
Was the dance cool and distinctive?
There’s no standard dance. Instead, Taeyang—who is one of the best dancers I’ve seen in Kpop—spends the entire time kind of trying to dance in the sand but just looking awkward. Yeah, imagine that. Taeyang is a high-energy, spinny kind of guy, and his moves would look awesome on a shiny indoor music stage, but they seemed odd and out of place in the middle of the desert, almost like he felt silly just standing there or walking and so decided to cobble together random dance moves.

Do the members look good?
I’ve seen a billion pictures of Tablo and Taeyang, so I already know how attractive they are. But if I didn’t know that, this MV wouldn’t have enlightened me at all. The camera either wheels above and around them from far away or goes to extreme, blurry closeups or films the dirt the sports cars are kicking up. And Taeyang doesn’t face the camera much, and Tablo’s hair is in his eyes. Sigh. Look, I don’t want to watch dirt. All I want to do is get a good look at these guys. Please let me, cameraman-sshi.

Which member stood out the most?
Despite the fact that this is Tablo’s song, Taeyang stood out most to me here. Even though I didn’t feel like his vitality and dancing fit the video, they certainly made me pay attention to him.

Taeyang
Do you like it enough to buy the song?
No. Sorry, Tablo fans.

Any ending thoughts?
I’m starting to feel saddened by how…sad Tablo’s music seems to be. I’d love some recommendations for happier, or at least more upbeat, songs from him or Epik High. Still, it’s nice that he and Taeyang seem to be friends. (I can’t wait for BIGBANG to return, by the way.)

Boyfriend’s one-liner:
“I’m starting to have a new appreciation for music videos where people just walk in front of cars and get hit.”

Thanks for reading! Please share your comments below!

P.S. Guys, I just figured out that TV Tropes has pages on Kpop groups. Yeah. Well, you know where I’ll be.