[Review] Letter To Myself – TAEYEON (SNSD)

The last time I reviewed a song from TAEYEON was for Heaven in July. But it has felt even longer ago as I initially put down her To. X comeback in my initial draft of this review. Yesterday, TAEYEON made her solo comeback with her 8th mini-album and new lead single, both titled Letter To Myself.

Letter To Myself is a pop-rock track. While the verses were quite good, I didn’t get into the Letter To Myself until the moment the first chorus steps itself up (i.e., the ‘My head, my head‘ part of the central piece). This gives the song quite an explosive feel that makes Letter To Myself a memorable track in my mind. It also feels quite refreshing, despite delving into a sound profile done numerous times before and TAEYEON’s well-established vocals. From then on, Letter To Myself embraces the rock sound and TAEYEON’s stunning-as-usual vocals. Her ad-libs towards the end of Letter To Myself were fantastic, and you can hear the passion behind her vocals throughout the song. I would pay to listen to this song live one day just to hear TAEYEON belt out those ad-libs at the end. I liked how there is no official bridge or final chorus to this song, yet the song feels complete. Letter To Myself maintains that rock sound from the second chorus to the end, thus making the song feel whole. It also was a way to tap into the ongoing trend of forgoing those parts of the song structure. I am sure that will make the 3-minute song attractive (if that is what listeners really want). Overall, Letter To Myself is a great song.

I am unsure if my interpretation of the music video is right, but I understood this from it. Letter To Myself is about a letter she has written to comfort her past self. The video shows a version of TAEYEON in the past before the letter and in the present after the letter. Before the letter, it looks like TAEYEON was more timid and quiet, as shown via her ‘speech’ on the bus, which no one is listening to. After the letter, she finds her voice and takes over the bus by embracing that rock sound I mentioned earlier to get people’s attention. Later on in the video, we see a similar concept. The bus itself breaks down, and TAEYEON hops off the bus to fix it, whilst everyone else is unappreciative and mocks her. The lyrics at this point in time have the line ‘I’m done being used’, which prompts (though this is done visually by the human-sized teddy bear) everyone to hop off the bus and push it while TAEYEON finds herself steering the bus with that teddy bear. If my interpretation is correct, I think it is quite a simple yet cool video.

Song – 9/10
Music Video – 8/10
Overall Rating – 8.6/10