Finding an emotionally gripping ballad is not a hard task but finding ones that feature stunning harmonies is relatively more difficult. SM’s veteran boy group TVXQ produced countless hits where all the members sang as one. Turn back the clock to TVXQ’s famed 2008 ballad, “Love in the Ice” on Throwback Thursday.
TVXQ is one of the biggest names in K-pop and undoubtedly a legendary boy-group in their own right. Eight years ago, the then-five member group was at the peak of their powers. “Love in the Ice” was released in both Japan and Korea and was perhaps the killer of all ballads the group had produced up until that point. Each live performance, whether it be as five, two or solo, never fails to pull the heartstrings.
Songwise, it has quite an old-school feel to it. The sentimental sounding instrumental is highlighted by intense piano and string tunes. This blends in well with the soft and powerful dynamics that the members adopt. In the vocal department, Junsu and Jaejoong deliver the resonant high notes while Yoochun, Yunho and Changmin sing their hearts out. Their joint effort in forming harmonies is simply beautiful and it is a shame to see them hardly sing harmonies as JYJ and TVXQ (HoMin). “Love in the Ice” has always been one of the most famous K-pop ballads in the 2000’s and is likely to continue on its popularity for decades to come.
BONUS: Check out more live performances of “Love in the Ice”.
Stay tuned for the next installment of Throwback Thursday!