Interlude: Shadow - Cheryl Cherry

Shadow

by

Cheryl Cherry

I am personally wondering if anyone else was gasping at the TV whilst watching the video on YouTube shrieking – It’s English, It’s English!  Yes, this is precisely what I did – and I was hooked from the first phrase.

I have to say I loved everything about this song from the outset, his English, the rapping and wow the singing – this felt to me like Suga at his best (to date).

With the first view it felt like a sensory overload – so much going on.  I felt like there were many hints to things of the past.  Having watched the video a few more times I feel like I have a slightly better feel for it.

Shadow – at first I thought shadow was the shadow cast outside by light – as he sings “Shadow at my feet, look down, it’s gotten even bigger.  I run but the shadow follows me” but, having heard the song a few more times – Suga seems to be singing about the internal Shadow – the darker side of one’s personality – in Suga’s case his shadow seems to cast doubt – “My shadow grows in that blasting stark light.  Please don’t let me shine, don’t let me down, don’t let me fly”.

I also feel that he is actually signing to his shadow with the words “I’m you, you’re me, you got it? You’re me, I’m you – now you got it.  We’re one body, sometimes we’ll clash – you can never break me off.  This you must know” and that he and his shadow will be together whether he succeeds or fails and that there is no escape.

As mentioned earlier, there are a few points in the video that relate to things that we have seen before and as we know everything in the video will have been planned and executed with a considerable amount of thought.  For example:

·         Suga lying on the glass floor – Jimin had a similar scene in Blood Sweat and Tears

·         Suga is standing next to a door with Exit above it and he sings in his lyrics he could just leave – but like the in the video he runs in the opposite direction

·         The visual of the shadows of men trying to reach Suga whilst he is rapping and they are moving in slow motion – is just so haunting

·         The hands holding up their mobiles with the red background remind me of the concept photos for Love Yourself: Answer

·         The part of the video where Suga is on top of the building singing and then a figure is watching from below and both are circled – I believe the figure watching is Suga watching himself – perhaps this is his shadow watching him succeed?

·         The red visuals of what appears to be thick red blood on the walls and around the doors in the corridor and the references to O!RUL8,2? I wish I knew more…?

Intriguing as always – thank you Suga, thank you BTS!

Picture Credit: bangtan.official facebook