When coupled with the phantasmagorical visuals of the music video – where the simplicity of the song becomes entangled with Kai’s smooth, slick moves and dreamy sets – you get the feeling that you’re Eve trying to resist the call of the apple on the tree. The possibility of getting your heart broken always looms on the horizon, but his words in your ear placate you enough to accept the outcome. Reveling in being the “bad guy”, Kai constantly treads the line between love and lust.
If last year’s ‘Mmmh’ was an aggressive, forward, titillating call to the dark side, ‘Peaches’ wraps those cruel intentions in sweet whispers and almost deceptive appreciation. It’s the little touches he adds, however – the choppy progression on ‘Vanilla’, the soaring chorus on ‘Come In’, the hedonistic picture he paints on ‘Domino’ – that make it a work of genius. Just like ‘Kai (开)’, ‘Peaches’ comes bolstered by a steady R&B background. On ‘Peaches’, he expands the world he’s created and adds maturity, a streak of danger and just a hint of vulnerability. He reduced our world to a singular point – him – on the title track ‘Mmmh’, consumed our memories on ‘Amnesia’ ( “Can’t remember anything before you,” he said), and embodied desire itself on ‘Nothing On Me’ ( “I want nothing on me but you,” he sang). Aptly titled ‘Kai (开)’, the mini-album came riddled with one addictive track after another, all painting a picture of Kai’s multifaceted enigma, at the center of which was a demand to pay attention only to him. Of course, we got a glimpse of it on his solo debut last year. His is a seductive art, a mastery of the right words, said at the right time in the right tone, all meant to leave one gasping for breath and under his spell. To engage with him, even on a superficial level, is to open your senses to his fluvial language, which begins with music and expands outwards, crafting a heady medley of dance, expressions – something he excels at – and physical descriptions. Since his debut with the boyband in 2011, one thing about Kai has always been clear: his work goes beyond the labels of just singing or dancing – he is a performer. Silhouetted against an ethereal background of sultry pink and yellow, flowing with the melody and rhythm of ‘Peaches’ – the title track from his sophomore mini-album ‘Peaches’ – EXO’s Kai paints quite the same picture. – ‘공감 (Empathy)’ review: excellent acoustic pop confessionals with a golden voice In ‘Cratylus’, the Greek philosopher Plato talks about the reasoning behind the name of Himeros, the Greek God of desire: “The name himeros (longing) was given to the stream ( rhous) which most draws the soul for because it flows with a rush ( hiemenos) and with a desire for things and thus draws the soul on through the impulse of its flowing, all this power gives it the name of himeros.”
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