“Time simply can’t be measured with a clock and a calendar…”
— Momo by Michael Ende
When Suho returned from the military in February, his second album was announced only a few weeks later. The brief teaser was so entrancing: footage of a forest in black and white, a wardrobe and a suit. Was it alluding to Narnia? Was I finally getting my EXO Old Hollywood concept? Neither of those. The inspiration came from Momo, or The Men in Grey, by Michael Ende.
I wasn’t familiar with the book, but since Suho recommended it, I tracked it down. It’s immensely enjoyable, overflowing with imagination and so much love. One of those stories that just has a purity to it. I am surprised it was never made into a Ghibli film. EXO members always leave me with greater appreciation for them and their pursuits, and this is reinforced in Suho interviews. He even said that Momo is a fairytale for adults too. When you’re old enough, you start reading them again.
Momo takes place in a modern city that still houses remnants of amphitheaters and coliseums. It’s here that the titular character lives. Her origins are a mystery; she has no parents or family at all; she doesn’t even know how old she is. Her home is nestled inside one of the city’s ruins. Momo wears an oversized jacket with no shoes. The adults are anxious about her, even offer her their own homes despite their lack of wealth, but she declines. Their efforts to persuade her continue to fail, until they finally decide she can keep living in the ruin, as long as they can spruce it up for her. The townspeople become her family.
Momo has a rare gift: the ability to listen. Whenever people have arguments or problems, they simply go to Momo.
“And when someone thought that his life was a meaningless failure, and that he was just one among millions of people who could all be replaced as quickly and easily as a broken pot, then he would go and explain everything to Momo. Even as he spoke, it would become clear to him, in some mysterious way, that he was fundamentally mistaken, that among all the people in the world there was only one of him, and that he was therefore important in his own particular way.”
It’s hard to listen in such a noisy, busy world. And that is precisely why time thieves, men in grey suits, disrupt Momo’s world. They slowly trick the townspeople into their time stealing scheme, making them all super conscious of wasting time and instead focusing only on work. They cannot play or even visit Momo anymore.
This theme of stolen time inspired Suho’s second solo EP. In an interview with Esquire, he explained:
“From a certain perspective, the year and nine months that I couldn’t meet with fans feels like lost time to me. I used the gentlemen in grey suits who steal time as a metaphor for my album name. During that time, I watched my members promote and thought, ‘The world is that beautiful and time moves so fast, but I’m the only one stuck in this moment. The time I’m living in now is black and white, but that world is colorful.'”
But Grey Suit is vibrant both in its visuals and sound. Suho finally left that drab black and white world for the colorful one. Hurdle is the most fun track with retro aesthetics. The others are all a bit moody without being downers. It’s just a very mature sound.
And Grey Suit is my favorite song of the year so far. I drew a lot of comfort from it and it soothed me. It’s not one I expected to love so much, simply because I prefer pop and r&b. But this song is just so beautiful. And so is his voice.
The album overall reflects Suho’s artistic growth. EXO’s solos are all so successful because they’re distinct from the group’s music. At the same time though, each member’s identity is closely tied to the group. So it never feels like Suho, or Lay or Chen and Baekhyun are distancing themselves from their EXO background, but rather building it up. And no one is more representative of the EXO Brand than its leader Suho.
“At first I wanted to do everything I could to protect my members when we debuted, so it was a tough time for me. It took a pretty long time for me to realize that I could never really control that, especially since there are so many different characters and personalities — not even their parents could probably manage that. So as much as possible I tried to bring people together — be a glue for when we went through tough times.”
He’s called the best leader in k-pop for a reason! And I think he’s earned the distinction as one of the best soloists in the industry.
