Floating high above the clouds, TOMORROW X TOGETHER (shortened to TXT) brings us over the moon, away from the harsh realities of life on The Star Chapter: SANCTUARY. With multiple tracks alluding to the concept of heaven, it’s no surprise that this EP feels otherwordly, creating a record full of both light and love.
Released in early November, the group’s seventh mini album SANCTUARY glistens and glimmers. Big Hit Entertainment, TXT’s record label, describes the EP as “a tapestry of emotions, hearts and minds racing as two people meet again under a starry sky,” telling the story of beautiful moments spent together. The tracks on SANCTUARY certainly live up to this description, with songs like “Heaven” and title track “Over The Moon” sounding like they were written in glitter gel pen. But rather than drawing out the romance, SANCTUARY clocks in at only 14 minutes and 52 seconds over the course of six songs. Though the EP follows a love story, it is a flame that burns quite brightly, but also burns out far too quickly.
In line with TXT’s lore and the group’s intensive world-building—a notable trend among K-pop artists—SANCTUARY explores the feeling of being in love. Though TXT generally releases their projects in minisodes and chapters, with The Star Chapter marking a new storyline, SANCTUARY can be consumed as a standalone since it has its own internal structure. Unlike other EPs that only focus on specific singles, the order really matters here, with attention given to the placement of each and every track.
Opening track “Heaven” depicts “that first moment together” as shimmery and shiny, relying on the repeated motif of heaven to describe what being with their lover feels like. Complete with classic love song buzzwords like like “baby,” “magic,” and “crazy,” and the bubbly build-up in the pre-chorus of “You make it, you make it, you make it feel like,” it’s not hard to envision the euphoria they’re feeling.
SANCTUARY marks a shift for TXT from the start, moving onto bigger and brighter things with love as their remedy. In their older sad songs like “0X1=LOVESONG (I Know I Love You)” (2021), they had claimed there’s “no place for me in heaven,” providing a stark contrast to their new opening. “Heaven”’s rollout also stands out from a marketing perspective, considering it was the first song off of SANTUARY to be teased and came with pre-made choreo. Opening tracks, despite their first-place position, don’t typically receive such special treatment in k-pop comebacks, and instead are set aside with the rest of the b-sides, or secondary songs that aren’t the main single, to be advertised and performed occasionally. But with a smooth drum beat, entrancing whistles, and some synth inspirations to keep the song’s energy flowing, “Heaven” sets the bar high for the rest of SANCTUARY, making clear why the song is so deserving of its spotlight.
The EP continues its usage of celestial elements in lead single (or title track, as they’re called in the Korean music industry) “Over The Moon,” which marks the next stage of a love story: anticipation for a shared future. Though the single begins with the makings of a smooth jazz track—which is not completely out of the realm of possibility for a group as versatile as TXT—“Over The Moon” quickly picks up in liveliness, calling back to the incessant need to be with a lover. First asking “Let me hold you, let me hold you closer” then describing feeling like soaring “when you’re in my arms,” the members really hone in on the romance. Choi Soobin’s impressive falsetto also serves as a reminder of the group’s overall vocal capabilities, capabilities which have taken a back seat to diverse new production choices in other recent releases. The range found in SANCTUARY, however, in both vocal capacity and production style, proves that the two can be highlighted simultaneously without sacrificing one for the other.
An ever deepening love is foretold in “Danger” where TXT seems to be falling harder, almost to the point of crashing. Despite the danger their relationship presents, they can’t see reason, because their lover is their “ride or die.” Autotuned ad libs in the background let out an occasional “oh!” as if getting burned, which is exactly how they describe this love. Furthermore, the futuristic, techno sounds give the illusion of alarms blaring—but, seemingly, in a good way somehow. In the next stage, “Resist (Not Gonna Run Away)” outlines the determination to hold what’s most dear close. As the music intensifies with a steady drumline, rapid guitar strums, and fervent clapping, the message pivots to a more possessive tone: “‘Cause I don’t wanna live without ya (I can resist) / I’ll endure anything for you (I can resist).”
Though both “Danger” and “Resist,” like “Heaven” and “Over The Moon,” are undeniably catchy, there is still something deeply underwhelming about SANCTUARY in its entirety due to the distinct lack of bridges leaving the record infectious but unfulfilled.
Private expressions of love are explored in “Forty One Winks,” which masterfully takes elements from early 2000s R&B without appropriating the original genre. Silky and smooth, the song doesn’t feel out of place among the other pop-centric tracks, evoking the same kind of soulful longing that characterizes the EP as a whole. Despite this otherwise faithful rendition, “Forty One Winks” does miss out on a bridge, relying on the chorus and post-chorus to fade out almost unsatisfyingly, without proper closure. For a group that hinges so heavily on narrative structure, leaving out a bridge is like cutting out the climax. Without this most essential story element, there is no epic buildup—not to mention it also leaves the song at under three minutes, which is frankly too short.
SANCTUARY closes out with “Higher Than Heaven,” a song about determining when someone is your one and only. At long last, one of the songs features a bridge, though the measly four lines do little to bulk up the length of the track: at two minutes and 41 seconds, it is the longest on the project. Though the mini album started with “Heaven,” an already utopic track, the group finds a new high in this tale’s happy ending, rising even further above this aforementioned paradise with their beloved. Teetering towards pop-punk instead of its bubblegum counterpart, subtle rock features in the form of electric and bass guitars provide a refreshing take on the otherwise slightly overdone pop love song, while also emulating the boy bands of the early 2010s. The ascending “high, high, high”s—especially used for promotional content—also give insight into each member’s character, allowing their individual personalities to shine through with a bit of playfulness.
Although the mini album is in some ways a treacherous journey through the stars, SANCTUARY is no fall from grace. Ethereal and angelic in all the right ways, TXT has cemented themselves as a group capable of spanning genres and styles. While the EP’s brevity endows it with a high replay factor, this choice comes with a tradeoff: the uncanny feeling that something is missing. And it is a tragedy that in so many of these songs, the missing piece is simply a bridge, a dying relic in this time and age in the music industry. While the quality of TXT’s work has not necessarily diminished beyond repair, their evident prioritization of quantity at the moment has resulted in a half-baked final product. SANCTUARY is also indicative of a wider, unhealthy trend. With multiple releases in 2024 alone, and a series of nonstop tour and event dates, TXT’s output is greatly outpacing what is feasible for a group to do. It’s no wonder why their leader had to go on a temporary hiatus citing health concerns. Though TXT burns bright at the moment, they are also at risk of burning out.
