TXT’s album Eternity sounds like the first time you were excluded from plans made by your friends as a kid. It’s when you were picked last in school or crying on your birthday, the day you’re supposed to be happiest. It’s watching the people you made pinky promises with outgrow you.

Tomorrow by Together, better known as TXT, released The Dream Chapter: Eternity in 2020. It was the group’s third release and five years later, I still haven’t come across an album that encapsulates the aching loneliness of growing up quite like Eternity does.

Six songs make up the album and not a single one of them is a skip. Can’t You See Me?, the title track, is a dark Grunge-Pop take on the confusion and hurt that comes with losing a friend or growing apart.

While the entire album has a brooding concept, it explores a range of genres. The opening track, Drama, is a Funk-Pop song about realising you’re not as important as you think. Jazz is explored in a cover of Fairy of Shampoo with the group’s personal twist.

While each track stands strong on its own, the track that steals the spotlight is the album closer, Eternally. It starts with a dreamy acoustic where the boys plead for an answer to why they no longer experience happiness in the way they used to. The beat changes in a jarring and aggressive way not long after, aligning with the lyrics as the boys realise they’re living a never-ending nightmare.

Something which I think Eternity does well is the way it layers vocals and distorts them. Voice distortion has a purpose here. It’s not covering up weak vocals or lack of talent. It’s adding to the eeriness of the album.

It echoes the emotions of being in a crowded room and still feeling alone. The disorientation and fear of no longer knowing who you are is felt in the abrupt beat changes. The upbeat pop masking the dismal lyrics mimics how we put up a front of being okay when we have to.

All of this comes together to make Eternity– not just an average K-Pop album but an experience.

Eternity reminds you that you weren’t the only kid eating alone at the lunch table during break without disregarding how painful the memory might still be as an adult.