REVIEW: wave to earth’s ‘bad pieces’ Finds Beauty in Everything That Refuses to Stay Perfect
REVIEW
REVIEW
☆ BY ALICIA ZAMORA ☆
SOMETIMES THE IMPERFECT PARTS ARE THE ONES WE KEEP—Two years after play with earth! 0.03, wave to earth returns with bad pieces, an 11-track album that feels less concerned with perfection than with everything around it: Love, growing older, memories that refuse to disappear and the things that inevitably change. Across the album, those moments come together in a way that feels honest to where wave to earth are now.
The Seoul-based trio has always made music that feels intimate, but bad pieces take that quality somewhere more personal. The album moves between warmth and melancholy without making either feel too heavy. Its songs are allowed to linger, repeat themselves and leave certain feelings unresolved. Rather than tying everything together neatly, wave to earth lets the imperfect pieces remain exactly that.
The album begins with “talking bout u,” a dreamy introduction about realizing that one person has quietly become impossible to escape. Memories start attaching themselves to everything around them, from a smile that once lit up a city to the feeling of hearing someone everywhere. There’s a nostalgic feeling to the song, but it doesn’t feel stuck in the past. It’s more about what happens when someone becomes part of your memories, and you still carry them with you.
“everything comes and goes” strips that feeling down even further. The repeated phrase becomes almost meditative, turning impermanence into the song itself. There is no dramatic resolution. Sleep will not come, things can’t be held onto, and the spaces between the vocals give the song room to sit in that uncertainty. It establishes one of bad pieces’ most important ideas: Everything moves, whether anyone is ready for it or not.
Some songs are introduced to the world. Others feel like they’ve been waiting for it. Before its official release, wave to earth’s “babo” already existed through fleeting performances, from Seoul Jazz Festival to an unexpected Singapore busking set that brought together 1,500 fans within hours. Fans passed the song around through shaky videos and shared memories, creating a connection with it before it was even officially released.
That history gives “babo” a different feeling. It was discovered rather than introduced, which makes hearing it on bad pieces feel even more special. What stands out most is that “babo” already meant something to fans before anyone could officially press play.
“sing it all again” slows everything down. Its focus on purity, serenity and learning to grow gives the album a softer center, especially in its imagery of a garden finding its way to bloom. Nothing about growth feels rushed. The song moves toward finding a way back home, but home seems less like a destination and more like a state of mind.
“skylark” carries some of the album’s strongest sense of longing. Memories become something physical here, slipping through the hands as quickly as they appear. The song looks back at moments when everything felt alive while recognizing they cannot be held forever. The wish for the “skylark” to fly toward its own sky gives the track an unexpected tenderness. There is sadness in watching something leave, but also love in letting it go.
As the title track, “courage” carries much of bad pieces’ emotional weight without ever becoming overly dramatic. Its lyrics deal directly with change: People growing apart, misunderstandings, arguments and the realization that neither person is necessarily who they used to be. There is frustration throughout, but it never completely overtakes the affection underneath it.
The song’s most affecting quality is its honesty. There is no attempt to make love look perfect. There is stubbornness, fear, and the admission of being a coward, followed by something much simpler: Love is still there. “courage” feels less like a declaration of certainty and more like an admission that sometimes loving someone means having the courage to acknowledge how complicated things have become.
“cherry flavoured love inside your heart” brings a softer energy to the album. The song looks at healing without making it seem easy. There’s something hopeful about the sunlight coming back after the shadows, especially as the lyrics remind you that not everything that has hurt you needs to be carried forever. Sweetness can disappear before it is ever fully held, but that does not make the moment meaningless. Sometimes simply being together is enough.
“hyang,” meaning “scent,” turns memory into something you can almost hold onto. A scent, a voice, or even a small moment can suddenly bring someone back. The song keeps that feeling simple, which makes it one of the album’s more intimate moments. “hyang” understands that memory does not always arrive as a complete picture. Sometimes it is only a feeling, and somehow that is enough.
“you” is one of the album’s rawest moments. The song sits inside the tension of a relationship that is hurting both people while still holding onto the desire to be close. There is regret, exhaustion and the awareness that the same pain keeps repeating, but none of that completely erases the need for the other person.
Its repeated plea to be held again gives the song an honesty that’s hard to ignore. Love doesn’t just disappear because something has become difficult. Instead of trying to make sense of that contradiction, “you” simply lets it sit there.
“heaven and hell” pulls the album toward something bigger than romantic love. The song questions judgment and certainty, especially when life feels at its lowest. Its answer is not complicated—There is something to be said for simply staying alive, holding onto the purity of a child and refusing to believe every difficult moment needs a perfect explanation. After so many songs about relationships, memories and things slipping away, the track widens the album’s perspective. Not everything needs to be divided into extremes. Sometimes there is another way through.
“closing” ends bad pieces on a comforting note: maybe not everything needs to be understood. Some things are just hard, and that’s okay. Loss is still there, love is still there and life keeps moving anyway. Seasons change and leave things behind. The song doesn’t try to make that feel any less difficult, but it also doesn’t make it something to fear. The sun sets, things change and some chapters come to an end. And maybe that’s okay.
That final idea gives bad pieces its emotional resolution without forcing one. After moving through memories, love, conflict, and growing pains, wave to earth arrives somewhere surprisingly simple: Acceptance.
