after Toeti Heraty

• in dark clouds, taeyong invites the listener (and in extension, himself) through “this letter” he has written to "look at the world reflecting on the water's surface (수면 위로 비추는 이 세상을 봐)": a reminder that it's okay to take a breath and not only tirelessly move through life. to look at the sky once in a while, where the whales swim, where the stars give light.
• taeyong has used this whale imagery before: "Now the size of my heart is a real whale / The shark in my mind is no longer there" in long flight. his compassion and understanding has surrounded him more so than the negative feelings he has had – this kind of thinking has allowed him to give light to others! and he isn't wrong at all.
• the alternative title for dark clouds was also “whale” 
• he explicitly talked about this mindset change in his vlive too! 
• to look up is to have the ability to float and see yourself in a bird's eye view. to know where you stand, and what you're going through in the grand scheme of things. most of the time, the hardships are temporary. to look up gives you perspective. "너도 알잖아?" he asked us – you knew this, didn't you? i knew. i just needed a reminder.
• but to be able to do this does require your own effort – it's not merely the simple act of having perspective, you have to internalize it, believe it. "dark mold grows and i can't nip it in the bud [...] / now i face it, i scrape it down, kick & shout / but this is even more painful (싹을 잘라낼 수 없는 검은 곰팡이가 피어 [...] / 나 이제는 마주봐 흠 그래 긁어내려 발악해도 / 이건 더 참 괴로움)"... the process of healing is painful. but better to cut it out when you know if you let it grow, it will only fester. you have to know yourself that surrounding yourself only with your negative emotions will only bring you under the surface, so much so like you've swallowed water – you're drowning.

• what i love about this song is that it isn't the prequel to dark clouds, it is the continuation. i think taeyong made the deliberate decision to release swimming pool after dark clouds – "i will show you the other side" [of the water's surface], “looking at a different world from the one above the water (수면 위 세상과 다른 세상을 봐)” – in order to show that healing, of recovering, is not a clean, linear narrative. you have days where, even after being able to look at the world with bright eyes, all you want is to shut out the world and curl up, lock yourself "inside this frame i made (내가 만든 이 틀에서)".
• there is comfort in a bad habit, of knowing and executing your self-sabotage. "Sometimes negative thinking can act as a safeguard that keeps us from the hard work that optimism requires," dominique mkhonza wrote. taeyong in swimming pool knows this all too well – he's tired of running, of making the effort. it's so hard.
• "sitting alone in a swimming pool that has no water": this is what he said this song felt like. in verse 3, he has the imperative to drain the water out in this pool he made: it won’t change anything, because it's filled with nothing but “욕심”. 욕심 is a really nuanced word: naver dictionary describes it as "excessive desire", and in context it can either mean greed/ambition/aspiration. an aggressive desire for something. having a lot of 욕심 isn't bad – that means you have something to seek and work for in life– but there are times when you feel like you're only "satisfy[ing your] cravings ([너]의 갈망을 채우기)", just a selfish goal.
• this song offers no resolution, either. because when you're in the thick of this, nothing seems to be able to pull you out the deep end – not from others, and certainly not from yourself. it is an honest, bare reflection of what this time of self-isolation feels like.

• ..is not an explicitly connected to dark clouds & swimming pool, but in every other sense it very much is so
• his maturity and self-awareness really shines in this. this is a comfort song: not to us the listeners, but to himself too. he knows exactly how to pull himself out the waters now, which was a resolution that was not offered in swimming pool: it is not to isolate your heart, which is the misguided advice he got from other people:

Some people call me a fool Some people say I shouldn't try to understand others Yet the resentment would confine me And keep me from getting out of it, no

누군가는 나를 바보라고해 누군가를 이해하지 말라고해 원망은 날 옥죄어 이 곳 헤어나오지 못하게 하는건데도 no

• without sharing your heart with others, all you are left with is a void of your own making. so, taeyong implores: “i hope you show it to me, it won't be embarrassing / [... to] dive in the blue with you, [to] pour it all to me (내게 보여주기 안 창피할테니 / [..] 모든걸 전부 쏟아내)” – he’ll do the same, too.

• i thought dark clouds & swimming pool was a strict duology, but as i was searching for where taeyong has referenced "whales" before, the entirety of long flight's lyrics just bloomed before me and made me realize it was saying hi, i'm his first released work in this series! :)
• long flight is definitely connected with dark clouds, or at least conceptualized with it in mind or vice versa, due to taeyong singing the demo during his long flight release vlive! :3
• when i first listened to it, i thought the "This is enough(충분해) but I’m still starving baby" line for the chorus was funny and sensual, especially towards the romantic interest he's talking to in this song. but then, it is followed with:

Wanna go up much higher hey So I can touch the top of the sky So I can take in the entire world [...]

Wanna go up much higher hey 하늘 위까지 닿을 수 있게 [...] 세계를 담을 수 있게, mmm

• so, having the realization of how much the phrase and concept of 욕심 means to him, i now have the understanding that long flight's lyrics, in its entirety, might also underwent the same alteration process that baby don't like it (나쁜 짓)'s lyrics went through - there were a lot of revisions in its lyrics to make it err, for the lack of better word, "palatable" to the GP. this made the themes of long flight less coherent due to the romance aspect being shifted into it. but that's what words can do: have multi-interpretation, and this still worked in context. 
• but i want to honor what the original intention of these lines might be. "it's enough, but i'm still starving". & there's nothing wrong that. to take, to give, to the world so much - if we can find a balance in this process, that's all we can ask of existing.

• since he still hasn’t released the official lyrics, this is an analysis based on transcriptions. still, he’s since said that he really appreciates the interpretations, & i will honor that today! hehe
• i love how he provides the opposite element, fire, in dark clouds. it cuts through the image he’s painting: the way its intensity makes his feelings flare and bloom in his heart, in comparison to how calming and soothing everything else is. that it reflects in between his blurry eyes – burns red & bright, representing that his negative emotions aren't the only thing defining him. the intensity of his ambition is also what drives him forward – something that keeps him focused, grounded. i think taeyong is a very grounded person: he acknowledges his ups & downs, and that they're both part of him. he isn't always one-or-the-other. his emotions don't define him. he's come to this conclusion after a long, arduous journey – and i'm so happy that here is where he has arrived to.
• taeyong is a deliberate, conscious, serious artist. he does a lot of self-referencing across his body of work; he knows what themes and imagery pops up and constantly uses them in order to drive home the narrative he wants to tell. the air (sky)/water (pool) comparison was 100% deliberate too, & it's kinda obvious so i don't think it needs to be expanded here LOL

after fka twigs’ meta angel