With a sci-fi music video, a deep dive into the ‘Nexus’ metaverse, and a raw B-side, the K-pop legend proves his passion is timeless.
U-Know. Photo: courtesy of the artist; SM Entertainment.
U-Know (Yunho) of TVXQ has dropped a new single album called Time’s Tickin’, his new solo release under SM Entertainment since the full-length I-Know last year, and instead of stretching it out, he trimmed it down to just two songs featuring the title track “Time’s Tickin’” and the B-side “An Ordinary Story.”
The title track is a dance number built on bright synth jabs and a ticking sound in the percussion, driving the song forward. It’s theatrical in the way U-Know always is — big, physical, designed for a stage first and a playlist second. His vocals swing between tight rhythmic singing, quick rap sections, and then a swelling chorus: “Ooh, give it my all I do / My coordinates become clearer / ’Cause time’s tickin’ / Oh, time’s tickin’ away… Let’s get it right, get it right / You know I, do or die.”
The song is essentially a manifesto about ambition that’s as strong as ever. It says time keeps moving, and so does U-know, expressing his determination and aspirations that remain unchanged through the years. According to him, the track is “a new game and a new stage” — a reset as he steps into his third decade as an artist.
That intent is visible in the accompanying futuristic sci-fi music video, cutting across a subway platform, a cyberpunk cityscape, and a racetrack, with U-Know confronting versions of himself in each space. The footage repurposes clips from his first solo concert tour, U-Know Yunho Project 26: Scene #1, where similar settings served as the narrative interludes between live stages. It creates a meta-theatrical overlap where stage and screen feed into each other, blurring the line between U-Know the real-world artist and U-Know the digital entity, until the video closes on him loading a disc into a player and being asked to enter “Nexus.”
If you’ve followed his 2023 Reality Show short film, that word lands immediately. In that universe, “Nexus” is an immersive AI metaverse allowing users to escape reality. Inserting it into the song, U-Know continues this narrative lore, but with a twist: here he’s no longer a passive user, but a character trapped in a simulation of infinite possibilities. The shifting backdrops—from the subway to the racetrack—serve as different “levels” where he must confront past versions of his own identity, framing his career as an increasingly high-stakes game with the song’s message of undying passion insisting that no matter how fast time flies, he’ll keep rebooting, evolving and conquering the simulation.
The choreography follows the same concept. His movements trace the motion of clock hands with sharp transitions, carrying dramatic narrative power that has always set U-Know apart. He’s previously been dubbed K-pop‘s “Ultimate Dancing King” for his incredible stamina, precision, and how he tells a whole story with his body without ever toning it down. That same energy shines through “Time’s Tickin’.”
However, the B-side, “An Ordinary Story,” pulls in the opposite direction. It’s a soft, emotional ballad that reminds you the same artist who can fill an arena with a “do or die” mindset can also sit with the quiet ache of a breakup.
That balance is what makes the release work. Time’s Tickin’ takes the enduring spirit U-Know has been known for since his TVXQ days and threads it through the lyrics, the sound, and the visuals of his new music. The line “My coordinates become clearer ’cause time’s tickin’” says it all: over two decades in, U-Know is still actively reinventing himself for the next phase of his creative journey.