On his sophomore solo album, NCT leader TAEYONG shows listeners what’s past his reputation as the SM supergroup’s eccentric rapper. The title track acts as a playful entry point into the six songs, all of which TAEYONG co-wrote. In it, he raps to a love interest about his ramyeon-like appeal: “Yeah, I’m saucin’ on you/Sweet and K-spicy like a pack of bibim noodles.” Elsewhere on TAP, TAEYONG gets more vulnerable, wondering about the ephemerality of love in ballad “Moon Tour” (“Would it last forever/If we engraved our names here?”) and beginning the relationship drama of pop-punker “Run Away” with melancholic self-reflection: “The more I understand my emptiness/I feel a sense of distance.” It all comes together on hopeful album-ender “404 Loading,” a sequel to TAEYONG’s debut solo album track “404 File Not Found”: “Don’t worry about all your feelings/Let go of that anxious feeling and fly.”