Despite o the many number of album released
in 2014. I’ve been keeping an eye on one, which is coming from my favorite
group: JYJ that is released on the 29th of July.
To begin with,
earlier in the year, I kept an eye on kpop news and knew that Taeyang just
released his second solo album. Used to be a fan of Big Bang (not anymore), I
thought the album would be using the same genre as one that Taeyang and Big
Bang’s has been using before, something around hip hop, something swag, catchy
like Ringa Linga, etc. Didn’t feel
excited at all at first, then unconsciously opened BIG BANG OFFICIAL’s video that
just uploaded Taeyang and GD’s perform of Stay
With Me. And wow! Just from the first encounter to the song, it got stuck
on my head til the rest of the day. I started listening to the rest of the
album and of course the first single, Eye
Nose Lips and yeah I’m really really amused after listening to the whole
album. Right before the album released, I’ve been so bored with Big Bang,
Taeyang and GD’s music genre and even express it on a youtube’s comment. Then
dasshh now Taeyang made a come back with a perfect kind of music that I’m
really looking forward from him. Beside the hit which is Eye Nose Lips, my favorite tracks from this album are Stay With Me, 1AM which are really
refreshing, and 이 게 아 닌 데 which is a really good ballad song; match perfectly
with Taeyang’s smooth vocal. Other tracks are well deserved to be listened as
well. There’s a song that is featuring CL too. Taeyang offering different kind
of songs in this album, starting from the to sing-a-long one, refreshing one,
until still the swag-one and almost all are easy listening. This album
satisfied me a lot by bringing him back to sing pop ballad like the old days.
Rate: 4/5
Secondly, my second best
album in 2014 by far went to G.O.D.!!!
As everyone knows, issue about the comeback of G.O.D.
has been blown away since a while ago, and from watching some variety show,
live perform and immortal songs, I get to learn about some G.O.D members: Son Ho Young, Kim Tae Woo and Dahny Ahn; being followed by googling
about their history and watched some vids of the 3 of them recalling back to
G.O.D time back then. I have several Kim
Tae Woo-Son Ho Young vids performing together, which are still in my
favorite playlist until now. My favorites are Dahny Ahn and Son Ho Young, then
later being followed by Dahny Ahn as one of my favorite rapper in kpop industry.
Well, back to G.O.D.
comeback, I always kept an eye on their comeback news. Staring to be excited as
well. Their first comeback single The
Lone Duckling is literally awesome for me, followed by Sky Blue Promise that is really touching, and last the catchy one Saturday night.
Went on browsing few days
ago and found that JYJ and G.O.D. album are in the top charts. As a new fan of
G.O.D but hasn’t had a chance to download the full album since I’ve been back in
Jakarta around that time, finally yesterday I downloaded all of the album’s
tracks and watched the MVs. And yes, again I was not being disappointed. From
The first time of listening, I literally fell in love with almost all of the
songs. The ballads are touching, the kinda up beat songs are fun and good to
listen for anytime of the day.
I watched some of the
fancam vids of the concert as well. Almost tearing up of sadness and happiness
watching them are being reunited. Ho
Young, Tae Woo, Dahny, Kye Sang and Ahjussi
Joon performed a really good show in spite of their age (esp ahjussi Joon)
and in spite of the 9 years leaving the industry as a group too.
Some of my favorite tracks
are 보 통 날, 난 좋 아, 우 리 가
시 는 이 야 기, 노 래 볼 러 줘 요 (feat 아 이 유), and Smile.
Some songs are fun, you can listen to the happiness from the 5 of them who are
singing together directly from the song. And the ballad songs are literally a
piece of masterpiece. 노 래 볼 러 줘 요 (feat 아 이 유) that is featuring IU is a really easy listening
song for me. IU’s beautiful vocal matches perfectly with Hoyoung, Taewoo’s
vocal and Dahny, Kyesang, ahjussi Joon’s rap. Their laughter makes the song
become sounds even better.
Other than that, the song’s
lyric in this album is very beautiful as well in my opinion. Starting from Sky Blue Promise that is telling story
about their promise, they’re sorry to finally make a comeback as 5 until this
late. Continued by The Lone Duckling
about up and down in life. 우 리 가 시 는 이 야 기 that is telling a story about family and
unaffectionate love. 난 좋 아 and
Smile: story about love, then
continue with보 통 날
which is telling about the recovery after break up story. Saturday Night as another title track from this album is fun, make
us sing and dance along but still the lyrics have something, telling how you
should have fun and release stress for at least a day once in a while in life.
I don’t usually search for
song’s English translation lyrics cause when I do, most of Korean songs doesn’t
have a really good and beautiful lyrics that can get me the meaning and the
scent to the song. But different case with this album, when I read the lyrics
once, I get to understand the story, and appreciate the beauty of the lyrics
and it ended up leaving a mark/scent to me from every single songs. Even the
lyrics of rap is still ‘something’ and even from a happy quirky song like Saturday Night, I was quite awed to be
able to fall to this song by knowing the meaning of the song just from 2 paragraphs
of lyrics. Many of the idol music’s nowadays are just catchy and good to hear
but not to be understood. Other artist’s ballad songs may have good meaningful
lyrics as well I appreciate that. But G.O.D’s lyric in this album is in a
different level for me. Its charm was beautifully and sincerely written and
being passed out to me.
Other than usual tracks, 1
medley and 2 instrumental tracks is included in this album. One called 5+4+1+5=15 is a kind of medley of their
previous songs I guess.
I’m personally really
curious about who is the writer of each songs, cause I really like the lyrics
of the songs in this album (even like it more than JYJ’s) especially a track: Smile which is my most favorite above
all.
Overall, although I’m just
a new fan of G.O.D. and not really following them from the beginning, but still
from listening to it from the first time I found that their music is just definitely
my style. A good music that is sincere, deep, and fun all at the same time. In
spite of Kim Taewoo’s dominant vocal
in almost every song, I still could enjoy the whole album as G.O.D, which is
consisted of Taaewoo’s strong vocal, Hoyoung’s smooth voice and enjoyable rap,
and Kyesang, Dahny and ahjussi Joon remarkable rap & vocal. Two thumbs up
for G.O.D., now I know how they can become that big back in the time when they
were still active 15-9 years ago. Two words from me, G.O.D’s music especially
this album is simply beautiful.
Rate: 5/5
Third one: freshly released
on July 29th, JYJ 2nd full length album after 3 years:
JUST US
Since becoming a fan of TVXQ5 and JYJ for a while
nowadays, of course I’ve always been waiting for their comeback, and now the
time has come!!
The album is released on
the 29th, and I was on vacation at HK around that time. Have never
thought about buying the album directly before, then few days before the
release I asked my friend if there is a place in HK where I can buy a Korean
album. On the 30th of July, this friend; who is a native HKnese and
me hung out tgt and she brought me to the place where she usually bought EXO
and SHINee albums. And yeah I found the album in there with a very fair price
just a day after the release!! (HK$175).
I went back home to Jakarta
with a glad heart by bringing that album along with me. Opened the cover and
the photo book, even the opening is really ‘grand’ and all photos in there are
just simply amazing.
Continue to burn the CD to
my laptop and started to listen to it. I also searched for the English
translation of each songs, and that makes me to become even more in love with
each songs.
Starting from their chosen
promoted song back seat; an urban
R&B hip hop song (whatever genre it is). As a fan I literally fell directly
to the song, well I don’t know with anybody else but so far I’m still satisfied
with the song that contain all of the member’s strong vocal as a chosen track
title of the album
The other songs are
literally awesome I could say. Jaejoong write the lyrics of 4 songsout of 13,
Junsu composed the lyrics for LETTING GO,
and Yoochun also write and compose his own solo song and write for a song,
which is dedicated to his dad. Each member has a solo song, which is -3 in
total, while the other 10 has 3 of them in each.
Junsu’s solo song 7 살, a typical smooth ballad song that is just
perfectly match with Junsu’s vocal, telling a different form of love we have as
human growing up and so the love changes as well. Also, telling how we wish all
of us could have a sincere love just like the one we had back in the younger
olden days.
Yoochun’s solo track: 서 른 (30s/Lazy
Life). A sincere honest reflection of Yoochun’s feeling. How he’s doing his
life nowadays, meeting members that he himself can’t deny to meet, and even
brought up Junsu’s remarkable laugh eu
kyang kyang into the paragraph of rap lyrics. At the ending phrase Yoochun
doesn’t forget his brother as well, Yoohwan and talking about the future army
life too. The track is my first favorite song in the album cause I listened to
this song firstly as being recommended by my sister. I love Yoochun’s rap skill
in this song. The sincere lyrics, the good rhythm of the rap, and in the chorus:
the smooth vocal of Park Yoochun is back to be shown. My favorite phrases from
the lyrics are the chorus and one at the end of the song #The memories that feel like the wind on my fingers, I realized how
precious they are. If you live as you take in each moment, life is more than
ever you think
#Maybe this is what life is all about. Maybe everyone
is looking for happiness.
No matter how much you prepare, you can never be fully
prepared for life
Jaejoong’s solo track Dear J is still a bit rocking in his own
way but is easy listening as well on the other side, and still a remarkable Kim
Jaejoong’s song that is fully show his independent character and mark.
Some songs are still
talking about love in general and broken hearted story like SO SO, BaBoBoy, LETTING GO, 새 벽 두
시 반, LET ME SEE. However, how JYJ make each the lyrics is somehow quite different with
others. They produce a more honest music in here. Like in BaBoBoy that is telling about man that is being seduced by woman,
and saying realistically ‘that’s how man are (being a man)’. SO SO and 새 벽 두 시 반
as well, telling about regrets, love and breaking up but in different frames.
In새 벽
두 시 반 it is using time which is
mainly around 2AM in the morning to illustrate the feeling around that time
after breaking up. Dad, you there? lyrics is very touching as well. Beautifully written by Yoochun in every phrases of the lyrics. And another unique lyrics can be found in Jaejoong's solo track dear J. I like the lyrics despite of the unique story about Angelina Jolie in Jaejoong's dream (lol). The melody and lyrics is great, as can be expected from Kim Jaejoong
.jpg)
I love how each of the solo
songs with its lyrics match perfectly with each of them and their own
individual’s characters. Just like the title of the album. Songs in this album
doesn’t have any concept or chosen genre. It is simply consisted of songs that
the 3 of them have and present it back to the fans after this while.
Some other favorite tracks
of mine are SO SO, 새 벽 두
시 반, BaBoBoy
and creation. Well, all 13 tracks are
my favorite though to be honest hahaha, just especially like Jaejoong, Junsu
and Yoochun’s vocal in those chosen songs.
Next, their full English
song that is being produced in LA, Valentine
is surprisingly a good one for me personally –even though is not my favorite.
But remembering their previous English songs, I never specially like any of it
and will not like it right from the first encounter. For this album, I found Valentine as something quite catchy, despite the simple lyrics and the
repeated rhythm of the song. I like how the three members still pointing out
their vocal just likes in other songs. I like their vocal in this song in spite
of the chorus. For each one of them; Junsu with the phrase of “baby I ain’t
gonna fake and ya heart ain’t gonna break if you come with me” and Yoochun’s
tone in singing the phrase “I need you, can’t get enough, I wanna spend every
minute with you”. Their English has been improved –a lot too, compare to their
English song debut 4 years ago. So yeah, although I’m least expecting in this
song, it’s not disappointing at all even though usually I wouldn’t like their
English title song.
And also the last one, a
track called Dad, you there? Lyrics written
by Yoochun, and even when I haven’t looked at the lyrics, I could feel the soul
of this song and being wowed by their vocal ability in this song.
On the showcase JYJ has
performed SO SO, BaBoBoy and Backseat live and I have watched the fan
cam vids. They still did amazingly in every performance, although the dance of
JYJ is simple, but that’s the art of JYJ’s music I guess. I don’t really care
about the level of the dance, as long as they could perform well in every songs
and enjoying it as much as we do, that’s all enough for me as a fan.
It is not that I am a fan
of JYJ I could be totally bias to every JYJ’s songs. I listened to the previous
album, and didn’t like every single of the songs in In Heaven and Their Room album.
Some tracks on the playlist are just left rarely being played by me. I could
say this honestly –I like most of JYJ’s songs but not all. However, in this
album, I just fell to every tracks cause every song are different –have its own
charm in every song, has different strength in every song. Every song has its
soul and honestly showed member’s true character. And yeah, I’ll give 5/5 for
this album
[updated] Just watched the fancam of their concert and just like my expectation, JYJ's concert will never disappoint me until this far. My favorite performances are so so and dad, you there?
Before watching I'm most curious about Jae's and Yoochun's solo perform with dear J and 서른; especially Yoochun's. And yeah they sing it all live, Yoochun did it awesomely with a bonus of Junsu's live laughter and Jae also who's singing wearing white shirt all unbuttoned (yes, if you're curious how does it look like, please check! lol)
Other songs like letting go, valentine, baboboy, backseat pointing out the dance while in the other left like let me see, creation, dad you there, we're asked to concentrate on their awesome live ballad performance.
Old songs are being brought as well like in heaven, found you, empty, get out, fallen leaves, be my girl, etc I especially like the cheer of fans at those old songs that never fade, making it not complete without interacting with the fan's cheer at some part of those songs.
The concert is literally awesome, the place is huge: Jamsil Outdoor Stadium; same venue as G.O.D's anniversary concert which is amazing as well.
That's all for now. Have a good day everyone!
best regards,
Jeslyne
