Review of Jun. K’s Japanese album,
Love & Hate. Jun. K is 2PM’s main vocal, and this is his chance to really
shine.
This whole album is just truly
Jun. K. It’s displaying all the different aspects of his music and skills, and
it has an added, distinct flavour of his unique, beautiful personality. If
you’re a fan, this album is a joy. If not, you’ll still enjoy going on this ride
with Jun. K.
Well then, let’s go.
Love & Hate
First track, title track. There’s a PV for it too. I like this song, a lot. It’s a bit fractured and random, but
it’s all done on purpose and plays off well. There is a little old school style
to it; actually the whole album sounds quite retro. I don’t usually like songs
arranged like this, in a non-conventional style, but I enjoyed this one. It
just ends a little too abruptly for my tastes.
The rap, though, I like
No Music No Life
Featuring Japanese soloist AI.
AI’s voice is not my favourite, but Jun. K’s voice is beautiful in this. The
song itself is pretty good, but I found myself wishing Jun. K had done this
song by himself. Still, if you like AI’s strong voice, you’ll enjoy this song
more than I did.
With You
A light-hearted song to sway along
to. This kind of has an old musical feel to it. It suits Jun. K’s voice, and
it’s just really fun to listen to. I like how he switches between strong to
soft with his voice in this. It has a real springtime feel to it.
Mr. Doctor
The first of two hip-hop songs on
the album. Honestly this song is not the greatest. Jun. K’s rap is here is not
really interesting at all. The whole song is quite typical, sounds like
something I’ve heard a number of times before. Usual K-Pop hip-hop attempt.
But I do like the humour aspect to
the song. Yeah. It’s pretty funny.
Real Love
Followed by the first of two
ballads on the album. This one features Lang Lang, reputed pianist. This is a
truly beautiful song, one of my favourites. Jun. K’s voice is amazing in this,
strong and clear at times and soft at others. The lyrics are simple and
powerful. The piano work is great, and accompanies Jun. K’s voice instead of
overshadowing it. This one gets a 100 from me.
No Love (album ver.)
The album version of No Love, the
‘main’ song of the album. The song has a PV, which I wrote about here. I love
this song so much. Like Love & Hate it has an unusual arrangement, but it
comes off well, and Jun. K does well to show us many different aspects of his
voice.
The album version isn’t much
different from the one heard in the PV. A few piano notes are added near the
end, but it’s not enough of a difference to make the album version better or
worse for me.
True Swag (pt. 2)
Featuring Korean rapper Simon D.
The second hip hop song, and honestly, just as tired and usual as the first. The
rapping is better in this, and not only because Simon D is in it– Jun. K raps
better in this too. But the embarrassment factor is high in this one. The
lyrics… I hate that word. Swag. I cannot believe that, in 2014, I still have to
hear this word.
Tegami wo Kaku (Writing a Letter)
Second ballad, and the final song.
I found this song a little boring, certainly not as good as Real Love. It’s
just a calm, slow song to end the album.
Rating: 7/10
Favourite Song: No Love
Least Favourite Song: True Swag
7 might seem like a low rating,
considering how good the individual songs in this are. Rather, what made me
give it 7 was how haphazard the album was. There was too much diversity to be
contained in just 8 songs. The album is supposed to show the different aspects
and charms of Jun. K, but he has too many for just 8 songs.
Also, he needs to work on his rap.
Maybe it’s because the album was in Japanese, a language he’s not fluent in,
but Jun. K was quite uncomfortable to listen to on the rap songs.
Still, the songs on this are good,
and I’d recommend checking him out on iTunes.
No comments:
Post a Comment