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Jaehyun, one of the industry’s most versatile artists, whose main aim is to create music exactly like what he usually listens to. Known for recommending songs of niche-er genres like Neo-Soul, RnB, soft jazz etc., this album does not fall short at all. As someone who is an avid listener of most of these genres and of jaehyun’s rich baritone timbre in itself, this “album” was very pleasantly enjoyable.
Starting off not-very-strong with Smoke, it was a very interesting listen. As i would call it, quite bizarrely structured for such a non-bizarre song. While it is not an awful listen and I do admit to having added it to my playlist, It feels like something that he intended initially to be cohesive with the rest of the album but towards the end, suddenly realised it needed some "title track" material. And although I respect that and I definitely think that Smoke is probably one of the only tracks, if any, in the album that could've been the title track anyways. But it's definitely undeniable that it could have been executed a little.. better.
I'm not a big fan of how the chorus flows especially after I enjoyed the subtle electro-piano. the 808 beats and muted acoustic guitar bars, it felt too random and I would have preferred if the song retained its slight alt-funk vibe throughout the song. Which leads on to my next point about the last chorus; now that's one well-executed structural aspect of a song and because the last chorus is so individually sonically pleasing, it would have made sense for the song to pull back on the other choruses and play on the last one more instead. But other than that, the song's definitely not too bad and as I will always say, it's a type of sound I don't think anyone BUT jaehyun could have pulled off anyways.
Coming to the rest of the "album" which only had 7 actual songs (but whatever), undeniably and genuinely the best part of my year. 100/10 cohesion, 1000/10 vocals EVERYTHING. Like we always knew the man had a good soloist vibe to him and would make an incredible and powerful soloist someday and he's done it for real! Starting off with Flamin' Hot Lemon, he portrays a fiery feeling of crushing on a girl with mellow beats and a warm, fuzzy vibe and paces the song itself to be very slow-paced and fun, like the feeling of pursuing someone for the first time after realising your feelings for them.
And then we move on to Roses, and oh god may I never understand how he felt writing this song like WHO HURT YOU??? Roses portrays his trauma (almost) everytime he sees roses, as they remind him of when he used to buy them for her, but now knows that there's someone else buying her roses. "I'm triggered every year Valentine's" like no babe that's your birthday... Anyways, true dark-RnB perfection fr.
Dandelion, also based on a "flower" provides that stark contrast to Roses with its comparison of the respective flowers to his lovers. Almost as if this song is a prequel to Roses, when he first fell in love with his lover (me... JOKES!). But the lore drop for another time. Dandelion is so smart in the way he uses dulled-down synths and reverberated e.piano chords to give us that sunny day sound-to-image display, visualising the bright "sun in my eyes" idea he's trying to implement. Genius. The last part of the song literally brings tears to my eyes, the structuring is so brilliant!
Completely... I have no words to say about this song. As a ballad lover myself this was the first song I've genuinely shed tears to in YEARS. Oh to love and be loved like this song.. He truly makes a ballad and then makes it his fr!
Easy has to be my favourite song from this album, with the way he plays around with rhymes, beats, words and phrases... oh give this man his awards and his flowers, please! And also a therapy consultation because legitimately get this man out his heartbreak era. Or don't, because we wouldn't get smash hits like this anymore. The slightly dissonant notes in the instrumental add to the overall vibe and oh god just give us MORE.
And lastly, we have Can't Get You! Who knew jaehyun would give us a dreamy bossa nova banger of about FOUR MINUTES runtime?? The placements of the adlibs and every section of the song just clicks like a key in a lock and makes so much sense to me and has already got me on my hands and knees waiting for when he drops another straight-10 album again!
MY OBJECTIVE TAKE:
Hook: 9.5/10
Replayability: 9.5/10
Production: 10/10
Structure: 8/10
B-Sides: 10/10
MY SUBJECTIVE TAKE [OVERALL]:
9.4/10
B-SIDE OF THE DAY:
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