Critic: Kim Bong Hyeon
My comment on this album can be concluded like this: ‘just abandon the meaningless over-expectations.’ It does not mean I look down upon on Taeyang. What I mean is to keep the expectation that we first had on his albums. Do we have expectations on him because of his sophisticated singing skills? Or do we have expectations on him for he is a R&B/Soul singer who has always been trying to upgrade himself? No, not because of those, we wait for him because inside him are ‘possibilities’.
If we really have to compare ‘SOLAR’ with other albums, we could say it is a Korean version of an American R&B musician Trey Songz. As Taeyang sometimes also use ‘Yup’ as Trey Songz does, he can be regarded as a perfect fellow of Trey Songz. When listening to their music in details, their music share a lot similarities. To be precise, Taeyang is a purified version of Trey Songz or a 15-year-old version. It is because for some reasons, Taeyang can never sing songs like ‘Neighbours Know My Name
However, I did not mean to say I have any dissatisfaction about the results of the contest since different situations and conditions would contribute to different results. I still had some worries. I don’t know whether I thought about it too much or not but I worried that the award might mislead Taeyang? Would he be complacent of himself? Nevertheless, after I have listened to ‘SOLAR”, I was relieved that Taeyang is still Taeyang. He proved that my worries really had no grounds because through this album, we can clearly see his growth.
My comment on this album can be concluded like this: ‘just abandon the meaningless over-expectations.’ It does not mean I look down upon on Taeyang. What I mean is to keep the expectation that we first had on his albums. Do we have expectations on him because of his sophisticated singing skills? Or do we have expectations on him for he is a R&B/Soul singer who has always been trying to upgrade himself? No, not because of those, we wait for him because inside him are ‘possibilities’.
The pity of owning an extremely beautiful voice but not being able to let it shine in the group activities is shown when Taeyang is on the stage and in the interviews. This light sorrow, coupled with his own ambition (which is different from that of the whole band) on music and his ability which convinces us that he could achieve his ambition all leads to our expectation. In other words, as we see the ‘flames’, we want them to ‘glow’ brightly and fully.Because Trey Songz is a mainstream R&B singer, he also has the ability to perform a wide variety of songs from slow jam to pop. Just listen to his new album ‘Ready’, you can find songs belonging to slow jam like ‘neighbours know my name’ and relaxing R &B songs like ‘I Invented Sex’ and ‘Say Aah’. There are even close-to-pop songs like ‘ I Need a Girl’.
This is the same case in Taeyang’s album. Produced by Teddy, the smooth flow of theR&B song ‘Move’ reminds us of the style of ‘The Runners’. ‘You’re My’ and ‘Take it Slow’ can be classified under slow jams while we can feel the team spirit of the production team ‘Stargate’ through the pop song, 'Just A Feeling’. All of these songs of different categories co-exist in the same album. Then, “I Need a Girl’ (with the same name of Songz’ song) is the song dedicated to his female fans by the boy, Dong YongBae, who does not have any love experience is an urban R&B song.
This is the same case in Taeyang’s album. Produced by Teddy, the smooth flow of theR&B song ‘Move’ reminds us of the style of ‘The Runners’. ‘You’re My’ and ‘Take it Slow’ can be classified under slow jams while we can feel the team spirit of the production team ‘Stargate’ through the pop song, 'Just A Feeling’. All of these songs of different categories co-exist in the same album. Then, “I Need a Girl’ (with the same name of Songz’ song) is the song dedicated to his female fans by the boy, Dong YongBae, who does not have any love experience is an urban R&B song.
If we only consider the local market of Korea, Taeyang is really unique. We might want to know how many Korean singers can sing both R&B/Soul and pop songs along with their own characters and at the same time are able to ‘digest’ the songs well according to the appropriate atmosphere. The answer is obvious. Although we do not know whether his standard will drop or rise, Taeyang’s competitiveness is still very strong.
SOLAR proves us a lot of things. It proves that YG’s production team is still producing good soul music; it proves that Taeyang has been practicing his singing continuously; it also proves where Taeyang’s (as a musician) charisma and strengths lie. But the most important in this album proves he is ‘growing’. Although Taeyang is not yet the best, he has been working hard to become the best. I sincerely hope that I can see him grow into maturity in the near future.
HE IS AND HE WILL STAY THE BEST FOREVER!!! HE IS NUMBER ONE IN OUR HEARTS!! TAEYANG always VIP*.*
If we really have to compare ‘SOLAR’ with other albums, we could say it is a Korean version of an American R&B musician Trey Songz. As Taeyang sometimes also use ‘Yup’ as Trey Songz does, he can be regarded as a perfect fellow of Trey Songz. When listening to their music in details, their music share a lot similarities. To be precise, Taeyang is a purified version of Trey Songz or a 15-year-old version. It is because for some reasons, Taeyang can never sing songs like ‘Neighbours Know My Name
.’
As one of the members of the evaluating committee, if my own opinion could represent the opinions of all my fellow members, I would choose ‘Over’ to be the winner of the Best R&B/Soul song of the 6th Korean Music Awards. (Note: Taeyang claimed that award in 2008). Although I was not against ‘Look Only At Me’ gaining appreciation from my committee, I did not agree that the album HOT which was awarded for the ‘album award’ could depict the whole picture of Taeyang’s effort throughout that year. This was only the result attributing by ‘no competitors’ coupled with ‘giving encouragement to the singer’.
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