林俊傑-學不會 review

Where he lacks in looks he makes up with amazing composition that vibrate his ability to convey pure emotion. This is the sole reason why I am a strong supporter of his talent and songs. After two years, with changes in contracts and throat injury what not, JJ Lin is back with an all new album. His hit track "學不會 [Never Learn]" shocked me as I unwarily opened the link posted on his Facebook fanpage. The song was so beautifully written, well sung and overall hauntingly beautiful - nothing I have ever heard before in C-pop. His voice has somewhat matured and strengthened over the years,  as a result one can truly appreciate the high notes he reaches towards the climatic ending. The addition of sighing as part of the song is fantastic also, such a playful twist to conventional rhythm that took my breath away the first time I heard it. How has someone not done this before?? It seems only true talented musicians with singing and composing ability can execute these. This is true mastery of composition, in an asian era dominated by synthesised pop considered as the only popular and "cool" music, this form of ballad production done properly with piano, violin and drum is an art form in itself.

There seems to be nothing out there at present which competes against this level of composition, and I admire the full radio track over the official MV. Once again, I truly recommend people to listen to the song without watching the official Music Video first, it is the only way where one can truly appreciated the melody, harmony and rhythm without being distracted by moving pictures. If you haven't already seen it though, please view the provided link below, because the scenes in which the MV is shot is within Europe, most notably Prague, Switzerland and many other countries where the scenery is spectacular.

INFINITE for Christmas really? Really though?

So here is Kpop trying to capture the Christmas spirit. The song "White Confessions" released by INFINITE (which in my mind seems like another manufactured Kpop group) has been an 'all kill' in the charts this week, knocking off the much loved IU's comeback, new debut group Troublemaker and my favourite Wonder Girl ladies. But what is seriously special about this track and the MV apart from the usual materialistic, fake and totally unreal storyline that represents nothing in real life and is all a fantasy? Surely the ladies from Wonder Girls should have won something rather than this cheesy Christmas track.


The usual chimes of bells in the introduction is accompanied with a shot of different stereotypical Christmas feel items. If you ever try listening to the song without being mesmerized by the eye candy that is the MV, you begin to feel a hint of Japanese pop style music in this song. Look again at the music video again and oh wait! The scenes they have chosen are all in Japan! Why exactly are Koreans bouncing over to Japan for this video shoot, is Korea not even good enough for their Korean Christmas song? 


Sigh, I just don't understand.
But just to give the song a bit of credit it does sound good, the vocal range of the boys may not be spectacular but the timbre of some of the members is rich. It's just enough to make it mainstream, but besides that I can pick nothing special out of it. Once again the Kpop formula works once more, with members having limited singing opportunities throughout, then a couple of raps here and there to make the song "cool" and bang, there you have it, a song which everyone will hopefully catch on to - which, in this case, obviously has.

IU and her comeback!

I became a fan of IU ever since the time she sung a mixture of Lies, Sorry Sorry and Gee with her angelic voice combined with her excellent guitar playing - pure talent. The last time I was properly obsessed with her was with the "Real IU" EP, her song "Good Day" was a track quite different to the songs produced by other musicians at the time. It gave a hint of going back to classical instruments rather than relying on the heavy synthetic sounds Kpop was creating. An addictive riff throughout made it catchy, and it was highly praised by critics for her 3 super high notes somewhere during the latter part of the song. 

Now she is back, with a new title song called "You & I" - which in my opinion, is quite cute.

But if you haven't seen it already, the music video is centred around the Victorian era, where everything was a mass array of cogs and spinning things. It really gives the music a sense of Baroque, yet again referring back to the inspirations of "Good Day". The song itself certainly feels at first quite similar to last time, nothing special here, until you hear the little special vocal additions which make the song extra cute. It's a nice song no doubt, but one feels slightly let down by the lack of development ever since her last promotions. The song is great and IU is able to execute her excellent vocal range, but perhaps she should consider stepping out of her comfort zone, ditch the cute, minimalistic, child-like look and develop something that makes her more matured, something adult-like. I think she has been stuck in the same time period for too long. As much as it feels like me telling her to become like any other Kpop artist out there, I still feel it's only necessary she should experiment with different styles. 

But Oh Well, we will just have to wait till next time to see if there is any change to her style...