SHINee’s Jonghyun probably has one of the best R&B voices in Korean music and music in general, so imagine our surprise when he dropped this nine-track album us after the massive success of his Base EP back in January. While the project contains a couple of Korean-style ballads, the bulk of the tracks have the singer showing off his soul and jazz sensibilities to great effect. While it’s not as perfect as Base, it’s still a strong showing from such a young artist who has a strong sense of himself and who we hope gets a lot more chances to let his star shine (without breaking up SHINee because that would break my heart).
Update: We now have lyrics for you thanks to JpopAsia and, as anyone who is familiar with Bling Bling’s style should expect, the real appeal of all of these tracks are the lyrics. Every song in this collection is based around the stories of people who call in to his weekly radio show, Blue Night with Jonghyun, to speak with him. While his music always has emotional resonance, knowing that he was able to write songs for others based around their experiences puts him in a class that few occupy as a songwriter.
I’m with you on that — SHINee breaking up would put me in clinical depression, so let’s be having none of that! 🙂
I found the group about a year after SHINee World, and they threw me for a loop. I got to see them at SM Town at Madison Square Garden in 2011 and it still doesn’t seem real to me that I did, haha. @_@ Terri has always been a MinHo girl. Me? When it came to hair and dancing, Taemin. But when it came to the voice, Jonghyun stood out from everyone else in a major way. My ears will always welcome his solo tracks so thanks for keeping me up to speed.