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Album Review: Their Rooms, Our story Part 1 By Patricia
First off, many thanks to those who read (and hopefully liked!) my last review on DBSKs Keep Your Head Down. As per the numerous requests I received, Ive decided to review JYJs Their Rooms, Our Story album as well. However, I should preface this review by saying that because of the irregular nature of JYJs minialbum, I cant write about it in the same way that I did DBSKs Keep Your Head Down. I cant talk about their live performances or their music videos or even their concept because there just werent any. But there are a bunch of interesting things about this album that I do want to discuss.
1. THE MUSIC.
And, of course, I want to discuss the music. Because the music was bomb.
The tracks on Their Rooms were completely written, composed, performed, and produced by the JYJ members. DBSK bias aside, Ive always had a ton of respect for Jaejoong, Yoochun, and Junsu as musicians because theyre perhaps the only idol stars in their generation that regularly compose their own works and are damn good at it. Im willing to partly attribute this to the fact that the trio have probably never had to compose for pay that is, even during their time in SM, they were never told to create the next hit song for such-and-such group like most commissioned composers attached to large entertainment companies. Rather, they would write songs simply for the joy of it, and if they were lucky, those songs would be included in an upcoming album.
Based on their previous compositions both in and out of DBSK, it seems like the trio isnt really keen on producing lead-single type songs that is, those annoyingly catchy head-stickers that might not be great music, but nonetheless launch a short-lived cultural phenomenon and ultimately rake in the bucks despite the fact. Maybe its just an issue of personal preference and style, but none of the trios previously released compositions resemble your typical K-pop hit single. Even Jaejoong and Yoochuns Colors, which was released as a single in Japan, is remarkably low-key for a promotional track. As composers, its just not JYJs style to compose anything thats intentionally catchy or marketable. This doesnt mean that they intentionally make their songs uncatchy or unmarketable. Their compositional style just doesnt fit the typical, fluffy, gimmicky K-pop mold.
So what are we left with, then? Good music that retains all the special unique qualities of Korean pop, but leaves out all the gimmicky bells and whistles that turn a song from a piece of art into a marketable product.
In other words, we are left with perfection.
A slight hyperbole, of course Their Rooms is far from being a perfect album but its probably fair to say that JYJ is good at what they do, and Their Rooms is the best example of their musical abilities as composers to date. My primary complaint with Their Rooms as an album is that, despite the fact that their skills as composers are well exhibited in the album, it seems that the members have yet to figure out how to compose songs that also make the best use of their vocal abilities. Because, lets face it: half of us DBSK fans first fell in love with the group because of their raw talent as singers and performers. I didnt like Bolero because it was a good song because it really wasnt. I liked it because of its epic, gravity-defying, mind-blowing ad-lib bridge Now with Their Rooms, weve finally got great music
but the music just doesnt enable the members voices to blow me away like they did before.
The other big flaw in JYJs work is that their composition style is based more on their personal musical style and taste, rather than focusing on variety and mass likeability. This is in direct concordance with my aforementioned sentiment that JYJ has thus far only composed for their own artistic sake and not for the sake of the buckaroos. For example, I enjoyed Mission because JYJs musical style gels with my own. But youll notice that the flow and rhythm of Mission is similar to a lot of JYJs other works even works found in this same album and unless you really like that flow and rhythm, then youll have a hard time liking any other JYJ songs because they all sound somewhat similar. In this respect, JYJ is really similar to a lot of niche, esoteric indie artists. Indie musicians dont produce music for the masses; they write and perform the music that they like. If a select few people happen to like that music, then thats great. But chances are, most indie music wont appeal to the masses and its not supposed to; most indie artists would probably die before sacrificing their artistic preferences for the sake of commercialization. Indie artists take pride in not selling out.
But JYJ arent indie artists. Theyve spent the last seven years of their lives being commercialized pop idols. Musicians or not, they cant get around that well-established public image. Theyve always been associated with distributing music that appeals to the masses, whether that music was composed by Yoochun or Yoo Young-jin. Now that theyve left the (comparative) creative stranglehold that was SM Entertainment, JYJ is now free to do whatever music they want to do, but this doesnt come without a risk: they can write and release music that they like and maintain their artistic integrity or they can try to keep their mass appeal by composing songs that are crowd (and wallet) pleasers. Thats why Their Rooms have received a bunch of negative reviews from fans and non-fans alike. The primary complaint is that the album is too generic. Im disinclined to believe that the album isgeneric, but I will say that it lacks variety. If you like JYJs personal style, then this album will sound awesome. If you dont, then it will sound like one, flat line of blah. Personally, I really like JYJs style, which makes it very difficult to review this album on an objective level because, to be quite honest, JYJs work in Their Rooms holds little musical merit apart from taste-based likeability (or bias, since you folks seem to like that word so much).
JYJ is still young, though, and theyre still finding their footing while balancing fourteen new hats (composer, producer, cat-breeder) on their heads. If the group eventually finds that magic place where their vocal skill, performance skill, compositional skill, and varied creativity come together in some sort of pop-magic synergy, then I will not only be one happy fan I will be one delighted music enthusiast.
1. Mission
Their Rooms isnt built and promoted like a typical K-pop album (or like any pop music album, so to speak), so it doesnt really have a defined lead single but I have a feeling that Mission is supposed to kindasorta fill that role. Its punchy, its dynamic, and its a really great opener to an album thats been primarily hyped as some sort of epic sob story in CD form. My one complaint: is Yoochun really still using that tacky You better recognize us line?
-★-
2. Nine
Get out your Kleenex, readers because, I mean, with this album, you had to have seen it coming, right?
Nine was first revealed at JYJs concert in Seoul last year, and the title is said to represent the nine years in which the five DBSK members had spent together from their training days until today. Its not terribly remarkable as a song, but it does fill the obligatory angst mold without going into K-drama OST territory, which makes this song a rare find in the world of K-pop ballads. I approve.
-★-
3. Pierrot
I love this song, but I think it does a terrible job of conveying the message presented by the lyrics. Its meant to sound very open and free and I get that the song is supposed to be about freeing oneself from the puppet strings of SM Entertainment but theres little to no musical progression and variety within the song that evidences the struggle. I should not feel like getting and dancing to a song thats supposed to be about being imprisoned by puppet strings. The lyrics tell a story; the music does not.
In addition, the editing and mixing seemed a little sloppy on this one.
-★-
4. Fallen Leaves
I would say that this is a fantastic, beautiful, gorgeous song if not for the fact that the verses remind me of this one song in Spamalot, and my inner eight-year-old just cant seem to let that go.
Jokes aside, Fallen Leaves is THE obligatory emotional soliloquy on an album that itself is billed as one bigemotional soliloquy but thank goodness; its executed well. Amongst the three, I feel that Junsu is highly underrated as a composer, but Ive yet to see either Yoochun or Jaejoong compose a ballad at the caliber of Junsus I Can Soar or Fallen Leaves. With Fallen Leaves, I think Junsu picked up a few hints from his work in Mozart, as the song is very similar to the style of the music in that show and he does it justice. The vocal line is clean but effective
and extra props to the strings coordinator the strings really were the highlight of the song. (DNW the random electric guitar during the second chorus. Ruining my flow.)
-★-
5. I.D.S.
Jaejoong, Junsu, and Yoochun are good composers. Ive rehashed this point so many times in this review to the point where Im almost sick of admitting it. But besides my aforementioned gripe about their current inability to integrate their vocal skills with their compositional skills, I also take issue with the fact that their compositions oftentimes lack musical complexity. Like I said in the intro, a lot of their songs use very similar beats probably because those beats are what really grooves with them on a personal level, but even as a person who generally enjoys JYJs style, Id like to hear some variety. I.D.S. is further up there on the scale of musical complexity, but it still has a similar flow to Mission and if the only two uptempo songs on the same minialbum sound similar to each other, then someone needs to have a good chat with the folks in the creative department.
Despite my technical gripes with the song, though, I.D.S. is still one of my favorite cuts off the album. The mixing is great, the vocal execution is refined (Junsu does one really surprisingly beautiful line in the middle of the song (around 2:24) that totally caught me off guard), and its well-structured.
-★-
6. Song Without a Name
Oh. This song.
Ill discuss the controversial hullabaloo surrounding this album in the next part, so well save the dramarama of the lyrics for later. Admittedly, this song isnt really great for casual listening firstly, because the song is eight freaking minutes long, and secondly, the song gets very choppy once you hit the two minute mark. Apparently, this is because some of the names were bleeped out of the lyrics hence the title of the song so youve got a rap line that sounds very jolty and awkward, but its for good reason.
The song is 80% rap, and the background beat remains the same for the most part, so theres not much I can say on a purely musical level. We havent seen Yoochuns rapping skill for quite some time, and Im still a little irked that his singing was featured over his rapping on JYJs last album. I dig his style, so Im glad to see its back. Jaejoongs falsetto sounds a little out-of-place at times, and Junsu gets a little raspy and
oh gosh, I just cant make any musical criticisms of this song without feeling like a jerk.
Apologies for the rather calculating view on this album thus far I know that the primary purpose of Their Roomsisnt solely to provide quality music, but it seems to me that JYJ is trying to assert themselves not as idol stars, but as musicians and in that respect, they deserve to be evaluated fairly. Speaking from a purely musical perspective, I think the material on Their Rooms surpasses a lot of the material in the mainstream K-pop market, and its a damn shame that JYJ cant promote this album due to legal restrictions. (Not that I believe this album should be marketed, but these guys work deserves greater attention than the controversy propagated by the media
but, once again, Ill save that for the next part.)
Nonetheless, I cant bring myself to give this album a formal rating for one, I dont believe its really fair to evaluate Their Rooms on too deep a musical level, because its not meant to be an artistic masterpiece; its meant to be JYJs outlet of expression regarding an issue that, for too long, has been shrouded in media-spurned controversy. Its like critiquing the artistic merit of a Valentines day card made by a five-year old for his mom. Despite my penchant for heartlessly critiquing K-pop idols works to no end, even I just cant go that far. My biggest critique on this album is its lack of musical variety but considering the message behind the album, I doubt that musical variety was the last thing on JYJs minds. And thats okay by me.
Watch out for Part 2 of this review next week!
Credit: Seoulbeats
Thanks to Octavia (TIP)
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15 ก.พ. 54 11:51:14
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[Walking Along With JYJ] STEP#129~Waiting You -- JYJ~{แตกประเด็นจาก A10239603}
Good night 
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