XIA - 'YESTERDAY'
Track List:
1. Yesterday
2. OeO (Feat. Giriboy)
3. Midnight Show (Feat. Cheetah)
4. The Tortoise and the Hare
5. Silk Road (Feat. BewhY)
6. Tarantallegra (Acoustic Ver.)
7. Incredible (Acoustic Ver.)
8. Flower (Acoustic Ver.)
The only member of JYJ not currently serving in the military, balladeer Junsu (Xia) salutes fans with his new mini-album 'Yesterday.' On the EP is a ballad of the same name, written and composed by singer-songwriter Lucia. Besides five new songs, there are also acoustic versions of "Tarantallegra," "Incredible," and "Flower."
"Yesterday" is Junsu's title track, as well as the lead song on the album. It's tenderly sung, his soft voice seemingly sliding in, rather than starting suddenly, and this works to great effect on this reflective, piano-driven tune. It's about as different as it could be from his previous title track, "Flower," but it stands well enough on its own. The song is about a woman that he loves dearly, whom he wants to grow old with, but she's not with him anymore.
"OeO" is the rather enigmatically named track that perhaps should have been named "Get A Grip" instead. It's a pure dance track, though it starts and ends with Junsu's raw, tender vocals. But it soon picks up in pace and tone, and Giriboy enters and kicks it up even more with a sick rap. I like the imagery here; it's very evocative: "Gotham without Batman" and "Get a grip in the light of the moment/Beyond the edge of the meadow."
The third track is "Midnight Show," a very R&B tinged tune, and Junsu's rich voice is front and center here. Cheetah flirts with us throughout the track, dropping a word here and there 'til the end, where she delivers an awesome rap. It's about an encounter with a lover, like a midnight show.
"The Tortoise and the Hare," is noticeably slower than the previous two tracks as a ballad. It starts out slow and tender, empty and raw, and then piano and guitar and a faux orchestra come in to keep the time. It's a song of love and loss, of loneliness and regret, and Junsu reflects all of these well with his versatile voice.
"Silk Road" is at the tail end of the new tracks, and a sitar and a pounding beat dominate this tune. He also turns the bass up to 11, and it echoes in your skull long after the track ends. Rapper BewhY does his turn on the mic and kills it. He's asking the girl not to be shy, but instead to come to him.
Then we come to the acoustic versions of previously released tracks. Far from being mere re-mixes, these tunes are low-tempo ballads (well, except "Tarantallegra") with redone vocals and decidedly stripped-down instrumentation. Each of them sound familiar, yet also sometimes surprisingly different. You've probably heard the originals before, so I won't bore you with useless details.
One of the things I really like about Junsu is he experiments with different sounds and styles. The sitar is a rarely-used instrument, and here he gives it center stage. The acoustic arrangements are also quite unique and just add a bit of dash to the whole thing. Though leading with a ballad is risky, it's a tight collection, at least on par with 'Flower,' if not better. The new album doesn't disappoint, and you can close your eyes and lose yourself in his voice, at least for a little while.
MV REVIEW
Junsu observes the goings on in a devastated city in "Yesterday."
As Junsu sits in the wreckage, ash falls around him, as the MV chronicles the events leading up to the city being leveled by a meteor. There's tons of symbolic images, including a burnt rose, and a planetoid that appears to menace a burning Earth from orbit. The MV ends in tragedy, and another view from orbit gives you a twist ending.
It's well-acted, the sequences give you a real sense of what's going on. I almost couldn't help but be reminded of the terrible events surrounding Nagasaki and Hiroshima, and the stories that I've read and watched surrounding those tragedies. Meanwhile, all of this unfolds around Junsu's heavenly vocals.
After his MV for "Flower," my hopes were high, and again he did not disappoint, delivering not only a beautifully-realized MV that deals with love and loss, but also with a post-apocalyptic scenario, which I like. The scenes of destruction, the buildings disappearing in plumes of smoke, the meteor flashing through the sky, the sunlight playing over unbroken buildings as the night gives way to day in the flashback sequences are nice touches that make this whole thing work. These are the kinds of videos that are a joy to watch.
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