[Album & MV Review] Yesung - 'Here I Am'

AKP STAFF

YESUNG - 'HERE I AM'

Track List:

1. Here I Am
2. Spring In Me (Duet w/ Dalchong of CHEEZE)
3. Between
4. We
5. Your Echo
6. Confession (Feat. Chanyeol of EXO)
7. My Dear

Kyuhyun has two solos out, Ryeowook got his own recently, so now it's Yesung's turn to shine with his first solo mini-album 'Here I Am.' The Super Junior vocalist cranks out seven all-new tracks for you to savor, including the title ballad. Yesung himself co-wrote "Here I Am" and "Confession" with Brother Su, and "My Dear" with producer Yang Jae Seon.

"Here I Am"
It starts with piano influence, but before the main verses, strings enter the mix, only to disappear rapidly once the vocals start in. They resurface again before the chorus, along with some wind instruments. Yesung reaches deep within to wrestle some pain out of his soul and into his vocals. It's a tenderly sung ballad, reflecting on what he's doing now and what he used to do with her before the break up.

"Spring In Me"
Yesung and Dalchong share vocal duties in this duet, and (rare for this album) it's a song of hope and love found. The song starts and ends very tenderly, but they put some power in their pipes in the middle parts, and toward the very end. His range is greater than hers, but he ends up getting fair drowned out as her vocals were sampled a little louder. There's some nice imagery here, though:

"Cherry blossom petals fall with the sunlight inside of me, in my heart
When the tears stop falling you find me"

"Between"
This is an uptempo track, and pretty much the only one on this disc. "Between" has echoes of a country western groove to some of it, and it's got real instruments to support it's bouncy beat. This is, like the previous track, a happier song. He's going to finally date his crush:

"Are we together starting today
It's good that the weather is nice today
This is what I've been dreaming of, this moment"

"We"
This slows it way back down again, drowning his sorrows in a piano and guitar driven ballad. Here Yesung's voice goes wistful, his tone thoughtful. There's some times where you can almost hear him smiling through it all, and other times where his voice is plaintive. In "We," he thinks about how good they were back then:
"I miss you I miss you" words that don't leave me."

"Your Echo"
This track has an interesting chord progression. I like unique sounds, and this sounds like a different take on a scale pattern. Meanwhile a drum pops in the background, and he sings over the scales. The tempo gets a bump in tempo about 40 seconds in, but don't worry -- he still unleashes those soul-baring vox toward the end. The singer misses the girl deeply:
"Still, I call for you like a season that can't stay any longer"

"Confession"
Featuring bells and guitar (both acoustic and electric), he taps another boy band member, EXO's Chanyeol, to help him with this one. It's a mid-tempo composition, and seems to have a little less melancholy. Chanyeol comes in with a lighthearted rap to lift our spirits more. Yesung sounds like he means it as he hits his moving falsetto. The song is about a guy mustering up the courage to confess.

"My Dear"
Breaking with the traditional ballad structure, Yesung sings this to just an acoustic guitar. Not only that, but his tenor remains steady throughout, like he's singing a lullaby. There's no rising orchestra or stratospheric vocals to distract us from just his sweet voice and the simplicity of the melody. He's making a promise to his girl:

"Where the stars gather, I will wait here
Close your eyes and rise, I will hold you"

Half the songs on this disc reflect the soul of a man in pain. At times, the melancholy is almost palpable. He knew how to break it up, with some more uptempo songs to keep from drowning us in tears. The vocals range from whispery to unleashed, and he kills it here. If you've been waiting for Yesung to have his day in the sun, you need wait no longer. Crank this up and let his soft voice carry you away.

MV REVIEW

When the MV opens, Yesung is packing things up, apparently getting ready to move. The sound of the doorbell leads him to greet a woman and his landlord, and that's when he sees the ex, who apparently will be this other gal's roommate. He remembers happier times, walking under the cherry blossom trees with her and watching a movie, with her head on his shoulder. Yesung cries as he sings in the street, as awkward moments with the ex play out in the present. But, at the end of the video, she didn't leave with her friend, and they're standing face to face...

Yesung did a pretty good job with this one, and the humor is kept to a minimum, mostly reflected in awkward moments rather than outright hilarity. He looks lost as his former love casts icy glares at him and even pushes past him. But a reconciliation isn't completely out of the question as she almost seems to soften to him at least a bit as time goes on. All this is played out without dialogue, and their facial expressions are well played.

Ultimately I like this. The camera angles were fairly natural, and they didn't rely on slo-mo or anything, choosing to film it straight and unadorned. It created a nice effect of love lost, and wishing for happier times. And the pans when he sings are seamless. It's a pretty good MV to go with a pretty good album. �

Score

MV Relevance..........8
MV Production.........8
MV Concept.............9
Album Production...8
Album Concept........9
Tracklisting..............8