Rain(비) - MY LIFE愛 Mini Album Thoughts(K-pop)

Track List:
01. 오늘 헤어져 (Feat. 조현아 of 어반자카파)
02. 입에 달아
03. 다시
04. Sunshine
05. 깡 
06. 다시 (Inst.)
07. 깡 (Inst.)
08. Sunshine (Inst.)

   Rain is a solo singer that made his debut in the early 2000s. At a time that Kpop was really taking off and I was a super mega Kpop fanboy. He is hugely popular in Korea and China with a fifteen year long career under his belt. Many people including Koreans see Rain as Korea's version of Usher. No, not Chris Brown because he wasn't thought about during Rain's fame days. Also, the Korean version of Chris Brown is Taeyang…. Only Taeyang didn't beat the hell out of his superstar girlfriend…. Not that anyone knows of anyway[COVERS FACE WITH HANDS.]. This comparison come from Rain's skilled vocal and dance performances. His husky tenor vocals has turned a few heads in his day. My Life is the singer's second mini album to be released since Back To The Basics.

    Lets not forget that Rain is also an actor. He has been an actor for awhile but I feel like as he gets older, that's where his heart truly is. My Life contains mostly slow ballads which is very very very strange for Rain. Did I just use three "Verys" in the same sentence? I really had to in order to explain my feelings on this new softer style of his. The duet with Hyuna of Urban Zakapa takes getting familiar with especially if you have similar reasons as me. One of the biggest reasons without going into extreme detail was the drastic gap in the two singers's vocal ability. Rain always knocks my socks off with his voice depending on what type of song he is singing but Hyuna is a powerhouse vocalist. This girl can sing till the damn flood gates of heaven open while "Rain" really does become the background noise of raindrops hitting the pavement. She overpowered him so much vocally that I covered my eyes multiple times while listening to that duet. Their vocals aren't  a good mach at all. Saving grace of the song is that relatable meaning along with how connect to the lyrics the both of them were. My Life continues on like a slow walking in the park on a summer day. He try to get stripped down and raw by singing to instrumentals that only use an acoustic guitar and a hand drum. This is a good experience if you want love songs that will send you to a realm of relaxation. However, it took a couple of listens for me to get into the notion of a lot of Rain's new musical vision. 다시 was one of the better ballad tracks that more suited my taste. Focusing more on Rain's vocal range, the composition of the music with it's guitars, mid tempo pop beat, and violins center around his progression. The track could be a remix of his older RnB ballad hits. Just excluding the beats that made Rain's songs…… feel right. Sunshine has that sixties flare coming from the beat used so I noticed that immediately. The chorus isn't flashy enough to make an impact. Causing the track to fall into the album filler category for me. I don't know why the title track is the last song on the album honestly. It's the most up tempo track(besides Sunshine) that you will get from Rain this time around too. Honestly, the whole album sounds like he was a little tired while recording this. He added a bit of what fans love this man for. Hip rap lines for example. The track was downright ordinary though. It took me a few listens to even call the song hit worthy because the track lacks one special message that spells"RAIN IS BACK BITCHES!". We instead get Rain returning in an decent fashion. He's not showing up the new generation of acts anytime soon with this album. My Life was a release that was begging people not to forget about him. True to reality, listeners are going to move on. He's not on the market anymore as a single man and the new music isn't popping like I believe it could be. I'm not even insulting his decision to go all old man in the Karaoke bar after work ballad on us. He could have done all slow songs and still had a comeback that made the new acts out there scared. That didn't happen. Maybe focusing on acting isn't a bad move after all.



    Rain's husky vocals were the best thing that happened to most of the slow tracks. I had not problem listening to ballads sung by Rain if we are solely discussing vocal quality. He still has that voice that can give e goose bumps. Now, if mister Bi would stop releasing sleeper hits. At least he killed the live performances of the album's songs on Music Bank.

   My Life was ok. I can't even say the album was alright. "Ok" is a step below "alright" in my book. I was all hyped for his comeback only to be disappointed. I'm never opening up my heart to another singer again![INSERT MY LAUGHING.]