O.WHEN(오왠) - When It Loves Album Thoughts(K-indie)

Track List:
01. Well I Say
02. 처음이니까
03. 예쁘잖아
04. Dream
05. Fall In Love (Remastered)
06. 없네 (Remastered)

   I literally found out about this singer names O.WHEN yesterday but we are just going to pretend like I've been a fan of his since his first release. This is our little secret, alright? You're totally not going to keep your promise are you? I know that you must be clicking off this page right now without a second though. Don't worry, O.WHEN won't miss you…. Or maybe he will considering the lyrics he writes for his songs. The guy has been a around for three or four years and he is just now starting to pick up speed in the popularity department. His newest EP is titled When It Loves.

   O.WHEN came from an acoustic guitar background as you might be able to tell by listening to his older music. When I Began is his album from three years ago when not a huge group of people knew who he was. He was playing venues on the streets of South Korea with a burning passion to gain many listeners with his music. When It Loves comes as an album that showcases O.WHEN still trying to garner in more listeners. Only his music has took a new direction in production. While some songs on the album remind long time fans of O.WHEN from three years ago, the tracks have slowly been chipping away at the essence that made him charming. That being him and just his guitar. Its very noticeable on this release that him and producers are attempting to make him have a more mainstream appeal. I'm not hating on him trying to get more people to buy his album which means a bigger paycheck however, its also really easy to become a cardboard copy of so many other male singers in Korean music. I see him sliding down that Korean drama OST soundtrack playground slide. Good choice for making some quick money. We will have problems though when all your music starts sounding like you're singing for K drama soundtracks all the time. There's enough singers that have gone down that route. Roy Kim made an excellent first album but has yet to release any music to top his first album. I love Kim too. He can't get away from sounding like one of those young singers that was invited to sing at the nursing home because his grandma invited him there to sing for everyone. Please don't go down that same road with Roy….. When It Loves also takes away the raw guitar sound replacing it with pop beats and Jazz elements that are way overplayed in Korea. Yoo Seung Yoon already beat him to the Jazz acoustic style and it worked for him. I don't need to see this territory revisited in another artist's music. Not unless your bring something new to the table which O.WHEN did not. I wish he would add the guitar and piano back into his music again. Independent artist named Moon Moon was who led me to O.WHEN. He and Moon Moon are very different in the way they create music. Moon Moon still has a refreshing vibe to his sound. O.WHEN was grasping this concept as well until this album unfortunately.

   I'm not too sure if O.WHEN spent time aboard or just studied English really hard but he uses a lot of English in the choruses of his songs. It's English that jives along with it's Korean counterpart. Then on top of that, the guy has a raspy quality to his vocals that adds an emotional depth to his lyrics about longing for love. His voice can go up into a very pretty vibrato too. He uses it too much in my opinion. I would like to hear him sing in his low voice more. Girls like vibrato though.

   I really like the song, 처음이니까 plus the remastered tracks so that saved the album for me. I'll be on the look out for future music from O.WHEN. He's not my favorite indie singer…. Maybe three years ago he would have made my list. The him of three years ago appeals to me more as a listener.