NAUL(나얼) - Sound Doctrine Album Thoughts(K-RnB)

    Naul is one part of the male group known as Brown Eyed Soul. The group of men produce music that has a strong influence from American sixties and seventies RnB. This caused them to stand out very strongly in Korea. Even Naul himself has had a very successful career as a soloist, with three number one songs under his belt. His newest album is called Sound Doctrine which would be his third album to date.

Track List:
01. Soul Walk
02. Heaven
03. Spring Song
04. Baby Funk
05. 기억의 빈자리
06. Stand Up
07. Blue Wing
08. Gloria
09. 널 부르는 밤
10. Comforter

   Naul comes beck to the music scene still doing what he loves to do best of all: shadow his biggest influences as a musician. He stated many times in interviews that he loves American soul music from the old school. I mean come on….. The group he comes from is called "Brown Eyed Soul". Those brown eyed black guys he spend so many nights watching on the Greatest Soul Hits of The sixties DVDs must have made a huge impression on him. So most of his albums all have the same sound musically. Sound Doctrine ranges from Naul jumping back into his inner found soulfulness in new material to rewritten covers of old classics. Listeners will be able to tell that this man sings soul like it is the breath coming out of his body. Tracks on the album are a nice reminder of how special music of the sixties and seventies was. Naul taps into the pureness of the mechanics of the genres nicely. He should look into adding something new to what has already been established in the sound though. Maybe a quality that is more him…. Just a little gripe from a foreign fan. Korean listeners won't mind as much because this genre of music isn't done too often in Korea so it's still fresh here. I felt that the track lineup became kind of predictable because the music from that time can get played out if you listen to it for a long time(Even though the music is amazing.). That disco beat and the saxophones became the norm a bit too much in this incredible time of music glory for me. Not to mention, I'm black so I grew up listening to all the music from that time and more thanks to my parents. It is a part of my culture after all.. I also didn't like that he put the title track so far toward the end of the album. The title's track is the only song that seemed like I'm listening to Naul and not a Earth, Wind, and Fire poser.

   Naul's singing is the saving grace of all the music that he releases. He's been in a very vocally demanding group for a long time, causing his vocal harmonies to be so on point that you have to wonder what all those Kpop idol boy bands have been doing with their lives. Brown Eyed Soul is one out of a few groups in Korea that when asked to sing acapella, could actually do it and harmonize well together. Soon that becomes muscle memory for a singer. When Naul sings with other vocalists, It's like your ears are blessed with what some aspects of current music is missing in the world: Pure vocal talent.

   Sound Doctrine is Naul's new excuse to relive the reasons why he wishes to be a black person if he ever got reincarnated. These are his words. Not mine. Dude, You don't want all the problems that  comes with being black in this world…. Believe me. Well….. You would at least have deeper reasons to sing soulfully as a black person.