I'm back writing posts about music now that I have the capabilities to keep up on music. I might be playing catch up for a couple of posts so bare with me please. Anyhow, this album doesn't seem like Key's first album at all. I don't know if its because he is such a strong force in his boy group SHINee or if I just had another sugar high from eating too many chewy chocolate chip cookies. Many of you know of this young man's and his group's success that should be common knowledge to new as well as old Korean music fans. One member decided to end his life but the boys seem to have come back even stronger as a unit. Their last comeback pretty music clarified the group as legends and their new solo projects have followed soon after. FACE is Key's first album to be released as a solo artist.
Track List:
01. 센 척 안 해 (One of Those Nights) (Feat. Crush) *Title
02. Good Good
03. Honest
04. Forever Yours (Feat. 소유)
05. Imagine
06. Chemicals
07. I Will Fight (Feat. 빈첸 (VINXEN))
08. Easy To Love
09. 미워 (The Duty of Love)
10. This Life
I've decided to give Key's first album a listen simple because the promotional tracks interested me a little bit. Key never came across to me as that "powerhouse" vocalist of SHINee. Of course, he can sing but he's never shown me a moment of him really blowing the house down vocally. FACE is for the fans that have stood by KEY, as can be seen in a passage on the front cover of the album talking about his capability being inside of his fans…… Well, let me tell you one thing, FACE didn't feel like an album that was geared towards listeners like me. I say this because the album has a youthful feel that lights up in each track. Producers use a ton of bubble gum pop beats that sound a little too tropical for the winter season. Then Key hop, skips, jumps, into the opportunities to layer on the expected Kpop formula by repeating the same lyrics multiply times in choruses. He even has the nerve to use double consonants in his words to slide off the tongue for listeners to remember what they heard. Realize the the majority of your fans don't care to hear what you're singing about just as long as they can look at you. Teenybopper music always seems to come back swinging in Kpop like I need a reminder that I escaped its grasps years earlier. Forever Yours and One of Those nights might be the best songs on Face if I had to choose my favorite songs. Both songs are fun to sit back and listen too because they both sound close to what would be expected of a Key solo. The problem was the rest of the album is so filled up with trying to people please that I didn't find a strong connection between what Key's heart was truly in musically. A wide selection of dance pop tracks are alright as long as you push the envelope into new transitions in your music. You would think that Key would be heading toward a more mature concept, especially after all that has happened this year. Maybe this whole album was totally him being true to himself but I'm sure that a marketing ploy was in there too somewhere. SM entertainment not going to let he be too raw. That would have made a way more interesting concept for the album. Oh well, at least Onew said "forget this," and released a straight up ballad.
High pitched vocals for days boys and girls. Want to know where you can witness these vocals? look no father than this album. I got so tired of him hitting those falsetto notes that I didn't know what to do with myself. He sings one or two tracks that allows him the sing in his lower range which was a nice break from the squeaking. Key speaks English, making his bilingual lyrics harmonize. He had an English only track on the album too. Was Crush really featured on this album?! Who's he again?
Face isn't the type of album that a guy like me would buy because the music feels too young for me. The musical style feels too young for even Key to me. What I did learn for this experience is that Key did hold his weight in SHINee over the years. Key is a decent singer by himself in my opinion.
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