U-know is a member of the legendary Korean band known as TVXQ. This band is very well known all over East Asia and have broke records for album sales in Japan as well as South Korea. Legal issues with SM Entertainment caused the original group to spilt up leaving U-Know and Changmin to carry on the official name of TVXQ while the other remaining members formed another group called JYJ.(a group that just disappeared after some time. SM black balling them was too great to handle.) U-know and Changmin always release solo songs on their albums so U-know debuting True Colors wasn't much of a surprise to fans. What was a shock was how to roll out came so suddenly. None of us fans saw it coming. I still haven't recovered which is why this post is so late.
Track List:
01. Follow
02. Blue Jeans
03. Swing (Feat. BoA)
04. 불러 (Hit Me Up) (Feat. 기리보이)
05. 왜 (Why)
06. Change The World
True Colors did what everyone knew that it would. The mini album too the top spot on the charts in Korea right away. U-know went on different shows to just show his face for promotion even though he didn't really have to. Anything associated with TVXQ does well sales wise most of the time. I did enjoy his television live performances of Follow. U-Know is one of the only Korean male singers I've seen who can dance in such a natural way that doesn't feel too rehearsed. Dance is meant to be in that man's limbs. With this being said, True Colors didn't have much of a concept to me. Even after watching his lives and buying the album, I still questioned what the concept for True Colors was suppose to be. The tracks on the album don't create much of a solid concept either. Follow is a awesome title track that makes you think U-know channeled his inner love for Michael Jackson. Some of the electro pop disco beat used in the starting parts of the track are no doubt inspiration from the King of Pop himself. "Follow me like a Robot"kicks in making the chorus stick in your head and want to sing along. Blue Jeans comes across a bit lop sided to the title track of True Colors. Maybe even a bit messy or unkept. U-know wants to continue to share his sexy manliness with his female fanbase making this track make a little bit of sense. I had to go back and listen to the lyrics again then after that I started to see the vision U-know what going for. He still has a bit of Michael in his vocals here too. BoA joins U-know for Swing making the track shine because of how good their voices flow together. You can tell they're seasoned veterans in the Korean pop music world based on their skill. I loved the big note they hit tougher at the bridge of the song. What bummed me out about Swing was that I wished they song had a bit more lyrics in the chorus. Heavy dance beat numbers with no vocals are not my style. Hit Me Up was another song that I shied away from on the first listen. It almost sounds like a sell out song because the album needed a cute sounding track. Nothing in the lyrics is really immature but the song sounds vert cutesy. Hit Me up became my jam once I could see the whole picture the song was conveying. Why was s track seemed to be written for another artist but SM Entertainment bought the rights from the original writer. U-know tries to make it his own and I like the song in the album. Especially the "get jiggy with it" vibe the instrumental has. None of the songs have a consistent sound with each other. True Color seems to be a whole bunch of songs placed together that don't jive with each other at all. None of the songs are bad per say. Change The World was a good ballad to end the album on for U-know and the track shows that he can sing ballads really well alone.
I used to think that U-know had the weakest vocals in TVXQ. Well, until I got the chance to listen to True Colors. There's many moments on the album where U-know steps up to the plate vocally. He shows that he can hit all the same notes as Changmin…. Not as high pitched but he is more than just a handsome face.
True Colors is stil a bit shaky as a mini album concept. Critics have said constantly that TVXQ's albums lack a solid direction using a concept and I agree kinda. At least the guys still make good music to listen to despite of this problem.
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