|
Brown Eyes 2 : Reason 4 Breathing?
(some credits to jusunlee.com)
Brown Eyes were probably the biggest selling artists of year 2001. they're back with their second album, which will be released on the final week of november. the team of 'a year has already passed' has come together once again for 'closer,' the title song of the group's second album. Last year, Brown Eyes sold 700,000 copies of their debut album which featured their hit title song 'a year has already passed.'
The duo, consisting of lead vocalist Naeul, and back-up vocalist/composer Yoon Gun, has been one of the most popular groups since the debut of their first album, "With Coffee." The group prefers not to do interviews, television appearances, appear in magazines, concerts, etc. with the focus on their music
instead of on the duo themselves. A worthy ambition indeed, and it has payed off so far. They were also selected from korean artists to represent Korea in the theme song to the world cup, with fellow korean artists Park Jung Hyun and Japanese artists CHEMISTRY and Sowelu.
Overall this is a really good album, definitely different from the first album, yet a succesful fusion of pop, r&b, dance, and more, here's the song-by-song breakdown. Recommended tracks are in Bold.
01 - Intro...You're Waiting For Love With Me...
Just an introlude, if you will, Yoon Gun's piano sound really nice in this, and Naeul's smooth voice breaks the ice for the album, easy listening.
02 - Juhm Juhm
I believe this is one of the main tracks to the album, it starts out slowly, but really builds up towards the chorus, and the chorus is one of my favorite parts to this song. Unlike their previous album, I think Yoon Gun sings a lot more in this, but it's hard to tell as they sound very similar heh. This song is kind of pop-ish, with piano, and has an electric guitar riff towards the end.
03 - Bioneun Arbgujong
A really laid-back, relaxing song, the vocals are very soft in this song and complement the acoustic guitar (kind of a latin guitar flavor, it's really cool) and the percussion and strings in the background really well, there's a cool acoustic guitar solo in the middle too. The chorus in this song is cool too, this is a sad, sweet, little song.
04 - Dduhnajima
Opens with a piano and Naeul vocalizing, then switches to naeul still vocalizing, but the vocals sound like they're coming from a radio or something, then back to normal vocals. Mid-tempo pop, this is easygoing too, and it's good. I think this song gets a lot better, and more powerful towards the end, the Piano is really nice in it.
05 - Brown City 2
An interlude, it's a continuation of an interlude from the first, called "Brown City." Nothing special, it's just kinda cool, there's a young woman singing "I wanna fall in love" and repeating it, in the cityscape, alluding to the song that comes next.
06 - Sarang (I Wanna Fall in Love With You)
Starts out with a piano, then a blues guitar, then a hip-hop beat, and then a rap part, with a few different rappers who I do not know the identity of, it's mainly Naeul who sings the chorus, and then it goes back to rap, this song is tight haha. I really liked the songs they had in the first album with guest rappers, and I was glad they put some more on this album, Brown Eyes' voices compliment rap very well. The blues guitar solo in this song is pretty cool
07 - Piano Cavationa (Juhm Juhm)
An interlude, a play off of the first album again. In the first album there was the main track, "Already a Year Has Passed" and there was "Piano Nocturne (Already A Year Has Passed)." It was an actual nocturne, based off of the tune of the main song. In this case it's a Cavatina, based off of the tune of "Juhm Juhm." Yoon Gun is a sweet Piano player, and his skills shine through once again.
08 - True Luv
A slower ballad, sung all in English, it has acoustic guitar and electric guitar, and the english is really good in it. It opens up with a conversation between a Barry White type guy and a woman, and that part is kind of lame, but the songs good.
09 - For You (Dolagajwuh)
A nice straightforward pop song, piano-based again, this is another one of my favorites on this cd. like "juhm juhm" it gets a lot stronger at the chorus. It builds up then goes back down, and it's interesting to see this through the song, there's also an electric guitar riff at the end.
10 - Hwan Sang
This is their dance song. In their first album they had one dance track, and it was alright, but they did a much better job on this one than in thier previous album. It has a female vocalist in it, and it's a nice break from their usual flavor of pop/r&b. This song is really good too.
11 - Keuraedo Dwigetni
Mid-tempo pop/R&B song, normal Brown Eyes fare, but that's not to say it's not really good, because it is. Piano, acoustic guitar, an organ, and a hip-hop beat are all laced in to create a nice effect.
12 - Interlude
Another interlude, they haven't had an interlude simply titled "interlude" yet, so this is new too heh. Just naeul and Yoon gun vocalizing with a piano, it sounds pretty, haha.
13 - Miss You
Straight up hip-hop, this one's all in pretty perfect english too. No rappers in this song, but it's good. This has a nice, original beat. This song is really interesting, because it's different from what they usually do too.
14 - Ohu
A Slow ballad, it's just Naeul and Yoon Gun's piano, until the end where there is a sudden surge of percussion and synthesized strings in the background where it gets much more powerful, this is a good song too.
15 - Ebyulsong
Starts out interestingly, with a faint synthesized beat, then it has what I think is either a traditional korean flute, or a panflute, but it sounds pretty cool, anyways it's a flute of sorts in the background, and it actually has a sort of Irish flute sense to it, so I'm probably wrong and should stop pontificating, but oh well haha. This has a beat that reminds me of "Already a Year Has Passed." A Mid-tempo song, this is a nice way to finish off the album.
16 - Juhm Juhm (Noreabang Version)
17 - For You (Noraebang Version)
Just the instrumentals to the two main songs to the album, nothing too special heh.
For a sophomore release, this album is pretty tight. Brown Eyes is completely right in letting the fuss over them be about just their music, because it's good enough that they don't need to worry about their image, which is something that I admire (Daft Punk is another group that does this too, but they're a little more extreme in this, claiming that they're robots, and not making any public appearances, and not many real, recent pictures have been taken of them heh). Brown Eyes is really good at what they do, Naeul's vocals have gotten even better, as have Yoon Gun's, and Yoon Gun's piano work which is in almost every song is simply amazing as well. I would recommend this album to any fan of korean music, r&b, pop, and ballads too. I was really pleased with the way this album turned out.
__________________
word is bond
Last edited by tm11 on 12-06-2002 at 04:44 AM
|
11-28-2002 06:59 PM
