Younha - Someday

Password 486, Younha's first stand-out Korean hit, earned her the KBS Music Bank New Artist Award, yet this only marked the beginning of her Korean career. Younha had already become quite successful in Japan with the release of the song Houki Boshi, which earned her the nickname "The Oricon Comet", a reference to the speed in which her single climbed the Japanese Oricon charts.

Someday, Younha's latest Korean album mixes elements of pop rock, electric guitars and drum tracks, with those of ballads, pianos and violins. Someday is incredibly unique in that it is flexible. Unlike her previous work, specifically material released in Japan, the songs on Someday fit together perfectly, creating a nice harmony both in the songs and the album as a whole.

Gossip Boy leads the album, setting the tone with a wonderful high tempo synthesis of guitar, violin, and piano. It's fast, hopeful, and is carried by clear, strong vocals. It sets a perfect mood and is an amazingly well done track that could have easily taken the place of the title track, which says a lot.

The next track, Gieok, is a great palette cleanser. It departs from Gossip Boy's high power vocals and slows the album down just a little bit. Here Younha works with Tablo of Epik High; together they do an amazing job with the first first slow song on the album. Driven by violins and a thumping bass, Gieok pulses along melancholically to its sad, lonely finish.

Rising from Memory's ashes is Hero, a loud, impressively structured violin rock song. It's Gossip Boy's angry cousin in a sense and, once again, Younha nails the vocals, but also notable is the quality of the instrumental element of the song. Instead of taking precedent or overpowering Younha's voice, like it seemed to in her past work, it's now mixed well and works with Younha, complementing her voice rather than detracting from it.

Someday elaborates upon Hero's niche and runs with it, utilizing strong, guitar backed vocals, but this time with far more peaks and valleys. The song goes from quaint and quiet to incredibly vibrant in a manner of seconds. It's a testament to her voice, and to the construction of the song that again works with, not against her.

While the opening tracks were strong, they were all just lead-ins to the premier track, Telepathy. These five tracks are, simply put, some of the best Younha ever offered her audience and Telepathy is probably the most impressive of them all. The reason Telepathy succeeds is that it manages to do what 486 did, but better. It synthesizes her earlier styles and influences and creates a wonderful, pumping, high power rock song that captures Younha's hopeful, youthful sound better than any of its predecessors.

The Rain and the Bar, a short interlude track, marks the turning point in Someday. The first five tracks are high energy pieces, but all those that follow The Rain and the Bar are almost exclusively ballads, or soft songs. It's an interesting transitional piece, where the listener walks into a bar out of a rainstorm, a band can be heard warming up in the background. The track foreshadows what is to come, while appealing to a certain South Korean brand of Euro cool that is unique to Seoul, with its many wine bars and jazz clubs.

Bissori and Rainbow both are beautiful, guitar accented vocal pieces that lead off the second half of the album. The particularly cool part of how these sync up with the interlude is that it feels like Younha's singing these songs in the bar in the interlude. They're atmospheric in an odd sense, calming and refreshing. They cleanse any stress that the past songs might have created, like a soft breeze.

Bissori and Rainbow both build into the song Best Friend, a rather bizarre poppy 80's sounding piece. It's fast, but tries to stay soft. This simply doesn't work; the song is almost entirely electronica and the resulting sound is sharp and shrill. So, instead of sounding fresh it sounds dated and corny. It is easy to see where the song could have been brilliant if only the composition had been altered but this song is probably the one outlier on Someday. Some might like it, but it's definitely an acquired taste.

Strawberry Days continues in a fashion similar to Bissori and Rainbow; it's a soft, calming, guitar driven piece, leading into a pure piano piece composed and played by Younha called For Catharina. It's a beautiful, quaint little song that is reminiscent of Yiruma and is worth at least a listen. For Catharina helps prepare the listener for Miwahada, a prototypical piano ballad that is well executed, but in no way unique, and features some of the same misplaced synthesized elements that characterized Best Friend.

But easily, the standout ballad on Someday is My Song And..., an all English love song that is outstanding even on the first listen. It's touching, and extremely well sung. It's Younha's song; nothing ever dominates her voice and it simply demands to be listened to if you want to hear the best antithesis to a song like Telepathy. The soft piano, guitar and violins really bring out some authenticity to the song that is hard to find in a lot of singers. Finally, Ulji Mayo closes off the album. The song is reminiscent of walking outside in spring, soft, melodic, constant, it's a fairly elegant way to end Someday.

Someday is a defining album for Younha. It encompasses what makes her unique as an artist, and drops most of what was generic about her previous Korean and Japanese work. What remains then is something you simply can't find coming from other artists. The album is two faced, vibrant and loud, as well as being quiet and reserved. It's two sides of Younha, both of which are appealing in their own way, for their own reasons. So whether you enjoy the hard hitting pop rock she is know for, or her lesser known soft, calm pieces, it's safe to say Someday is worth the listen.