After his year-and-a-half hiatus, South Korean singer-songwriter, JIN, greeted his fans with his long awaited debut solo album: HAPPY. The album, released on November 15th, 2024, was his first project after completing his mandatory military service for South Korea. The album encompasses six tracks, including the pre-release single “I’ll Be There”.
JIN, or Seokjin Kim, prior to his album, was already known for being part of BTS, a world-renowned K-pop group, and for the numerous singles he released during the group’s ongoing hiatus, where they set out to complete their military service as well as focus on solo careers (the group is going to be reunited in June of this year).
Two of his many solos during that period include: “Astronaut”, is a slow paced song that came from his collaboration with Coldplay; as well as “Super Tuna”, which is a fun loving song he made for his fans, in ode to his love of fishing. Both of these songs I really enjoyed listening to. And in comparison from these singles to his new album, he draws upbeat and rock sounds with serious lyrics into his album, writing songs like “I’ll Be There” and “Heart on the Window”; which are unique, but still include the aspects of his older songs.
I had listened to his album when he first released it and I automatically fell in love with the music. There were many things I didn’t expect, such as his first all-English song, “Running Wild”, and his collaboration with WENDY from Red Velvet, “Heart on the Window”. The music in his album is wide ranged, from upbeat songs like “I’ll Be There”, to haunting techno songs like “Another Level”, to slow and wistful songs like “I will come to you”.
Due to the artist being Korean, most of his songs, in this album and not, are in Korean, so that he can contribute to the writing. I don’t know much to any Korean, so there’s certain things I wasn’t able to pick up without looking at the English translation of the lyrics, but that didn’t change much about my opinion. If anything, looking at the meaning of the lyrics made me like the songs even more. Especially for songs like “I’ll Be There” and “I will come to you” where you can see his heartfelt lyrics directed to his fans, in lines such as “With this song I say to you/I swear that I will always sing for you” from the english translation of “I’ll Be There”; and the english translation of some of the lyrics from “I will come to you”: “Even if I’m aware for a moment because of longing/I promise I will come to you/if you need me, I will come to you.”.
The message between these two songs is around the same, but with two different sounds, one upbeat and the other not. In fact, the first two songs of the album, including “Running Wild” and “I’ll be There”, are upbeat, with the last two: “Heart on the Window” and “I will come to you” being more wistful, with “Another Level” and “Falling” as the transitional sounds. It’s almost like the telling of a story, which in the end does end up connecting back to the title of the album, HAPPY, in many different ways. An example could be the title song, “Running Wild”, starts the connection by, firstly, being an upbeat song, and secondly, by talking about cherishing happy memories with loved ones, and how you should never forget them, and perhaps spend more joyful moments with them as well.
And because of all of those aspects, I couldn’t help but enjoy the song, and the rest of the other tracks as well, but I still ended up picking my favorite. My favorite song in the album is most likely, “Heart on the Window”, which was Jin’s collaboration with Wendy. I love the duet between the two of them, their voices compliment the other’s well, not to mention the way the lyrics are divided between them. The first verse is just Jin, however, the first chorus includes Wendy as well, before officially introducing her in the second verse, so that you already know there’s someone he’s singing with. I also love the beat, and how it compliments the lyrics, making a sound that you can just hear all around you. In the song, the duet is between two lovers and how they still want the other to know they love them, even though they aren’t able to see each other. The meaning is beautiful, adding to the memorability of the song, making it almost impossible to stop listening to.
And that is just my opinion as someone who’s liked his music for some time now. I know very well that his music may not be everyone’s cup of tea, especially considering the fact that the music genre is K-pop. However, I still think that it deserves a try. Not to mention, I didn’t think I’d ever be listening to this kind of music either, and now it’s my top genre. HAPPY can definitely make the sun shine through on a grey day.
