Unfortunately, the rest of the album drops the ball when it comes to intensity and matching the success of some of the better songs on “Tarantallegra”.
“Fever” is an average up-tempo song that doesn’t really go anywhere. Where it does go is straight to the back burner. It definitely has a JYJ vibe to it, and I feel like this would have worked much better with all three voices mixing up the vocal lead, because as it stands it really is forgettable and flat.
The album closes with “이슬을 머금은 나무“. For an album that was overwhelmed with sappy ballads, this one doesn’t stand out in the least bit. In fact, I feel like it could have used another run through by the mixing engineer, because something about the vocals doesn’t sit properly with the rest of the song, especially in the chorus. They’re definitely a bit on the hot side for me, like Junsu’s whispering loudly into my ear.
As much as I’d like that to actually happen, trust me I do, it didn’t really sit right to my ears. Perhaps it’s the fact that the entire chorus is a series of accents, but I think at least doubling his voice or chorus-ing it would have broadened the sharpness a bit. Either way, the song drags on forever and doesn’t stand out from the rest of the bunch.
“Tarantallegra” is a set of hits and misses for me, with the slower moments acting as anchors more than smooth, sensible bridges between the louder sections of the album. It struggles to create momentum, and when it does, an anchor is set and ready to stop it in its tracks. I feel like there wasn’t a strong enough relationship between the slow and fast songs on “Tarantallegra”, when there could have been had Junsu taken the time to think as big about his ballads as he did with his up-tempos. It’s clear that Junsu wants his ballads to be pretty and melodic, but when the rest of the songs are modeled after cheap dance tracks, the continuity starts feeling as unbalanced as that of an SM Entertainment album.
The best moments of this album came when Junsu served us a mouthful of all that voice and paired it with styles that work as a complement. He loves his strings and he adores his urban-pop, and for the most part, Junsu made them flow pretty freaking well. I appreciate the bareness of most of the uptempo tracks, albeit most forgettable, because it’s a direct contrast from the pop songs you hear now that are chock full of bullshit noise.
Tarantallegra gave us simple, noiseless music. It fell flat more times than I would have liked, and the overall tone got lost on me, but this is a really interesting start for Junsu to experiment even further with in his future projects.
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Author Recommendation: For a perfect example of what a proper ballad should sound like, at least one that resembles the edge of what Junsu attempted to capture in his lead single, I highly suggest listening to Spanish pop diva Monica Naranjo‘s 2008 exceptional album, coincidentally titled “Tarantula“.
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I have only listened to the album once. That pretty much sums up how I feel about this album.
Good review. One of the things I dig about Junsu is his bold ambition. However, execution is something entirely different. There didn’t seem to be a consistent theme tying all the musical elements together in this album. It almost felt like three different mini’s: k ballad, dance & r&b. I kind of feel he should’ve done 3 separate mini albums. Even with the album’s weaknesses, I still look forward to more work from him. Decent first solo effort from him and I love “Intoxication” and “Lullaby” the most.
I pretty much agree with this review completely. When I first listened to the title track it took me a while to even identify where the chorus was since it barely stood out.
Indeed, Junsu is one of the most talented vocalist out there. I appreciate that he tries to do more and expand his skillset but please leave the producing to the real professionals. The production value of most of the songs in this album was so amateurish. I really only liked Lullaby…
FINALLY someone who has the same opinion as me… “The bare and haunting instrumental was the best aspect of “Tarantallegra””
so true!!!! i absolutely LOVE the instrumental it just LACK the awesome lyrics to fit the epic instrumental…
i love this album, it’s way better than “in heaven” imo. but i gotta admit, whatever they (jyj) trying to sell to us fans the next time, please don’t be a cheapskate… hire a proper producer to edit all this mess, work with more song-writers out here. if all south korea producers/song-writers chickened out, there’re tons out here who want to work with them if cjes/jyj looked them up seriously. and it’s not kanye west is the only one around. dear cjes, i know you’re doing business. i get that your boys could still sell million won with cheaper production cost. but if they truly are musicians, they can do better than this. no. they SHOULD do better than this.
Is it just me, or is “Around and Around” sound A LOT like a mash of OSTs, especially “fox rain” from MGIAG???
It feels like a cluttered album. And I love JunSu and his voice is beautiful, but I’ve had to listen to it a few times to pick out the good parts.