Sphere

The legacy of "Blonde" can be thoroughly traced here, to influence a stunning voice such as Jooyoung's to finally release his debut album, its been a more than 13 year wait for KR&B fans. The parallels between Frank Ocean and Jooyoung are striking but it shouldn't be a reductive point, either, while Sphere takes cues from the construction of Blonde, being split in two by night, and shaping its songs as memories, it can't be overstated how gorgeously crafted and introspectively written Sphere is.

The world, his vocals and the production of this album is more companion to Blonde than Endless is, a feat very few musicians in the world could pull-off, especially independently. Jooyoung is showing why he has been such a longed after figure in the Korean scene, alongside Dean he has been the biggest what if in the independent scene and here finally, we have his debut album.

Sphere shows his time locked away wasn't wasted either, a completely (or near) english-sung record with each track its own little world, its own memory of love. The single "As I Am" benefits from the context of a full album while "Be" is devastating as the centrepiece of the album. "Blind" and "Sunshine" end the record off in gorgeous flight, the later also delivers the only good feature of the album.

And there's my biggest gripe, the features, he has worked with so many musicians who would have matched him here, Colde, Samuel Seo, pH-1,Mokyo, Giriboy, Penomeco instead he went with Kaash Paige, ron & oiaisle. the record truly suffers when they're singing. The closer is a strange one too, while "Haunted House" does poignantly use the same soundbite Frank Ocean used in his Channel Orange opener, "start" its still a strange end, I mean I expected strange with Garzon Robie featuring but its barely an outro, let a lone an ending to this gorgeous album, oh well.

Overall this album is everything I could have hoped for and easily stands as the new benchmark for Korean R&B. Also this album gets better with each listen making its January release such a blessing.

Favourites: Blind, Be, As I Am, Heaven Soon, Sunshine, MSWO, Night Run.