JYJ Music Essay: Their Rooms

After a Japanese and English album comes JYJ’s latest album in their native Korean. There are no barriers to their creativity here as they definitely capitalized on their fluency and comfortability with the language.

Hence, the 6 songs on JYJ Music Essay: Their Rooms is something that all fans have been waiting for as they wrote, composed and produced all the tracks on the album. Coming straight from their hearts, this album is definitely worth a listen to.

The first track is Mission, written and composed by Junsu, and it has a grand opening featuring a strings orchestra and sounds like a movie soundtrack. It has a great beat and catchy chorus, as well as Yoochun rapping. If you excuse the not-so-cool English skills of Junsu and the use of an expletive in the rap, then this is probably a track that proves that they still can retain and improve their sound from their Dong Bang Shin Ki (DBSK) days.

A mellow track written and composed by Jaejoong, Nine was written using basic chords that he learned from Yoochun when he first learned to play the piano. According to Jaejoong, upon the addition of Yoochun, it’s been nine years that the five members of DBSK came together as a group. Therefore, the song also symbolises the five DBSK members in an indirect way.

Pierrot, the third track, starts off slow, picking up a catchy beat just before the first refrain. In this song, Jaejoong describes the experience of working under their previous company, and he doesn’t want to be used as a tool to entertain others in order to generate more money anymore. A pierrot is a pantomime character which is a sad clown, often seen as the fool and the butt of pranks, hence the unique title of the song.

Fallen Leaves is another slow number which showcases the powerful vocals of each member. Written and composed by Junsu, it is a beautiful song with a beautiful melody, as well as beautiful lyrics (although I am just reading the English translations). One thing for sure, this song is definitely one of my favourites off the album.

Next on the list is I.D.S. which stands for Ideal Scenario, yet another track written and composed by Jaejoong. The mid-tempo track has a techno feel towards it, as well as some elements of auto-tune to the voices of the three members. (In this track with Junsu singing in English you have to listen carefully or you might misunderstand the opening lyrics!)

The only song fully written and composed by Yoochun for this album is A Song Without A Name Part 1. The song has a simple yet great melody and features lots of piano sounds, traits that shows the identity of the composer. Most of the time Yoochun raps, while Junsu and Jaejoong joins in to sing at intervals. Of all the tracks, Yoochun’s piece is the most expressional one, as he poured out all his feelings into the lyrics of the song. It captures his ups and downs in the journey of being a member of a popular boy band. All in all, any listener would understand the struggles he had gone through by listening to the song.

A pretty great album indeed from JYJ and my recommendation is to buy JYJ’s Music Essay as it is a unique release. The album also comes together with a diary of the three members’ photos and essays about their daily lives and stories, which are a must-have for every fan!

PS: I have included links for the English translations of each song's lyrics, just click on the bolded song name to read. Credits go to the sites that I have linked to. Enjoy!

The author first listened to JYJ’s The Beginning and came to know of their struggles of performing in their own country due to their lawsuit with their ex-company. The members showcased determination in succeeding without any promotions and advertisement for their albums, and their hard work had paid back well as their album has already topped several charts so far.

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