REVIEW: Jaehyun – J – The 1st Album

There’s still some time, but idk man, this might be my favorite album of 2024. If I were to describe my feelings towards this album, it would be a direct quote from the man himself, “I can’t get you out of my system”. J – The 1st Album is outstanding, phenomenal, otherworldly. All the good stuff. So let’s jump right into it.

Smoke

Going in track list order, let’s start with the title track, “Smoke”. In my quick thoughts on “Dandelion” and “Roses” I said I was most excited for “Smoke”, “Easy” and “Can’t Get You”. We will get to the others, but “Smoke” like “Roses” gets better with every listen.

I wasn’t expecting an English version, and I’m not sure if I have a preference. Both are similar enough and easy to sing along to. I watched the recording video of “Smoke” and the engineer that was hyping him up was such a mood. We love a professional SINGER.

I love these BTS production videos so much. I find the process of how songs are made fascinating. The small tweaks here and there can much such a large impact on things. The back and forth between vocalist and production and what they talk about is interesting. I noticed there’s once for Baekhyun’s “Pineapple Slice” that I’ll be checking out later.

Song wise, I wasn’t surprised to see Jaehyun having credits on the lyrics for “Smoke”. I could just tell how much of his energy was put into this song and album even before I watch the BTS videos. He has lyrics credits on every song except for one, “Completely”. And I think it’s noticeable, again, we’ll talk about that later. But you can read up on the Wiki on whom all worked on the album, here.

“Smoke” is a chill, midtempo R&B track and I love that we’re sticking to this formula. I love it more and more with every listen. All the adlibs and background vocals are perfect. I love the different inflections on certain words he uses throughout the song. There’s just so much going on. The horns, the pause when you think the song is over, but it’s really not yet. It really just sets the vibe for the entire album incredibly well. What an album opener and title track.

The music video is a bit weird. I adore the styling in it. I’m not sure which is my favorite look from the video. Maybe the white suit? The blue robe/blazer is nice too. So many decisions. All excellent choices.

I like in this video above, we not only get to look at the different outfits in each video/album jacket, you also get to look at the sets in more detail. There’s an entire playlist for this era on YouTube, where you can check out more behind the scenes stuff. I’m currently watching this one:

Here’s the link to the entire J era playlist on YouTube, including music show performances and the album itself. My not so subtle way to bring more Valentines to the fandom, lol.

One of the main things I keep thinking about with the music video for smoke, and just how SM does things visually now, is how similar this rollout reminds me of ROVER. Like how both videos come full circle with no real ending. And in the film trailer for ROVER there’s a scene where Kai is in a hotel hallway deranged as well. So maybe they’re both in the American Horror Story: Hotel universe.

I think more likely the similarities is just because the same people worked on it and that’s their aesthetic visually. So that’s why we keep seeing it everywhere. SM has different eras visually that they stick with for a bit before switching things up. But I really love what they’re doing right now with all the trailers and visuals to go with the album audio instead of just still images.

I’m going to skip “Roses” and “Dandelion” because I’ve talked about them in depth already here. And I feel pretty much the same about them. I still love them both. I enjoy the duality going on. But I do enjoy “Roses” even more now. The vocals and adlibs are so much fun on that song to sing along to in the car, or anywhere.

Not me picking out this photo hours before the enlistment news came out, goodddd this photo is cursed, lol.

Flamin’ Hot Lemon

This album kinda pisses me off with how GOOD it is. Jaehyun really came out swinging on this album.

“Flamin’ Hot Lemon” ties with “Can’t Get You” as my second favorite song on J. The vibes and flow on both songs are immaculate. But specifically on “Flamin’ Hot Lemon” it’s just so smooth. The cool flows so effortlessly out of Jaehyun on this song. I know he had fun recording this one.

I talked about this in my quick thoughts, but know that I’ve listened to the album in full multiple times, I can confirm he knew exactly what he wanted this album to sound like. I think he executed his vision perfectly.

“Flamin’ Hot Lemon” is such a bob your head to song. How can you not sway back and forth with a drink in your hand while this is playing in the background. Flawless, flawless song.

Completely

This one’s for the boring ballad supremacists. If I have the choice onf a boring ballad being on an album or not, most often I’m opting for out, unless the vocals are there. Jaehyun is one of my favorite NCT vocalist, so I’m here the boring ballad.

When I looked at the breakdown of lyrics, music, and arrangement on Wiki, I had a feeling Jaehyun was more of the performer on this one because of how different it is compared to the other tracks. And that’s a million percent fine. I think he kills it on this song. The emotion and color he adds to it is great. And I do listen to this one more than most boring ballads on an album.

There’s so much English on this album. Thank you, Jae, for flexing your multilingual skills for the girls.

Easy

My favorite song on J. A nearly impossible task to complete. I love all the songs on this album for different yet similar reasons. “Easy” and “Flamin’ Hot Lemon” feel like sister songs. And I think that’s why it was difficult for me to choose my favorite for a few listens. I’ve listened to this entire album, all the way through, off and on, since it’s released exactly a month ago today.

I always say this with what I consider “late” reviews. But I do like having enough time between releases, so have a more developed relationship with the music. Sometimes I feel the same way about a song as I did a month or two years ago from my first listen. Others it takes me a bit. The stars aligned perfectly on this one.

Anyway, back to “Easy”. This is the best example of everything I love about the sound of J. The “whatever, whatever” and “whatever, whatever you like” kills me EVERY TIME. My favorite part of this song. His delivery is everything to me about that line. It’s nonchalant, a little slurred, but still cool. Because the whole song is like girl, either you f*ck with me or you don’t, and that vibe from Jaehyun is hilarious as a long term NCTzen.

Like, I empathize with someone being wishy-washy on if they want to pursue something with you or not. But also the way he’s giving us his perspective is also funny. I think it goes back to the whole Valentine’s Day boy having love problems irony. Perhaps I’m a sadist.

I just love this song so much. I’m dancing as I’m typing right now, thinking about this song. The video stopped playing 10 minutes ago, and I’m bobbing my head singing,”easy come, easy go you just want whatever you like” “whatever, whatever you like”. Oh, I just love it 🥰.

Can’t Get You

If “Easy” and “Flamin’ Hot Lemon” are sister songs. “Can’t Get You” is the sister song to “Horizon”. Hands down. It’s sexy, smooth and feels like something you’d play on a yacht in the middle of the Mediterranean. 🎶 It’s that perfect ocean view 🎶

I would wake up in the morning and this song would be the first thought/thing I heard. I knew I was gonna love this song, and it would be one of my faves off the album. But man. MAN, it really unlocks something in my brain that I didn’t know was there. This is what I mean by grown and sexy music in my quick thoughts. There’s just different energy going on in this song. I’m so here for it.

“Can’t Get You”, like “Easy” encapsulates my favorite things about this album. The further into J I got on my first couple of listens, the more I just pause and realize how much love and respect this man has for American R&B. His ability to take aspects of it and remix it into Korean music, but still keep black folks involved instead of trying to erase us out of it. 10s across the board.

The last new song on the album is “Can’t Get You”, but technically the last song is the English version of “Smoke”. If you love it in Korean, save the English version. It’s a no-brainer.

Jaehyun’s inclusion of so much English on this album (sorry when I say that, I keep thinking of that video clip of Mark and Johnny when Mark is like, “there’s so much Korean today” in English and Johnny just looks back at him smiling and nodding. I don’t even know where to source that clip, I promise it’s real, lol) is also so effortless. I hope he knows he sounds amazing and his hard work and dedication to learning the language is greatly appreciated by us. He switches between the two so smoothly, I hardly even notice.

There’s so much content from this era I still have to watch. As I mentioned eariler, I started working on this article yesterday afternoon, September 25 (for me in the ATL). A few hours later, we learned Jaehyun is enlisting into the Army Military Band on November 4th. Also pray for my girl Jaehyunpetals on Twitter, she’s going through it, rightfully so.

That’s another similarity Kai and Jaehyun have with ROVER and J. Both released albums of the year, before they left me 😭.

Anyway, I feel like I only scratched the surface on this album and era. I’m excited to dive into more videos from this era and hey, at least he got his first ever solo music show win this era too. I was looking at the charts on Wiki, and even though I personally don’t care about charts, it charted pretty well. So I’m incredibly happy about that too. I think overall this was a successful era and debut. And it’s just going to create even more hype and excitement for new music when he comes back.

So what are y’alls thoughts on J and “Smoke”? Let me know in the comments. Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and Instagram. Next up is Baekhyun’s Hello, World. See ya then!

Take care,

Ash💫

Now I have Jaehyun’s “I know you know” from “Can’t Get You” stuck in my head. Sigh. Also, I went a bit overboard downloading photos, I gotta use these up, lol. Okay byeeeeee.