Happy 35th birthday, Jonghyun!! 
I purposely timed my “She Is” fashion review for his 30th birthday back in 2020. Crazy to think about how much time has passed since then and now. I was 26 and not really sure what I direction I wanted to go into.
Other than to be creative in whatever job I went into next. I’ll be 31 next month, and now I know exactly what “my purpose” in life is, and I’ve fully accepted it. I’m meant to write. Help others and write.
And when I think about writing and everything along with it– how to improve, trying something new, failing…a lot, going back to basics, trying again, taking a break, not feeling satisfied, success, loving what I’ve created top to bottom, going to back edit things, etc. When I’m ready to take action, I go to SHINee for inspiration and guidance. Jonghyun is the spark, the seasoning. My bias wreaker in SHINee.
So it only makes sense for my 300th post, to honor his talent and music by talking about my favorite full-length album of his, Poet | Artist.
It’s high-key difficult to find HD quality images of this era, for like, obvious reasons. It’s difficult to have tons of photos of an artist’s posthumous work. I get that. I also probably could have searched fyjjong on Tumblr, but I didn’t think about that until after I found my album, and took pictures of it. So now this is also a mini album unboxing article as well, lol.
I haven’t looked through this album in a while. I forgot when I bought this from one of my local Kpop stores. It wasn’t when it first released. I feel like maybe 2021-2022? I hate that SM doesn’t do reprints. That’s how I ended up buying a Taiwanese copy of She is for like $80 because it’s out of print 
and that was like a steal compared to other individuals selling it. It was still sealed, so…that was a perk. I’m getting off-topic.
I couldn’t remember if there were photo cards with Poet | Artist at first. I thought it didn’t because of Jonghyun’s untimely death. And yeah, no photo cards with this album. My favorite parts of this physical album are the last three pages of it.
The college of Jonghyun and SHINee pics are bound weird. I tried to get a picture of the two pages in one shot, but the upper right pic of Jonghyun in the blue suit was blinded by glare. So I decided to just take them separately and crop them.
And just about everyone who’s talked about this album has the orange album cover as the thumbnail, so to be a contrarian, I chose the Shawol and Jonghyun pic with our fandom color as the boarder.
Okay, now to the music!
It took me a couple of months to actually listen to Poet | Artist. I wasn’t ready back in January 2018. I think it was like summer, late summer before I actually listened to it entirely. I think I listened and watched the music video for “Shinin'” and that was all I could do at the time.
I was still heavily grieving. It was easier for me to listen to The Story of Light EP.1, omg, another trilogy I must talk about on here. Fantastic set of albums. Kinda underrated, actually. Considering what SHINee was able to release and continue forward as a group post-Jonghyun’s presence.
Wait, it might have been after the Epilogue (The Story of Light repackage album) I finally was ready to listen to Poet | Artist. Because I think that was the album, or rather the third episode, that had Jonghyun’s vocals on it. EP.3 was released in June, with Epilogue released in September 2018. I don’t remember. Doesn’t really matter because when I did listen to it as a whole, I was in love.
“Shinin'” is such a banger. So Jonghyun to release as a title track. I like and respect The Collection Story Op. 1 and 2. The latter has “Fireplace“, my favorite of the bunch. Although I probably should revisit both albums with fresh ears. I wanna dance and those albums are more chill, jazzy, ballad-y side of Jonghyun. Which is great. But I have to be in the mood for it. Very rainy day playlist if memory serves.
Coincidentally, Score (Lee Kwan) worked on both “Fireplace” and “Shinin'”. Love that for us. Megatone, also worked on “Shinin'” and I think both are a part of the same production team. Shout out to Discogs for coming through again with receipts.
I didn’t realize Score worked on LE SSERAFIM’s “Hot” along with some other bops I recognized while scrolling through his IG. I now follow both on IG. See this is what I’m talking about, my favorite Kpop songs are written, produced, arranged by the same like, 30 people, lmao. It’s wonderful 
.
So Jonghyun has credits on 2/11 songs on Poet |Artist and that’s pretty crazy to me. SHINee went from having to fight to get music credits and have more say in their music, to in like two years having their albums littered with the members’ names in the credits. I’m so proud of them for that 
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I don’t listen to “#Hashtag” much, but I love Jonghyun having his IU “BBIBBI” moment (English lyrics to “#Hastag” here). This one feels like it slipped in from The Collection Story Op. 1 and 2 albums. I love when you get crossover like that.
Also, I’ve been listening to more Onew solo music lately. Tell me why “#Hashtag” sounds like something Onew would make. When Stray Kids said, “I am you, see me in you”, they were talking about SHINee and their consistent bleeding into each others’ art. You can’t change my mind.
I don’t know how this keeps happening. I talked about my love for “Monodrama” in the Base article. And the same thing happened. One day, I started listening to “Grease” and it became my favorite song off the album. “Grease” feels a bit like a follow-up, a b-side to “Monodrama” in a way.
In the way that “Monodrama” has like one-sided love vibes and wanting to cross that line so badly. “Grease” feels like the regret or guilt of crossing that line. Both slap. The vocal runs Jonghyun does in “Grease”, omgggg. Plus the beat drops. It’s giving Taemin Catholic guilt. I’m so here for it.
“Take The Dive” and “Sightseeing” are both songs I haven’t listened to in ages, and I need to get back to them. I forgot how good they are. Seo Ji-eum is back 
on lyrics for “Take The Dive”, but Jonghyun wrote the lyrics for “Sightseeing”. I like the outside, traffic sounds in the background for “Sightseeing”.
“Rewind” was my favorite song from Poet | Artist for years. Until I had that “Grease” awakening. I listen to it a lot still on my Deep House & Electronic playlist. I love that Jonghyun was so deep in his House bag still in 2018. I’ve talked about it numerous times now, but my favorite era of SHINee musically is 2016-2018 because of the House and R&B influence going on.
And this Jonghyun album has R&B and Trap elements in it too. I think that’s why when I did finally listen to it, I was hooked. Many initial reviews talk about how bittersweet this album is. And I agree. But it’s also such a flawless showcase of Jonghyun’s versatility as an artist.
This album has everything Jonghyun fans love about him on here. The first part of the album caters heavily to the Shawols like me who want to dance, whether that’s straight up house music or more midtempo vibes. Then we get a transition into the more balladly side of Jonghyun with this later half.
I can’t stop thinking about how complete this feels. Yes, I would love more music from Jonghyun, but I don’t feel unsatiated by it either.
“Just for a Day” is another one I don’t listen to much, but I’ll be incorporating back into my music rotation. I’m realizing as I’m working on this album, I don’t listen to the b-sides on this one nearly as much as Base and She Is. I need to fix that. Get it together Spotify, lol. This was also the other non-Jonghyun written song. This one was written by Jeon Gandi.
“I’m So Curious” is giving reheated Base nachos, and I love that for us. A bit of The Collection Story Op. 1 and 2 if you squint.
“Sentimental” falls into this as well. It could easily pass for a The Collection Story Op. 1 and 2 song. I’m saying this, but we’ll see how I feel when I revisit both albums, lol.
Oh you’re lying if you say you don’t tear up to “Before Our Spring”. Such a beautiful song for one, two, Jonghyun’s voice is out of this world during it. Three, I love all the clips and the way this music video was put together.
Album wise, “Sentimental” does a good job slowing the pace down before we get this ballad to end the album. It ain’t a boring ballad if SHINee’s on the track. But it is on my rainy day playlist, lol.
The thing I think about this album and era the most, my main takeaway is that life is too short and long to put up with BS. Too short in that you don’t have forever to get something completed or to experience something.
Long, in that if you’re doing something that makes you unhappy, it feels like forever when you’re in something. So now that’s how I live my life. So I don’t get too worked up anymore if I don’t complete something if I’m focusing on some other project I want to work on. The only bad thing is to not create. To ignore my calling.
So, I hope y’all enjoyed this review of one of my favorite albums by one of my favorite artists to ever do it. Let me know what y’alls fave songs from this album are. I hope you’re feeling encouraged to “Take The Dive” into something scary that will shape you for the better.
Idk what the next article will be on because this was the last item on my content calendar until the 24th, lmao. Maybe Mark’s solo album? Yeah, that sounds right. Going from being emotional about one SM artists to another. Let’s gooooo. I’m so proud of Mark Lee even if I hate this album. It’s bigger than my music taste. This is a full circle moment that has been years in the making.
Anyway, don’t forget to follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Threads, & BlueSky. I’ll see y’all next article.
Take care!
Ash