Secret - Gift From Secret (3rd Single Album) (2013)

In December 2013, Secret released a winter-themed EP that gave a nod to the Christmas season with the title Gift From Secret. The centerpiece was the Spectoresque “I Do I Do,” one of the catchiest and brightest songs in the Secret catalog. The intro track “Snowmelt” evokes a cozy evening spent indoors, and the nostalgic “Remember Me” recalls a past winter love. The only song that breaks with the theme is the techno-fied dance track “Fantastic,” which is placed non-disruptively at the end. “I Do I Do” is the only indispensable song here, but for the listener who wants the snow-covered musical experience to last just a little longer, the rest is worthwhile.

Jang Yoon-Jeong Vol. 5 (장윤정 5집) (2010)

Jang Yoon-Jeong’s fifth album kept with the general trend from her fourth album; it’s a combination of trot, pop and club dance all in one. The lead single “Come On” is a breezy, summery pop song, while second single “Invocation” is a trot ballad. The dance tracks “Fire Butterfly,” Stockings,” and “Casanova” are all standard fare, while “Uh-oh” is a particularly fun trot number. The hookiest track might be the pure pop song “Common Sense.” This album also includes a duet with legendary trot singer Nam Jin on “I Like You.” The sequencing has the four “serious” songs sandwiched in the middle, with a solid layer of upbeat songs at both the beginning and end, leaving the listener with a generally happy feeling.

Image Source: Bugs! Music

Cho Yong-Pil Vol. 2 (조용필 2집) (1980)

Cho Yong-Pil’s phenomenal success in Korea made him the first Korean rock artist to perform at Carnegie Hall, as is prominently displayed by the front cover. Like Volume 1, some of the songs included were themes to dramas, including the title song “Blessing (Candlelight),” and “Modern History Figures.” Other songs of note include “Unexpected Goodbye,” which fuses elements of both trot and disco and “I’ve Decided to Forget,” which has been called a fusion of an adult pop song and a nursery rhyme. “Ganyangrok,” which tells the story of a Joseon scholar in Japan, is also well-known, and the funky “Let Me Meet” closes out the album with a twist.

Jigu Records hurried the release of this album as a follow-up to the bestselling Volume 1, and the tracks “Love Hasn’t Ended Yet” and “Sad Smile” from the first album are included again here.

Note: The CD version has a different track sequence, but since this album originally came out in the vinyl era, I’ve listed the track sequence from the vinyl version. The CD version doesn’t include the instrumental to “Bobbed Hair,” but it does include “Thoughts of Older Brother,” which wasn’t released on vinyl until Cho’s Volume 3. I have included a translation of “Thoughts of Older Brother” here.

Photo via ManiaDB

Cho Yong-Pil Vol. 12 (조용필 12집) Sailing Sound (1990)

Cho Yong-Pil’s 12^th album Sailing Sound, his first of the 1990’s, contains one of his most-covered ballads, the sweeping and magnificent “I Wish It Could Be That Way Now.” That song is only one of many highlights, however. The cheery pop of “Your Scent Scattered” and the longing rocker “Sunflower” have hooks that stick in your brain, as does the upbeat closer “Life Goes Round and Round.” The opening track “Reunion in Memories” was the title song, and received new life years later after being covered on the Korean variety show I Am a Singer. There are interesting changes of pace too, with the haunting and mysterious “Ancient Palace,” a tribute to a historic castle that’s now a run-down tourist attraction, and the genre-defying “Oh Tree,” which taps into the human desire for groundedness. All in all, this album was a great beginning to the new decade, and is one of Cho’s best start-to-finish listens.

Image taken from ManiaDB

Cho Duk-Bae Vol. 5 (조덕배 5집) (1989)

Cho Duk-Bae skipped album number four (probably due to four being considered an unlucky number in Korea) and went straight to number five. This album produced one of his most famous songs, the lush “If You Come Into my Heart.” Cho’s beautiful jazzy folk style remains the same, but Byeon Seong-Yong’s arrangements add a new depth to his sound that wasn’t present on previous albums. The trot-like “I’ve Become Speechless” is a slight stylistic departure, but it fits the general mood. Altogether, it’s a very relaxing listen, as is usually the case with Cho.

This album is available on CD only as a combined disc with Cho’s third album and a slightly different track sequence. The sequence here is the one from the original vinyl album.

Cover art image source

Secret - Magic Mini Album (Secret Time EP) (시크릿 - Magic) (2009)

After their techno/R&B-tinged debut single “I Want You Back” failed to make a large impact, Secret had much better success with the organic funk sounds of their second single “Magic.” “Magic” was a bona fide smash hit, with an infectious, danceable beat and a powerful, eye-catching music video. While their debut single was available only as a download, “Magic” was released as part of this six-track mini-album. Stripped-down versions of “I Want You Back” and its b-side “3 Years and 6 Months” were included, along with the synthesizer-heavy dance track “Spot Light,” the straightforward pop song “Figure It Out” and the R&B-ish “My Boy.” None of those non-single tracks is worth the price of the album by itself, but the single tracks are strong enough to make this disc a decent listen overall.

Cover art courtesy of ManiaDB

Jang Yoon-Jeong Vol. 4 (Jang Yoon-Jeong Twist) (장윤정 4집) (2008)

The modern-day Queen of Trot’s fourth album actually strays a bit from the genre in her appellation. There’s very little trot on this album, in favor of a wide variety of styles. The title song, “Jang Yoon-Jeong Twist” shows Jang paying homage to the 1960’s dance craze, and the club tracks “Sudden Grinding” and “Tiptoe Tiptoe” have very little in common with Korea’s traditional foxtrot music. There are upbeat pop songs in “Try to Catch Me” and “I Need a Man,” slow ballads in “I Am Anxious,” “Once Again,” and “The Life of a Woman,” (that last title not a rendition of the Lee Mi-Ja classic), and even a Korean-language cover of “One Night Only” from Dreamgirls. Like most of Jang’s albums, it’s all over the map stylistically, but the material is strong and her vocals tie it together cohesively.

Cover art via ManiaDB

Cho Duk-Bae Vol. 3 (조덕배 3집) (1988)

Cho Duk-Bae’s third album is a bit jazzier and less acoustic-based than his previous two albums, and a bit more consistent, as there aren’t any stylistic outliers such as “You Look So Pretty From Behind” or “You Who Are Hidden to Me.” The general feel of Cho’s music is still laid-back and mysterious, and his familiar lyrical themes are still there.

The title track is the haunting “The Woman Who Was Holding Baby’s Breath,” consistent with the cover photo of a little girl sitting in a patch of said flowers. Other highlights include “My Love,” “I Won’t Sing a Sad Song,” and “A Flower in a Rainy Mist.”

This album is only available on CD as a combined disc with Cho’s fifth album (Cho has no fourth album). The track sequence here is the one from the original vinyl LP.

Image courtesy of powerranking.tistory.com

Cho Yong-Pil Vol. 1 (조용필 1집) (1980)

While Cho Yong-Pil had released music throughout the 1970’s, it wasn’t until his first release with Jigu Records in 1980 that he became a superstar. Many of the songs on this album are among Cho’s best-known to this day. “Return to Busan Port” is considered by some to be the most significant Korean pop song in history, its message resonating with Korean families whose relatives had gone abroad. The bluesy ballad “The Woman Outside the Window” and the synth-pop disco of “Bobbed Hair” were musically innovative, and there’s a reverence for previous generations of Korean music as well, with a recording of the folk song “Five Hundred Years” and a remake of the 1959 hit “Daejeon Blues.”

Several tracks here had been released previously, such as “Return to Busan Port,” “The River of No Return,” “Jeong,” and “Too Short.” “The River of No Return,” “Love Hasn’t Ended Yet,” and “The Woman Outside the Window” were originally musical pieces written for dramas. In a sense, this album is like a greatest hits collection of Cho’s 1970’s work and then some. It ended up becoming the first Korean album to sell a million copies, and far and away the best-selling Korean album of 1980.

Note: The CD version of this album has a slightly different track sequence. The sequence here is from the original vinyl album.

Album cover via ManiaDB

Jang Yoon-Jeong Vol. 2 (장윤정 2집) (2005)

The 21^st Century’s Queen of Trot, Jang Yoon-Jeong followed up on the success of her first album with this fine effort. On the trot side, there are hits such as “Flower,” “Jjan-jja-ra,” and the later-to-be-remade “Bean Pods.” On the non-trot side there’s the pop ballad “Letter,” a duet with the late Chae Dong-Ha (채동하) of SG Wannabe, the dance tracks “Hey Lover” and “Frost,” and the rap-rock chant “Take Heart.” Jang’s vocal talent is considerable enough to carry these songs, whatever the genre, and it makes for a good all-around album. Trot may not be most youngsters’ cup of tea, but this album proves it can successfully be fused with modern pop sensibilities.

Image via ManiaDB

Clinah - We Are Clinah! (클리나 1집) (2011)

Way back in 2011, an unknown company called Dino Entertainment burst onto the music scene with their hot new girl group, Clinah (pronounced “Clean-uh”). This was no ordinary girl group, however. No, no, this was a real, legitimate, girl rock band! Members included lead vocalist Han Yuna (한유나), lead guitarist Rika (리카), rhythm guitarist Malja (말자), and bespectacled drummer Lee Soun (이소운). They were so legit they didn’t even need anything silly like a bass player. They released their debut mini-album in October of that year, and even scored some music show appearances with their single “Come On Boy.”

Of course, this “rock band” was nothing more than an idol group with the trappings of a rock band. Their live performances included choreographed moves while playing (miming) the instruments, and the recordings were typical heavily-produced fare, just a little more guitar-based than the dance-pop groups’ stuff. And that name. Clinah. What did it mean? No one seemed to know!

Whatever the case, Clinah failed to catch on. They never had a second single, and by early 2012 they were trying to stay afloat as cheerleaders for the SK Wyverns baseball team. Malja left the group because of health reasons that April, and no replacement was ever found. By 2013, Dino Entertainment’s website no longer existed.

While this group appears to be nothing but a piece of musical ephemera that belongs on the far back shelf of K-Pop’s reject warehouse, there’s something strangely fascinating about them. Their songs, while not deserving of any awards, were actually not that bad. Indeed, many groups with stronger financial backing have released far worse singles and their careers never missed a step. It’s more a statement about the secondary importance of musical quality within the pop music industry than it is of Clinah’s merits.

Had the circumstances been different, one wonders what might have been for these girls. Had they just been with a bigger entertainment company, they might have been more than a one-and-done no-hit wonder. Had their looks just appealed to viewers a little more, they might have gotten a larger male fanbase to fuel their popularity. Had the handling of the rock band concept not looked so silly, maybe they would’ve been able to develop from a pre-packaged band into a legitimate one, like The Monkees. After all, amid the silliness of the choreographed moves, it at least appeared that they knew what they were doing with guitars and sticks in hand. It’s doubtful they would’ve produced anything in the league of the K-Pop greats, but they might’ve ended up deserving a place just a bit closer to the warehouse entrance.

In the end, this one release is about the entirety of their musical legacy. Clinah’s sole mini-album is a fun little treat that grows on you, and is always a possible under-the-radar hidden gem for the adventurous K-Pop fan. It doesn’t reinvent the idol pop wheel, but it might leave you curious about what could have been.

Image source: ManiaDB