Jonghyun's final album: the singer writes his own epitaph on Poet ∣ Artist

The release of Poet ∣ Artist marks a crushing, bittersweet moment. New work from Shinee's Jonghyun, who had proved himself to be an articulate lyricist, a gifted writer of melodies and a master of his own formidable voice at just 27 years old would normally be cause for celebration. Instead, Poet ∣ Artist, released a month after he took his own life, has become a kind of a epitaph.

I have spent that time swinging between disbelief, acceptance and grief. Anticipating the album's release and dreading it.

And now, here it is. He is gone, but his music lives on in Poet ∣ Artist, a title that reflects his ambition to strive for something beyond the strictures and structures of a K-pop idol's life.

Jonghyun’s “official” releases were always a bit more polished and produced than they should be. This became clear with the collections of songs written for his Blue Night radio show, Story Op. 1 and 2. - and also with songs he wrote for others, like Lim Kim’s playful No More. It was obvious that when he was permitted to be more creative and introspective, and wander a bit further afield into unusual genres to create songs with looser structures and sparser production, Jonghyun could really shine. It didn’t always work - Happy Birthday from Op. 1 was a bit of a half-assed jazz-blues jam - but there are plenty of times when it did, and on more than one occasion (Skeleton Flower, Let Me Out) he created a masterpiece.

It’s hard not to look at the lyrics of the songs here (he wrote nine of the 11) through the lens of his passing. In an interview for the She Is album, he said the songs were built around characters, and the songs on the Story albums were apparently inspired by callers’ stories to Blue Night. No songwriter - especially one who has said his goal was to have 100 songs listed on KomCa (the Korean musicians’ copyright association) by the age of 30 - could base all his lyrics on himself without …

Well.

Even so, some of the words on this album hit hard. Take this verse from Before Our Spring, the ballad that closes the album:

“I don’t want to go to you/I’m afraid I’m contagious/when I forget my tears and my sadness/When spring comes to me too/Then …”

This song closes the album. It’s the last song he intended us to hear. 

Then there is Grease, a song with a chilled groove and hushed vocals and words that are filled with regret and bitter despair: “It’s my fault that I didn’t know about myself.” “I want to fix it up.” “I want to erase you.” It’s hard not to wonder if he is talking about himself.

But it’s not all gloom. There are a few love songs, a couple of songs with abstract lyrics and two for which he receives no writing credit at all, so presumably, they are less personal.

Musically, Poet ∣ Artist is like a mix of Base and Op. 2. There are some slickly produced songs with dolphin noises, future bass influences and other du jour touches but there are also more personal songs, leftfield jams and some chilled tracks and ballads - there is even a classic Latin pop song.

The two immediate highlights are #hashtag and Rewind.

Take a look at the lyrics of the former. It's a savage takedown of social media and the 24-hour news cycle. The analogy of a hashtag as a waffle is great too:

“Eat a waffle/There’s four crosses in it, so you must believe it/Yes #hashtag … I’m just here and they give me something to rip apart, thanks I guess/Once that wears out, just switch to a different story I guess … Never mind if it’s not true.”

Musically, #hashtag is three minutes of spare jazz-funk - muted percussion, bass, keyboards, fingersnaps - with Jonghyun running social commentary in soft vocals on the apathetic morality of the digital age. The minimal instrumentation, the groove - which dips and dives - and Jonghyun’s quirky delivery, are enough to make #hashtag standout. The acerbic lyrics are a bonus.

Rewind is another attention-grabber. It plays like an improvised house track: a kick drum and stuttering keys drop in and out as JH mutters and whispers in Korean, English, Spanish, Japanese, French: “uno, dos, tres, de nuevo” and then “Whatever I do time passes .. rewind …” It’s quirky and oddly joyous.

There is some harder funk on Sightseeing, which is tailor-made for me, and I’m So Curious, is a seductive slow jam built on synths that finds Jonghyun again singing softly. Sentimental, which has a lullaby rhythm, is also sweetly sung.

It feels like Jonghyun had really matured as a singer with this album; that he understood completely what he was capable of and had nothing at all to prove.

In that sense, Poet ∣ Artist is a fitting epitaph. It also shows how much range he had as a writer. The two songs for which he receives no credit, a future bass track, Take the Dive and the somewhat traditional Latin pop track, Just for a Day, don’t add much, although the latter is an interesting choice in some respects, as that kind of Latin pop bears scant resemblance to the tropical sound that’s being churned out worldwide (it's more La Isla Bonita than Despacito).

I feel like the title track, Shinin’ is one of the weaker tracks, but it's fizzy and catchy and makes sense as a promotional song. The line in the chorus - "Always be with you" - is a nice sentiment, but for fans, it has to ring a little hollow right now.

Maybe the MV - and the line - will grow on me as I watch it to see him as he was in his final days.

And I adjust to a world without Jonghyun.