[Review] [Album] Jay Park – “New Breed”

• Style
• Vocals
• Production

After tossing around the idea of distributing an album in parts, Jay Park went ahead and scrapped the whole thing this week by releasing a full length album, titled “New Breed“.

As some of you may remember, Jay Park released “New Breed, Part. 1” last December (reviewed down yonder), a five track mini-album that for the most part resurfaces in its entirety on “New Breed”.

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As a mini album, “Part. 1″ felt slightly incomplete to me, but listening to “New Breed” it’s starting to make sense why it did. For one, Jay didn’t treat “Part. 1″ as its own body of work. He released it as something of a teaser to something more complete, which I guess is fair to do if he hadn’t promised part two (pressed). In a way, his thought process behind the whole “imma split an album into parts” thing (big in 2010) felt half-assed, because to accomplish this requires artists to approach a broken album as writers would arcs of a character within a story. Unfortunately, “Part. 1″ felt like five tracks thrown together willy nilly, as opposed to a collection of songs with actual musical dialect. It’s not hard, yet it is. For Jay Park, he has now opted to do what he should have done from the get-go: release a full-length album.

“New Breed” takes all of the good bits from “Part. 1″ and distributes them where they work their best. With the addition of brand new tracks and left over releases, Jay Park manages to reign in all of the right elements to mold this into a really well put together piece of work.

As an album, “New Breed” has excellent flow. It feels like a thought out narrative, and I wish Jay Park hadn’t been quick to release some of these songs last year, because everything fits nicely here. I’m almost surprised by how well the whole thing develops, as this marks only the second time so far this year that I could cycle through an entire album without skipping a single track (the first being Clazzi‘s “Infant“). Even more impressive is that there are fifteen fucking tracks in “New Breed”. To sit through this monster and not have the urge to kill off half the album is a big accomplishment in and of itself.

In all honesty though, if it weren’t for the strong song placement in “New Breed”, I doubt I would be responding to it with such appreciation. Once one starts plucking these songs out of the confines of the album, they’re really not that special or nearly as impressive as they are together.

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The track list rocks back and forth between R&B and hip-hop, pop and non-pop. Jay Park’s flavor of music is an interesting mixture of all these styles, and he attempts to paint “New Breed” with every single one. Thing is though, because Jay Park isn’t particularly masterful at any of them, it comes down to how good the songs actually are and how well they’ve been produced. In this case, he utilizes all the correct elements to make it blend properly.

If there’s one thing noteworthy, it’s Jay Park’s melodies. From the lead single, “Know Your Name“, down to hidden tracks like “Turn Off Your Phone“, there’s something rather effortless happening in them that makes them move without faltering.

Jay Park’s producers went into this with the goal to reduce the emphasis on Jay’s vocals (or lack thereof) and instead mold his voice around really pretty phrases. It worked. His nasally singing tip-toes over classic melodies just like Taeyang of Big Bang, who he shares an oddly similar voice with, and the end result is a simple, yet functioning set of songs that aren’t half bad. The same logic can also be applied to the rap infested numbers, like “AOM&Illionaire“, where Jay brings out hip-hop stars to balance his lackluster flow. Jay’s compensating a lot, but the way in which he’s doing it is appropriate.

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“New Breed”, while crossing genres a bit haphazardly, displays Jay Park in a good light. He gets to do what he wants, rap and sing (even if he’s not that great at either), and proceeds to fellate his own dick on almost every single song.

“New Breed” is definitely an ego booster at its best, but one that I am more than willing to allow. However, what I find the most appealing is the strong relationship between each and every song. “New Breed” unfolds really well, to the point where you forget what song you’re on when you’re listening to it. The transitions aren’t jarring, nor are the song themselves, and credit needs to be given for that.