Jonghyun’s “She Is” manages to keep things interesting even with a laid-back groove

Jonghyun recently came back with “She Is“, and yes I see all the e-mails and comments telling me that it was released. Goddamn, it’s a SHINee member not some nugu who I would never see in my feed or something. I know, okay? I fucking know.

Anyway, I’m finally getting around to giving my thoughts on it because I pretend to have a life sometimes.

Maybe some are tiring of the funky baselines, but I’m not there yet, and I enjoyed the instrumental on “She Is” quite a bit. While there’s not a ton of variety in the instrumental itself, the song sounds quite diverse thanks to the use of a variety of vocal rhythms ranging from crooning to what was essentially a rap break. As such, despite the genre it draws from, which can easily fall into the boring slow-jam type of territory, the changes of pace help keep the listener on their toes while also not sounding like a total mess.

Yes, I did enjoy the play on words to make “oh she is” into “oh shit shiz”, but I also liked the way it was applied. Jonghyun basically used the call-and-response format to great success, which is something more associated with groups like MAMAMOO.

While this will never be my favorite genre, Jonghyun managed to spice it up and make “She Is” an entertaining listen.

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While I’m not tiring of the funk or groove instrumentals, I am sorta getting worn out by the hazy type of filter used in this music video and on other SM Entertainment music videos like Tiffany‘s “I Just Wanna Dance“. While I can see artistic applications for that type of look, I honestly don’t see its relevance in some of these recent efforts, and it just seems like they’re using it to just to use it cause they think it makes their music video appear artsy despite no actual conceptual reason for it.

Yeah, I get it, the pastels and all that, but I just don’t think it added anything, nor did it necessarily look that great.

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“She Is” is Jonghyun’s laid-back groovy funk track, and while I normally don’t seek out this type of music because it can get real boring real fast, the layers of diversity help keep the listener on their toes throughout. Usually these types of songs lack replayability for me, but I didn’t bore myself to death after a few listens and I can definitely see myself grooving to this if it comes on the radio.

So while Jonghyun generally doesn’t do my favorite type of music in his solo efforts, he did manage to impress with “She Is” anyway.