YounHa Vol. 1 - The Perfect Day to Say I Love You

The album opens strong with the moody guitar chords and pulsing beat of Delete (Track 1), a dramatic rock pop number that showcases the singer at her best. Younha's voice rings loud and clear here, flying up to long high notes while maintaining a slight roughness to go with the dark lyrics. Similar in style to Delete, Fly (Track 8) also starts out edgy and atmospheric, and breaks out into an energetic and catchy pop rock chorus. Younha shifts comfortably between high and low, slow and fast, making the song's sudden changes seem smooth.

For a cheerful pop offering, bubbly "Secret Code 486" (Track 3), composed by some guy named Wheesung, is fast, fun, and sassy with a bouncy piano interlude. Wheesung also wrote and composed "Young Desire" (Track 10), and his stamp is a bit clearer here, not the least because his vocals feature in the song. While still a rock pop number, "Young Desire" is less reliant on the piano and has more of an R&B flow, particularly the refrain. Wheesung's rapping feels a bit out of place, but the song is very likable and wraps together well overall.

Younha offers an interesting mix of soft and strong in her voice, and because of this, even her slow numbers feel stronger, louder, and faster than usual K-pop ballads. A perfect example would be title track "The Perfect Day to Say I Love You" (Track 4), an ear-pleasing ballad with a mellow arrangement. The song opens with soft instrumentals - guitar, piano, and Irish whistle - and gradually gathers momentum and volume towards the refrain when she subtly but pronouncedly pulls out the vocals, before returning to a softer tone. Younha controls this build-up and soft-down well, and it's what makes her songs more distinctive. This can be heard even in the particularly quiet and slow tracks like piano numbers "Child - I Cry" (Track 2) and "Only Today" (Track 6), whose otherwise simple, safe, and soulful compositions and arrangements seem to be pulled from the K-drama theme song rulebook.

Still I prefer it when Younha sings her voice out, even if it at times brings her to shakier territory. One of the album's weaker tracks, mid-tempo "Conditions for Love" (Track 7) has an easy, comfortable flow, but the song and the vocals fall a bit flat in the refrain when the melody turns generic. Hello Beautiful Day (Track 5) is an interesting blunder, as the song tries to integrate jazz elements in the piano and brass instrumentation and interlude, but the melody and arrangement seem to live in two different worlds, and not even Younha can make up for the mismatch. Her singing, however, fits perfectly into the album's whimsical last song, "Alice" (Track 11), which goes from quiet ballad to cheery rock pop to fairy dust coda without skipping a beat.

Younha has already attracted a fair amount of attention and praise with The Perfect Day to Say I Love You, and hopefully it'll mean bigger and better things to come for the singer. I for one am looking forward to her next album. Until then, I just may go dig up that J-pop album.