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Category Archives: Lee Soo-young

Lee Soo Young: Eighth album

12-Oct-08

Lee Soo Young: Eighth album

(Manine Media, 2007) Stern(8,g) There’s something reassuring about a Lee Soo Young album. You try to explore different genres of music, some of which may be exciting and original, and others may be frankly rather tiresome. And then you come to Lee Soo Young and it’s like returning home. It’s a bit like comfort food. It doesn’t ask too much of you, and you know it’s probably not very good for you, but it’s warm, it envelops you, and it makes you think for a while that everything in the world is just fine. Lee’s Eighth brings together some of the same composers as her recent albums, and we have the same skilled orchestrations. Composer Hwang Sung Jae is continuing his exploration of ...
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Lee Soo Young #6: The Colors of my Life

31-Oct-06

Lee Soo Young #6: The Colors of my Life

(YIGA Entertainment, 2004) Stern(8,g) A great ballad album. From the big ballad 휠릴리 (track 4) via the more intimate 너도 그런지.. and Sam Lee's funk-inspired "You want me" (featuring Eric) to a more R&B 겁쟁이 (track 7), Lee Soo Young shows how it should be done. She has a good team of song-writers -- showing that you don't have to write your own stuff to have a decent album; and her backing strings and orchestra aren't too corny. Yes, it's probably all a bit middle aged, but hey, so am I. And Lee has a great voice. Strangely, the weakest track on the album is a "special track": J-pop version of "I believe", which has a strange Chinese folk music feel to ...
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Review: RPO Korea Fantasy, 1 May 2006

07-May-06

Review: RPO Korea Fantasy, 1 May 2006

This year we celebrate the 250th birthday of Mozart, the 100th of Shostakovich, and less known, the 100th of Ahn Eak-tae (right, picture from the Chosun), Korea's best-known 20th century composer in the Western classical tradition. Probably his most famous work is the Korea Fantasy, a 25-30 minute work for chorus and orchestra, from which, I am told, the South Korean National Anthem is taken. It can't be in the standard repertoire of the RPO, and for the first couple of minutes they seemed uncertain of where they were headed. After a while though they settled down. The music itself is tough on first hearing. It inhabits the same sort of soundworld as Shostakovich and Prokofiev, but while tonal its ...
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Coming Soon

02-May-06

Coming Soon

It's going to take me a while to digest yesterday's concert in the Fairfield Hall, but it's going to get a thumbs up. In the meanwhile, I share with you a snapshot (apologies for the poor quality - it was taken, Korean-style, with a mobile phone) of Lee Soo-young, Kim Young-im and Joo Hyung-ki leading a communal singing of Arirang. I won the internet booking lottery. I was in the front row - a mere 8 feet or less from the performers - and (apologies for the lapse in professionalism but...) LSY is sooooo cute. Related posts:Coming soon: Artists, art and culture of North Korea In what has got to be a contender for...Coming soon: LKL albums of the year ...
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Mayday transport wanted

27-Apr-06
As I write this, I'm listening to Lee Soo Young's 7th Album. And while there are elements which are identifiably and obviously Korean (someone needs to do a detailed analysis of the harmonic progressions in Korean romantic popular music to substantiate the claim that there is such a thing as identifiably Korean music, but there are things going on which I was told never to do in my 'O' level harmony lessons. I often notice this in K-pop and soundtracks to K-film, and whenever I do so there's a sharp intake of breath, so conditioned am I to my schoolboy training. But I'm afraid my aural ability has never been up to scratch, so I'm unable to say whether it's ...
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Sorry, another rant

13-Apr-06
So it seems that in order to find out what's happening in the UK we all have to be avid followers of Seoul-based K-Pop forums. Further to my post yesterday I ran another google search on "Think Korea 2006", and I found out that three days ago there was a posting at Soompi.com that broke the news that the star attraction of the concert in Croydon on May 1 is none other than Lee Soo Young, who will be performing numbers from her 7th album, Grace. Hurrah. (Maybe Ahn Eaktai would have been a bit heavy). I'm a great fan of hers, but (a) can't go on that day and anyway (b) it's a long way to schlep down to ...
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