Loveholic’s 3rd is another great CD, full of good tunes, well arranged, and well sung by the excellent Ji-sun. She has a pleasing, breathy top end to her voice, a nice casual mid-range, but she is also capable of some ballsy rock chick bottom notes.
The band that Loveholic most seem to bring to mind from western pop when in upbeat mood is the Cardigans, the irrepressibly bubbly Scandinavian group. In fact tracks 6 and 10 could have come straight from a Cardigan CD. But their music also shows other influences: track 5, One Love, and track 10, which are slightly more contemplative, have a slightly Lennon / McCartney feel to it, particularly in respect of the instrumentation. And track 7, a melancholy love song called Leave me, shows that they can do sad as well as happy. I came to Loveholic via their first album, which was more upbeat than this one. But my favourite track from this album is #9, 신기루, another sad song with a superbly miserable chorus. Researching this one on YouTube I discover it’s the closing theme tune from a Japanese animation called Black Blood Brothers. Just shows how seriously people take their anime:
Here are some more samples: track 1 (일요일 맑음), from the OST of the film Family Ties:
Track 10 (그대만 있다면):
Loveholic #3: Nice Dream
Fluxus / Seoul Records, April 2006
Links:
- Buy Nice Dream at YesAsia