New for me
t has been performing music at least since her debut with Uptown in 1996, both as a singer and as a rapper, forming the duo Tashannie before going solo in 2001. Between 2001 and 2002, t went on a quite the recording spree, releasing three albums before conflicts with her company and/or label resulted in a long hiatus. In 2003, not too long after her last album under her previous contract, To My Love, was released, a compilation of her two year solo career was organized and sold and since then, t's albums from her early solo career have been out of print. I was lucky enough to find a good used copy of Best via auction and aside from digital distribution, there is no other common means to acquire her albums or her compilation.
While listening to a compilation does lose some of the statement that you'd get from an album, it's kind of also clear from listening to t's Best that her music, prior to her third album, was a little less distinctive, often falling into standard Korean pop ballads that have space for t's more R&B styled vocals. Not to say that they're bad, but there's often not a great amount of space for t's own unique personality to shine through, which is too bad because the more personal, self-produced effort of her third album was quite convincing.
Some of her music does break from the straight ballad composition and those are the ones either from her hip-hop album, Gemini, or the ballads produced by Bobby Kim, which sometimes feature Bobby, but even when they don't, they have that groove that frequently appears on Bobby Kim and Buga Kingz' tracks. And it's those tracks that I'm more attracted to; despite that t is a perfectly adequate pop singer, it's when the music has soul, R&B or hip-hop more deeply woven into it that the music comes more alive.
As for the compilation's organization, it's a little curious is that it puts the majority of the ballads up front in the first third and mixes up the hip-hop and ballad tracks in the bottom two thirds. It makes for a bit of an uneven experience and while I won't argue for a chronological compilation because her solo career was so compact when this was released, a think a more thoughtful approach to the flow the compilation would have helped the listening experience, considering that it runs over an hour.
That said, when t is on her game, the music produced during this early phase of her solo career is quite enjoyable, although it sometimes lacks the freedom and sincerity of her more recent efforts. Those who love this rapper/singer should take the effort to hunt down this compilation, or perhaps for more dedicated fans, find the three individual albums. However, while the music can be quite enjoyable on Best, I feel like the t of today is still a step beyond her earlier works and so her music from this era is only essential for fans (of t or just the specific songs) and music historians. 7/10.
Tracklist:
- To My Love
- 바보
- 시간이 흐른 뒤 (As Time Goes By)
- 선물
- 끝없는 바다 저편에
- 남자 남자 남자
- Tuesday
- Concrete Jungle
- 행복한 나를
- 집으로 와
- I Miss You So
- G 火 자
- Wonder Woman
- Because I Love You
- 찬 바람아!
- 하루 하루
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