Cha Eun Woo, I believe, surprised some of us by announcing his solo album "ENTITY". I was surprised because when the announcement was made, it felt somewhat random and abrupt. This could well be, because i am a casual fan of his work. It might also be that he is best known for his good looks and his work as an actor. Like many others, I love his face.
The thing I dislike but understand most about his work is how palatable it is. I understand why it has to be - so that his projects can appeal to and make a lot of money from a diverse audience. As the saying goes, don't hate the player, hate the game.
I personally got the impression that aside from acting and brand ambassadorship work, a Solo project was the last thing to be expected. Though I'm not mad about it.
Back to the album, it surprised me. For starters, his teaser video began with him crying in a car, smoking a cigarette. He really said, like a true Aries, for my solo, I am going to cast off my palatable shackles and really show you, I am not a good boy all the time. His album did, in part, what I wasn't expecting it to do. I was expecting a lot of Trot, which is not my cup of tea and something he seems to do a lot for solo projects. But then again, South Korea’s most popular genre in 2023 was Trot.
It is incredibly frustrating, as a fan, to always yearn to see a different side of an artist but, due to the nature of the Pop industry, not being able to see it until much later in an artist’s career. Nonetheless, I appreciate that on this record, it appears Cha Eun Woo is doing something different. ENTITY did what it had to do for me. It exceeded my expectations. As a huge fan of R&B, it delivered elements of that along with a bit of pop and personality. It feels as though Eun Woo had some input into the artistic direction, but how are we to really know? All I can say is that I am extremely pleased by seeing this boldness from an artist heavily marketed to not displease. I even ended up adding three songs to my Liked playlist on Spotify; which I must stress is curated to within an inch of its life. The songs that I enjoy the most and added to my playlist were; "Fucking Great Time", "U&I" and "You’re the Best". I later added the title track STAY because, I guess, I just needed to listen to it a few times for it to grow on me.
I hope Eun Woo continues to surprise me with his music; it was delightful and continues to please my ears. My only grapple with it, is that his musical ability still needs work but i imagine, perhaps, with a busy schedule like his, its hard to squeeze in voice coaching as the company may prioritize generating revenue?
*All opinions given in this post are given from a loving place. :) x Vivi
*AI was only used for the purpose of improving spelling and grammar.