He’s the man. The heartthrob of the hour. Captain Swoonworthy himself. (The author is fighting the urge to use the word rizz here somewhere.) Attributed to the world’s most offensively symmetrical, dimple-embellished mug, and a timbre so smooth it clings to your ears like a thundering bass in the stomach, Jaehyun of K-Pop supergroup NCT and smooth trio DoJaeJung is one that just keeps coming back.
An incredibly successful feature on d.ear’s “Try Again” was our first taste of a (semi) Jaehyun solo. In 2019, the man alone cooked over 100 million views boyfriending around Paris and London to his cover of Lauv’s “I Like Me Better”. The people had spoken: a true Jaehyun solo music release was in order.
2022 brought us “Forever Only”, which can be best described as a perfect song that had listeners swooning. (Trust us, we’re still listening.) Given he literally popped into existence on the 14th of Feburary, it’s no wonder his fans are called Valentines.
Now he’s brought some flowers to your date, and the first bunch doubles down on the richness of his previous R&B hit. The earlier released Roses is a fully English song plummeting in the ache of a heart that once swelled, making his feelings clear: “I’m six feet deep oh when I see / Roses (roses) Roses (roses)”. Seamless falsettos swoop in and take your breath away like a lover with no hesitation, and his perfect projection will quite literally ruin other singers for you. If you’ve ever heard the man sing live, you’ll be amazed to realise: he really just sounds like that.
We’re really getting to see that maximum Jaehyun charisma in “Smoke”, featuring a spoken word chorus arriving swift and without warning, that gives tingles of the spine at its first appearance: “Hold up, you’re too hot, too hot / Smoke comin’ out the boombox”. Indie chords facilitate the sweeter sections of the song, before it reaches its jazzier destiny at the 2:22 mark. In the music video’s commentary, the singer says himself: “I think it’s a masterpiece.”
“Dandelion”, the second to be named after a flower, is the jump back in time from “Roses”. Jaehyun, blissfully lovestruck, calls his other half a dandelion, foreshadowing the end: “Hard to see when the sun is in my eyes / Call it blind”. Beautifully prominent harmonisations fill out an otherwise simple little song that holds more depth than it initially lets on.
The joint music video for “Roses” and “Dandelion” tells the story in order; a submerging under water, petals crisp and dry at the edges, and hands pulling apart signify the shift from dandelions to (hatred of) roses. It’s a heavy-hearted ode to both what once was, and the bitter ending that must be lived. And when Jaehyun’s singing his heart out, you believe him.
The singer picks back up the groovy mood in ode to a crush “Flamin’ Hot Lemon”: a lovable tune with an earwormable chorus. “Completely” is then the mushiest lovesong to grace the record, blessed by a loyal piano melody, deep strings, and most of all Jaehyun’s romantic pledges laden with falsettos. We receive our last serving of Jaehyun’s R&B and neo soul excellence in “Easy” and “Can’t Get You”, and we’re convinced: no one could do it better.
R&B fits Jaehyun like jazz to a saxophonist. They can dip and even swim in other genres, sure, but their true calling sits in a suede-lined chair: cosy and inviting and infinitely smooth. The question, of course, is, can Jaehyun get any smoother than J in a future comeback? Would such a level of smoothness leave him a shiny poreless egg? It’s much to think about as we excitedly await his next music release.
J is out now. Jaehyun can be found on Instagram here.