EXO’s soloists each have their own distinct sound, and Chen has become the group’s reliable balladeer. He has the voice to match, and his music scratches a certain sentimental itch that has made it a fan favorite. However, it takes a whole lot for a ballad to stand out on my playlist. When I love them, I tend to LOVE them — but only a few songs occupy that vaulted position.
More often, I find K-pop ballads overly mushy and melodically dull. Empty falls within this category. It keeps the mush at bay, but its melodies and structure don’t do much to distinguish it from the many, many tracks already within this space. Chen’s vocal is always nice to hear and he imbues Empty with plenty of emotion. But the song never allows this passion to fully break through, stuck within a narrow framework that simply follows the expected notes of a mainstream Korean pop ballad.
| Hooks | 7 |
| Production | 7 |
| Longevity | 7 |
| Bias | 7 |
| RATING | 7 |
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
I’ll have to be that person, I think you meant to type in 7😞
I’m sorry I had to be that person😔🙏
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haha thanks 🙂
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Nick, I’m curious now what your all-time favourite Kpop ballads are.
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I’m cheating a bit because some of these are more mid-tempo than straight-up ballad, but these are what I pulled from my music library:
Infinite – Between Me And You
TVXQ – Love In The Ice
EXO – Miracles In December
G-Dragon – Untitled, 2014
Taeyang – Eyes, Nose, Lips
BTOB – It’s Okay
G.Soul – You
B1A4 – 10 Years
Woohyun – Close Your Eyes
Sungkyu – True Love
Boys Republic – Hello
BTS – Spring Day
2NE1 – Missing You
EXO – Cosmic Railway
iKON – Wait For Me
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Oh, and Golden Child’s All Day!
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Ooh, thank you. I’m looking forward to working my way through that list. I love finding a new song treasure.
One of my favourite kpop ballads is Day6 Young K’s Want to Love You. So powerful.
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Adding on to this stellar list of ballads; I would recommend IU’s “Love Wins All” from recently. It’s such an emotional song.
If Taeyeon’s “Time Lapse” counts as a ballad, then I would recommend it too.
There’s also Onew’s “Circle” and EXO’s “Let Me In” which are some of my favorite ballads from last year.
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Debated putting Time Lapse on the list because boy do I love that song, but it feels a little too fast-paced to be considered a ballad even if it has the sentiment of one.
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spring day is just THAT song, emotions and bombast packed in one 4 minute song
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Oh yes! Balads, she says popping her head up.
If we stick with Idol ballads:
Infinite, Kim Sung Kyu, Nam Joo Hyun – I second Nick’s suggestions above, adding
Kim Sung Kyu – “Beautiful” (from some OST)
Jonghyun – “End of a Day” – the origin of the “you did well” phrase
Super Junior – “Dorothy”, “Sarang (heart)”
EunHyuk (of SuJu) – “be”
Kyuhyun – “The Day we felt the distance”
nnSign – “Higher”
OhMyGirl – “Closer”
Akdong Musician AKMU – “How can I love the heartbreak”
Onew – “Circle” – my SOTY 2023
G-Dragon – “Untitled, 2014”
Luna (of f(x)) – “It Was Love” (a Zico song)
Yoo Hwe Sung (of N’Flying) + Lee Hong Gi (of FTIsland) – “Still Love You”
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So many new songs to check out – thank you!
One of my all-time favourites would have to be IU’s Love Poem, as done by the collaboration unit Mayfly on the Kingdom series (StrayKids/Ateez/BTOB main vocalists). It’s goosebumps good.
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Judging from what the poor Chen started singing in his solo career, he must have spent lots of tragic years with EXO playing a completely different kind of music, with all those beats, rhythm and choreos.
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Well, he actually himself said that performing in CBX helped him gain experience in variety of genres, and it made his singing developed for any kind of stuff. If you ever see him perform in this trio, you’ll see him even more energetic than performing in Exo. And although his title tracks are almost always these kinds of ballads, when you include all the stuff Chen has recorded as a soloist there is way more to it than just these slow songs, his OSTs are much better known than his albums anyway.
Also, other than depending on each person’s individual tastes, when it comes to liking ballads there is a huge cultural impact I’d say. Many countries have their own type of a traditional ballad, from which their modern ways of songwriting are derived.
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I don’t know what you mean to say, but I would say that it is often that a kpop idol group constrains a vocalist to the idol group style. That training is often extremely useful to developing and all-around vocalist, but sometimes it is just constraining.
Anyway, my favorite example of an excellent kpop idol vocalist whose solo work is so different is DK of Seventeen. He has also done a small number of OST’s.
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Of course my intention was ironic, but it sounds really weird to see this (mis)conception of “good vocalists have to sing ballads” brought to such an exasperation.
D.O. is an excellent EXO vocalist as well, but his last solo EP sounds much more pop; Suho is a very good EXO vocalist as well, and his forthcoming solo album sounds purely pop too; Xiumin is a good EXO vocalist as well, and his solo ep was a bit weird but coherent to his path.
Chen, on the contrary, has embraced this one and only solo genre without any kind of minor commitment to give his EXO work a certain continuum, as if it belonged to a side of him he wants to erase from his solo identity, and I find it not only annoying and boring in the results, but also quite peculiar in the premises.
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Its also partially an expectation on Korean music in general. Roughly speaking, about one-third is idol music, one-third ballads and OST, one-third trot. Of the latter, we hear very little in the rest of the world. We hear the ballads and OST’s usually only if they are exceptionally popular or sung by a favorite idol.
The usual expectation for the lead singers of the idol groups is to go into the ballad – OST’s. Its just what the singerly singers usually do. This isn’t bad for longevity if they get traction there. I mean, some of the singers in this sub-genre have careers that are decades long, which is a good place to be. Some of them even like it there. My bias Kyuhyun would sing ballads all day long if he could.
But some idol soloists stay in the idol world, closer to their idol group sound. Taemin is a great example of having success as a solo idol which sounds SHINee-adjacent enough but is wholly Taemin’s own.
… moving on …
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Don’t know about you all but this b-side from his new album is pretty imo:
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(I do want to know Nick’s thoughts on Fall In Love Again too… it’s not a ballad and it’s pretty upbeat 👀)
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This has the fun fruity flavor of “Love Me Right”
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I am with you on the KBallads… especially from solo artists. When you have a group you at least get some nice harmonies going.
I do like some though ….
ONF – If we dream,
NCT127 – Love is a Beauty, Gold Dust, Black Cloud….
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