[#19] Roh Ji Hoon - "Maker"

From: "The Next Big Thing"
Format: EP
Released: November
Territory: South Korea
Previous Best of Appearances: First Appearance

I didn't really know much about Roh Ji Hoon when I first heard his debut EP, but I was intrigued by the fact that one, he was a solo artist, and two, he was under Cube. If the way they treated Hyun A as a solo artist was anything to go by, I hoped to get something good. And I did.

It was actually a really close fight between this and the lead single, but I thought that since I have a similar-sounding song (also by the Brave Brothers) higher up on the list, and after listen to both for several days, "Maker" was really the song that stood out for a number of reasons.

I always say that the measure of a singer isn't just in what difficult ballad he/she can sing -- it's in the most unassumingly simple songs, and how singers make those simple melodies sound complex. Difficult songs are not difficult because they have all these bells and whistles, they're difficult because they make you do all the work. The verses are gorgeous, and delivered with that smooth, but very masculine, voice, get even better. Even if the chorus is very disjointed and doesn't really require heavy vocal gymnastics, it allows his technique to really show through.

"Maker" has what the judges on K-Pop Star call "swag", but what I call effortlessness paired with confidence, which is mainly because this guy can actually sing. In my confidence-fine line-arrogance diagram, "Maker" is right smack in the middle of confidence and that fine line, and that's a really, really good thing. There's intensity to the song, but it's so obvious that Ji Hoon is genuinely enjoying what he's doing -- I don't know about you, but his vocals on the verses sound like he's smiling while singing. This is what I mean when I say that a good singer will always, always find a way to show his/her enthusiasm and confidence.

The last reason why I really like this song is slightly less "serious" than the others, but really, I like any song that forces Hyun A to stop sounding like a mouse and stop trying to hard to be cute and sexy at the same time.