Album Review: Yoon Jong Shin – ‘Vol. 1’ to ‘Vol. 10’

Album release date: 1991-2005

Genre: Ballad, R&B/pop, Kpop
Review by: jct

Note: This is a review for Yoon Jong Shin’s first 10 albums. That’s right, all in 1 review, :D! I decided to put them all together because there're probably not a lot of people who bother to listen to all his albums from that far back. So, this is like a summary which hopefully, help you know his music better.

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Fifteen years and ten albums deep into his career, Yoon Jong Shin has managed to solidify his status as a talented singer-songwriter with a distinct style. His music is mainly filled with love ballads that contain comforting tunes and original lyrics.

Incredibly Moving

For his first three albums, Yoon Jong Shin worked with other song-writers to produce mainly slow love ballads. However from the 4th album onward, Jong Shin sets himself apart from other ballad singers by not only composing and producing most of his own songs, but developing his own distinct style of ballad that is not generic or boring. Also, deserving mentioning is his close friends, Harim and Yoo Hee Yeol, who helped produce and compose a couple of songs from his earlier albums, which are really good.

On the first 5 albums, the focus was on romantic ballads with a tint of jazz tunes on some songs, but by the 6th album, his music has shifted towards more ballad/pop. The lyrics for these ballads are all very original and some are incredible moving such as “Your Wedding” from Vol. 2, which is a sad and sensitive ballad about receiving the news that your first love is getting married. He captured the emotions perfectly and he sang with true genuine emotions that you could shed tears upon listening to the song. (Note: “Your Wedding” also appeared in Vol. 6 but with different musical arrangements and beats. The lyrics are still the same though.) Some of the classic materials he had put out from the first 6 albums are “Like the First Time We Met (처음 만날때처럼)”, “Your Wedding (너의 결혼식)”, “One Day Long Ago (오래전 그날)”, “One of My Wish (내소중한사람에게)”, “Like Father’s Love (아버지의 사랑처럼)”, “Please(부디)” and “Reincarnation (환생)”.

Vivid, Sophisticated

From Vol. 7 to Vol. 10, Jong Shin began to explore pop and R&B and incorporating them into his ballads. It was definitely a great idea because these music genres truly fit well with his vocals. Vol. 8 is the album that has the most R&B/pop and R&B/ballad songs compare to his other albums. The most obvious song is “Anytime (언제라도)”, which is a mid-tempo R&B/pop song that actually sounds quite contemporary. On Vol. 9, the content is slightly different from his usual songs because it contains more fun, relaxing, up-tempo songs such as “Red Bean Sorbet (팥빙수)” which is about red bean ice cream. Vol. 10 is an album that truly stands out on its own as it demonstrated a wide range of his smooth vocals, and definitely an album that you could listen to from the beginning to the end many times. Some notable tracks from Vol. 7 to Vol. 10 are “Clueless Man and Woman feat. Lena Park (우둔남녀)”, "Gifts (선물)”, “Stay (머물러요)”, “A Present from Hee-Yeol (희열이가 준 선물)”, “Annie”, “Anytime (언제라도)”, “Red Bean Sorbet (팥빙수)”, “Expressway Romance (고속도로 Romance )”, “Because I Love You”, “No Schedule”, “You are so beautiful”, and “Goes to You (너에게 간다)”.

If there’s one thing that hinders him is perhaps his voice. Yes, it’s strong and can be powerful, but his voice seems to change slightly as the years go by. In the first 5 albums, it was more high pitch and soft, but later, it became slightly deeper and more distinct. However, he still sings smoothly and with passion, which is important because you can relate to the emotions that make up the songs. Anyone can easily puts themselves in his shoes as he sings about love and romance. This is a reason why Jong Shin has both female and male fans equally, unlike some male singers who only have a strong female fan base.

Although Jong Shin is a strong vocalist, he isn’t the most powerful, so he wisely plays to his strength on his albums, where he stays within slow ballads and mid-tempo love music. Over the course of his albums, Jong Shin’s protrayal of love’s many different shades is a vivid, sophisticated one, and thankfully contains none of the shallow, idealized versions of romance. Overall, his song production is on-point, and the lyrics are definitely intelligent and well-thought out. 

Solidifying His Status

In a world where things move forward on a daily basis, Jong Shin is able to adjust his music to reflect the growth and evolution of the music industry and his audience, but at the same time, he still manages to maintain the familiar sounds that his fans are accustomed to without radically switching up his style.  Unlike other artists, Jong Shin has passion, style and sophistication, and he’s able to put all three together and displays them in a fine fashion. He may not be as popular as he used to be, but he is definitely a talented singer-songwriter and occupies the top-tier in the music industry. Overall, his later albums (Vol. 7- Vol. 10) are highly recommended for those who enjoy ballad with some pop and R&B flavours in it. However, there are some songs from his older albums that are definitely worth listening to.

Overall Rating

Vol. 1 – 3/5

Vol. 2 – 3.5/5

Vol. 3 – 4/5

Vol. 4 – 3.5/5

Vol. 5 – 3.5/5

Vol. 6 – 3.5/5

Vol. 7 – 4/5

Vol. 8 – 4.5/5

Vol. 9 – 4/5

Vol. 10 – 4.5/5