'an unexpected side to the hard hitting rapper'

LOVE AND FALL; bobby

[reworked from 2017]

im not going to lie. when i first heard the opening beats to 'i love you', i sighed. ah yet another tropical house song. like i've said in the past, there is nothing wrong with tropical house, it has just been exhausted thoroughly. this song is nice, but dull. i mean its bobby. winner of show me the money 3. one can do softer hiphop, but this was so dull i was surprised. what was most disappointing was the chorus. it was very generic, after the prechorus does such a great job of building anticipation for the impending chorus. it is a shame. 'i love you' had its redemption only in the bridge. the tempo changed and bobby rapped nicely on it too, i loved that.

when we arrive to the 2nd song on the album, 'runaway', this is what i was expecting as the main title track. and yes, i am aware 'love and fall' was released with double title tracks. honestly, 'i love you' could have been scrapped in favour of this. i can't fault 'runaway'. it's genuinely good from start to finish. this is what i meant by "soft hiphop". it's relaxed without being generic and it still has the grit that we know and love from bobby. the highlight part for me was the bridge; particularly his line:

"geoul soge wae

deo isang naega aldeon nae moseubi aninde

kkumeul jjotgo shipeunde"

it built tension well, had great rhyming and made me look forward to the chorus, which was perfect in its simplicity.

bobby continues his debut album with trendy summer trap song 'alien'. i love this one a lot, its so much fun. it kind of reminds me of the energy superbee used to have on his tracks before he unfortunately tried drill. Contrastingly, 'tendae' is sooooo sexy.....had me moving my hips. bobby's raspier tone sounds even sexier on this. its beat reminds me a little bit of afrobeats, especially with subtle xylophone in the back.

'up' is what you'd typically expect to hear from a khh artist during 2016. what i really like about the song is that it's slightly sinister. it's like you can hear the damp dark alleyway. on the flip side, mino's featuring was unnecessary. i would have preferred bobby to spit the whole way through and restrict mino to the hook. bobby switches in the mid way point of the album with 'secret'. essentially, it's the antithesis of 'up'. there are vocal melodies by ikon's DK and soloist katie, weaved throughout the song. what i found a bit sad was that bobby sounded like a feature on his song.

'in love'. where do i start with this one.

its quite raw.

i felt like i shouldn't be listening to it. i was really surprised by it because of how beautiful bobby's vocals are. the whole song is vocals by bobby and he did so well. the earnest singing with the violins propelling the song? how can i not love it.

whenever bobby has a chorus where there is one line repeated, it's usually a good song. even going back to his show me the money days, those song always allowed bobby to thrive. 'swim' is the 2nd song on 'love and fall' that does this. it's very catchy, but it's no 'alien'. in regards to album structure, i feel it would have been nicer if this song was after 'secret'.

when i first wrote this review, i said 'firework' was the most hopeful sounding track on the album. going back to it 4 years later, while i do see why i would have said it was hopeful, but it actually has some sexy elements to it. there are two parts that i really like. firstly, the lyrics of the prechorus use a lot of rhyme but it's not overdone. secondly, i also enjoyed the way he stretched out his syllables in the chorus.

bobby finishes off his album with 'lean on me'. its a classic old school hiphop track with relaxed flow thats easy to listen to. i believe thats the essence of his album. its easy to listen to and for the most part, it makes you feel good.

final comments

the album was a pleasant surprise. 'love and fall' had a good balance of fresh and trendy music which all complimented each other well.

to be frank, i was not expecting this feel from bobby. i watched him closely during both survival programs from yg, show me the money and his debut in ikon. this album shows bobby breaking free from any expectations placed on him from his early days; he has evolved musically.

best songs: 'runaway', 'in love', 'alien'

would i listen to the album again? of course, it was one of the good releases from 2017

rate: 8/10