'it's jazz hour!'

tailor; the blank shop [mini album review]

best songs: no place to retreat to, love song, we are all muse, ensemble/lan escape, 500,000, what i can’t do

rating: 9.5/10

the centre of 'tailor' is jazz. but what dazzled me was that it wasn’t dense or even excessively brassy. the blank shop focuses his efforts on bass and the piano in leaps and bounds which gives it a refreshing and witty sound. the piano is not so surprising as he is an award winning jazz pianist.

what i also really like is that it’s not overproduced. a lot of mainstream korean artists when they decide to stick to a genre for an album it feels overproduced or a little too heavy in efforts to stick to the sound. but the blank shop does a wonderful job at keep things light and interesting for the first half of the album. he also makes excellent use of his features. no artist out of place.

there are also adds little things here and there to keep the listeners attentive. whether it be bits of dialogue, cafe background noise, yawns or applauses. my favourite part was “ensemble” leading into “lan escape” ft. lee jin ah. ensemble was essentially a skit. it was very cute hearing the artists debate over whether they heard this odd sound while they were recording. “lan escape” starts with the same instrumental as before but making full use of the sound they were debating over in the “ensemble” and turned it into an 8-bit track. it’s comical and brings some fun that was needed after the melancholy mid section with “stay at home” + “kick the radio”. it feels odd to listen to “lan escape” without first listening to “ensemble”. it’s like the prelude.

“mold in the closet” starts off without a hint of jazz but as the song progresses the intricate electric piano melody rings familiar bells. most surprisingly, there’s a bit of rap! it feels like it could be new age or a futuristic jazz.

structurally, the album was surprising. it didn’t flow like water, but it wasn't too jarring either. it doesn't gently nudge you into the different moods, it just decides to shift there. strangely enough it felt like the right time to make those shifts. it’s organised into sections; like how the greats used to do with their big orchestral pieces. from “amonethatscapone” to “we are muse” (section 1) with the light jazz. then the short melancholy “stay at home” and “kick the radio” (section 2) for the middle. leading into the fun and experimental “ensemble” to “mold in closet” (section 3). and finally taking its rest in the slow and peaceful 4th section from “yawning song” to “what i can’t do”.

as i edited this i realised why it feels like the right time to make those shifts. it’s bc that’s how most album structures go: best of the best at the start, a shift in the middle, some experimentation after the shift, and then leading into your slow songs to conclude the album.

this was not your regular album. it was a body of work and a clever one at that. it’s 1 hour and it might be a little much for most at first but i found it rather exciting without it being heavy.