[Review] Jay Park - Joah (Revisited)

Jay Park was still wearing shirts in 2013 ha! That's how you know this shit is throwback. Throw in Clara making a main appearance in the music video and that's vintage 2013 Kpop. The original review was published about a month later so let's see how it differs from some of my more reactive reviews. Also since it's from that long ago the review was segmented by category but I'll manage.

• I’ll be honest with you here. I never liked Jay’s voice. I found it higher in range, less flexible than most, and usually tend to gravitate more towards his rapping than singing. I considered Taeyang from Big Bang a better vocal substitute for pretty much all of his solo work. 

To this day I still stand by these sentiments. Not only is Jay better off in the rapping / hip-hop sphere, but Taeyang basically does what he does singing-wise, except better. Come to think of it, if you fused Taeyang's emotional softer voice with Jay's more intense rapping voice...hm.

• However, those falsettos were really unsettling and also unnecessary and so bring this score down a significant amount.

Yeah, I've never enjoyed the random usage of falsetto in songs and so Jay Park is certainly no different. Of course since I cared about having a score back in the day it has more "weight" so to speak but even now, my overall enjoyment of "Joah" is dropped down a bit because of those moments.

• As far as artful goes, this music video brings it all. Creativity, colour, realism, and simplicity combine all together for a fresh music video. Everything is filmed outside (or at the very least not in an obvious decorated box) where the scenery is nice and gives you room to breathe. 

How blind was I to think that some of the shots in this music video were filmed inside? I must have been trippin'. Anyway the video actually has meaningful moments and since it's a softer track it makes sense.

• I don’t really care about production, this type of music video will look better than any enclosed room other entertainment companies can conjure. Oh yeah, and the girl is super cute, too.

Absolutely true. My dumb ass has no idea what goes into real video editing so anything that isn't just "hey look at our idols in a box" has always earned points in my book. What's the point of improving the technology if people are just gonna use to fancy up their blank rooms. Also in hindsight I wouldn't call Clara cute, she's way more sexy than anything else but crafted in a more adorable light in the video.

Really haven't paid attention to Jay in the many years since but "Joah" remains one of my favorite standalone tracks from him despite the slightly unsettling high notes. It's a simple and lovely song accompanied by a simple and lovely music video with a lovely female lead. Good times.