First love, pink and spring. These are the three terms that can describe the songs of Raspberry Field, a Korean indie solo artist. Stimulating the hearts and emotions of many, the first official album, with 12 songs, was revealed late January 2013, titled “Sweet and Bitter.”
Fans often describe Raspberry Field’s songs as the feeling of floating on white fluffy clouds or that of eating cotton candy on a bright Saturday morning. Soy is the solo vocalist of the band, Raspberry Field, and the songs strongly remind the audience of the arrival of spring. Soy worked on this album for more than one and a half year and produced the album with the theme of bi t tersweet love that every individual experiences.
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The main title of the album, “The First Encounter of Freedom,” is a song with a soft melody with a guitar as its background. This song has a personal touch that adds on the value for the artist as the lyrics reflect Soy’s past relationships and memories that include both the sweet and the bitter. The lyric is rather simple, showing the thrill and intimidation of taking one step emotionally closer. It also describes a sense of adventure that individuals go through when they fall in love. This song is also special as it was given as a gift by Soy’s brother-in-law, Jo Kyu Chan, a famous Korean sing-a-song writer.
Other than the main title, one of the prominent songs within the album is “Can You.” This song is unique in that it is sung in both English and Korean. The English version is sung as a duet with Hosomi Taekshi, the vocal singer for “The Hiatus” and the Korean version is sung with Soy’s brother-in-law, Jo Kyu Chan. Both songs are attributed to couples in long distant relationships. It describes the feeling of longing, assurance and commitment towards each other even though they are not physically together in every moment of their lives. The phrase, “can you” is repeated, symbolizing the voices of couples calling for each other, and arousing the yearning emotions that couples in long distance relationship encounter.
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Even though the album allows the audience to sympathize easily and deals with realistic problems of individuals who are in love, some do criticize that the 12 songs all sound very similar and somewhat redundant in the music world. Many of those who listen to Raspberry Field’s songs are very accustomed to the tender and slow songs as many singers started adapting this combo of indie and folk songs from this decade. According to Korea popular music selection committee’s member, Yoo Jung Hoon, this album would have caught the attention of many if it was produced 10 years ago. Another committee’s member, Choi Soo Yong also strongly criticized the album, calling it “Perfect corruption of the ‘red ocean’ of music.”
While it is undeniable that the songs are more repetitive than unique, Soy deserves a round of applause for excellently articulating the innocent and artless emotions that everyone goes through in her first official album. The album beautifully matches the coming spring with Soy’s sweet, delicate, and carefree voice. Even though criticism is necessary for an artist to mature in the style and the ideas, it is also important for allowing the artist to grow in time. It may not be desirable to hear redundant songs, but this album does give the audience anticipation of the next album as parents longing anticipation for a child to mature.