Cloud USA

~Cloud Cover by Terri :-}, Managing Editor

Hello, lovely Clouds.

Everyone knows that when Rain’s Back to the Basic album was released, there was no one more excited than us here at Cloud USA that the album included an English song.  Okay, well, maybe there were others who were more excited, but since I’m the princess of this blog and the writer of this post, then I can claim whatever I want.  So, like I said, there was NO ONE more excited than me and Stephe.

Still, here at Cloud USA, we have always said that, no matter what, we were going to tell the truth about Rain—even if it hurt.  So, after we took a gander at the English version of Rain’s Love Song, as delighted as we were that he was actually singing in English, we couldn’t help but speak out about its flaws—most of which were just as obvious to every other native English speaker out there listening as they were to us.  Like we said, we were simply being honest.  You can read what I said about the Back to the Basic album when it was first released HERE.

The other day, though, I was driving home from work and listening to music (like I always do on my long, daily commute), when the English version of Love Song popped up on my iPod.   Since I’m committed to being honest here, let me say that most of the time, I actually skip over that song.  I truly do.  I’m such a freaky, English editor-type that I usually simply cannot bear to make myself listen to it, regardless of how good of a singer Rain is.  And yet this time, right before I pressed the forward button, I stopped myself and let it play.

Then, I made myself really listen to it.

Now, I’m not going to say that I totally changed my mind about the song.  Like I said before, some of the word choices (and Rain’s English pronunciation of those words) are terrible.  The English translation of the song itself is not all that great either.  And yet, in all fairness, there are some beautiful elements of the song that I didn’t mention in my earlier report mainly because, at the time, I simply hadn’t gained the distance yet to notice them.

But now I have.  So, in all fairness to Rain and his diligent effort in bringing his beloved English-speaking fans a new song in their own English tongue, I want to share those elements with you.

First element:  The structure and the quality of the music itself.

The song is a beautiful, classic ballad, a tender love song about a man who is fighting desperately to get the woman he loves (and has lost) to come back to him. The thing I like the most about the musical structure of this song is it really holds back.  The song begins with just a piano and Rain’s voice. Then, slowly, it begins to add strings and other instrumentals.  Still, we are halfway through the song before we get an orchestral feel, and even then, it’s not a full, ornamental sound with all of the bells and whistles.  Instead, the music is balanced so that the richness of Rain’s voice shines through it.  Awesome composition by Rain and awesome audio mixing by some of the best U.S. and Korean audio engineers in the business.

Second element:  Why a ballad?

Rain himself took great care to tell his Korean audiences, during his pre-release appearances, that the title song of his new mini-album was going to be a ballad and not a dance tune.  Ballads are not Rain’s modus operandi, not by a long shot. There are many reasons why he might have made the decision to make the focal point of this album a ballad, but I’ll take a stab at a couple of the possibilities:

1.  Rain wants to do more ballads.  Rain is a great dancer.  He knows that.  He is extremely confident in his dancing abilities—and rightly so.  He is also a great singer.  I think he knows that too.  The problem is he is such a great dancer that he doesn’t always get the chance to show off his vocal chops.  I think he would love to do more ballads.  The problem is he’s not so sure that his fans want to see him standing on stage singing lots of ballads.  I think that’s one of the reasons Rain felt the need to add those sexy dance moves to Love Song, to give his fans something to “watch.”  Frankly, I don’t think the song really needed any choreography.  It was good enough to stand on its own.  Still, Rain added choreography anyway.  To me, that says a lot.
2. Rain is not as young as he used to be.  Although Rain is not old by any stretch of the imagination, he knew that if he was going to sell lots of copies of this album, he was going to have to promote the hell out of it on every bloody music show in Korea.  When you are a 29-year-old dancer (30 by international standards), I imagine that full-out dancing in back-to-back, weekly music shows, can be a killer.  So, not only would a ballad give Rain the chance to vocally shine, it would also give him a break in the body department.  Smart move.

Third element:  Rain’s voice.

The timbre, the tonal quality, of Rain’s voice in this song is even better than usual.  It is a mystery to me how the richness and clarity with which Rain sings combines with the natural whiskey flavor of his voice to enthrall his listeners.  But it does.  That is one of the reasons Rain is such a successful singer.  Regardless of his endless efforts to be the best at what he does, it’s the natural qualities of his voice working together that somehow simply mesmerizes people.  I’ve seen it happen time and time again when someone around me stops and takes the time to listen to him sing.  This mysterious aura is never more evident than in the English version of Love Song.

Fourth element:  Rain’s acting.

Rain’s voice is not all that is better in this song.  Even the emotion that Rain manages to exhibit throughout Love Song in English is better than his Korean version.  It is so much better, in my humble opinion, that by the end of the song, his listeners are totally convinced that he is a broken man.  This achievement is even more amazing when you consider that he is not even singing in his native language.  You English speakers just try to sing one of Rain’s songs in Korean (no fair if you actually speak Korean) and see how well that works out for you.  :-}

Fifth Element:  Rain’s English.

Which brings me to my final point.  As I was sitting there, really engaging myself in every word, it suddenly hit me.  Good grief.  That’s right.  This man is not an English speaker.  And yet, for the most part, he is singing in almost perfect English.  If he had been able to avail himself of a vocal coach who was an expert in the English language, he would never have made the minor errors that he made in the song in the first place (like saying “agayin” instead of “again, ” “ahver,” instead of of “ohver,” “chore” hands, instead of “your” hands, “choud” instead of “should”).  The English lyrics of Love Story and Rainism, written and recorded by Double Dragon Productions, were superbly done, and those were produced years before Love Song.  If Rain had been given the proper support for Love Song, there’s just no telling how great it could have been.  Frustrating?  Yes, but it is what it is.

So, what’s the bottom line?  Well, for me, it’s this.  The fact that Rain was able to do as well as he did with this song in English without the proper support in place gives me great hope for his future career here in the U.S.A., now that he has Rainy Entertainment by his side.  No matter which path he decides to take, I think it’s pretty clear that whenever he puts his mind to it, Rain can accomplish anything.

Even singing in English.

Terri :-}

[Video credit:  XDDDD30 on YouTube]

Posted in Asian pop, Back to the Basic, Bi Rain, Bi Rain Back To The Basic, Jung Ji Hoon, Korean pop, Rain, Rain album, Rain stuff
Tags: Back to the Basic, Bi Rain, Ji Hoon Jung, Jung Ji Hoon, Love Song English Version, Rain, rain bi