Yukika is Japanese and had success there, but embarked on launching a career in music in South Korea. This is essential to know, because it not only explains the sound of this album, which is pretty unconventional by regular K-Pop standards, but it's a narrative which is actually told through the album.
Soul Lady is a City Pop album. A sound that South Korea and those who follow K-Pop aren't oblivious to. Not only has City Pop gone global since the advent of YouTube and algorithms strangely recommending City Pop songs, but artists in K-Pop have touched on the sound before. Most notably ex-Wonder Girl Yubin with her 2018 song "Lady".
Yukika's decision to make a City Pop album which sounds and looks so authentic to the point you'd wonder if this really was from the 80s is fresh in and of itself, but to release this exclusively in Korean is also something.
One of the most striking things about this album is how well put together it is. Yukika will get filed under K-Pop because this is a Pop music release in Korean. But the approach to this album is so different. Only within the past 5 or so years has K-Pop began to produce solid albums which feel considered as whole bodies of work and not just a collection of songs. Soul Lady has a clear theme, which not only provides a narrative, but one which is personal to Yukika. The album intro "HND to GMP" refers to Yukika's Journey from Japan (HND = Haneda airport, Tokyo) to South Korea (GMP = Gimpo airport, Seoul) which adds character and a sense of who Yukika is; providing context to why her name sounds Japanese and she's releasing City Pop music in Korean. Even the album title and the title track is a play on words and a nod to this. In the the song Yukika refers to herself as a 'Seoul Lady' after having been in the city for so long and assimilating. We didn't really NEED to have this context at all, but it adds to the package.
Despite the album being touted as a City Pop album and it being the prominent sound and visual brand for the album, this isn't the entire sound of the album. Or at least not as we know it to be. There are some songs which wouldn't be filed under City Pop at all, and would be considered straight up Pop records. But the cool thing about these songs is that they still sit well together and subtly blur the lines. "Yesterday" is just a straight-up 80s Pop song. "A Time For Love" is your regular laid back acoustic guitar led Pop song that you've probably heard a K-Pop artists sing before. Taeyeon comes to mind, as she has songs of this style on her solo albums. Then there's "Pit-a-Pet" which fuses an old school sound with new school production and a house vibe; not a damn thing City Pop about it. And yet it can sit amongst the likes of "Soul Lady" and "Cherries Jubiles" which are City Pop as fuck. The single "Neon", which has been revised for this album even sounds like a homage of sorts to Mariya Takeuchi's eventual classic "Plastic Love". City Pop is the defining sound of this album, but it's never afraid to stray outside of it.
Whilst City Pop runs deep in this album, you don't have to be a fan of City Pop or a City Pop connoisseur in order to enjoy it. The winks, nudges and references are there for those that know them. But this is just an album of really good Pop songs, which manages to bridge the past to the present, the old to the new, as well as South Korea to Japan.
Yukika has a nice sounding voice, but she's no powerhouse. Range, who!? And there's nothing distinct about her voice, which you could say is in keeping with the City Pop theme and Pop of the 80s. But she sounds nice on the songs. I was genuinely surprised at how in the pocket she was, and she brings the right energy to each song. There are even instances when I was genuinely surprised at how good she sounded and notes she managed to hit.
Soul Lady is a great debut. Not only is it well produced and conceptualised, but it helps create this sense of who Yukika is. It also smartly positions itself as something which only Yukika could uniquely do as a Japanese pop star releasing music in Korea. Sure, anybody could do the sound, but the story and her placement is one which is unique to her and is smartly woven into the music. The surface level stuff of this album is so damn good by itself, but for there to be unexpected layers within some of the songs and the concept is a nice surprise.
Bluntly put, this is just a damn good album.
👍🏾 Bops from top to bottom
👎🏾 "I Need a Friend" should have been a song
Album highlights:
■ I Feel Love
■ Soul Lady
■ Yesterday
■ A Day For Love
■ Cherries Jubiles
■ Pit-a-Pet 🏆
■ Shade
■ Neon 1989
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