Alex dishes up jazz and ballads in "Just Like Me"...

Don't we just all dream about "Mr. Right"? A guy who has a great smile, a great body and who's an all around gentleman to boot! Well, let's just say Mr. Right were able to sing really well... he would be Alex Chu (I know, I'm stretching it a bit for an intro... but he really is a charming guy!).

After a two-year hiatus, Alex just recently released his second solo album, "Just Like Me" yesterday, and I have to say that he has succeeded in flooring me down with his smooth and romantic vocals.

For those who don't know Alex, he's a Korean-Canadian who first shot to fame after he returned to Korea and debuted with the experimental electro-jazz group Clazziquai (together with DJ Clazzi and female vocalist Horan). He later gathered a strong following when he participated in the show "We Got Married" and was paired off with actress Shin Ae. His participation in the show was cut short mid-way in the first season because he was recording his first album, but returned due to popular demand.

I first encountered Alex when he became part of the drama "Pasta" (with one of my favorite Korean actors, Lee Sun Gyun). He was featured as the secondary male lead --- and as we all know, the second male lead is usually the great guy who sadly doesn't end up with the girl. He was an absolute gentleman in this drama --- which matches his real personality!

Having been part of Clazziquai, he's well-known for his cool baritone voice, and his unbelievably expressive falsettos. The simplicity of his delivery, the breadth of his range, and the sincerity you feel in his voice are what drive people to listen to this crooner. Apart from the fact that he has a wonderful voice, his style and genre (ballads and pop jazz) generally appeal to more people that most other Korean acts. I've asked a few folks to listen to tracks from his newly released album, and I've consistently gotten positive feedback about how nice his music is (considering they don't understand a single word of what he's saying hahahaha!)

When his album was released yesterday, I first watched the simultaneously released MV for his launching track "Even If I Wanted To Go Crazy". Alex's ballad deals with another common theme in Kpop --- break-ups. I guess what makes this song hopeful is the fact that it talks about lingering love, wanting to work things out, and picking up the pieces of a broken relationship.

The MV itself is interesting since Alex himself doesn't even appear in the video. The camera angles seem to point out to the video being shot from the first person point of view, The video focuses on the female lead the entire time (it helps though that she's really pretty hehehe!), showing cut scenes of her having an argument with the person behind the camera. It's an interesting visual interpretation of what would've been potentially a cliche' and boring ballad MV.

"Even If I Wanted To Go Crazy" by Alex (MV with Eng Subs)

NOTE: Since a subbed version of the MV isn't available yet, I'm also posting a fan subbed
link to the audio version of the track. The vid itself can't be embedded, so click here.

"Just Like Me" was released with a total of 13 tracks (with the last track being an instrumental Outro). What I found interesting was that they leveraged on the two things that Alex is strong at --- jazz and ballads. Unlike most balladeers, Alex is able to deliver a good amount of variety. Sad to note though that since this is a really recent release, English translations aren't out yet (sigh).

There were quite a number of songs that I liked in this album. I have two favorites in this album --- "You're My Lady" (track 2) and "평범한 그대" (unfortunately, I don't have a translation of the title of track 12). The first song has an upbeat melody; the use of some brass in the background give it a strong jazzy-retro feel.  The second track on the other hand is a catchy pop-jazz ballad that uses a lot of interesting synthesized sounds; but the highlight being what I feel is the best sung song in the album.

"You're My Lady" by Alex (Audio Only)

"평범한 그대" by Alex  (Audio Only)

I wanted to feature some other songs too because they were really interesting to listen to, and I can't help but want to share them with you!

"봄날의 바람 같아요", the 4th track, is probably one of the best ballads in the album. It's follows a mid-tempo rhythm, but the piano playing in the background just drove it out of the park for me.

"봄날의 바람 같아요" by Alex (Audio Only)

"If I Could Take It Back", the 5th track, was featured in the recent movie of Hyun Bin that was featured in the Berlin International Film Festival, "Late Autumn". It's a laid back ballad, and Alex pulls on your heartstrings by doing the falsetto riffs that he's well known for.

"If I Could Take It Back" by Alex feat. Jane (MV Only)

"Tomboi", the 11th track, on the other hand, changes the pace of the album and gives us a taste of the kind of electro-jazz that first made him famous with Clazziquai. Love the retro feel of the song that makes you just want to dance the swing!

"Tomboi" by Alex feat. Lovey (Audio Only)

Alex definitely hit a home run with this album! It's absolutely the kind of music I love, and he's definitely the right person to deliver the kind of harmony required for this sort of material. Hopefully it won't take him another 2 or so years to come up with another album though... hehehe!