Amateur Recommendation Hour: Soul Lady

Today’s recommendation is one that I’ve actually been wanting to share for a while but for whatever reason it took me way too long to find the appropriate words for. Borderline personality disorder is not fun. Would not recommend. Especially when you’re trying to instill some much needed positivity into the works of art that you speak fondly of.

Soul Lady, by Yukika Teramoto, is the debut Korean-language album of the aforementioned Japanese idol/actress. The inspiration of 2nd generation Kpop acts such as Girls’ Generation and BoA is very evident in the composition of this album. Harkening back to the seemingly-yesterday decade old sound of girl groups and female soloists. The more bubblegummy and bouncy sounds of a bygone era are replicated very well, making me miss the 2000s even more than I already did.

I believe this to be a very personal piece as it relates to a new chapter in Ms. Teramoto’s life. She’s walked into somewhat of a hostile situation (Korean sentiment towards Japanese people is a can of worms I don’t dare touch), communicating and creating in a non-native tongue, trying to find her way amongst all of the obstacles and being grateful in reflection of the experiences she’s had thus far in her Korean career. Finding unexpected love and support in a new place really helps someone not only acclimate to new surroundings but feel less tentative waking up every morning and actually look forward to all the new things that await.

I find a lot of the works that I recommend are more poignant, philosophical, critical, etc so I wanted to instill some much needed positive thinking and feeling. It may not be the most compositionally/emotionally complex or make us think and reflect on our own perceptions and preconceptions, but I think a dose of lighthearted and pure hope absolutely deserves a place in the artistic space too. Unfortunately too much of the positive art we find these days are often shallow, vapid, or both.