Amateur Recommendation Hour: Story Op 1

Today’s recommendation is an album by the late and great Kim Jonghyun whom I just wrote a piece on to remember the three years since his passing. This may not be the last time I come back to his discography as I’m planning on covering all four of his albums at some point further down the line. I feel like I owe him considering the impact he’s had on my appreciation for art as a whole.

Story Op 1 is a compilation of songs inspired by stories from listeners of Jonghyun’s radio show “Blue Night.” It might sound like his most solemn and somber work on the outside but ultimately I found it to collectively represent something more uplifting and something that means a great deal to me personally and what I imagine meant a lot to him as well. 

I believe it is his greatest work. Playing to not only his writing in terms of emotional intelligence and empathy when it comes to his comforting but melancholic lyricism but also to his instrumentation strengths as a musician. Since music is as of subjective medium of creation as any, take it as you’d take any of my music recommendations: with a gigantic grain of salt. If you find your tastes and interests to be closer to my sensibilities then you may find yourself in agreement with me. Dissenting opinions and various perspectives is a valuable thing though so as always I encourage anyone to look beyond simply the people you agree with to broaden your viewpoints and allow yourself to step outside of comfortable echo chambers, just as Jonghyun always did when creating his works.

My personal interpretations of this work stem more from how it was penned than what necessarily the songs are about. I believe this album to be about the connective and healing power of music as an art form. Hearing emotions and thoughts communicated through song has a way of reaching us when we feel unreachable. It has a unique ability to connect us to people and their feelings when we may know nothing else about them. The album artwork even conveys this idea of this connectivity we feel. To say “it’s an album about music” sounds REALLY dumb and kind of makes me laugh even writing it but that is exactly what it is. An appreciation of the art form.