Twenty-one-year-old Jo Sung Mo is riding a wave of success with the release of his second CD entitled For Your Soul. Taking a cue from the most popular songs off his first CD such as
To Heaven [RealVideo] and Immortal Love [RealAudio], the young singer has again concentrated on ballads.
Jo Sung Mo opens the set with For Your Soul, a love ballad. The song begins with the sounds of a Spanish guitar, giving it a sultry, continental feeling.
Sangcheo (A Wound) [MP3] is one of the two fast songs on the CD. It's a little light to make a big impact on the club scene, but otherwise has a decent beat. The strings playing in the background gives it a color not found in other dance songs?at times it almost sounds Slavic in origin.
The third cut is the first version of You & I found on the CD. About a minute and a half into the song is a warm saxophone passage that stands out. There is a second version of this song as well, designated You & I (Fast). Despite my constant raving about the heavy reliance on the synthesizer by pop musicians, I will say that I find this quicker version of the song easy on the ears.
Hwashalgido [MP3] has a dramatic beginning. Jo Sung Mo helps sustain the tension and energy of the orchestration throughout this song with the purity of his voice. In pitch, he has the voice of an adolescent, but in support and tone, his vocal cords have matured into adulthood.
This is probably slanderous, but I have no problem envisioning an eleven-year-old Donny Osmond singing Sweet Baby. It has a happy, bouncy, big-white-smile-and-puppy-dog-eyes kind of rhythm. This is a song in which Jo Sung Mo's youth stands out.
The subtle strains of Evergreen demonstrate why fans love Jo Sung Mo's ballads. This would make a good theme song to a movie?it's pretty, has a couple of good tempo changes, and could provide a nice background sound for those "falling in love" scenes.
Jo Sung Mo tries out something funky in Nightmare. It starts with a groovy, disco passage and continues with a pop beat reminiscent of Michael Jackson's Thriller CD.
Love Song is, not surprisingly, a love song built around the violin. The use of a studio orchestra distinguishes Jo Sung Mo's ballads from those of the competition. The addition of this full sound to his almost feminine voice is a wise production move. Rainy Dreams also opens with fragile and delicate orchestral music that blends nicely into a ballad. The tone of this piece is evocative of a lonely, rainy day. Jo Sung Mo's voice interacts nicely with that of the violin.
You may not believe the ethereal elegance of the first few measures of
