Ranking All JYJ Albums

If there was one thing that would convince me to bring back an interesting dead feature, it would be my favorite boy band, TVXQ. finally reaching their twentieth anniversary. I am waiting on their December 20&2 album before I provide a ranking, but the brief TVXQ splinter group, JYJ deserves some fame too, and this ranking will rank all their four albums (any release with more than four new songs). I will be skipping Their Rooms, "Our Story", as all its songs would later appear on the much superior In Heaven. 

The links I am providing are to Spotify, and to YouTube if they are unable on Spotify.

Also, obligatory note: This site, or this praise of music, does not condone Yoochun's actions.

4. The Beginning (2010)

I rarely say this but, The Beginning is weird. It isn't bad, it is a fairly serviceable early '10s EDM album, but that is what it makes weird. When they had a massive fandom willing to buy CDs in places like Japan and Taiwan, capturing America was a bizarre choice, even if taken in the context of the contractual mess. Even if this is accepted, one has to then question why the entire album is in English, when Junsu and Yoochun were both Cassie in-jokes for their awful English. 

All this said, the expectations for The Beginning were still high, given that the album featured guest appearances from Darkchild and Kanye freaking West, the latter in the year of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

What on God's green Earth?

These features add nothing to what already is a confusing mess. And well, Ayy Girl is only known as a meme by the fandom for a reason. All is forgiven, however, as The Beginning still has room for some quality in its seven full-length tracks. Be The One is a strong EDM dance track, and Empty is bizarrely fantastic, and almost indisputably one of the best JYJ, and perhaps TVXQ-related songs, ever. How that happened I do not know, but just hear Empty, and skip the rest.

3. The... (2010)

JYJ's debut EP, The... is pretty much impossible to find anywhere, this unofficial playlist misses track Always For You (link right here) and it has been scrubbed from streaming sites due to JYJ and Avex's split. That said, these four songs might be arguably amongst JYJ's very best. In fact, I am quite sure that these were the remaining tracks from TVXQ's unrecorded fifth OT5 Japanese album the rest of the songs being added on Best Selection 2010. JYJ work with old collaborators such as H.U.B. and Daisuke Suzuki to great effect.

In fact, the latter provides the album's masterpiece, W, one of the best songs of the 2010s. The other three songs are all strong 9/10s of some variety or the other, but W is a perfect successor to Suzuki-TVXQ's trilogy of Love in the Ice-Bolero-W.  The only reason The... finds itself outside the top spot is it is mercilessly short. Combine it with TVXQ's Best Selection 2010 for a masterpiece of J-Pop pop and balladry.

2. Just Us (2014)

I will be honest, Just Us is better than my top spot when it comes to its lyrics, melody, and songwriting, I just have more fun hearing my top spot. As JYJ's final studio album (at least as a trio), Just Us feels like the expected conclusion of whatever JYJ's career had been towards for years. The sensual mid-tempo of Back Seat is a fan favorite for good reason, but the rest of the album is much more than an R&B slow jam. 7 Years and Dad, You There? are solid piano ballads, but improve as tributes to the members' parents and their childhoods.

Beyond that, the beautiful textures of all of JYJ's voices in tandem can even be seen in more ornamental and orchestral songs, like Letting Go and So So. The album even has an upbeat finale, closing off with fantastic songs like Creation, one of the many songs that show Jaejoong's depth as a vocalist and a songwriter, except in its very best form. Just Us is JYJ at its very peak, taking pop, balladry, and rock in equal measure for what is one of the essential K-Pop records of the late second generation.

1. In Heaven (2011)

Just like The Beginning, In Heaven is a bizarre album. Everything it does right, it does wrong. Sometimes, the vocal layering is fantastic, such as in In Heaven's heavenly (pun intended) bridge, and at other times, the autotune in Mission is overwhelming. Sometimes, the lyrics are fantastic, as with Untitled Song Pt. 1, and other times, we get I.D.S. (or, Mission's infamous bridge). The album is sometimes beautiful in its balladry, and at others, relishing in dated EDM.

But even the album's weaker moments come together for the bigger picture; an album defined by its existence after one of the messiest break-ups in musical history. The lyrics deal with anger after betrayal, wishing for a return of a long-lost friend or loved one, JYJ's wish to create more art, and in the case of Untitled Song Pt.1, an explicit recap and retelling of the members' lawsuit with SM Entertainment.

All three members get fantastic vocal flourishes in In Heaven. Jaejoong's production in the two singles (Get Out and In Heaven) confirmed what fans knew after 9095, that he was one of the most talented composers in the idol scene, Yoochun, with Junsu and Jaejoong's assistance, showcased his lyrical chops on Untitled Song Pt. 1, and Mission foretold the direction Junsu would go with his solo career; orchestral and experimental dance music.

Despite being disjointed, messy, and at times, even bad, In Heaven is rarely ever boring. And every failure is more than worth it just for Jaejoong's beautiful tribute to his late friend Park Yong-Ha on the eponymous title track, In Heaven. All the pain, worrying, and suffering that led to this record, and of the listener, instantly diminishes when that golden finale arrives.

(Though had Found You been included on the album, it would be even better.)

Image Source: Soompi