Album Review - Rain - Vol. 5 Rainism

01 My Way
02 Rainism
03 Only You
04 Love Story
05 Love Is
06 My Woman
07 You
08 Fresh Woman
09 Attract More (feat. C-LUV)
10 Put Your Head Up
11 September 12th
12 My Way
13 Rainism Remix

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Rain has achieved much on his own after leaving the shelter of JY Park’s wings, soon after the release of his fourth studio album two years ago. He established his own company, J Tune Entertainment, and took part in two Hollywood films, Speed Racer and Ninja Assassin. However, Rain has not forgotten his fans back home and has released his fifth album this year, the first to be produced under his own music label. The album is titled Rainism, where the multi-talented artiste hoped to show a new ideology in various aspects of fashion, dance, to music. Fans and non-fans alike had anticipated this new release more than ever, due to Rain’s independence from his past company. Does he have what it takes to be successful in the music scene?

The title track is “Rainism,” an upbeat track which starts off with heavy beats and rhythms. The song is very repetitive with the lyrics “I’m gonna be a bad boy”, which can get very addictive, and has a melody that’s hard to forget. Personally, I enjoyed the melody but was very disappointed with the lyrics. To me, they seemed very limited and just showed Rain’s poor English pronunciation skills. If Rain really wants to make it in the American scene, he shouldn’t have included so many English words. The co-title track is “Love Story”, which was released as a digital single prior to the release of the album. Unlike “Rainism”, it is a medium-tempo R&B number which shows off his potential as a lyricist as well as a vocalist. Rain is able to express much emotion through this beautiful piece.

One of the songs I initially enjoyed was “Love Is”, another medium-tempo R&B track. However it is more relaxed than “Love Story” and has a much lighter mood. Those familiar with Rain’s past hits will find this very reminiscent of “I Do” from his third album. Once again, Rain took part in penning the lyrics to this song, which is a plus. Another song I would recommend is “You”. It is pretty upbeat with a catchy melody. One can hear Rain singing in his falsetto throughout most of song and that caught my interest. The last song I wanted to mention was “Put Your Head Up”, another fast track which Rain is known for. It is a pretty generic dance track but addictive nonetheless. It’s a perfect song to play while on the drive or for just partying up.

Overall, I feel that this album will get mixed reviews from different people. As a fan of some of his older hits, I believe that Rain was successful in retaining his old style. However, I was disappointed with a couple of things. First, I felt that some of the tracks were too general and sounded too similar t to each other. Secondly, I really despised his overuse of English words which, in many cases, ruined a perfectly good song (eg. introduction of track 6 “My Woman”). Because there were both catchy and non-catchy songs, I conclude by giving this a 3.5/5.

3.5/5

5/5 – Even if you’re not a fan of this artist/group this album is a must buy.
4/5 – If you’re a fan of this artist/group, you must buy this album.
3/5 – If you’re a fan of this artist/group, you might want to add this one to your collection.
2/5 – I don’t think a fan would even buy this.
1/5 – You might as well just flush your money down the toilet