V.O.S has always been a group with a very clear musical style. Since its debut in 2004, the vocalist trio has built its reputation on the members’ perfect-pitch three-part harmonies and their soaring emotional choruses. On their reunion album, with member Park Ji-hun returning to the group after six years of performing as a soloist, the three singers clearly wanted to evoke a sense of familiarity by bringing back that style. 

Unfortunately, they stuck to that script with a little too much integrity on “Re:union, The Real,” with four of the five tracks on the album sounding almost identical. They all follow the same structure of the ’90s Korean ballads -- a slow, soft verse, followed by an exploding chorus, another quiet verse, and a finale chorus painted with intricate vocalizations. 

The lyrics are all different, of course -- the two lead tracks “The Day” and “The Only One for Me” tell the story of the group’s longing for good days gone past and the importance of keeping loyal friends close, respectively. But without paying close attention to the words, it’s easy to mistake all the songs for each other, making the album repetitive and emotionally exhausting to listen to from start to finish. It may be a consequence of having composing team E.one (of which member Choi Hyun-joon is a member) create three of the five tracks.

Although the album heralds the return of the V.O.S everyone knew and loved, it does little else.

By Won Ho-jung (hjwon@heraldcorp.com)