DOYOUNG released his first solo album, “YOUTH,” back in April 2024, and came back this June with his second, “Soar.” With just over a year between releases, the move is unconventional compared to solo releases from the other NCT 127 members and K-pop at large. Over the past two years, NCT 127 has seen a surge in solo releases, with more than half of its members making their solo debut. There’s now a growing perception that K-pop idols putting out solo efforts isn’t just a one-off thing but an independent pursuit they can keep up with alongside everything their groups do together. Still, finding his own footing by releasing two albums nearly back-to-back like this remains fairly rare.

The boy who once gathered fragmented feelings flowing on the waves of “YOUTH” has now started to “Soar” on wings of dreams. True to its name, the new album is all about hope and taking off. What’s just as attention-grabbing as the theme itself is the fascinating exploration it undertakes, both moving that theme along and making it more persuasive at the same time. Essentially, “Soar” looks into the sound and sentiment of Korean pop from the 1990s and early 2000s while also providing its own contemporary spin. At the time, Korean pop music exploded in both quantity and quality, going on to form part of the foundation of modern K-pop. But the style was also looked down upon when it first came out, and critics lumped it under the ambiguous umbrella term “gayo,” or mainstream Korean music in general. That means, before any exploration or modernization, there needs to be affirmation. You’d also need to be confident you can properly update it for modern tastes. Is it too much a stretch of the imagination to say that the singer DOYOUNG himself is the very reason this could happen at all?

1990s ballads and early 2000s R&B lean on dramatic progression built by layering piano, strings, rock instruments, and elaborate vocals with soaring high notes. “Soar” doesn’t focus on replicating that exact production style but instead emphasizes how it gave male vocalists the opportunity to express themselves in a straightforward and emotionally candid way. “Just Friends,” for instance, tells a familiar story of unrequited love but does so with an emotional intensity crafted entirely from simple acoustic guitar and DOYOUNG’s raw vocals. It starts with lines like “sometimes I want to hold you, sometimes I want to know you,” and ends with lyrics such as “I want to have you” and “I practically explode with emotion.” Meanwhile, though it has an equally intense message, “Sonnet” shifts the focus from unstable relationships and overwhelming emotion to profound gratitude toward the person who’s stayed by your side. Today’s K-pop is so refined that it’s able to take a second look at the past through variations of the styles and themes favored at the time.

While the album demonstrates a consistent awareness of the fittingness of rock to convey its messages in the modern age, “Soar” is so committed to what it’s inheriting and modernizing that it stands apart even with rock currently experiencing a resurgence in popularity. It doesn’t aim to faithfully replicate genres originating from the West, nor does it veer into a J-rock sound just because that, too, is having its heyday. What most explicitly sets DOYOUNG’s new album apart from “YOUTH” is its collaborations. “Soar” features tracks written by Yoon Do Hyun from YB, Kim Yuna from Jaurim, and Kim Jong Wan from NELL. Collaborations like these ensure the album’s relationship with the past, no matter how accurate, isn’t just a one-sided interpretation, instead evolving into a meaningful dialog between some of the most significant young artists of their respective generations.

Yoon Do Hyun contributed “Still,” a song he wrote amid personal struggles and searching desperately for inner peace. Adhering to conventions of the rock ballad, DOYOUNG elevates Yoon’s deeply personal and introspective composition with his clear, delicate vocals. Kim Jong Wan, meanwhile, contributed the appropriately titled “Sand Box,” a track that could be about dreams or a song dedicated to fans thanks to its open-ended lyrics but also a soundscape that opens with synths and expands its sound through guitar. The result is a feeling of pushing your way through obstacles, all while DOYOUNG’s vocals “Soar” the way the album promises from its title. Finally, and tying the whole album together, DOYOUNG sings about the hope that he can live without holding onto any sort of longing through the Kim Yuna-penned “Luminous.”

“Soar” avoids falling into a trap of sentimental nostalgia. It embraces the underlying feeling of the ballads and folk music of old and their literary messages of unfulfilled love and society-wide hardships, without dismissing these feelings as a cringey immature phase. To sing about what’s on his mind—dreams, growth—DOYOUNG leverages the genres that best suit him, taking a fresh look at the ballad format typical of solo K-pop singers. He’s collaborated with artists who embody the popular conception of rock in Korea today while also revisiting his roots as a singer in his former school band club.

Finally, the lead single, “Memory,” comes across as a declaration made by today’s creative minds: By acknowledging what’s come before, we’re able to make the songs we do today. The music is written by a songwriter with the skill to create a perfectly structured modern ballad, and its lyrics are penned by someone who draws inspiration from an earlier era’s style and who likes to tell a complete story. The song is conspicuously devoid of English lyrics, which feels like another deliberate choice to solidify the theme. The refreshing clarity of “Memory,” made whole thanks to DOYOUNG’s vocals, finds its foundation in the music of the 1990s but also comes from being produced to the standards of today’s K-pop. So when DOYOUNG sings, “There are things that time can never overcome,” a spirit that’s only possible when you’re young and a maturity that’s only possible with age come together like two inseparable sides of the same coin. It takes all 10 tracks of the album to realize that vision, but even then, it’s over so quickly. We better start back at the beginning, then.