Review: Suho – "1 to 3"

Exo leader Suho has become the king of consistency in his solo output since the members of the iconic group began releasing solo efforts in between their biannual group albums in 2019.

Beginning in 2020 with his effective soft-rock EP, Self-Portrait, and the 2022 follow-up, Grey Suit, Suho has effectively delivered on his Britpop ambitions with the 2024 EP, 1 to 3, despite an inauspicious first half.

The seven-track album has an underwhelming start with the opener, "Mayday", which fails to grab the attention as the title would suggest. The song is pleasant enough, but it never fully conveys its lyrical sentiment of quiet desperation.

The title track, "1 to 3," evokes the pleasure of the Grey Suit single, "Hurdle," and it surely moves with a similarly brisk pace. Once again, the song is good enough, but the chorus never quite reaches the anthemic plain that its lyrics and verses are directing it towards.

Track three, "Cheese," is the album's lowlight. Its release as a single is mystifying beyond the presence of labelmate Wendy for an unnecessary duet appearance. It has a fun bouncy track, but the lyrics, which attempt to use cheese as a romantic metaphor, are clumsy and tread over everything good the instrumental is doing.

The turning point tune, "Wishful Thinking," is where the album starts to pick up. Here Suho slips into his Britpop groove in a tune that resembles a more introspective version of Niall Horan’s "Slow Hands." A single guitar riff drives the song along nicely while Suho's voice finally finds its identifiable pleasures with his subtle yet textured delivery.

Next up is "Moonlight," the best song on the album. With a fizzy '60s feel that starts a trio of songs to perfectly soundtrack summer evenings. The lyrical notion of the moonlight descending on a loved one in the evening just as a spotlight beams on a performer lifts the often overdone lyrical idea of artist self-reference to legitimate romantic heights. One can even imagine themself walking with a lover along the Han River as the song scores their beauty in the moonlight.

The triumphant of pop jaunts is continued with the Primal Scream-lite tune which is the only song where Suho gets to show his vocal teeth. While the feature from rapper Giriboy feels like another unnecessary cameo, when Suho gets his swagger behind the song's theme of "life is rock'n'roll," he effectively takes the listener to the "camp-fire" he mentions making a "racket" with his friends.

The album closes with the Self-Portraitesque "Zero Gravity," which closes the album on a sweet note, finishing the summer night trio of songs with an effective ode that ends with a request of "let's go, over and over again" that simply leaves the listener craving more from the crooner.

Despite the lukewarm start, 1 to 3 eventually heats up as the album goes on and further solidifies Suho's place as one of the most consistent singers in K-pop.

Rating: 3.5/5.