After six months of activity to reaffirm their spot amongst the elite of the Korean entertainment industry, TVXQ! has finally taken up their alias, Tohoshinki, once more. With the release of their fourth Japanese album, ‘The Secret Code‘, they seek to cement their position at the top of the Japanese charts.

This album does not disappoint. Besides including songs from their chart-topping singles such as ‘Why Did I Fall In Love With You‘ and ‘Beautiful You‘, Secret Code contains a couple of the members’ self-penned songs such as ‘Without Forgetting‘ (by Jaejoong Kim) an ‘Kiss The Baby Sky‘ (by Yoochun Park).

The most notable track in this album is the mysteriously-titled ‘9095‘. Composed by Jaejoong Kim, the lead vocalist of Tohoshinki, the song speaks of a mysterious love that is rumored to resonate with his own past experiences. 9095 is a mixture of Japanese and French, oddly poetic lyrics such as Trois, the spider web which entangles and entangles like this, continously/ The sandclock which started to go backwards to 9095. It comes with a dripping beat and synthesizer effects, which enhance the relaxing, but still undoubtedly enigmatic feeling of the piece.

Speaking of poetic, Jaejoong Kim also amazes with the lyrics of ‘Without Forgetting‘, which he wrote in Japanese despite having learned the language for only a couple of years. Unrequited love seems to be a running theme in the songs of which he is involved in producing, and Without Forgetting is not an exception. This dredge of a memory grows stronger/ A short message from you/ Tightens my chest a little but/ I want to continue watching over an eternal happiness, he writes, causing much speculation amongst his fans as to whether he drew from his own experiences when writing this song. Paired with Tohoshinki’s experience in singing ballads, the song sounds painfully believable.

With impressively composed songs such as these, it leaves me to wonder why songs such as Survivor and Box in the Ship are still included. While undoubtedly catchy enough to stay stuck in one’s head for a few days at the least, in contrast with Without Forgetting, the lyrics seem juvenile and superficial, to the point of being silly.

(Though, silly- or ‘young’, for lack of better words- might be the point for songs such as We Are! and Share The World, both of which were used as opening songs for the popular Japanese animation, One Piece.)

However, it is understandable that, having Japanese as a second language, the song-writing process would be tedious and take a far longer time. It does give hope though, that the group’s future albums would have a greater portion of meaningful, self-composed songs.

What I find less-than-stellar about the album, however, is the inclusion of songs such as

Purple Line and Mirotic, which are both translated versions of their Korean chart-toppers. While the songs do remain catchy and their singing doesn’t fail to impress, the words ofttimes sound awkward and ill-fitted to the melody, which was originally tailored for a set of Korean lyrics, instead.

Also, I was disappointed by the absence of any bonus a capella tracks, which is what Tohoshinki was initially known for.

With a whopping 19 tracks overall, The Secret Code is a good balance of ballads and catchy pop songs, and though some cater more for the 13-16 year-old age group of their audience, the others do reveal Tohoshinki’s better-than-expected song writing abilities.

9095 Lyrics and Translation from Minsarang

Without Forgetting Lyrics and Translation from Moonlightunes