Celebrate Eric Nam’s First All-English Album, Before We Begin!
Nam Nation, are you ready? The great Eric Nam’s all-English album is finally here! Following his pre-release song, “Love Die Young,” Eric Nam brings new lyrical and musical concepts with Before We Begin. This album consists of eight tracks that are the most meaningful to him during this time of his life. Whenever you listen to any of Eric Nam’s music, you can feel how personal his music is. There is just something in the way he sings that makes you feel an instantaneous connection.
As a host of the K-Pop Daebak Show, Eric starts your week off by sharing the latest K-pop releases, making sure to sprinkle in a healthy amount of random ramblings. If you are a regular listener of the K-pop Daebak Show, you will know how proud he is of the work that he and his team have put into this album’s production. So, without further ado, let’s get onto the album!
“Come Through” opens up the album with a catchy upbeat track that describes the anxious feeling when meeting up with a love interest, followed by pre-release track, “Love Die Young,” which was written in July and is about how fragile a relationship can be. The lyric video for “Love Die Young” features the blooming and wilting of flowers. In contrast to the butterfly-in-your-stomach feeling from “Come Through,” title track “Congratulations” is a celebratory anthem for those who are getting out of a toxic relationship. Featuring Marc E. Bassy, the music video visualizes the liberating feeling of freedom as he is seen going to several parties. In the beginning, you can see his lingering thoughts about the relationship, but soon learns to move past it, ending with Eric driving off in a new Mercedes-Benz, listening to “Love Die Young.”
Eric was involved in the production of all the songs on Before We Begin except “You’re Sexy I’m Sexy” and “Wonder.” The carefree track “You’re Sexy I’m Sexy” removes the complexity of a relationship, emphasizing that they can be as simple as having mutual feelings for each other. On the other hand, “Wonder” features a more self-conscious feeling as he explores the idea of what could have been.
Would it be an Eddie Nam album without a ballad? “How’m I Doing” has a realistic feeling of constantly trying to better yourself for a loved one. The track hits home with the idea of knowing who you want to be in a person’s eyes but also being aware of your flaws as well as the mistakes you make along the way.
“No Shame” is the English demo version of the title song “Honestly” from Eric’s 2018 EP of the same name. Although the English and Korean lyrics each convey a different feeling, his love for the melody remains unchanged. In an interview with the Zach Sang Show, Eric expresses how he loves the “conflicted feeling all throughout the song of, like, ‘I really want to be horrible but I won’t because I’m a decent human being.’ — ‘I still really like you’ kind of thing.”
The English version of “Runaway” starts off sounding very similar to the Korean version, seemingly more focused on the guitar and percussion, but you soon find out that he has elevated the song with more beats and electronic sounds. There’s just something about the English version of “Runaway” that makes smiling a natural reaction.
Eric announced his 2020 World Tour on the Zach Sang Show. Although dates and venues have yet to be released, he has shared that the tour will start off with seven stops in Asia in January, then thirty stops in North and Latin America from February to March.
For Eric, Before We Begin is an experimental project as a Korean-American pop singer and songwriter. Be sure to give him a lot of love! Which song from Before We Begin is your favorite? Let us know in the comments.
Cover Image: Eric Nam (Stone Music Entertainment)
Written by Sarah Wong
