Barely a year after the release and phenomenal success of Just Listen, Se7en is back with his sophomore album, Must Listen. It was released on "Se7en Day", a popular inside joke amongst fans for the seventh day of the seventh month due to his name. Many fans still consider it his best album to date, with music outfitted with his usual hip-hop style and a slight pop twist making Must Listen just as successful, if not more so, as his first album.
Must Listen jumpstarts right away into what is arguably Se7en's most popular song, Yeoljeong. Starting off with synth beats and a mean rap, this song is catchy, suave and definitely has attitude; a good move to instantly hook the listener into the album with such a memorable song. On the other hand, though, it leaves the question of whether or not the rest of the album would be as good.
First impressions are usually good nonetheless and drifts into a slower song, Yokshim. It starts off with a slightly more sad tone in the music itself with strings and piano, and there is a markedly more mature sound in this than in his prior album. It carries on into Honey I Know, another slow song which gives Must Listen a general relaxed feel.
2 Night is a more upbeat track, with smooth vocals and a nice beat to accompany them. Once again, as stated before, there is clearly a more mature and refined sound in not only the music but also his singing. Dugeoreum continues this sound, complete with a chorus that's pretty much guaranteed to be stuck in anyone's head afterwards. Again, these dance tracks fade out into another sweet sounding ballad, Munshin.
A short song which is pretty much Se7en making puns out of his name and singing about love, Se7en's Love is the last song before the interlude I Just Know. Much like the rest of the album, another slow song, Ara, follows it up. Ogi is next, a shake up from the mostly ballad-filled album and is a nice breath of air from the slower songs. Wishy Washy is also a more upbeat song, with a more distinct pop song than most.
Christmas With You is, quite obviously, a Christmas song. Like most of his other ballads, it is slow and smooth. There is a definite Christmas feel to the entire song, with even a nice Christmas sound in the music itself which makes it feel like there's snow slowly falling to the ground. At one point around the end, Se7en hits one of his famous, ridiculously high falsettos. Track thirteen, Deutgo Shipji Anheun Mal, is a slow-paced, smooth song with a greater melancholy undertone than most of his other ballads.
Must Listen finishes it off with two last dance tracks, You're My Everything and Real Love Story. You're My Everything is one of his happier love songs, and the tune is a bit reminiscent of the music style from Just Listen. The arrangement in the song itself is very pleasing and has a nice passionate edge to it. Around the end when the listener thinks the album is all over, a very poppy, techno song Real Love Story kicks in with appearances from Wheesung and Taebin. It is a personal favorite track, other than Yeoljeong, mainly because it shows that Se7en is very adaptable as a musician, being able to transit over from his usual R&B and hip-hop style to techno and pop almost flawlessly.
The thing about Must Listen which landmarks it as both a success and a turning point in Se7en's career is, as stated before several times in the review, the maturity of his songs. Just Listen was just a stating point, giving a taste of what to come. Must Listen showed what Se7en had and pushed him to his all, while reinventing his sound to suit with his maturing style. Granted, the album was not without its share of fillers, but for what was there showed Se7en for who he is - a talented, hard-working young man ready to take the music world by storm.
