"Ocean of Light" by Nell 넬, Sunday, July 4, 2021

 

Formed in 2001 in Sincheon-dong, Seoul, South Korea, Nell is one of K-pop's few successful alternative rock bands. Taking their name from a 1994 Jodie Foster film by the same name, Nell is a sort of art-rock band whose lyrics in the original Korean have a literary quality more like the old-timey Korean ballads and less like modern K-pop. Taking influence from Brit rockers like Radiohead and Muse, Nell became known for their melancholy sound, especially prominent on the records Separation Anxiety and The Healing Process. However, after a hiatus allowing all members of Nell to do their compulsory military service, the band came back with more optimistic music. The lead single, "Ocean of Light" speaks of forgetting past hangups and focusing on a brighter future.

ARE YOU AFRAID EVERYTHING YOU BELIEVED IN WILL BECOME NOTHING? I found Nell back in 2013 when I was trying to find Korean Rock music. There were a few Korean bands back then. Busker Busker was an extremely popular 3-piece band known for their hit "Cherry Blossom Ending," which can be heard every spring when the beautiful Sakura or 벚꽃 bloom. The band broke up with lead singer Jang Bum-june releasing solo music and drummer Brad Moore working on another musical project. There were other bands like DickPunks, Jace, and the Koxx. Many of these bands I found not so satisfying to listen to. Nell, while not very rock, had a moody vibe and pop sensibility. The moodiness reminded me of the delirious? Mezzamorphis record I listened to over and over when I was 12 or 13. It also sounded like Eat, Sleep, Repeat era Copeland or Parachutes era Coldplay meets X&Y electronics. My first introduction to Nell was "Ocean of Light," which wasn't my favorite of theirs. But something about the catchy hook, the electronics meets guitar verse made me go back on their discography, even shelling out over $15 each for the two albums of Separation Anxiety and The Healing Process. It was moody music for the winter of 2013-2014.

ARE YOU AFRIAD THAT EVERYTHING YOU KNEW WILL BECOME NOTHING? In November of 2013, when I purchased this EP, I was in my second year of living in Korea. I had just changed jobs and was feeling optimistic about a new life in a new country. I was teaching adult students and children, and I was especially enjoying spending time with my adult students because they were teaching me so much about their country, an experience that is hard to come by when you're teaching kids who view learning English as just another class. I often spent my lunch breaks with my adult students. They took me to the best restaurants in the small town--small places located in the alleys where ajumma 아줌마, middle-aged women, served the best banchan 반찬, or side dishes, soups, and Korean speciality main dishes. This social lifestyle was not natural to me. I usually needed to have my alone time. The hours, too, of the job began to wear me down. My body started rebelling against this lifestyle. I started getting terrible stomach pain every day, maybe from the spicy food or the imbalanced diet or the altered sleep pattern. I had to scale back. I needed introversion. And I was seriously worried about my health.

Read the lyrics in English and Korean.