JYP’s G.Soul has come back with double title tracks, each one quite distinctive from the other. While the light reggae of Far, Far Away tackled a new genre, Where Do We Go From Here is much more strongly indebted to the sound G.Soul’s given us so far.

There’s no denying that his voice is made for soulful r&b. It has an incredibly smooth, almost otherworldly quality to it. And even when the songs aren’t as strong as I’d like them to be, those vocals always pull me back. This is the case with Where Do We Go From Here. Though there’s a strong undercurrent of emotion running through the track, it never really hits you over the head. Instead, the listener is forced to lean in and pay deeper attention to every little flourish and turn in the performance. The chorus, which barely raises above a hushed whisper, is a triumph of subtle, layered vocal work. It squeezes a surprisingly dense amount of emotions into one single, repeated phrase.

This is clearly where G.Soul thrives as an artist, though I can’t help but feel that the stark melody pales in comparison to his absolute best work. It seems as if his music has slowly become more about mood than song craft, which is fine and really does fit his artistic persona. But, his truly breakthrough moments will come when he can marry the two together and create something that hits as hard melodically as it does emotionally.