Ears Wide Open: NoSo

Kevin Bronson on July 8th, 2022

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Korean-American singer-songwriter Baek Hwong makes music as NoSo, a moniker that itself refers to one of the identity issues the artist sings into submission on the album “Stay Proud of Me,” out today.

Reared in the Chicago suburbs before moving to L.A. as a teenager, and then educated at USC, Kwong would occasionally field the inane question. “Which Korea are you from?” Such exchanges only magnified some of the doubts Kwong was already feeling: cultural isolation, self-worth, body image and gender identity.

“Stay Proud of Me” offers an affecting account of how the non-binary artist, now 25, made it to a place of affirmation, and even optimism. NoSo’s diary entries are told in guitar-dappled dream-pop, so lush as to feel celebratory even when addressing the most delicate issues. Lead track “Parasites” was written after Kwong had top surgery in January 2020. In “David,” the songwriter dreams of being a man whom girls find attractive. “Honey Understand” is a pandemic howl into the abyss. “Suburbia” waxes nostalgic on rich kids, gossiping moms, boutique drugs and simple pleasures like: “We sit outside the pharmacy / Eating golden Oreos.”

“Stay Proud of Me” is more than a simple pleasure; it’s a complex treasure.

||| Watch: The videos for “Parasites” and “David”