The music of oldfish sounds like it would fit perfectly in an indie romantic comedy's soundtrack—light, whimsical tunes resting on bossa nova and downtempo beats.

Produced and written by Korean one-man show, "Soda", the loungey tunes with muted electronica mix pleasantly with Soda's acoustic guitar work and vocals.

I appreciated how the use of electronic instruments wasn't as in-your-face as what we hear on the radio these days. The electronic beats were set as a bassline for the songs, which relied mostly on natural-sound instruments like the guitar and piano for the rhythm section.

Contrast this with Owl City's Fireflies, for example, which uses electronica for its recurring riff as well as the bass and drumlines.

Soda's whispery vocals fit into the dreamy feel of the songs perfectly, but they tend to lose the listener's attention towards the mid-point of each album. Without an anchoring point to listen to in each song, the tracks ended up melting into a Shibuya-kei backdrop eventually.

One gets the feeling that Oldfish's third album, Three Years and Third (2008), was meant to appeal to a wider audience. Earlier albums, Room.ing (2005) and Acoustic Movement (2007) carried more experimental sounds peppered throughout the track list.

OZ from Room.img, for example, broke off from oldfish's typical sound midway into a grunge rock number, with fuzzy distorted guitar backing stronger female vocals.

Three Years and Third repeated elements of earlier hits, which tended to be catchy, light electro-folk ditties with more obvious hooks marking the songs.

Being able to appeal to a wider audience could be validating for an indie artist into his eighth year of putting out records and playing gigs. But in sticking to a tried and tested formula, oldfish also risks losing the edge that made his music characteristically his, in the first place.

그렇게 잘못했던 날 (Track 3) from Three Years and Third