I gotta say if all Duble Sidekick's tracks were this decent, I'd have fewer complaints about them...
(On the feature list: Girl's Day Minah, SISTAR Hyorin, The Seeya Sung Yoo Jin, Gary, Bumkey, Lyn, Ailee, Mad Soul Child Jin Sil, Baek Ji Young.)
― hurricane weather (forapper), Monday, 3 November 2014 23:28 (nine years ago) link
Here's the title: http://youtu.be/-6OxVfem0WM
― hurricane weather (forapper), Monday, 3 November 2014 23:35 (nine years ago) link
the MC Mong album sucks. looking forward to the new AOA
― soyrev, Thursday, 6 November 2014 04:18 (nine years ago) link
I don't think it's good, but I do think it's better than most of Double Sidekick
― hurricane weather (forapper), Thursday, 6 November 2014 21:40 (nine years ago) link
Speaking of popular songwriters, the massively eclipsed Brave Brothers finally makes a reappearance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP2PILSAwLs
The choreography is a mess of thins stolen from other, more popular girl groups, but as a Brave Brothers fan I do like the song.
― hurricane weather (forapper), Sunday, 9 November 2014 00:14 (nine years ago) link
I see Sistar, Girl's Day, Fiestar and Jiyeon in the choreo, and I hear a lot of Girls Day - Something and a little bit of Delight - Hate You! in the music.
― hurricane weather (forapper), Sunday, 9 November 2014 00:17 (nine years ago) link
That Hello Venus song is very disappointing, Whisky should have been promoted instead. I've been pretty disappointed by every single after their debut though. I definitely hear Something in there (which I frankly don't like much either) but echoes of both AOA singles from this year are definitely there too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DikFQp6a7FM
And speaking of recent comebacks from 2012 rookie groups, Spica's new one is an above average ballad if only because they're all great vocalists. They had such a great run in 2012 (Potently, Russian Roulette, Painkiller, I'll Be There, Lonely + two minis, their first one being pretty great) but I've felt a bit indifferent about them ever since. They had a decent run this year but nothing's impressed me much. I Did It was surprisingly good for an english track though. Give Your Love was one of the better Brave Bros tracks this year too when I think about it.
― misterjoshua, Sunday, 9 November 2014 05:16 (nine years ago) link
Hello Venus song sucks. Brave Brothers keeps finding ways to make his same old template even thinner. his only decent song this year was AOA's MiniHair dyad, and 4minute's "Only Gained Weight" was his only really good one (itself a morose rewrite of "Like Water?").
here comes woolim's much-hyped girl group answer to infinite:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXGVpjqIopE
don't mind how the beat enters, but as a song it's super duper bland imo. k-pop 2014 was off to an incredible start ("fxxk u," "dirty vibe," acoustic "miniskirt," new neon bunny) but i don't think it ever regained its momentum after the ferry tragedy...
― soyrev, Sunday, 9 November 2014 18:38 (nine years ago) link
I liked that After School song that they contributed to the 10th Anniversary compilation. Aside from that and the AOA songs, I can't think of much else I've enjoyed from Brave Brothers. I was pretty indifferent to "Fxxk U" despite it having interesting production; I've been a way bigger fan of the other things Bumkey has been a part of this year. Great music video though -- you'd think the whole pastel color bleeding would get old but whoever made that vid knew what they were doing (love Ga-in's make up too). Some awkward framing here and there but that shower curtain bit is well done. I think I preferred older Neon Bunny tracks but It's You was pretty decent. Had a very somber Korean/Pastel Music feel to it that differentiated it enough from stuff like Chvrches or even M83's HUWD.
I'd say this year's been a bit worse than 2013, which I thought was worse than 2012, but there have been plenty of songs I liked this year when I think about it. I really enjoyed all the duets this year (Jung In & Gary, San E & Raina, SoYou & Junggigo) which is kind of surprising to me.
That Lovelyz song is just a pre-debut track so I'm still pretty interested to hear what they'll sound like. Pretty innocuous ballad otherwise.
― misterjoshua, Monday, 10 November 2014 03:34 (nine years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3ibFCehLbk
New Teen Top is pretty good. Really like the music video aside from the double exposure, which I think almost always looks terrible in the context of any video.
― misterjoshua, Monday, 10 November 2014 03:48 (nine years ago) link
Hello Venus-single a black hole of a non-song from BB. Lovelyz pretty enjoyable.
I do feel like it's not just us and that boy and girl groups have struggled to make a big impact commercially in Korea this year. Not to mention all the break-ups and disputes. We saw some of it earlier years, a shift towards different types of artists taking over the top of the charts, hip hop, balladeers (well they've always been there), indie pop, singer songwriters. Many groups have flopped with their singles this year, groups that used to be at least relatively high in the tiers. Only a few idol groups, like Sistar, have had huge year-defining hits.
Look at the best selling songs of 2010
1. 2AM - Can't Let You Go Even If I Die (3,352,827)2. Girls' Generation - Oh! (3,316,889)3. Miss A - Bad Girl Good Girl (3,119,784)4. 4MEN - I Can't (3,093,483)5. T-ara - I Go Crazy Because Of You (3,042,224)6. IU & Seulong - Nagging (3,008,795)7. KARA - Lupin (2,977,898)8. CNBLUE - I'm A Loner (2,959,800)9. Wonder Girls - 2 Different Tears (2,790,298)10. MC Mong - Sick Enough To Die (feat. Mellow) (2,698,185)
20131. BaeChiGi - Shower of Tears: 1,880,6762. Leessang - Tears: 1,806,3173. Sistar19 - GNAAL: 1,723,7044. Heo Gak & Yoo Seung Woo - Monodrama: 1,645,8805. Psy - Gentleman: 1,604,7786. Roy Kim - Spring x3: 1,490,0317. Sistar - Give It To Me: 1,486,6618. 4Minute - What's Your Name?: 1,477,8329. Davichi - Turtle: 1,439,19010. Lee Seung Chul - My Love: 1,393,066
2014, we'll see.
― abcfsk, Monday, 10 November 2014 08:17 (nine years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEYOyZVWlzs
New AOA is surprisingly fresh, though I can't imagine listening to it more than their previous singles at this point. Maybe listening to the whole mini will change my mind. Really makes you feel like Brave Bros didn't even try for that Hello Venus track.
― misterjoshua, Monday, 10 November 2014 16:35 (nine years ago) link
2014 has definitely been a worse year for idol pop than 2013... it's why I was reaching with the Hello Venus song.
(Would add TVXQ's "Something" to the list of strong singles from earlier in the year though.)
I like "Like a Cat" more than Miniskirt! But I'm always here for campy tracks with "la la la" hooks.
― hurricane weather (forapper), Monday, 10 November 2014 22:20 (nine years ago) link
Hoping for good things from the upcoming Boys Republic single, it seems like it's gonna be a jam: http://youtu.be/ynDfOI3ryaQ
Lee Hi and Soohyun passing the time until they can officially return with a low-pressure unit group that combines both their sounds, is charming but doesn't really go anywhere: http://youtu.be/YT8NR198yz8
― hurricane weather (forapper), Monday, 10 November 2014 22:28 (nine years ago) link
YES to Teen Top. Their last single (Missing) came close to being good, but the chorus/Niel's distinctive voice didn't fit the rest of the song and kind of ruined it. All the pieces fit together here however.
― hurricane weather (forapper), Monday, 10 November 2014 22:35 (nine years ago) link
Also like the closing track on AOA's mini, brings back memories of AOA-the-rock-band: http://youtu.be/yuD7rMxOaxg
― hurricane weather (forapper), Monday, 10 November 2014 22:42 (nine years ago) link
Yea that Boys Republic teaser definitely piques my interest. New Nicole teaser is definitely intriguing: http://youtu.be/gpCdhnB-0Sw
― misterjoshua, Tuesday, 11 November 2014 03:13 (nine years ago) link
hah, this is a thing even in here
― Sébastien, Tuesday, 11 November 2014 05:10 (nine years ago) link
there is no escaping the sexy automatons
― Sébastien, Tuesday, 11 November 2014 05:12 (nine years ago) link
AOA mini is kinda a bummer...title is okay but very plain on the whole.
@abcfsk, bummer to see overall sales figures drop so precipitously =\
― soyrev, Tuesday, 11 November 2014 07:45 (nine years ago) link
Sales drop has to do with price jump - it was a very clear shift from one year to another where prices were doubled per government regulation.
― abcfsk, Tuesday, 11 November 2014 09:05 (nine years ago) link
Here's Boys Republic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQBisbBQ7X4
Rest of the song isn't as a fresh as the teaser, but not bad - it sounds like a JYP song.
― hurricane weather (forapper), Tuesday, 11 November 2014 18:52 (nine years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjPWIodh65Q
― abcfsk, Wednesday, 12 November 2014 12:31 (nine years ago) link
Yanghwa BRDG is not musically interesting to me at all but it's one of very few K-Pop songs that have made me cry on multiple occasions. I'm fairly certain I've teared up every single time I've heard it.
― misterjoshua, Wednesday, 12 November 2014 17:00 (nine years ago) link
That song is really touching... 1theK has slightly different lyrics too, I wonder if it's "let's not get sick" or "let's not be in pain", or whether those are actually the same in Korean?
And speaking of live stuff, this is for Roz (my fellow WINNER fan): http://youtu.be/qW2F9VZm3sU
People always talk about how is supposed to be YG's next Big Bang group but WINNER is the more Big Bang ish really? (i.e. five solo artists with different styles who happen to share a group). I don't think all these songs are good... (at all...) but Serenade (Seunghoon's solo) and I'm Him (Mino's solo) have grown on me a lot. Also what an incredible budget for a rookie group at a minor awards show, eh.
― hurricane weather (forapper), Thursday, 13 November 2014 23:50 (nine years ago) link
^People always talk about how IKON is
Also in the bad-but-good pile, my favorite nutjob returns as a solo artist (NSFW): http://youtu.be/FT0Tqv3CL2w
― hurricane weather (forapper), Friday, 14 November 2014 00:08 (nine years ago) link
This song's only flaw is that it's TOO SHORT!
You can use the phrase for both "let's not get sick" and "let's not be in pain" but I'm assuming the latter (or something like "let's not be hurt") is more appropriate given the context of the song.
Unfortunately that WINNER vid is down :/ I haven't listened to the WINNER album since it dropped but Empty was the only song that really stuck with me. Interested in revisiting it now though. As far as AOORA is concerned, all his vids have been exactly 69 seconds (lmao) but there are full versions too that are officially released. I liked Body Party from earlier this year: http://youtu.be/O4fiFSRCNgY
― misterjoshua, Friday, 14 November 2014 03:26 (nine years ago) link
Heh, thanks!
This is from the official channel so it should stay up: http://youtu.be/ywcokur_WE0
All I can think is that YG had money earmarked for Big Bang to perform at the end-of-year awards shows and WINNER is getting that money instead, ha.
― hurricane weather (forapper), Saturday, 15 November 2014 06:26 (nine years ago) link
Thanks for the link! good stuff. Seems like this solo Taehyun (of Wonder Boyz) track went under the radar: http://youtu.be/Z61OpcWiXSE
― misterjoshua, Sunday, 16 November 2014 23:45 (nine years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_DX64EwH9M
Enjoying the new GOT7 single. I feel like I haven't heard such extensive use of vocoder in any song recently so I don't find it very grating (as others seem to). Love the different overalls so much and something about the move at 4:24 felt very satisfying (don't think the other choruses had that move?).
― misterjoshua, Sunday, 16 November 2014 23:53 (nine years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRQEs4vOIrY
New Lovelyz single. Really enjoying it and the whole album. Seems like others aren't really vibing with it but I think the whole album's aesthetically cohesive and takes the glossy sheen of numerous Infinite tracks but makes it less overbearing, which proves effective given the cutesy concept. Seems very J-Pop-esque at times. I like the teal and how that allows the pink lipstick to pop. I think they really nailed the cutesy concept too without it being obnoxious. Gonggi, rock paper scissors (that downwards shot is fantastic), the Dali moustache, the candy appearing on the leg and cheek, sitting on the other person's back, the bowling, et al -- all very low key but effective especially because of the two tone technicolor-inspired look. The planimetric framing of the hallway shot is so great.
― misterjoshua, Monday, 17 November 2014 02:01 (nine years ago) link
Lovelyz seems a bit bland to me, but I *LOVE* the GOT7 single - I think it's the first song of theirs that I've genuinely liked. There's just something tortured about the robo-voices. The vocoder chorus should let them save their breath for some acrobatics on stage as well.
― hurricane weather (forapper), Monday, 17 November 2014 02:32 (nine years ago) link
But I'm also kinda disposed to like GOT7 because I've been watching the new season of SBS Roomate wherein Jackson's antics (& tighter editing) have turned the show into a loopy, zany, crazy, etc, screwball comedy... from the snoozefest it was last season.
― hurricane weather (forapper), Monday, 17 November 2014 02:43 (nine years ago) link
Though I'm still bitter that JJ Project died so GOT7 could live, considering that nothing GOT7 has done holds a candle to even the JJ Project's b-sides.
Still, since we're stuck with GOT7, I'm they're at least putting out singles with some kick to them.
― hurricane weather (forapper), Monday, 17 November 2014 02:48 (nine years ago) link
JJ Project's music -screams- K-Pop to me in a way most bands don't. Like, so many things about their music is taking elements from different pop tropes (a good chunk of which was totally unfashionable in Western pop at time of release) and making really catchy tunes from them. The way Hooked starts with that totally late 80s boom bap sound and gradually throws in those chugging power chords and then has a teen pop hook kills me (in a good way). I've always enjoyed GOT7's stuff though so I've never been too bummed about JJ Project's demise but yeah, they were good. GOT7's two minis from earlier this year were both solid and I'd say they're my favorite male rookie group off the top of my head. I'm kind of a sucker for TROY but GOT7 edges out simply for having more material.
And I'm totally unfamiliar with all Korean television, or I guess all Korean media aside from K-Pop and (mostly) art films. That show seems pretty fun though based off who's on it and the few clips I saw.
― misterjoshua, Monday, 17 November 2014 03:24 (nine years ago) link
Lovelyz debut is making some waves. One of the interesting things about it is the whole album, more or less, is produced by one producer, OnePiece, who's not a familiar name in k-pop. So a group and a producer make their debut. And I agree that the soft synth shine sound works and gives them some identity, some of the pre-release solo tracks like 'Delight' were real good as well.
― abcfsk, Monday, 17 November 2014 07:46 (nine years ago) link
I love how JJ Project's "Bounce" starts like it's going to be a pop-drill, Whip My Hair ish, but that's totally a ruse before the song settles into an old-school K-Hip-Hop / Jrock combination. It's just so effortlessly done, plus JB and Jr. are both strong performers (which can't be said for every member of GOT7). GOT7's tracks aren't awful but they're a lot less surprising.
― hurricane weather (forapper), Tuesday, 18 November 2014 01:11 (nine years ago) link
Amber <3 http://youtu.be/WpD0357Igjc?list=PLWQq9lbJ29_0q7KWOYXRR2EmJQLF9FvJA
― hurricane weather (forapper), Tuesday, 18 November 2014 03:24 (nine years ago) link
Nice autumn song from 10cm http://youtu.be/U-mjol5Pc08
― hurricane weather (forapper), Wednesday, 19 November 2014 02:47 (nine years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLw2pnZEKeY
Video's less intense than what I expected from that first trailer but I'm really impressed by the editing + the set/costume design is pretty on point. Song is a bit MOR for me at the moment, sounds like she should be hitting a higher note during the climbing melody in the 2nd half of the chorus but it sort of sticks to its mellow tone. Which is fine I guess but there really isn't much of a hook I'm left with. The vocal performance being low-key (as expected) sort of puts the impetus on the production/instrumentation but I don't think I'm very convinced by that either. The lead-in to the final chorus from the bridge is nice though. It might grow on me, we'll see.
― misterjoshua, Wednesday, 19 November 2014 03:55 (nine years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZRb1we80kM
― hurricane weather (forapper), Friday, 21 November 2014 03:35 (nine years ago) link
Seems kind of anticlimatic but not bad???
The lyrics are self-boasting / self-deprecating / oversharing as usual.
― hurricane weather (forapper), Friday, 21 November 2014 03:36 (nine years ago) link
Highlight "By day I’m a hamster / But at night when I’m a gangster"
― hurricane weather (forapper), Friday, 21 November 2014 10:38 (nine years ago) link
Annnnd we're official in Christmassy RnB Season (ft Crush):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6v3ZbOaDqI
― hurricane weather (forapper), Friday, 21 November 2014 23:07 (nine years ago) link
You know what, this whole album is great:
http://youtu.be/yV4xcC28adU?list=PLNonYr1vYzfBO1k79L2TQ_UrIly73eLKW
― hurricane weather (forapper), Friday, 21 November 2014 23:10 (nine years ago) link
There's also this surprisingly catchy song from The Legend:
http://youtu.be/xypZht2ZOrQ
― hurricane weather (forapper), Friday, 21 November 2014 23:20 (nine years ago) link
k-pop's been a bit boring lately, hasn't it? "good boy" is fun though. and i'm coming around on the lovelyz throwback vibe. but haven't heard any really next level stuff out of korea since what, idk, "red light?"
― soyrev, Sunday, 23 November 2014 18:35 (nine years ago) link
Yeah... there's been tracks I liked but nothing as cray as a few years ago.
EXID are having a ,moment thanks to some fancams... I probably listened to "Up and Down" more than any other song this summer so I'm happy for 'em.
― hurricane weather (forapper), Monday, 24 November 2014 00:36 (nine years ago) link