rolling kpop 2020

Jenyer - Bad

ex monsta x member channel(zero)s frank ocean

Wonho - Losing You

Yes Sir! Yes Sir! Yes Sir!

Ateez - Thanxx

new KARD which seems like it's about fan/idol culture

Kard - Gunshot

love bea miller's voice and soyeon's verse

K/DA - The Baddest ft. (g)i-dle, bea miller, wolftyla

plus

Blackpink - Ice Cream (with Selena Gomez)

blackpink's "ice cream" has nothing on hyuna's

or f(x)'s "ice cream" or even red velvet's "ice cream cake". I don't have any faith in blackpink (or any YG act) producing any good/interesting music so long as they keep working with Teddy who peaked more than half a decade ago.

it's not their best but I really like Dreamcatcher's BOCA, which again finds a new way to play with their signature metal/rock guitar sound:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfp2bGytsak

found last years 'jopping' ridiculous but fun and like the latest one quite a bit

SuperM - Tiger Inside

for the first time i'm thinking that doing 1000+ sit ups a day might
actually be worthwhile

Wonho - Open Mind

killed it in shinee, killing it in SuperM, killing it solo

Taemin - Criminal

la-la-la la-la-la-la-la

he can’t get it out of his head

<3 Taemin

stray kids continue to be overly intense + supremely enjoyable. that bassline is everything:

https://youtu.be/X-uJtV8ScYk

bass line plus door mime excellence

clicked in here to see if "Ice Cream" (a current pop fave of mine) is actually considered mediocre by the K-pop crew... not leaving disappointed ;)

:D

try some other k-pop, morrisp! there's so much more interesting stuff than the tracks that crossover to the US charts

I'm sure!! I just don't really have a "way in"

for you, i'd recommend the very ariana-influenced Hwasa (of girl group MAMAMOO). :)

Thanks! Ha, you know me ;)

i think you'd dig Hwa Sa's "Maria" a lot

oh lol, of course i just realize after posting that Hwasa is Hwa Sa; I swear i came to that independently!

<3 Taemin

stray kids continue to be overly intense + supremely enjoyable. that bassline is everything:

https://youtu.be/X-uJtV8ScYk🕸

(Taemin not relevant to that post. Sorry, Taemin!)

also digging Mamamoo’s “gogobebe”

:D

I can't remember if it was posted on last year's thread but while going through their videos yesterday I came across MAMAMOO's also excellent Hip, which I hadn't heard before.

“Hip” is also lots of fun. It’s their biggest hit apparently!

hello

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeI992mvlEY

^^ that would be EVERGLOW • LA DI DA

(please provide track info, it makes searching so much easier and also makes up for future broken YouTube links)

you’re right tho, that song is immensely hello-worthy

very sin city video there

yesss I saw the teaser for that last week and I’m glad that it’s exactly as fantastic as the snippet suggested. the rest of the EP seemed very promising too.

yeah listened to the e.p this morning, all 4 songs really strong.

back door and la di da both pretty awesome and thumping/glittering

audio only akaik

Chung Ha x Christopher - Bad Boy

am partial to the synths in this

BDC - Shoot The Moon

am so close to liking this a lot but am torn between thinking that there isn't enough there or if the beats should be even more minimal, do like some of the glitches in it

Precious - Bebe

boy groups really bringing it this year

The Boyz - The Stealer, which rather unusually for a kpop song opens with the chorus

https://youtu.be/c_e-IC0VwZM

like this but smh at the all denim outfits

XUM - DDALALA

wow i love that

know their latter day output isn't that popular itt but what the hell i still like them and love this chorus and the jisoo/rose parts

Blackpink - Lovesick Girls

it's not really exciting but it's more enjoyable than anything they've done in a fair while i guess

Four years for a debut album that runs 24 mins, god YG is such a shitshow.

but surprise! I like this more than I thought I would. Lovesick Girls once again feels about three years too late, but the other songs are good - Crazy Over You is my current fave. Also Bet You Wanna is a much better collab track than Ice Cream - can't believe they went with the latter as a single and not this.

Jisoo deserves a solo imo.

anyway full on stanning Stray Kids at this point, so here's "Any":

https://youtu.be/uaJ81czm3xA

we love a self-produced group with a penchant for off-kilter beats/melodies and puns that work in two languages ("Any"/"ani" which means "no" in Korean, also Gone Days which is a play on the Korean slang for 'boomer' lol. it helps to know that two of their members, incl their main songwriter, are Korean-Australian.)

and I wish I had discovered this song last year because holy shit o_O

I like 'any'. My favourite 2 stray kids songs are still 'God's Menu' and 'Doubleknot' however. That might be because I do the majority of my listening via YouTube and the m/v for 'God's Menu' is a masterpiece from editing to transitions to Felix's undercut.

another boy group, with their debut(i think?)

WEi - Twilight

Weki Meki - Cool

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHikmx0eVXM

really like that weki meki

vacillate between this being too cutesy for me or not

WJSN CHOCOME - Hmph!

plus I like this one too

Refund Sisters - Don't Touch Me

oh and hwasa is in refund sisters

yeah "cool" is very cool, one of my favourites this year

"hmph!" is like a cutesy version of a t-ara song? i'm similarly on the fence as to whether it's too much

"Hmph!" is very Orange Caramel and it's great! when I think of too cutesy, I'm thinking of songs like Lovelyz - Ah-Choo (which I love too btw), not this Eurodisco-adjacent stuff.

Refund Sisters is Hwa Sa, Lee Hyori, Uhm Jung Hwa and Jessi - a one-off "supergroup" created for Yoo Jaesuk's variety show, which seems to be the way to get a surefire hit in Korea these days (see also Rain and Hyori's 90s throwback act SSAK3 posted upthread).

NCT U - Make a Wish (Birthday Song) brings you whistling and harmonies and so much Chanel:

https://youtu.be/tyrVtwE8Gv0

re: “Cool”: not too crazy about being reminded of that “Like A G6” sound in a 2020 song tbh

otoh, the throwback-to-the-golden-age vibe of “Hmph!” sits very well with me, strange how that works

not familiar with the group Rania that birthed this new act but i q like it all the same

Blackswan - Tonight