rolling kpop 2020

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

lol where to start with Rania?

They're most famous for the classic bop Dr Feelgood which caused a bit of controversy back in the day - the choreography to the song (positively tame even for 2011 tbh) was deemed too scandalous by Korean censors and had to be changed for broadcast.

they never really had a follow-up hit but all you need to know about the group after that is that this isn't even their first reboot; there has been multiple lineup changes, accusations of racism and whitewashing, and their label is extremely messy (for more, just scroll through the rania tag on omona).  

'Tonight' is decent not great, and I don't trust their label enough not to fuck up the group again, but between this and 'Hmph!', it's nice that groups are suddenly bringing back sounds from 2011-2013 kpop. I hope someone resurrects peak Sweetune soon. 

Loona - Why Not?

I like that.

Lots of nice releases this week:

MAMAMOO - Dingga

SEVENTEEN - Home;Run

Loona - Why Not?🕸

And sorry for Stray Kids spam but even their Japanese releases are bangers: All In

wasn't sure whether to post this here or on the rnb thread, but seeing as i've never posted to that thread i'll stick it here

Rakiyah - Like You

In the latest edition of “Kpop producers really loved Dua Lipa’s Physical”:

TWICE - I Can’t Stop Me

weird for TWICE to be so late on the Clueless yellow plaid look - that trend is at least two years old now.

Korea's original goth queen Puer Kim is back

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

soyeon from (g)i-dle sparingly used on this but kills it with her opening bars anyway. really like the interplay in the hook between madison beer's and lexie liu's voices

K/DA - More

couple of new boy groups debuted today,Drippin - Nostalgia is okay but i preferred P1Harmony which has a little bit of an Ateez vibe imo

P1Harmony - Siren