K-pop (2015)

holy moly that BIG song is great. also a huge fan of that sweater that has polka dots on the bottom half, would totally wear that

It's surprisngly great!

All's I know about B.I.G. is one of them was admitted to Julliard but is doing this instead, and their first single was landfill fun-boyband electro. If they keep it up they could turn into Z:EA (hopefully with a better career trajectory).

EXO new single is out in LQ. It's called "Call Me Daddy". They're no longer just following Super Junior in their marketing, they're now getting Suju's castoff title tracks as well.

Album tracks are more tortured and promising:

https://soundcloud.com/namja124/150307-exoluxion-exo-new-track-3-shes-so-dangerous

https://soundcloud.com/namja124/150307-exoluxion-exo-new-track-4

Honestly they should just go theatrical-dark. Half of them are in the hospital half the time anyway.

Yeon-Du goes solo! Woo! (Been waiting for that.)

'EXO new single is out in LQ. It's called "Call Me Daddy". They're no longer just following Super Junior in their marketing, they're now getting Suju's castoff title tracks as well.'

lol, brilliant. not interested in "call me daddy" at all musically, sounds like that one jonas brothers hit. "overdose" era was way moodier, weirder, more interesting

To be clearer, it's not their martketing that's Suju-like, it's their SM-projected career arc. But that's a self-fulfilling prophecy, ain't it...

Speaking of Super Junior though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bq_6kPqtA1k&t=94

Plot twist!

There's also the this one: http://youtu.be/aqHXrhkS3F0

Like that westernish whistling hook

Though it gets old by the end of the song

I don't know why I posted those... (ilxor's regret)

yeah D&E is continuing the trend of SM solos i don't care about 2015. taemin held a much higher standard last year.

part 2 if anyone's interested (scroll down to 'the story'). includes such fun details as wonder girls' awful nickelodeon movie, and what the city of new york had to say about JYP's business methods: http://www.k-pendium.com/003/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ap7AlBxeaFg

honestly don't know what to make of it just yet. if that's the chorus, i don't think i'm going to love it. but ga-in hasn't let me down yet and this is her most ambitious project yet, so i'm still very hopeful

yea i'm in the same boat, we'll see though. still have high hopes for the mini and march in general. anyone see the new stellar trailer? http://youtu.be/qZ_oF4ReBhk the fact the video starts with them looking at negative comments about themselves is kind of awesome

Ga In sounds great

stellar trailer sounds like it could be some SES vibes. into it

ga-in soon, miss a later this month, red velvet (with new member), EXID's do or die moment next month, big bang and ikon and winner sometime this year, CL's american debut, EXO and SNSD's attempts to rejustify their existences...and 4minute and rainbow have already put out the best minis of their careers. definitely shaping up to be the most exciting year for k-pop since at least 2012.

And BoA..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4i32ANEa5mk

video and choreography are great. song has a lot of interesting elements but it's not really clicking with me at the moment. but i'd say it's the best on the mini (which is kind of lackluster after one listen)

Looking at the product itself, Hwang Soo-Ah's note and Loen Tree PD Jo Yeong-cheol's comments: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=460914014065906&id=100004419340159&substory_index=0

-it seems their goal was to re-write Eve's narrative and confront Milton's.. which reminded me strongly of some passages from "Shirley", and any chance at quoting Charlotte Brontë I'll take:

"Milton's Eve! Milton's Eve! I repeat. No, by the pure Mother of God, she is not! Cary, we are alone; we may speak what we think. Milton was great; but was he good? His brain was right; how was his heart? He saw heaven; he looked down on hell. He saw Satan, and Sin his daughter, and Death their horrible offspring. Angels serried before him their battalions; the long lines of adamantine shields flashed back on his blind eyeballs the unutterable splendour of heaven. Devils gathered their legions in his sight; their dim, discrowned, and tarnished armies passed rank and file before him. Milton tried to see the first woman; but, Cary, he saw her not."

"You are bold to say so, Shirley."

"Not more bold than faithful. It was his cook that he saw; or it was Mrs. Gill, as I have seen her, making custards, in the heat of summer, in the cool dairy, with rose-trees and nasturtiums about the latticed window, preparing a cold collation for the rectors—preserves and 'dulcet creams;' puzzled 'what choice to choose for delicacy best; what order so contrived as not to mix tastes, not well-joined, inelegant, but bring taste after taste, upheld with kindliest change.'"

"All very well too, Shirley."

"I would beg to remind him that the first men of the earth were Titans, and that Eve was their mother; from her sprang Saturn, Hyperion, Oceanus; she bore Prometheus——"

"Pagan that you are! what does that signify?"

"I saw — I now see — a woman-Titan. Her robe of blue air spreads to the outskirts of the heath, where yonder flock is grazing; a veil white as an avalanche sweeps from her head to her feet, and arabesques of lightning flame on its borders. Under her breast I see her zone, purple like that horizon; through its blush shines the star of evening. Her steady eyes I cannot picture. They are clear, they are deep as lakes, they are lifted and full of worship, they tremble with the softness of love and the lustre of prayer. Her forehead has the expanse of a cloud, and is paler than the early moon, risen long before dark gathers. She reclines her bosom on the ridge of Stilbro' Moor; her mighty hands are joined beneath it. So kneeling, face to face she speaks with God. That Eve is Jehovah's daughter, as Adam was His son."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSEtAC8wkhw

cuts out jay park's part so is consequently one minute shorter from the full version. i think it actually might be my favorite on the mini at this point. i think jay park's voice is well-suited for the tone of the song. vid is wonderful. she also performed both songs live: https://youtu.be/cpwnSy2XyLY she isn't really singing for paradise lost but man she kills it with the choreo (and surprised that she actually did it live/it wasn't at least partially banned)

NEW CHOI SAM MIXTAPE

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B_9TKXhUcAEj7qZ.jpg

https://soundcloud.com/choisam/sets/vol-7-mixtape

i like "paradise lost" -- better concept than song, but still good. rest of mini was more obviously a letdown for me. wasn't really expecting a song on the level of a "fxxk u" or "tinkerbell" (maybe a "bloom"), but still. an entire concept-themed mini was a great idea, the promo images were perfect, and if anyone can pull this kind of thing off in k-pop it's ga-in...just bummed it didn't work out that way

Song is so much better than Bloom, as much as I loved everything else about Bloom.

holy shit dude

I loved Step 2/4 as an EP, otherwise I've been mostly interested in her as performer of big, k-pop shattering singles, and I think this song fully delivers as that. The bridge is amazing and the rest of the song can't quite live up to that, but the industrial sort of weight of the chorus and that dance routine is more than enough.

just very surprised to find an ilxor k-pop fan who would put this song over something as tight and relentless as "bloom"..."paradise lost" is def strong though, and the video's most inspired moments do help

I thought it was generally agreed Bloom is an IU b side.

Red Velvet working with f(x)'s art director for their comeback

http://i.imgur.com/FTs6ZPB.jpg

Speaking of concepts

Make that SM's art director, since she's not exclusive to f(x)

http://omonatheydidnt.livejournal.com/11846990.html <-- interview re Growl and Pink Tape

Madtown bringing the Kpop ADD in the best way:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8BVlWl2VeI

This is what I wanted from Boys Republic and Myname's trap-lite pop songs (that were too Lite and not enough Trap). I hope they murder it live.

It's especially great from 2:30 forward

"bloom" is a great prince or madonna b-side, my man. objectively cuts anything in the IU discog (much as i dig her), except when we get into the gray area of comparing Ga-In's best straight-up pop tune to the perfect weirdo gems IU has ("4AM," "a lost puppy"; shiina ringo at her straightforward best, basically). but weirdo for weirdo, Ga-In wins too, and would over just about anyone in korean music history. fucking nothing touches "tinkerbell." one of the best productions/arrangements i've ever heard.

jay park is such a blemish on "apple." enough to make me prefer the truncated video edit.

pretty sure at 0:30 (in the video) that madtown track uses the same sample (pack?) as f(x)'s "boom bang boom."

speaking of red velvet and f(x), anyone hear their two new (deleted) track preview leaks? totally pink tape-type shit, and the thing for which i'm most excited rn for sure. one is like glitchy pitchshifted 8-bit dubstep pop (kind of like tinie tempah "earthquake" meets first album sleigh bells), and the other is "all night" meets "ballad of dorothy parker." scary to hear SM making f(x) material not for f(x)...but for now, i'll take it.

here's the more conservative of the two

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=px2Q47O0_eE

i'm in a cafe in gangnam and not gonna be that white dude blatantly scoping the new k-pop vid on his laptop, so just audio for now...really wish the vocals were mixed a bit lower to give that gorgeous beat some room to shine. musically so much better than "be natural," but drowned out like this the overall effect is basically identical.

dig it though. like someone said on the youtube, really a smooth janet jackson vibe...would not be surprised if (like "all night") teddy riley's behind this one. judging by "growl," this could be a shin hyuk tune too. those are my two best bets.

scary to hear SM making f(x) material not for f(x)

Yeah.. sure hope we'll be seeing f(x) again this year. Automatic is good though.

It's got a smooth vibe for sure. Music video is rumored to be inspired by 1971 b-movie The Velvet Vampire... a bit sleezy but in an artsy way. I think you're right about the pitch of the vocals though, soyrev.

i'm in a cafe in gangnam and not gonna be that white dude blatantly scoping the new k-pop vid on his laptop
lmao. personally, enjoying the song quite a bit. Be Natural definitely seemed like practice for this or something, or to show the two different (musical) sides of Red Velvet that the company seems comfortable working with at the moment + how well these girls can dance. Even in the context of what was happening in 2000, Be Natural sounds a tiny bit bland so it consequently sounds like that now though to be fair, A Letter from Greenland is the only early kpop girl group album that i care about from front to back. Automatic definitely relies less on the production to drive the song forward (Be Natural sounds so monolithic to me; everything about it blends together and the vocalizing is more used as an accessory tool) so that consequently gives weight to some of the intonations. Video is generally pretty great. Would like to see a dance version/practice vid.

also, gonna chime in say that i'm probably more interested in ga-in as a performer as well. i personally don't like most of her (or BEG's) music. I absolutely love Bloom though; Tinkerbell has amazing production and all but Bloom's chorus is one of my favorite k-pop choruses ever. And I'd rather have straightforward production with a catchy hook over forward-thinking production and a mediocre hook (see: 90% of the american r&b underground). yes the dude who writes IU's stuff wrote it but 1) its video definitely still feels fresh with its portrayal of sexuality in retrospect (since you know, this was 2012 and the surge of overtly sexual mvs has a totally different approach to the topic) and 2) it's one of very very few palpably sensual songs i know that treats sexual discovery as something so precious (off the top of my head another would be bjork's cocoon).

Apple is really great though imo. now that i've watched the video multiple times and the weather's getting nicer it just continues to grow on me. cutting out Jay Park's verse is maybe for the better (I wish pop artists/producers would embrace songs around the 2 min range) but his voice works regardless. Can't think of a Korean rapper who could provide a better fit for such a feel-good song. San-E is a touch too goofy and a lot of other people coming to my mind have voices that are too harsh, serious/formal (think: wheesung), or simply couldn't rap while changing rhythm and tone in such an effortlessly cool manner. Would definitely want to dance to this at a wedding. or anywhere.

The last lines of Jay Park's two verses are both delivered really well and it especially makes the second one believable. Such a flirty song. Gonna go hug someone now.

Forgot to xpost this, but Nu'est have a really nice "for the fans" ballad out at the moment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFGmvS8SejY

With main vocal Baekho out for vocal surgery, the other four get a chance to show what they can do, which turns out to be a lot.

nice to see some old school k-pop talk on here, but Letter from Greenland is pretty spotty imo. Love is SES' masterpiece -- much bigger hooks, bolder experimentation, smarter arrangements...all broken up by a series of charming spoken word skits over lounge and field recording ambient. i'd say it's one of the best '90s RnB albums period.

"Be Natural sounds so monolithic to me" -- i like that. same is true of the original. too bad the gratuitous manrap breaks the spell in both takes.

re: "apple," i mean sure, jay park's voice fits the beat and is a functional foil for ga-in's. but it pushes the song's feel in the wrong direction and more than anything completely ruins kim eana's smart fall-from-innocence allegory with references to The Hulk and other stupidity. such is what you risk when you invite a rapper to your finished song to add his own words. (granted, it's not jay's fault; just a bad idea to have a rap on this track at all.)

the more i think about it the more this ga-in mini bums me out. back at the drawing board it really had potential to be the greatest k-pop statement to date.

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

as a song, on first two listens: so many great ideas, but a bit of a mess as they're arranged here. a decent editor could've made a big difference. i'm also not so sure about the toplines in this one and "automatic." the beats are incredible and the vocal parts do have their moments, but i'm left feeling there could have been better ideas.

then again, "red light" felt like a mess at first, too, and now it's one of my favorite k-pop songs. so i'll give it a couple days. no chance this wasn't originally written for f(x), by the by -- you can hear whose voice was supposed to be doing what. (red velvet have potential, but at this point i don't see them as f(x)'s equal in any way. vocal differentiation, visual profile, and final product standard for f(x) was always a notch above.)

very secondary concern to me but the video seems kinda unfocused too

Love is my second favorite but oh god i can't think highly of those skits (first off there are way too many on an album i find a bit too long) and idk dude i feel like "field recording ambient" is speaking highly of something that i find is akin to like, really cheesy korean commercials that air all the time (and even more so back then). there's a pleasant gentleness to it that is very much korean but it's neither unique, holds up, or warrants such a large chunk of the album imo. it's an experience i find similar to hearing yiruma for more than like 15 minutes. i think i'd put it and Greenland among my favorite r&b albums of the 90s but I don't think there were a ton of strong ones in the first place (though, it's not like that's a necessarily bad thing; evaluating pop [or hip hop, or all dance music, or all music in 2015 tbh] by the strength of full-length releases is the wrong way to measure how great a certain scene/genre/artist is).

I personally don't think Jay Park ruins the feel of the song and the only line that I think the lyrical incongruity could be applicable to is the hulk line, which is only a fault in my mind because it's a total missed opportunity of mentioning a snake :3 like, that "there won't be any reason to hide" line is clearly a reference to the original story. but whatever, all a matter of personal preference in the end.

oh, was referring to the original song being monolithic when i mentioned it but yeah of course both are. i like it but i think the rap is really what seems off and makes that sort of approach feel wasted. still a great song though of course.

Ok, my first listen of Ice Cream Cake I definitely thought that it was a bunch of great ideas that came together poorly but I'm on my third listen now and I'm already digging it a lot more. Song is actually pretty well mixed imo, really dig what the drums are doing on the song. Pacing is definitely a bit stunted at points but I'm feeling the song overall. Best part of the video is 100% the costuming for me.