Kpop 2018

yeah Baam just feels like more of BBoom BBoom but less hooky, and not as good as the T-ara songs it sounds like either

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sHIq41sI-w

this is from a few months ago but coming back to it now I really love it, the groove is great and the layered vocals in the chorus are overwhelming in the best way. is that buzzing sound in the second verse autotuned vocals? i love it

https://i.imgur.com/yM4XZKq.png

sigh

speaking of LOONA though.... Kyungri's solo kinda sounds like a LOONA solo, it is better (and higher budget) than I was expecting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3-TZ04M6F4

NCT Touch is great!

Key randomly shows up on a Years&Years remix. It's not bad! I like his vocals way more than Olly's on this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaaxU9k2e4c

Key does sound good, he just sings so straight and murders the pitch every time.

I feel like I need to embed the SHINEE songs I linked before cause I keep listening to them... especially Lock You Down:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmzSxX601rc

Not sure if this deserves an embed but I'm into UNB's Black Heart rn, more of the jazz/swing trend and the performance is really fun: https://youtu.be/VcSvwHMwDvI

Except for Shaun, only girl groups topping the instz chart!

https://i.imgur.com/J2J9yOa.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9P90QTo_uE

GFriend coming through with city pop vibes, I'm a fan

I like the backtrack and some of the chromatic progressions but overall it's a miss for me. I think I want more Sistar-style belting and the voices are too processed and cute.

Hard pass on Triple H - Retro Future but I like the new Seventeen a lot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5PELxP8Udg

absck, is Chung Ha one of the girls on the chart? It seems like every time you turn around, she has a new single out.

Surprisingly heavy follow up to Holland's "I'm Not Afraid":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwwAmwMe3fM

xp Chungha was not on that chart. The hangul names are Mamamoo and Bol4. But she is now! ;)

This new Minseo release rules on many levels. Some of the best recent work of the old IU team

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYPT5MMb75E

There is something very suspect about white men in their 30s who are into Kpop girl groups.

Better for them to be into Britney or Christina or Rihanna, right?

Get off it dude, this concern trolling is played out.

who the hell is JB?

love that minseo track

Awesome video too.

drive-by troll?

but yeah I really like the minseo, also the new The Boyz track (KeePer) that's way more stripped back than Giddy Up but also in a weird happy minor key like Giddy Up so I guess that's their thing?

and speaking of minor keys... this is waaaaaaaaaay too high for Day6 to sing comfortably but it is, nonetheless, a singalong :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2X2LdJAIpU

SUPER hooky earwormy!

I'm going back to last year's Day6 releases too, some of these tracks are really good.... "What Can I Do" is so happy and jazzy !

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

the minseo track is like a really motivational anime opening song... she is great and the orchestration is so full!

and sunny summer is growing on me too.... I like the instrumental more the more I listen to it.

that Minseo track is indeed great!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiHSVQy9xN8

really like the new Red Velvet. not quite as great as Red Flavor but still a worthy successor as summer single. especially like the chord changes in the nanana section. the mini is very solid too

the minseo track is like a really motivational anime opening song... she is great and the orchestration is so full!

― hurricane weather (forapper), 25. juli 2018 00:27 (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Lol, this is absolutely otm. Great track! The video is pretty anime as well, reminds me of Your Name or Girl Who Leapt Through Time.

wow power up is so fun

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFJPFfnzZ7w

LOONA full group debut is pretty good

Good song, terrible video. I lol'd at omona commenters who said it's pretty much a boy group song done right - it absolute is! Sounds like an EXO track.

"Power up" is fun, but can't shake how the chorus melody is lifted directly from Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend".

oh it is very similar now that you mention it, but it has a completely different feeling there so it doesn't bother me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1OUMTMwVsY

this on the other hand is such a rip of Tinashe's Superlove lol

Wow, that is *brazen*. Please tell me Tinashe and her ppl were duly compensated.

the Red Velvet mini-album is great so far

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MthLgPs7oU4

not sure why Brave Girls are releasing a remix of Rollin a year and a half later as a new single but it's even better than the original

WOW that remake is really good... and why not try it out again as a summer single, since we're still getting trop house from all the other popular acts

And speaking of (kinda)... I know it's a YG songwriting cliche but I really like the last drop on this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7upxtfys2QI

Good to see girl group member producers/songwriters (Soyeon) flex.. this is one of the more interesting gg singles of the year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKNXn2qCEws

ooh I really like that. nice to see Soyeon continuing to be great yeah, I loved her solo track Jelly from last year
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ8kJdTYj1o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDAqx45Duqw

also really enjoying this from a few weeks ago, one of the best tropical summer singles this year

I'm into all the jazz piano slowly invading the idol scene... the bridge on this is WILD:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCb6XJ_2Z3E

It feels spare but not boring, a bit like Pentagon's SHINE, and that song grew on me a lot.

It just makes you smile!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBuZEGYXA6E

new BTS is fantastic, really was not expecting something like this from them

it s supposed to be influenced by Gqom

For real. It’s got the gqom sound palet, especially in the intro and the verses (the drum rolls, the whistles, the synths), but the chorus is firmly in the Kpop zone. Fantastic baby!

Heard it's meant to be a mix of traditional Korean sounds and the South African music hitman bang has on his ipod right now...

I like the production touches and "BTS as global commodity" visual messaging but the song feels thin on melodic ideas to me... more "Bang Bang Bang" than "Fantastic Baby" (if Bang Bang Bang was less dated-on-arrival).

What I do like about BTS is how quick the feedback loop is. Less than a year in from Love Yourself: Her setting sales records and rather than continue to tour that album, they already released the 2nd and 3rd acts wherein they tentatively/enthusiastically embrace their fame. It's the Kpop production schedule combined with a savvy sense of narrative and self-reference.

DNA was their Fantastic Baby, obviously.

Apart from my enthusiasm my exclamation was mainly inspired by the “ooh-hoo!” in the chorus. The guys were clearly thinking of BigBang and “Fantastic Baby” themselves. The song itself is somewhere halfway between FB and BBB, I guess.

yeah the "ooh-hoo!" is straight from Fantastic Baby. the South African/traditional Korean blend is extremely effective here and i'm really glad they're doing something so fresh while at their peak, unlike their last few singles which have felt overly safe. i don't have any complaints about melodic ideas since it's driven so strongly by the rhythms and has plenty of hooks even if they aren't very melodic ones if that makes any sense

Girls' Generation coming back (as 5) in September

So then Seohyun and Sooyoung are out?

Going back to BTS, I think IDOL needs "something" more to be really good... but it is head and shoulders above most of the other songs on the BTS album which are, like, total snoozefests. So there's that.

yes...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQ8MFfg3DHA

Seohyun and Sooyoung left SM with Tiffany, yeah.