Up & Down: In and out of love with Got7, Stellar, Hello Venus and TVXQ
It was all over last week. The love affair. It happens every now and then. I'll spend a morning going through k2n and there'll only be one or two songs that I'm crazy about and I'll think: it's happened; k-pop is over. Then two days later, a whole bunch of songs comes out and it's all on again.
Last week there was a bunch of lacklustre hip-hop songs, Infinite's terrible comeback, and Hara from Kara's debut (which I haven't given up on; it just didn't grab me right away).
Got7 came back last week too. Their awesome retro electro hip-hop song from last year, Stop It Stop It, was my jam and the long player was pretty good as well. The new song, Just Right, is a smart blend of genres - southern hip-hop and blah blah. It's hip and cool and they're hot and likeable and the MV is super cute - it's all pretty close to faultless, and I won't turn it off when it's on, but I'd skip it in a playlist to get to one of my beloved rookie girls from the week before or - holy shit the brand new Stellar.
Like Stop Stop It, Stellar's sultry Mask was easily one of the best songs of last year. Mask was the kind of song that makes me frustrated that k-pop exists in a kind of music ghetto because I could see how it could easily appeal to a much broader audience.
On Vibrato, they take the overt sexuality from their Marionette single and dial it up to XXX - but you have to stick with the MV until the two-minute mark to get to the good stuff: unzipped handbags, cut open watermelons and anything else that can be appropriated to resemble a vagina. It's imaginative, witty and beautifully shot. As in Marionette, the lyrics and imagery are commenting on women and their role in k-pop and even though the MV has only been out a couple of days there has already been a shitload of smart writing on it - here and here, to list just two. Ultimately, I don't speak Korean, so I'm here for the sounds. Despite my adoration of Mask, the follow up, Fool was a disappointment; a very square take on the retro soul-jazz genre, something that is normally catnip (or soju) for me. Vibrato had me going from the Chic string flourishes upfront. There's the mandatory sax burping, but thankfully it's mixed down (so over it); the harmonies crest sweet and high on the chorus and the tempo change at 2:00 adds a gorgeous tension. Song of the week.
Unlike Stellar's comeback, the glorious Hello Venus have disappointed by following the recent EDM resurrection and delivering a techno track (boo-hiss: techno was the thing that killed house and made me stop clubbing back in Paleolithic times). I expected more: Sticky Sticky was sexy retro pop fun and Wiggle Wiggle was slinky electronica with a smart twist (butt-shaking choreography also awesome). Producer Brave Brothers has been hanging out in the US trying to impress people over there lately. He needs to get his priorities straight.
Anyone doing EDM/techno should go back to Purfles' iconic track from last year and think twice: can you do it better? Are you sure?
Leave it to the kings to deliver a whole album of audio goodies. In what is a bittersweet twist TVXQ's last offering before they enlist, Rise as God, is a perfectly formed successor to last year's fantastic long player Tense; a gift after a wasted year in the J-pop wilderness (sorry but Toshoshinki's Tree was awful). Discard Max's two ballads and what's left are eight sophisticated, immaculately produced R&B/disco/hip-hop/soul jazz tracks packed with hooks and grooves and inventive ambient sounds. I could wank on about this all day but that's time that you could spend listening to it.
Last week there was a bunch of lacklustre hip-hop songs, Infinite's terrible comeback, and Hara from Kara's debut (which I haven't given up on; it just didn't grab me right away).
Got7 came back last week too. Their awesome retro electro hip-hop song from last year, Stop It Stop It, was my jam and the long player was pretty good as well. The new song, Just Right, is a smart blend of genres - southern hip-hop and blah blah. It's hip and cool and they're hot and likeable and the MV is super cute - it's all pretty close to faultless, and I won't turn it off when it's on, but I'd skip it in a playlist to get to one of my beloved rookie girls from the week before or - holy shit the brand new Stellar.
Like Stop Stop It, Stellar's sultry Mask was easily one of the best songs of last year. Mask was the kind of song that makes me frustrated that k-pop exists in a kind of music ghetto because I could see how it could easily appeal to a much broader audience.
On Vibrato, they take the overt sexuality from their Marionette single and dial it up to XXX - but you have to stick with the MV until the two-minute mark to get to the good stuff: unzipped handbags, cut open watermelons and anything else that can be appropriated to resemble a vagina. It's imaginative, witty and beautifully shot. As in Marionette, the lyrics and imagery are commenting on women and their role in k-pop and even though the MV has only been out a couple of days there has already been a shitload of smart writing on it - here and here, to list just two. Ultimately, I don't speak Korean, so I'm here for the sounds. Despite my adoration of Mask, the follow up, Fool was a disappointment; a very square take on the retro soul-jazz genre, something that is normally catnip (or soju) for me. Vibrato had me going from the Chic string flourishes upfront. There's the mandatory sax burping, but thankfully it's mixed down (so over it); the harmonies crest sweet and high on the chorus and the tempo change at 2:00 adds a gorgeous tension. Song of the week.
Unlike Stellar's comeback, the glorious Hello Venus have disappointed by following the recent EDM resurrection and delivering a techno track (boo-hiss: techno was the thing that killed house and made me stop clubbing back in Paleolithic times). I expected more: Sticky Sticky was sexy retro pop fun and Wiggle Wiggle was slinky electronica with a smart twist (butt-shaking choreography also awesome). Producer Brave Brothers has been hanging out in the US trying to impress people over there lately. He needs to get his priorities straight.
Anyone doing EDM/techno should go back to Purfles' iconic track from last year and think twice: can you do it better? Are you sure?
Leave it to the kings to deliver a whole album of audio goodies. In what is a bittersweet twist TVXQ's last offering before they enlist, Rise as God, is a perfectly formed successor to last year's fantastic long player Tense; a gift after a wasted year in the J-pop wilderness (sorry but Toshoshinki's Tree was awful). Discard Max's two ballads and what's left are eight sophisticated, immaculately produced R&B/disco/hip-hop/soul jazz tracks packed with hooks and grooves and inventive ambient sounds. I could wank on about this all day but that's time that you could spend listening to it.
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