Playlist: Romeo, Brown Eyed Girls, Tahiti, Jonghyun, Rania, DIA Girls

Brown Eyed Girls - Wave

I could pick any of eight** great songs from BEG’s fantastic Basic album. I even like JeA’s epic power ballad. There’s their fantastic take on Michael Jackson (Brave New World, above) their signature bossa-samba, or the utterly filthy Motown throwback Warm Hole. I like to imagine lyricist Kim Eana showing them the lyrics and them all going, "No, make it dirtier." The pure maths/science theme of the album just makes the whole thing bizarre and even better (Warm Hole is also known as Worm Hole, just cause.) Wave, a proper beauty of harmony and momentum, was co-written by Jung Suk-Won who has written for Gain, IU and Lim Kim. No official stream on YouTube so ... buy the album? (Just a suggestion.)

**The rock songs don’t play with me. I don’t care if one was written by some iconic Korean rock band. Save that shit for FTIsland.

Romeo - Target

Among the six composers (six!) for this total bop is one of my favourites, Albi Albertsson (Shinee’s Black Hole, Vixx’s Chained Up, Girls’ Generation’s Party). The rookie group’s first single didn’t do much for me but this one is pushing all the right buttons. Like a lot of Infinite's stuff - the group “netizens” claim Romeo are aping - it’s a bombastic electronic rock song; with rippling Rick Wakeman synths, power chords and a meaty chorus designed to get listeners singing along. Nice choreography too. All boxes ticked.

Tahiti - Skip

“Cha-cha-cha!” they chirrup, following it up with an “arriba!” although Skip is not a cha-cha-cha, nor a Latin rhythm of any kind. It’s a bouncy ska track, complete with 60s organ and saxophone. It’s similar in tone to Pung-deng-e’s fab Pipipapa (which actually did have a Latin component), although less nuts. Still lots of fun though. They pull out all the K-pop tropes for the stages - school uniforms, cat ears, bouncy chorry, the works.

DIA Girls - 스르륵 (Gently)

What a beauty. This mix of 60s Phil Spector wall of sound with an electronic treatment reminds me of PoTen/4Ten - so it’s probably bound for Nowheresville but wow, it’s a knockout. My only gripe is the thin-sounding vocals - I haven’t seen them sing it in tune once live. I can just imagine how Purfles would nail it. Also DIA Girls? Did management not get the memo about the other rookie group DIA? Doesn’t anyone in ROK talk to each other?

Rania - Demonstrate

This is a nice tidy hip-hop track co-written by Brian Kierulf (Lady Gaga, 50 Cent, Ricki-Lee), with lyrics by the incomparable Kim Eana (Brown Eyed Girls, everyone else). It’s all kick drum, brass, epic vocals and that’s about it. The simplicity shows you don’t need much more; especially when you have fluoro boots. For this comeback, Rania returned with three new members including a African-American member Alexandra (who had been signed to Def Jam). And fluoro boots.

Jonghyun - Beautiful Lady

The Jonghyun juggernaut continues. Not content with three solo albums, and a Korean Shinee album (and probably a Japanese one too,  but who cares about those?) in one year, he has recorded this upbeat retro bop from the Oh My Venus OST. It's reminscent of CeeLo’s Fuck You, musically; lyrically, it’s a little sweeter.