K-pop 2016: the story so far

It's always like this: nothing and then there's a flood.

January was so lean I started digging back through my old Cuban tracks. Dal Shabet opened the year with the gloriously fizzy Brave track Just Like You and some smartly sexy stages but there wasn’t anything else much to get excited about apart from Stellar’s Sting and Teen Top’s Warning Sign. The former continue to be under-appreciated, despite a run of sophisticated pop songs, most of them with killer bridges.

Teen Top’s Warning Sign, delivered with their usual outstanding dancing chops, is destined to be one of the great under-rated songs of the year. Co-written by Joomba Music’s Shin Hyuk (co-writer on Exo’s Growl, Shinee’s Dream Girl, TVXQ’s Heaven’s Day etc etc), it’s a gorgeous haunting uptempo track with a mournful synth weaving around the rap, tambourine backbeat and jazz piano. Seeing them perform it in suits reminds of the Temptations, post Ball of Confusion. Not that the Temptations could dance like that.

The Legend, a handsome quintet who debuted in 2014 with some forgettable hip-hop, returned last year with a nice slow jam. They came back in January with a fantastic Earth Wind & Fire-style disco-funk song, Crush on You, super cute choreography and a really great hair. I can’t take my eyes off them and I can’t stop playing it.

That probably doesn’t seem too stingy a collection but given K-pop generally spits out about five good new tracks a week between idol groups and indie releases, that’s pretty slim pickings in comparison. The live shows have been filled out by groups like Halo, Laboum and B.I.G. promoting songs from last year.

Now everything’s gearing up again: this week I’ve added half a dozen new songs to my K-pop 2016 playlist.

The eagerly anticipated Rainbow comeback is … mixed. Hopes were admittedly high after last year’s brilliant mini Innocent flopped. And it makes sense they would want to try something different. But the garage-New Wave pop rock of the title track is … OK? I guess? But not really my thing? Some of the album cuts are pretty fine though: Black and White is an appealing big orchestrated number with popping bass produced by ZigZagNote (BoA’s Double Jack, B1A4’s Sweet Girl), Click is an uptempo and upbeat R&B/soul number - Warm Hole without the racy lyrics - and Eye Contact is a cool slow jam. It’s much safer than Innocent but you can’t blame them for that.

Sonnet Son, aka Son Seung-Yeon, has released a lovely Winehousey torch song called Ms Burgundy. She won season 1 of The Voice in Korea and she sings confidently in a smoky, understated performance over a slender backing of piano and percussion. She raps throughout as well, and although she seems deft enough, it does feel  little laboured at times. There is a poetic translation at popgasa.

Brave Girls' Deepened is the kind of cut I would normally dismiss - why listen to a Korean version of this when this kind of trap-R&B is so prevalent in Western pop? But there’s a bit of magic here - I love the gorgeous lush reverberating chords that ping and boom. And the choreography is divine. It’s one of those simple routines that’s lovely and fluid and beautifully executed. My favourite bit is when they raise their top, like they’re going to take it off, then they drop it and push their hair back, like, aw no, I wasn’t really going to do that.

“I’m thirsty for your love.”

Loses marks for the rapper’s black cosplay. Just, don’t guys.

And on that: 4Minute released Hate. Great track but stick to the baggy suits. Whoever put them in baggy pants made from bandanna fabric - i can’t even. Anyway I probably like Blind better than Hate; the latter’s inventiveness notwithstanding The electronic banger is co-written by Kei Lim from Channel Devine. He has credits for Exo (Tender Love, El Dorado) and album tracks for Miss A  and Jonghyun (Hallelujah) but he has been around for a while and I am surprised he hasn’t done more. I suspect it’s because he basically spends his time swanning around looking gorgeous.

Surprise of the week is Nu'Est’s all killer no filler mini Q Is. All right there’s a bit of filler (the ballad), but the other four tracks are pretty great, particularly the single, Overcome, and the second track from the live shows, In Fact. The latter is a stripped back funk song; a bit of doodling organ contrasting the percussion and some sliding synths. Overcome, co-written by Kye Bum Zu/NuSoul (a bunch of Seventeen songs, including Mansae) and Maxx Song (Exo’s Playboy, Romeo’s Target, Junjin’s Wow) flirts with changes in tempo while synth blasts and piano chords trade places, both serving to tease and raise tension. Strong vocals bring it home. This one’s on repeat. I loved the suits with splashes of kimono fabric on their first comeback stage but remain unconvinced by Ren’s anime weave. Choreography is wild arm gestures and body rolls - the classics.

Also good but it's late and I'm too tired to write any more: Cross Gene's shouty electronic rock track Hey You, Noona (lol), Winner's 50s slow dance number Baby Baby.

Next week: Taemin; Ladies Code, 4ten and Mamamoo.