Interesting interview today on NPR's Here & Now DJ Sessions with Soju, sharing some of her favorite Kpop songs.
And one new release that I didn't even know was a thing. Apparently there's a new sister group to TWICE and ITZY: NiziU.
This is their pre-release song which features a cameo from JYP himself, and some callouts to a few TWICE and ITZY songs.
This song is getting MAJOR replay from me lately... At first, I thought it was pretty bare bones, but now I can't not have it stuck in my head at work on any given day. Went and watched some of the clips from the show which the group was formed, and though the drama and tears is a bit much, it really makes you root for all of them!
Also, I know I tend to focus mostly on girl groups here. What are some good songs by boy groups from the first half of 2020 that I should know about?
There hasn't been a ton that's stuck out to me in the first half of this year, particularly with super upbeat tracks. Most of the ones I've been listening to are more chill or RnB vibes:
Jimin (BTS) - Filter
Monsta X - You Can't Hold My Heart
ONEUS - A Song Written Easily
OVAN - I Need You
Jay Park - All The Way Up
My 3 favorites from the last few months:
Jackson Wang - 100 Ways
Agust D - Daechwita
Bang Ye Dam's Wayo, though my favorite rendition features AKMU's Suhyun:
IRENE & SEULGI - Naughty
That's some of the coolest choreo I've seen in a video. That scene with Seulgi dancing with Irene's hands in the foreground? Awesome. I'm loving everything about this subunit so far. I hope Episode 2 isn't far off.
In variety news, someone decided to give Jessi her own interview show. It's chaotic and hilarious:
Dyni wrote:That's some of the coolest choreo I've seen in a video. That scene with Seulgi dancing with Irene's hands in the foreground? Awesome. I'm loving everything about this subunit so far. I hope Episode 2 isn't far off.
The form of dance with the hands is called "tutting" and GWSN used it a bit in their debut MV Puzzle Moon- but not to this extent.
Ah yeah, I think I saw that term being thrown around regarding Chungha's Stay Tonight as well. As cool as it looks, I have to imagine it's far more difficult to learn than standard K-pop choreography. Here's Naughty live:
Irene's doppelganger in Episode 2 comes off a little too uncanny valley if you pause in the wrong place
Lee Hi's first comeback with her new label, AOMG:
AOMG has Jay Park, Gray, Hoody, Loco, and plenty of others similar artists that put stuff out fairly regularly, so hopefully she can start to do the same now that she has escaped the YG dungeon.
And I've grown to love Zico - Any Song. It seemed to be referenced everywhere I looked in Kpop for a while.
Ah, that's what that song is. I've heard snippets of it everywhere, but I didn't know exactly what it is. Great song.
Since Jessi was mentioned above, here's her new song.
Jessi has really grown on me. Aside from CL, she's the only artist where I'm never sure if I want her to sing or rap more. I love both her deep rapping voice and her raspy singing voice.
This is a great performance video that I missed from a few weeks ago:
It looks like (G)I-dle, Dreamcatcher, and Itzy all have comebacks in August. (G)I-dle on Monday.
Hedy - You Were Really Not Good
Hyolyn - 9Lives
I love this side of Hyolyn's style. Reminds me of youknowbetter.
Rothy - Ocean View
Finally, with a more mature note, here's BiBi's Cigarette and Condom (a.k.a "She Got It" on some platforms, like Itunes). I love her voice and her fringe take on the kpop scene.
Kazino is one of my favorites from this year. I love this too. I need to check out more of her stuff.
I love this side of Hyolyn's style. Reminds me of youknowbetter.
She performed this live on MNet's Good Girl. It's an excellent performance:
Treasure's debut:
Taemin comeback:
First Taemin comeback in a while that I'm not really feeling.
SuperM's comeback:
It's super over the top just like Jopping. Fun video, but I wish I liked it more given how much talent there is in the group.
My favorite from Dreamcatcher's new album. It sounds completely out of character for them, is fully in English, but I can't get it out of my mind...
Saw the teaser of this and knew it would be good, and it did not disappoint.
SEJEONG - Whale
My favorite from Dreamcatcher's new album. It sounds completely out of character for them, is fully in English, but I can't get it out of my mind... :)
Oh man, this song makes me nostalgic. DC has done plenty of EDM tracks, but this sounds like a mid-2000s Eurodance track. I love it. Also, I didn't realize it was all in English until it was almost over.
My other favorite from the album is Break the Wall, definitely on the heavier side for them. I love the use of megaphones to emulate vocal distortion:
Another awesome mini album from them. Oh, Boca is really good too I never expected moombahton and rock to mix so well, but Leez and Ollounder are just incredible producers. I just learned that they produce almost all of Ateez's music as well, so I really need to give them more of a thorough look.
Not Shy doesn't hit quite as strongly for me as Wannabe, but I still like it quite a bit. Itzy has yet to release a dud title track for me. I had a chance to check out their mini album yesterday as well. I didn't care for their b-sides on the first two albums, but this has several that I like. My favorite on first listen was probably Surf.
A couple other recent releases worth noting, Jessi - Numb:
Not my favorite Jessi song, but it really shows off her beautiful vocals.
Brave Girls - We Ride
I don't know much about Brave Girls other than the fact that they've been around for a while, but I've been rocking out to We Ride for the last few days.
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