yeah the stayc single is very good, probably shouldnt be called "so bad". weki meki's latest single is one that keep getting better for me, a pretty big change from what ive been hearing from their other releases. i really didnt like aespa's debut. looks like they wanted to do something to compete with itzy and blackpink but have taken all the wrong lessons from their music. sm girl groups usually take a bit to find their footing though so hopefully their future releases are more interesting.
Yeah aespa'd debut was very nothingy. The best thing about it was BoA's cameo at the very end. Dreamcatcher went full metal again for their new Japanese single. I need a full album of this. Speaking of BoA, I'm appreciating the little celebrations that are being made about the 20th anniversary of her career. This documentary, which shows her recreating many old MVs inbetween interview bits, was cute. And I'm really enjoying her ongoing reality show, Nobody Talks To BoA. Seeing her still being hungry about her craft, having the dilemma of keeping up with trends while wondering whether she's "too old" or still got it, albeit sometimes in a joking manner, is really enlightening. It humanizes her and makes me feel for her too.
These Japanese Dreamcatcher singles are fire. I love their music but the full on metal sound on the Japanese stuff is so good.
a little late but i finally finished my b-sides list for 2020, and plan on finishing up my singles list in the next couple of days. like last year, 50 songs, in alphabetical order. baekhyun - r u ridin? boa - temptations boa - all that jazz boa - honey & diamonds the boyz - make or break dia - nobody knows enhypen - 10 months fromis_9 - weather fromis_9 - mulgogi gfriend - dreamcatcher gfriend - tarot cards gfriend - creme brule (g)-idle - maybe got7 - aura got7 - crazy got7 - love you better irene & seulgi - diamond itzy - ting ting ting itzy - i dont wanna dance izone - ayayaya izone - daydream izone - merry go round loona - number 1 loona - oh (yes i am) loona - ding ding dong nct 127 - music, dance nct dream - 7 days nct dream - love again nct dream - deja vu niziu - beyond the rainbow nuest - moon dance nuest - back to me oh my girl - dolphin oh my girl - neon rocket punch - fireworks rocket punch - girl friend super junior - shadow superm - step up superm - together at home twice - oxygen twice - up no more twice - say something txt - ghosting txt - blue hour txt - way home wayv - after midnight wjsn - pantomime wjsn - where you are wjsn - our garden
Nice idea! There's a lot of overlap with mine, if I ever get to make a bside one. I did make a top 20(+1) playlist the other day: +1 refers to the Kpop song I listened to the most this year, but remains unavailable on Spotify: Not sure I can manage to make separate singles and bsides ones, the dilemmas that'll ensue...
better late than never i guess, here's my top 50 korean singles of 2020 1. iz*one - secret story of the swan 2. twice - more & more 3. yukika - soul lady 4. lil boi, wonstein, chillin homie & skyminhyuk - freak 5. twice - cry for me 6. gfriend - mago 7. loona - so what 8. superm - one (monster & infinity) 9. twice - i cant stop me 10. zico - any song 11. bewhy - saeroi 12. nct u - make a wish (birthday song) 13. gfriend - apple 14. iz*one - fiesta 15. apink - duhmdurum 16. brave girls - we ride 17. superm - 100 18. wjsn - butterfly 19. rose de penny, dsel, kaogaii & untell - win win 20. devita - evita! 21. weki meki - cool 22. irene & seulgi - naughty 23. dreamcatcher - boca 24. exo-sc - 1 billion views 25. sf9 - good guy 26. the boyz - the stealer 27. nct u - 90s love 28. wonstein - infrared camera 29. exo-sc - telephone 30. iz*one - panorama 31. loona - voice 32. crush - mayday 33.verivery - lay back 34. mamamoo - wanna be myself 35. oh my girl - nonstop 36. loona - why not? 37. blackpink - lovesick girls 38. everglow - dun dun 39. drippin - nostalgia 40. boa - better 41. kai - mmmh 42. gwsn - bazooka! 43. nct u - work it 44. txt - we lost the summer 45. weeekly - tag me (@me) 46. chungha - stay tonight 47. cignature - assa 48. weki meki - dazzle dazzle 49. ab6ix - the answer 50. bvndit - children
Love that Weeekly is about to release their third ep soon!!! i'm super into their power-pop sound on We Are and We Can. anyone who's more familiar with these rollouts, what's the average amount of time some of these acts goes between releases? they just debuted last year and put out two five-song records already, does it depend on the company? on another note, i am so desperate for more music from Stayc. it's been like 4 months with just those two songs and i am dying for more
I feel like it's usually a few months between releases for most groups, with the odd rare exceptions where it takes forever (Blackpink) or groups just randomly disappear (gugudan, Pristin) and we never get anything more again. (Although I acknowledge that most of the time where groups disappear it's because they weren't doing too well, but did they really have to wait like 2 years to announce gugudan was done? come on man...) I'm super excited for the new Weeekly stuff too, and I also really want more STAYC. They were probably my two favourite groups last year, their debuts were so good. Apart from that, I've really been enjoying the newest Dreamcatcher, both Odd Eye and 바람아 are super good singles, and the self-made video for Poison Love was a lot of fun too. They're also doing an AMA on the r/kpop subreddit tomorrow, which is really cool for a group that feels really big (even though I think it's mostly international fans). Also, new IU in like, two weeks. Always an exciting time!
The pandemic has also made it hard to predict the gap between releases... it's kinda frustrating, especially for groups who are about to reach the end of their contract, and newer ones who didn't even have a chance to build a fanbase in person. That and the influx of scandals happening right now as well. I know many who gave us comebacks at the end of 2020 are rumored to be coming back for the second quarter, so I'm looking forward to see what's going to happen. To think it's been close to one year and a half since the last Red Velvet full group comeback hurts. Anyway, my next anticipated comebacks are (finally) the return of WJSN, and the to-be-announced LOONA one. It's been 84 years.gif
i'm also really glad that a bunch of kpop songs have returned to Spotify. a whole bunch got removed for like a week, it was awful
WJSN delivered as usual New Me is a b-side of the year contender... I'm gonna need more of these vaporwave vibes.
hated this the first time I listened to it because I was hoping for something more like So Bad and this just feels kind of low energy compared to that, but it's grown on me a lot over the course of the day. still not as good as So Bad imo but 2 good title tracks in a row is pretty good for a rookie group so can't really complain I suppose!
ASAP is already one of my favorite K-Pop songs of the year. Anything that has hints of miami bass, even though put through a poppier filter, is going to stay on rotation for me.
I was/am obsessed with BBIBBI, so I have been really looking forward to this new UI album. Sadly it doesn't have the sound I was (maybe out of ignorance) hoping for. I only like Celebrity and even there I could do with less EDM-ish influences. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk. EDIT: Also see this as my annual "please recommend recent R&B-ish releases from Korea to me" request.
I could make an entire post focusing on Nieah, she's so underrated and it's a shame her bandcamp doesn't have all of her material.
Just gonna post this gem here as well. She released like three or four songs back in 2013/2014 then pretty much disappeared. The 90s vibes of this one are everything to me.