Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
While I’m actually months behind on this for certain stuff, I thought I would start with more mainstream and recent tracks that I enjoyed.
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OH MY GIRL – “Classified”
“Classified” is probably not the most predictable source of enjoyment for my taste, but they really sold me on tapping back into the dreamy, fairytale type of soundscape. The piano melody and orchestral composition have classical underpinnings, while a Jersey Club bounce over the top of it was a unique and surprisingly appealing choice. That combo provided ample opportunity for disaster, but the production made it appear almost seamless.
Meanwhile, the central melody is pieced together in a way that’s a slow burn but extremely addictive, and it grew on me over time. There’s no in-your-face swelling of the chorus, but it subtly gnawed at me with melodic jabs, and I eventually found myself floating around the house to it. The English hooks of “sometimes I dive into your dream/sometimes I cry to make you smile” are easy recalls, but the way the whole thing seems to glide along is what really makes this nice.
It’s a song about cherishing past memories made, and the vocal delivery is appropriately sweet, yet they also carry with it a sense of playful energy that prevents it from getting boring at key moments. Really only the rap verses are seemingly out of place for the soundscape, but I get it needs to be included for idol reasons. Regardless, if “Classified” didn’t hook you at first, then you’re in the same boat as me, but its enchanting flow eventually won me over on repeats. Welcome back, OH MY GIRL.
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RESCENE – “Pinball”
Perhaps another surprise here, but while many have seemingly crowned “Love Attack” as the next modern classic or something, I felt “Pinball” was a superior experience, providing something much more layered, nuanced, and long-lasting. It’s an extremely cohesive R&B effort, and despite having a vibey feel to it, it’s feels a lot more dynamic than its predecessor.
The dreamy sound has an addictive rhythm to it all, and is enhanced by the pure vocals of the members, who manage to inject their own charisma into it and avoiding making things sounding anonymous and perfunctory like many similar efforts can. Still, the center of its appeal is the chorus, which features multiple memorable sections, including the obvious “I’m playing pinball pinball pinball” title shout, the members harmonizing and emphasizing “now”, and then taking it down the scale and extending the last two words of “gyesok hae mireo on jongil“. It’s just a highly addictive formula that keeps the listener coming back for more instead of feeling stale on repeats.
Notably, it also has a bridge to make it feel like a complete song, and it just has little touches and does minor things right, which helped “Pinball” to separate themselves from the vibey pack. Similarly, RESCENE are certainly beginning to make a name for themselves, taking the tough road to relevance as a group from a small company.
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VAHN (NINE.i) (Feat. BLKZEN) – “Feeling”
As somebody mostly unfamiliar with NINE.i, much less VAHN, I clicked on the music video for “Feeling” without any expectations, perhaps even looking forward to quickly closing out of another release as I went through my routine of listening to new stuff. Needless to say, this captured my attention from the get go, and finding stuff like this is what makes that repetitive process worth it.
Build around a chugging guitar and synths, the core of “Feeling” is basically being a dramatic head-nodder, and the frequency with which the release finds appealing melodies is rather remarkable. Enhancing this is VAHN’s raspy vocal, which provides a uniquely expressive tone that’s suited for both a solo career and this specific sound.
Yet despite those positives, the star of the show is undoubtedly the exuberant, fleshed-out chorus that includes multiple memorable hooks and just adds to the fact that the song is jam-packed with memorable melody. At the very worst, it’s something worthy of a cruising, feel-good (ironically) playlist. Speaking of which, I liked the contrasting elements of loneliness with the upbeat sound, which kinda also weirdly gives it J-pop vibes since that’s a contrast a lot of idol songs play with.
“Feeling” isn’t flawless, as the rapping is … fine enough to not impact my enjoyment of the song, though it does feel shoehorned in, and maybe VAHN felt it was necessary since it was all in English. Also, there’s a late pause in the music where things grind to a halt in the music video, but this thankfully doesn’t exist on the audio, which instead sees a brief dropout before launching right into an energetic climax that rides to a smooth conclusion. Certainly looking forward to hearing more from VAHN now, and maybe it’s time to look back and see what I’ve missed.
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Slowly but surely catching up, man.
