Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
The breaks I take from the music side of things are always poorly timed, as there’s apparently been about 500 songs released in the last few weeks, so I’ll begin getting up to speed with this post and then probably another one sooner than later.
At least it’s a good sign that there’s a bunch of releases I have commentary on rather than feeling like I just wanted to skip past everything.
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WOOAH – “WXW (Wish With W)”
My impression of this? It sounds like a goodbye/disbandment song or something. Bleak.
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SeeYa – “Stay”
I wrote about their other releases and their 20th anniversary reunion, but I didn’t think they’d drop something else as well. Glad it’s upbeat at least, I had expected nothing but ballad stuff.
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FIFTY FIFTY – “STARSTRUCK”
FIFTY FIFTY going from their viral easy-listening wheelhouse to this trendy (pejoratively) nonsense is a huge downgrade.
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TAEYANG (BIGBANG) – “LIVE FAST DIE SLOW”
Wanted to love this more than I did, as it could’ve leaned either into The Weeknd-style synth or more of a pop-punk anthem direction. It ended up sorta straddled the line in a half-measure way, making for something enjoyable but short of what it could’ve been.
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I.O.I – “Suddenly”
I’m predisposed to liking this just so they’re incentivized to continue with group activities, but the song is flat enough that it causes me to zone out while driving, exercising, or doing anything, which is legit dangerous to my health.
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TWS – “All The Possibilities”
One thing I like about TWS is that I can usually count on some attempt at a melody, which gives them a very high floor as a group for my tastes. Even the songs where I don’t get it are like average to above-average at worse, but I will say this recent cycle for them has given me more elevator muzak, Forever 21, Macy’s playlist type forgettable vibes than normal.
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LE SSERAFIM – “BOOMPALA”
I hate to credit the haters (of their music), but great call by the haters on this one. Sampling “Macarena” and then more than anything making a completely boring song is … impressive. Like I was hoping the sample would at least mean this is fun in a repetitive and “camp” (most overused stan justification ever) way, but nah, the producers didn’t give a fuck.
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AND2BLE – “Curious”
On the plus side, this had a lot of potential. On the negative side, the chorus ruins it all with dreary and plodding energy that sucks the life out of the song. This is also the off-shoot group by YH Entertainment that split from ZB1, and they expect you to pronounce that “And Double”, which I feel has to be insulting to our collective intelligence, really.
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I feel somewhat re-energized by this spate of releases, honestly.
