Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
I swear I’ll catch up on reviews for the stuff I’ve really liked soon.
I swear.
Surely.
Anyway, catching up on the other stuff, there’s been some quality releases.
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Kim Jaejoong – “NOBODY LIKE YOU”
Elevated by Jaejoong, but I’m surprised they didn’t take things a step further and really make it an expansive epic. I dunno, feels like a song that should be five minutes long and have huge runs at the end, but it just kinda … stops.
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Choi Yoojung (Weki Meki) – “Sunflower”
Think Yoojung is an underrated all-rounder, as much as a former member of I.O.I can be “underrated”, and there’s nothing wrong with this release. That said, there’s also nothing that really grabs me, and if a few days from now you asked me the memorable section from it, I wouldn’t know.
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Kep1er – “Sugar Rush”
I’m in favor of censorship as long as it prevents UNIVERSE from making K-pop artists release shit for their platform. There’s been like maybe two tolerable songs that’ve come out of it.
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Lapillus – “GRATATA”
Look, it’s not my fault if companies release the same mid girl crush song 20 times a year, alright?
I’m also not the one debuting fetuses.
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Crush (Feat. BTS’s J-Hope) – “Rush Hour”
Very funky with a simple and safe groove, it’s an easy track to get into. The replay value suffers because it just repeats the core elements over and over, but it’ll probably be quite nice to run into every now and then.
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RoaD-B – “Icarus”
For me, not nearly as strong as “Nonstop”, but the floor is high with these types of expansive, melodic-focused productions. The thing that usually prevents those tracks from taking things to the next level is the lack of memorable, catchy elements, which is the issue here.
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mimiirose – “Rose”
Not a perfect debut but an intriguing one. Sort of like the BLACKPINK formula except if they actually tried to make a fleshed-out chorus. A debut that puts them on my radar a bit at least.
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Xiumin (EXO) – “Brand New”
This is good in the sense that it seems to attempt to capture the vibe of Ghost Town DJ’s “My Boo“ … but instead of the iconic and viral chorus of the original, it has some dude screaming at you. SUMMER CAKE‘s “Not In Public“ (which has grown on me) delivers a far better result in the same vein.
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Lee Changsub (BTOB) – “SURRENDER”
A rather generic and stereotypical synth-pop song … and it sounds good, man. Execution matters and he elevates it, and this is the type of song that can grow on you (and me).
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BIBI – “Animal Farm”
The song itself is not my thing, but the music video would’ve also been a lot more compelling if it wasn’t in many ways just a recreation of Kill Bill scenes. I get the messaging, but still.
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Hyosung – “Stories Finding Shimmering Sea”
Is it amusing to me that Hyosung‘s tourism song for Incheon is one of the better Korean city pop efforts of the year despite a shit ton of artists trying to ride the wave? Yes, yes it is. Onto the cruising in the car during the day playlist it goes.
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EXID – “FIRE”
I understand Teddy didn’t produce this, but it’s still his fault.
