More Songs From K-pop, Dev, And Cassie (Mid Year Singles & Albums 2012)

[koganbot]

Here's a list that isn't much different from the previous one, or the one before that, and so on. I don't believe my tastes are narrowing, so I think this says something about the world, too. But it is true, for instance, that I haven't been diving into the tributaries and sidestreams and backwaters of country these days, being so disappointed with what's occupying the main lake that I'm letting the whole genre slide by. What's Willie Nelson doing these days? He's always up to something.

Think I posed good questions in April, especially regarding popular music not having a viable or credible adulthood; but I haven't followed them up, have yet to reply to arbitrary_greay's thoughtful probing. To reiterate one point about CL of 2NE1: Can a performer like CL, who flourishes so well on the border of girlhood and womanhood, go on to a persona that's adult yet just as creative? What models are there for her in popular music? Who has taken this journey recently, with artistry enriched and an audience that hasn't evaporated?

Back in '07, in one of my even more tentative than usual Rules Of The Game columns, I — tentatively — gave an explanation and even hinted at a defense for why popular song lyrics continually replay the themes of adolescent romance. My hypothesis was that one doesn't outgrow the issues of adolescence so much as one finds provisional ways of going forward, routines of getting by. So in popular entertainment one can enjoy romance and romantic tribulations presented at a higher pitch than one actually wants to live them.

TOP SINGLES Mid Year 2012:
1. T-ara "Lovey-Dovey"
2. Trouble Maker "Trouble Maker"
3. ChoColat "I Like It"
4. Dev "In My Trunk"
5. Cassie "King Of Hearts"
6. Miss A "Touch"
7. After School "Rambling Girls"
8. 2NE1 "Scream"
9. Davichi & T-ara "We Were In Love"
10. Wonder Girls "Like This." Best of three recent, very interesting rhythm-heavy hits (the other two TaeTiSeo's "Twinkle" and f(x)'s "Electric Shock," all deserving writeups from me); on this one, producer JYP totally commits to using voices as beats. Good for him:

Watch on YouTube

11. Sistar "Alone"
12. 4minute "Volume Up"
13. Yoon Jong Shin ft. Kim Wan Sun "I Love You All Days"
14. Sunny Hill "The Grasshopper Song"
15. Nicki Minaj "Stupid Hoe"
16. Clazzi ft. Koti & Jubi & MYK "Sexy Doll"
17. The Cataracs ft. Dev "Sunrise"
18. Rihanna ft. Chris Brown "Birthday Cake (Remix)"
19. Girl's Day "Oh! My God"
20. ChoColat "One More Day" (also called "Same Thing To Her"). Wailing passion fit to shimmering harpsichords that recall turn-of-the-millennium Shek'spere 'n' Kandi.

Watch on YouTube

21. Kendrick Lamar ft. Dr. Dre "The Recipe"
22. Jess Mills "Pixelated People"
23. Tyga ft. Lil Wayne "Faded"
24. Lil Chuckee "Wop"
25. Teedra Moses ft. Wale "Another LuvR"
26. Melanie Fiona "4 AM"
27. T-ara "Round & Round"
28. Bella Thorne "TTYLXOX"
29. Blush "Up Up & Away"
30. Kara "Speed Up." Knee-buckling ache at the start that the chorus refuses to live up to. (K-pop having another strong year in Japan.)

Watch on YouTube

31. Bobby Brackins ft. Iamsu & Roach Gigz "Golden State"
32. B.o.B ft. André 3000 "Play The Guitar"
33. Shinhwa "Venus"
34. Cloud Nothings "No Future/No Past"
35. Justin Bieber "Boyfriend"
36. Kang Mi Jin "MIA" (webrip)
37. Tyga "Rack City"
38. After School "Flashback"
39. Gangkiz "Honey Honey"
40. M.I.A. "Bad Girls"

Watch on YouTube

41. Dawn Richard "Automatic"
42. Zebra Katz ft. Njena Reddd Foxxx "Ima Read"
43. Big Bang "Blue"

TOP ALBUMS Mid Year 2012:
1. ChoColat I Like It, The First Mini Album EP (Paramount)
2. T-ara Funky Town (repackage of Black Eyes) EP (Core Contents Media)
3. After School Playgirlz (Avex)
4. DJ Bedbugs Teenpop Lock And Drop Volume 2
5. Miss A Touch EP (JYP Entertainment)
6. E.via E.viagradation Part 1 (Black & Red) EP (Dline Art Media)

Watch on YouTube

7. 4minute Volume Up (Cube Entertainment)

Comments

CHUCK

[(Anonymous)]

Hey Frank. I haven't heard any Korean albums or EPs this year, I don't think, except Girls Generation (which I'm very iffy about); may have to catch up with those. And albumwise, especially, my lists are almost as metal-intensive these days as yours are K-Pop intensive. That said, here's more or less where I stand at midyear, albumwise:

1. (Various) – Tension: Spanish Experimental Underground 1980-1985 (Munster)
2. Dev – The Night The Sun Came Up (Universal Republic)
3. Freedom Hawk – Holding On (Small Stone '11)
4. Angel Witch – As Above, So Below (Rise Above)
5. Elfin Saddle – Devastates (Constellation)
6. Thunderkraft – Totentanz (Svarga)
7. 3 Inches Of Blood – Long Live Heavy Metal (Century Media)
8. Bible Of The Devil – For The Love Of Thugs & Fools (Cruz Del Sur)
9. Mekong Delta – Intersections (Steamhammer)
10. Tim Berne – Snakeoil (ECM)
11. Bushman’s Revenge – A Little Bit Of Big Bonanza (Rune Grammofon)
12. Christian Mistress – Possession (Relapse)
13. Saint Vitus – Lillie: F-65 (Seson Of Mist)
14. Pharaoh – Bury The Light (Cruz Del Sur)
15. Jovanotti – Italia 1988-2012 (ATO)
16. Mark Stewart – The Politics Of Envy (Future Noise Music Inc.)
17. Grand Magus – The Hunt (Nuclear Blast)
18. Banastre Tarleton Band – About Face (Banastre Tarleton)
19. Azaelia Banks – 1991 (Interscope EP)
20. Royal Thunder – CVI (Relapse)
21. El Doom & The Born Electric – El Doom & The Born Electric (Rune Grammofon)
22. Timmy’s Organism – Raw Sewage ROQ (In The Red)
23. King Mob – Force 9 (King Mob)
24. Bhi Bhiman – Bhiman (Boocoo Music)
25. Anders Nilsson – Night Guitar (Sound At One)

And even more tentatively and tossed-togetheredly, since I only rarely listen to music in single form anymore, singles-wise:

1. Dev – In My Trunk
2. Dev – Take Her From You
3. Trouble Maker – Trouble Maker
4. Cassie – King Of Hearts
5. D’Banj – Oliver Twist
6. ZZ Top – I Got To Get Paid
7. King Mob – Selene Selene
8. Axe Ripper (formerely Hash Blazer) – Losing Streak
9. El Conjunto Nueva Ola – Chido Chido!
10. Atumpan feat. Stay Jay – Sisimuden
11. Bella Thorne – Ttlyxox
12. Latimore – Cat Got My Tongue
13. The Farm – Home Sweet Home
14. 3 Inches Of Blood – Look Out
15. 3 Inches Of Blood – Metal Woman
16. Sarkodie feat. El – U Go Kill Me
17. The Shrine – Primitive Blast
18. Grand Magus – Valhalla Rising
19. Christian Mistress – Pentagram & Crucifix
20. Toby Keith – Beers Ago
21. Mark Stewart Vs. Primal Scream – Autonomia
22. After School – Rambling Girls
23. Tim McGraw – Better Than I Used to Be
24. David Nail – Sound Of A Million Dreams
25. Black Pyramid – Mercy’s Bane

Re: CHUCK

[(Anonymous)]

A couple notes: (1) If I counted the import version of Dev's album from last year, it would be a lot closer to first place or maybe even in first place; (2) The Feedtime box set on SubPop and Midnight Chaser's late 2011 album would squeeze in somewhere if I counted them, but since I'd heard their music before 2012 I probably won't. (3) Dev's Wiki page lists "Take Her From You" as a 2012 "promotional single," and it's on Rhapsody as a standalone single too, so that's how I'm counting it.

Also, in unrelated news, have you seen this? 12,000+ words I wrote, total, on 50 country songs, from the '20s to the '10s. The headline (which I didn't write) is awful, and the interface may be even worse, and the way Complex broke up some of my paragraphs and randomly changed almost all of my dashes to quotation marks even worse than than that, but I'm still proud of what I did here; best writing I've done in the last year or two, probably:

http://www.complex.com/music/2012/06/50-country-songs-that-dont-suck/

Re: CHUCK

[koganbot]

Hurrah! "Take Her From You" is now going on my list, even if she released the vid back in October. She releases vids more often than I create blogposts, so I probably shouldn't take their release dates so seriously.

I just went to the Complex page and immediately began guffawing at the comments. Reminded myself that 100 is the average IQ.

Re: CHUCK

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

V. glad I managed to vote Dev at #1 last year as import-only!

Re: K-pop albums, via petronia I recommend the United Cube compilation, which has a bunch of stuff that Frank's put on mixes but is a more consistent top-to-bottom K-pop alb than most of the ones I've heard. (I like that K-pop seems to thrive in the EP format; wonder if the same is happening to American pop, except three EP's get jammed together into an album e.g. Nicki Minaj's Roman Reloaded.)

Re: CHUCK

[koganbot]

United Cube is like a Best Of 4minute & HyunA plus a bunch of worse stuff by other people, though I really do need to relisten to B2ST and try to like them. The 4minute and HyunA tracks really are excellent (every one by Shinsadong Tiger; I think many of the B2ST tracks are as well).

I'm totally erratic on whether and when to include compilations and best-ofs on my list. T-ara's Japanese album Jewelry Box is hands-down the best-sounding record of the year: Japanese versions of most of their Korean hits plus two good new tracks. Trouble is I'm rarely going to listen to it since I generally prefer the Korean versions (including the two new tracks, which just turned up in Korean on T-ara's newly released Day By Day EP).

Re: CHUCK

[(Anonymous)]

Also, a horrible year for country albums, as far as I can tell. But if I had to recommend one, commercial Nashville variety anyway, it'd probably be either Lionel Richie's Tuskegee (Universal) or
Kip Moore – Up All Night (MCA Nashville), both of I'd probably put toward the bottom reaches of my Top 40, at this point.

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

I really like that e.via song!

Maybe this is a good place to share T-ara stuff:

http://lobotronic.tumblr.com/post/26389496686/im-finally-getting-around-to-watching-the-movie

She says T-ara "ripped off" this movie for Roly Poly. The scene she's talking about starts with 2:36 left to go in Part 3 (http://www.mysoju.com/korean-movie/sunny-2011/the-movie/group-1/part-3/). It does look like Roly Poly, lol. (Obviously you can't copyright girls dressing up like they are going to a disco in the 80s and shooting it on oversaturated 35mm film or whatever.)

Top 10 Albums

[joshlanghoff.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to think if the Van Halen album replays the themes of adolescent romance. "You and Your Blues" seems pretty grown-up, and it's the best song there.

My singles are, as usual, a derivative mess, but I love Gotye and Carly Rae and "Big Mouth" and "Stupid Hoe" and One Direction. Country seems to suck worse than my singles list. I'll cosign the Lionel Richie with Chuck, and First Aid Kit, two Swedish sisters recorded with retro flair by a Bright Eyes associate, are my favorite semi-country so far. Rascal Flatts album was not bad, which for them is like a masterpiece.

TOP 10:

Wadada Leo Smith - Ten Freedom Summers (Cuneiform)
Four-discs of free jazz (trumpet, piano, bass, two drum kits) but sometimes accessible modal jazz, with modern classical composition, strings savoring dissonances and timpani and whatnot. It’s a monument mostly to the Civil Rights Movement, though there’s also a 9/11 tribute. Song titles include “Thurgood Marshall and Brown vs. Board of Education: A Dream of Equal Education, 1954” and “Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society and the Civil Rights Act of 1964”. As ponderous as it is, I’m endlessly compelled to listen to this thing, and I’m currently making my peace with why that is. Has something to do with your lovely writing about Miles and Cosey a month ago: music as space, reordering that space with minute gestures.

Devin Gray - Dirigo Rataplan (Skirl)
Free jazz but SEXY! because led by the drummer, I think. Some of it sounds like atonal second-line New Orleans strutting.

El Doom & the Born Electric - El Doom & the Born Electric (Rune Grammofon)
Indie prog metal recommended by Chuck; need to listen more and I’ll have more to say but sounds GOOD.

Ja Rule - PIL2 (MPire/700 Hit Season)
Murky and weird, full of blasphemous meditations on fame and how it sucks, and I’m not sure whether he thinks he’s still famous. Beautifully clear-voiced hook singers, one of from Dirty Money, but Mr. Rule hides his words a lot. His big dumb sex song “Black Vodka” could’ve been a hit 10 years ago, but now you can barely understand what he’s saying, which is even sexier.

Wiley - Evolve Or Be Extinct (Big Dada)
Review: http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/155754-wiley-evolve-or-be-extinct/
Big tour de force of varied production and fast rapping.

Yo Gotti - Live From the Kitchen (RCA)
Highly seductive orientation to the drug trade, I think. (If not, then what I just wrote is racist.) I need to get back to it. But smooth like Jeezy.

PO PO - Dope Boy Magick (Mad Decent) (indie)
Weird all mixed up indie rock on Diplo’s label, with stark sounds battering against nostalgic heartrending sounds and doped-out Marshall Crenshaw impersonator wafting over everything.

Van Halen - A Different Kind of Truth (Interscope)
Maybe Chuck can comment on whether their rhythm section has ever sounded so good. Little Wolfgang is playing bass now, and where I could once listen to them just for the guitar solos, now they’re worth listening to for the rhythm section. But there are some great songs, too. “You and Your Blues” is my favorite.

Skrillex - Bangarang (Owsla/Big Beat/Atlantic)
I don’t get why nobody likes this guy. Reminds me of Chemical Brothers big beat stuff.

Batida - Batida (Soundway)
Like Buraka Som Sistema, only with pretty Afro-pop samples and more rapping.

Re: Top 10 Albums

[(Anonymous)]

Ha -- I thought "You and Your Blues" was the most unbearable song on Van Halen's album (see Spin link below), and in general I'd say the rhythm is clunkier than on most if not all of those early Roth albums -- if I had to pick one for groove alone, I'd probably go with *Women And Children First,* maybe *Fair Warning*.

http://www.spin.com/articles/fair-warning-best-and-worst-moments-van-halens-7-david-lee-roth-records

Wrote this album review for emusic too:

http://www.emusic.com/listen/#/music-news/review/album/van-halen-a-different-kind-of-truth/:

Albums I've liked more than any main Nashville lake ones this year that I'd probably count as country tributaries or backwaters, at least when Nashville Scene poll time comes: Elfin Saddle, Bhi Bhiman, Blackberry Smoke, Turnpike Troubadors.

2012 so far

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

1. Norah Jones - Little Broken Hearts
2. School of Seven Bells - Ghostory
3. V/A - United Cube
4. Justin Bieber - Believe
5. Sleigh Bells - Reign of Terror
6. Lana Del Rey - Born to Die
7. Daughn Gibson - All Hell
8. Neil Young and Crazy Horse - Americana
9. Nicki Minaj - Roman Reloaded
10. Santigold - Master of My Make Believe
11. Busdriver - Beaus$eros
12. Escort - s/t
13. Prinzhorn Dance School - Clay Class
14. Ani DiFranco - Which Side Are You On?
15. Carolina Chocolate Drops - Leaving Eden

Songs I haven't kept track of, usually figure them out at the end of the year by making a few mixes.

[christophe andersen (from livejournal.com)]

What models are there for her in popular music? Who has taken this journey recently, with artistry enriched and an audience that hasn't evaporated?

I really can't think of anyone since Justin Timberlake. With Justin, though, it was mostly just him being more overtly sexy to indicate a more adult record, the same as what all the other teen stars try to do. His being a decent songwriter probably helped too.

Generally I think it would be much better for teen stars to just be happy with their brief time as teen stars and then move forward doing whatever work they want, hopefully still in music but not necessarily in the same genres or styles. Just forget about retaining your former audience and get a new one.

I'm trying to think of a good example for this and only Robyn comes to mind. In TV and film, I'm thinking of Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Of the current batch of singers, I think Taylor Swift has a great shot at making the transition and keeping much of her audience and winning over current skeptics as her songwriting continues to grow. I also hold out hope for future work from the Aly & AJ sisters, whether together or separately.

Josh also recommends The Very Best

[(Anonymous)]

Frank, here's something else you might like. Malawian singer with Swedish producer, big joyful dance music with lots of noise, K'Naan guests on a song that Bruno Mars cowrote (a lot of it reminds me of K'Naan, though with less English storytelling), their debut finished #63 in Pazz/Jop '09 (I haven't heard it), and it's streaming at NPR alongside Ann Powers's review until it gets released on Tuesday. I'll have better things to say after I review it.

http://www.npr.org/2012/07/08/155724115/first-listen-the-very-best-mtmtmk