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What does not chill me makes me stronger (Z.Hera, Baek Ji Young, BoA)
Z.Hera "Peacock": Dance-pop from a writer who seems to have studied études and preludes, featuring a rookie singer who puts strain in her upper register in a way that's heart-tuggingly passionate, like the best of the '80s. She's got something, as does whoever wrote and produced the song, even if it's getting nowhere on the charts.
It would help if the visual concept were more than just "I'm young, I'm fresh, and I dance pretty well." In the video she's a caged bird who escapes her garret into a land of balloons and Swiss roofs and soap bubbles. The lyrics (English version here) are about never giving up in the face of adversity or a love object's indifference ("Nobody close, I'm feeling lonely, bitter cold/Only thought it makes me stronger"). Then she steps through her wardrobe into a tinseltown freeze, but she's feeling fire, and her energy never flags.
Live on Mcountdown, she hits both her marks and her notes:
Can't find definitive info regarding her label, but she seems to be contracted directly to CJ E&M rather than one of their Mnet subsidiaries. I didn't know they had their own singers.
Baek Ji Young "떠올라": Baek Ji Young has been doing well recently with ballads of dripping emotion, no droplet or gusher held back, one of the few ballad singers to reach me consistently. But she has an easy touch on dance tracks, into which she inserts pangs and power, also reaching me.
She's got a long résumé, and had to overcome vicious and detestable slut-shaming, like what was done to Paris Hilton but in a country where capitalizing on notoriety isn't really an option, at least where she was situated in the biz 13 years ago. In any event, I'm looking forward to exploring the back catalog: according to Wikip she started off with Latin-flavored dance tracks.
BoA: BoA is an astonishingly fluid dancer, my favorite in the world. In comparison, her voice often seems locked-in. But her nasal soundpack is just right for the OST ballad "Between Heaven And Hell": restraint, clear line on the melody, dignified little quavers.
It would help if the visual concept were more than just "I'm young, I'm fresh, and I dance pretty well." In the video she's a caged bird who escapes her garret into a land of balloons and Swiss roofs and soap bubbles. The lyrics (English version here) are about never giving up in the face of adversity or a love object's indifference ("Nobody close, I'm feeling lonely, bitter cold/Only thought it makes me stronger"). Then she steps through her wardrobe into a tinseltown freeze, but she's feeling fire, and her energy never flags.
Live on Mcountdown, she hits both her marks and her notes:
Can't find definitive info regarding her label, but she seems to be contracted directly to CJ E&M rather than one of their Mnet subsidiaries. I didn't know they had their own singers.
Baek Ji Young "떠올라": Baek Ji Young has been doing well recently with ballads of dripping emotion, no droplet or gusher held back, one of the few ballad singers to reach me consistently. But she has an easy touch on dance tracks, into which she inserts pangs and power, also reaching me.
She's got a long résumé, and had to overcome vicious and detestable slut-shaming, like what was done to Paris Hilton but in a country where capitalizing on notoriety isn't really an option, at least where she was situated in the biz 13 years ago. In any event, I'm looking forward to exploring the back catalog: according to Wikip she started off with Latin-flavored dance tracks.
BoA: BoA is an astonishingly fluid dancer, my favorite in the world. In comparison, her voice often seems locked-in. But her nasal soundpack is just right for the OST ballad "Between Heaven And Hell": restraint, clear line on the melody, dignified little quavers.
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Meanwhile, in tierless nocturnal critter news, Chocolat's comeback will apparently be on the 6th June.
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On the subject of 1980s pastiche pop, Tommy february6, who
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I'll post the embed code here and see if it works. Anyway, it's a synthpop track with snatches of Middle Eastern style strings and vocals.
Also relevant would be the very Stock Aitken Waterman-ish 17 sai from the same year.
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Tia-ful creatures of the night emerge fleetingly into daylight
Today Tia co-hosted After School Club on Arirang World (an international, English language Korean channel) and Chocolat got an opportunity to perform their new song Black Tinkerbell...for just over a minute. Their very brief appearance starts at about 5:33.
(I was going to embed the video, but it didn't appear in the preview.)
Melanie was feeling sick yesterday and got put on an IV, which probably explains why she's wearing a cardigan.
I can't say much about the song except that it's a mid-tempo R&B-ish thingy. I'll leave it up to others to detect any freestyle influences. :)
Re: Tia-ful creatures of the night emerge fleetingly into daylight
http://youtu.be/1iUasvid3lQ?t=5m34s
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The release date is now the 11th rather than the 14th.
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Incidentally, today is Soa's birthday.
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I liked this comment from tbe Popjustice forum:
The B-side is called All Night Long. It's a hip-hoppish R&B-ish song with a rap break by a male rapper, and I'm going to stick my neck out and suggest that the brass riffs sound freestyle-ish. :)
Jaeyoon's voice can reputedly be heard on All Night Long, which would mean that it's sat on the shelf for a few years. It would also mean that the "where's Jaeyoon?" and "omg I heard she had cancer!" comments on YouTube videos will never, ever end.
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Contains little the teasers hadn't prepared us for.
Think I'll go give it its own post, even though as I've yet I've not much to say.
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Of course on other songs she found a mode she'd prove to be more comfortable with in her rookie years.
None of the songs on her Korean debut sound like the Hera track - you have to go her Japanese singles for that.
Talk about hitting her notes! Not sure what the BoA song is that made me immediately think her upon hearing Peacock - it's probably a mix of many of them.
I don't want to be a gonner