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Quick K-pop December 2013 Pt. 1
Quick opinions:
SNSD Love & Peace. Japanese, Scandinavian, consistently tuneful, not trying to overpower us with muscle and rhythm.
[EDIT: Video no longer available and I don't remember what it was that I embedded. Might have been "Love&Girls" but it could've been any of the others from Love & Peace. Sorry.]
Tymee "On The River." Strong, harsh, and plaintive at once, is the hurt, pummeled, and scarred Tymee. She's been doing this since her sad "Diary" days, but it was usually a sideshow to the artplay and to her being the fast sprite and melody-flinging cut-up. A lot of that's on hiatus since the name change: instead, she's been aggressive and angry; now she's knocked back in pain.
T.O.P "Doom Dada." Beats dig into the dark desert to match T.O.P's rasp, which sounds quite amused by all the dust.
Also: good album from Vixx, dull album from Myname, very good "Lonely Christmas" from Crayon Pop, T-ara's "Hide 'N' Seek" not as good as Miss A's "Hide & Sick," Nine Muses' "Glue" not as good as Nine Muses' "Gun," 2013 Flashe single not nearly as good as 2012 Flashe single but I'm glad they're still in business and that strong-voiced Songhee is still singing, disappointing single ("It's You") from D-Unit after a very good year, disappointing single from Super Junior ("Blue World"/"Candy"), third set of the year from SHINee (Everybody) not as good as first two.
[EDIT: Again, video's been taken down from YouTube and I can't tell from what I wrote here which one I embedded.]
SNSD Love & Peace. Japanese, Scandinavian, consistently tuneful, not trying to overpower us with muscle and rhythm.
[EDIT: Video no longer available and I don't remember what it was that I embedded. Might have been "Love&Girls" but it could've been any of the others from Love & Peace. Sorry.]
Tymee "On The River." Strong, harsh, and plaintive at once, is the hurt, pummeled, and scarred Tymee. She's been doing this since her sad "Diary" days, but it was usually a sideshow to the artplay and to her being the fast sprite and melody-flinging cut-up. A lot of that's on hiatus since the name change: instead, she's been aggressive and angry; now she's knocked back in pain.
T.O.P "Doom Dada." Beats dig into the dark desert to match T.O.P's rasp, which sounds quite amused by all the dust.
Also: good album from Vixx, dull album from Myname, very good "Lonely Christmas" from Crayon Pop, T-ara's "Hide 'N' Seek" not as good as Miss A's "Hide & Sick," Nine Muses' "Glue" not as good as Nine Muses' "Gun," 2013 Flashe single not nearly as good as 2012 Flashe single but I'm glad they're still in business and that strong-voiced Songhee is still singing, disappointing single ("It's You") from D-Unit after a very good year, disappointing single from Super Junior ("Blue World"/"Candy"), third set of the year from SHINee (Everybody) not as good as first two.
[EDIT: Again, video's been taken down from YouTube and I can't tell from what I wrote here which one I embedded.]
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I doubt that any observer will think Peach Girl's girly and cutesy image should automatically prevent them from being a serious competitor in the K-pop industry, especially if the observer manages, as I did, to misread "tutu skirts" as "tofu skirts." If there's anything that signifies commercial potential, it's tofu skirts.
The tune does seem to have a Japanese brightness to it. Was it composed in Norway?
What strikes me, though, is that the singing adds no extra girliness or cuteness to the sound; there's a directness and fullness to their timbre. Reminds me of T-ara, who are straightforward no matter what material they're attempting. This directness of course doesn't mean that Peach Girl are likely to be as successful as T-ara, or successful at all. Few acts are, no matter what the talent or approach. Also, I like this song but it isn't as immediately catchy as many singles by T-ara, and isn't quite going for catchiness, no matter the clothing.
By the way, last year there was a pretty good '80sish dance K-pop track called "Peach Girl," by someone named A.Y.
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I've no idea who composed "Fox Fur Muffler". Doesn't seem to be the only Norwegian Scandi-K-Pop producers I'm aware of.
By the way, Hwayoung has signed with an agency and is relaunching herself as an actress.
And here's a video of TREN-D introducing themselves with silly walks.
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Have they released anything other than "Candy Boy"?
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Not up to the standards of the Pop-jusshi chorus yet, though. I think (but perhaps I'm just imagining it) the members' real names are in there somewhere.
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Tutu Pop!
Crayon Pop at the KBS Song Festival today (Friday).
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Incidentally, there's a new fruit-themed girlgroup called Berry Good. Their debut Love Letter is a cover of a hip-hop-ish rock-ish song by early 2000s boyband Click-B.
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But speaking of groups that are more popular in Japan, recently I like this Japanese single from UKISS:
http://vimeo.com/80620248
Composed by group member AJ, who also did "Party All the Time". I really wonder why their company doesn't use him more for their Korean singles (as much as I like Brave Brothers, he really has a tendency to phone-it-in on the projects he's not interested in <-- speculation).
There's been a lot of good stuff out recently, actually. I made a playlist (http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsh4Z5FNfPMCkW2DmvX2DXdpN-X2UlTDp&feature=mh_lolz) two weeks ago and there's already a whole bunch of stuff I want to add, like Crayon Pop's Christmas song, and MIB's new song, and the Seo In Guk/Zia duet song, and Junhyun's Flower.
Also you might like Oh My God (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vOTeiGUycY), since you liked Z.hera.
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I do hear NC.A's similarity to Z.Hera. And thanks for the playlist. I've been falling way behind in my listening.
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NP, though most of the songs on that playlist are from the Kpop thread on ILX.
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