Quick K-pop December 2013 Pt. 1

[koganbot]

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.

Watch on YouTube

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.

Watch on YouTube

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.]

Comments

[davidfrazer.livejournal.com]

There's a manga (and anime) called Peach Girl, which must be where the name came from. I learned this by seeing videos the anime show up as related links on YouTube. :)

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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[koganbot]

I don't know. I think they could be trying harder:

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Have they released anything other than "Candy Boy"?

[davidfrazer.livejournal.com]

I don't think TREN-D have released anything else yet, but they've performed another song at events.

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[davidfrazer.livejournal.com]

By the way, TREN-D have fanchants now.

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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.

[askbask.livejournal.com]

There are quite a few Norwegian producers, writers working with kpop outside of dsign, though they often show up as just individuals, often work with other Europeans, and not as a team like dsign. As a long time BoA fan it was only this year I realized a Norwegian made her most enduring Korean hit 'No.1', so the Scandi-tradition goes way back with SM.

[koganbot]

Who did write "No. 1"? Wikip isn't revealing this information, and I'm not finding it via the Korean Copyright Association (perhaps it's listed under a Romanized transliteration rather than "No. 1").

[askbask.livejournal.com]

This man http://www.ziggymusic.com/