Frank Kogan

Second year running I've entitled a post "After School's Good Year." Last time, I was urging myself to get to know the group better, find out who writes the songs,* who makes the decisions, what's going on with After School's images and "concepts," whether or not personalities are spotlighted and what the personalities are, what After School's overall musical arc is, if any. Yet I've done almost none of this. Still haven't learned all their names, even. "Heaven" is just the latest in a steady stream of interesting music: it's got a riff in James Brown's mid '70s style, when James was taking in what he'd heard from Africans who'd learned from him but were stretching out even farther than he had; so James began stretching more too while not losing the obsessive tenseness he got by jamming the funk into single measures.** But "Heaven" basically flees the James Brown challenge,*** avoids the ongoing demand of the riff by simply stopping the riff and replacing it with a disco quasi-funk, going from tense to relaxed, and atop the relaxation orchestral riffs arise and After School go into their sumptuous mood (whereas James Brown riffs never allow for something to simply arise above them). Then the riff returns as a challenge, and is left behind once again.

(Um. Might the riff be a sample? It feels familiar.)

Watch on YouTube

( footnotes )

SINGLES:
1. Crayon Pop "Bar Bar Bar"
2. Baauer "Harlem Shake"
3. Gaeko & Choiza & Simon D & Primary "난리good!!! (AIR)"
4. GLAM "I Like That"
5. MBLAQ "Smoky Girl."
6. will.i.am ft. Britney Spears "Scream & Shout"
7. Evol "Get Up"
8. Cassie ft. Rick Ross "Numb"
9. Tiny-G "Minimanimo"
10. Qri "Do We Do We"



( 11 (Z.Hera) through 30 (Baek Ji Young) )
( 31 (T-ara) through 63 (Busy Signal) )

ALBUMS:
1. After School First Love EP (Pledis Entertainment)



2. Orange Caramel Orange Caramel (Avex)
3. D-Unit Affirmative Chapter.1 EP (D-Business Entertainment/Windmill Media)
4. Kitty D.A.I.S.Y. rage (self-released)
5. Cassie RockaByeBaby (self-released)
6. Sturgill Simpson High Top Mountain (High Top Mountain/Relativity)
7. will.i.am #willpower Deluxe Edition (will.i.am/Interscope)
8. Delight Mega Yak EP (BrosMedia Entertainment)
9. Kate Nash Girl Talk (Have 10p Records)
10. Ashley Monroe Like A Rose (Warner Brothers Nashville)
( 11 (Tom Keifer) through 17 (Kacey Musgraves) )

( SNSD and EXO )

Not sure if any themes are developing in this year's list. I've got some Korean hip-hop "as such" at 1 and 13 ("as such" as opposed to K-pop that employs hip-hop, though the latter is usually way better and is also on my list, D-Unit's "Stay Alive" being especially rappy). In general, "real" Korean hip-hop is either too dogged and serious or too jokey. (Is it not peculiar that if I were to describe a human being (e.g., myself) as dogged and serious it would be a compliment, and "tells jokes" would often be a positive attribute as well; but sounding dogged and serious in song is generally negative, as is coming off as a joke act?) I've been listening to the back catalog of Gaeko's group Dynamic Duo, who are inventive and all that but, you know, dogged and serious. Unfortunately, at the moment my analytic and adjectival wellsprings are producing nothing to help describe any of this. I'm not saying I dislike Dynamic Duo; last year's 6th Digilog 2/2 gets a definite head nod from me. But nothing on it immediately arrests my attention like the first five seconds of "난리good!!!" with its combination of severity and flamboyance. Wise of Gaeko to grab onto the electronic dance. Of course, hip-hop's often willing to grab.

1. Gaeko & Choiza & Simon D & Primary "난리good!!! (AIR)"
2. GLAM "I Like That"
3. Baauer "Harlem Shake"
4. Margaret Berger "I Feed You My Love"
5. will.i.am ft. Britney Spears "Scream & Shout"
6. G-Dragon ft. Jenova "Crayon (Lam Suet Remix)"
7. Sistar19 "Gone Not Around Any Longer"
8. Kate Nash "Death Proof (CSS Remix)"
9. 2YOON "24/7"
10. Tiny-G "Minimanimo"
11. D-Unit ft. Vasco "Stay Alive"
12. Yelle "L'Amour Parfait"
13. Gaeko "Rhythm Is Life"
14. Baek Ji Young "I Hate It"
15. D-Unit ft. Zico "Talk To My Face"
16. GLAM "In Front Of The Mirror"
17. SHINee "Dream Girl"
18. A$AP Rocky ft. 2 Chainz, Drake, Kendrick Lamar "Fuckin' Problems"
19. MYNAME "Just That Little Thing"
20. Miranda Lambert "Mama's Broken Heart"
21. Baek Ji Young "Acacia"

The following albums are fairly listenable:

1. D-Unit Affirmative Chapter.1 (D-Business Entertainment/Windmill Media)
2. The Cataracs Loud Xmas EP (Universal Republic)
3. Ashley Monroe Like A Rose (Warner Brothers Nashville)

( Gone Not Around Any Longer )