PEDANTIALAND: 2020

After the emotional ups and downs of 2020, where a new dumpster fire seemed to erupt every week, trying to appreciating the small wins in life means that taking a walk around the neighborhood starts to feel like going to Disneyland. While gratitude and nostalgia shaped my 2020 Kpop Countdown list in a spirit of inclusiveness, the best songs truly nailed or created something new from their references. Any sense of normality seems like a gift these days and there were a lot of great songs to embrace.

+overall competent, albeit mostly safe, kpop compositions with broad variety of window dressing, including:

+recycling of hit elements established by Korea's biggest acts over the last decade from YG, SM, JYP...

+the retro/"newtro" of cheery disco, 80's, and 90's soundscapes

+well established EDM/trap honey pots

+ethnic and even "Old Town Road"-style country inflected mashups

PICKS OF THE YEAR

TXT (Tomorrow X Together) - "Blue Hour"

Prime track, "Blue Hour", came from maknae Big Hit group out-shining BTS's Dynamite and all the other groups that played the disco-pop card in 2020 including SF9 b-side "Into the Night".

Baekhyun - "R U Ridin'?"

"R U..." pause "Ridin?"

Baekyhun's unique timbre gets the perfect solo vehicle in his groovy distillation of EXO's best r&b mood. Album, Delight, begins with effervescent "Candy" and cumulates into a modest but wholly satisfying example of SM craftsmanship. One of the best albums of the year.

Crush - "Ohio"

Crush at his Crushiest. I can't love this more.

Zico-Any Song

Soundtrack of the aimless ennui we've all been enduring and the doldrums we've yet to conquer. "Idle Idle" by swja is more languid selfcare pick.

Husky voiced indie darling, guitar wunderkind, and songwriter So Se Neon with wistful solo Nan Chun and a touching duet featuring Phum Viphurit in "Wings".

Kim Sung Kyu - Inside Me

I didn't realize how much I missed Infinite until I heard Sungkyu on his new release "I'm Cold". Paired with expansive trap beats, modern production, and surprising composition (see, "Divin'") the EP is a welcome tweak to the widening pallete available to a post-military idol soloist. For once, the material allows him to use his whole range, from the sort of chocolaty lower register and fluttery mid range vibrato, to the searing highs that characterized Infinite's sound. The mix places his voice fully center, so the listener experiences the emotional totality within each inflection of throbby despair or heartpiercing cry. "Fade" shades BTS's "One More Day" to minor key longing, while the vaguely oriental instrumentation and dynamic songwriting in "Room" evokes the moving Chinese ballads from Sally Yeh, Sandy Lam or Jackie Cheung in the 80s and 90's. Truly lovely.

G Friend - "Apple"

Apple" stood from the crowded girl group offerings with a sultry sonic makeover and ethereal mood.

Everglow - La Di Da

The 80's electro lineage makes copious appearances in singles from StayC's "So Bad", Twice's "I Can't Stop Me", Sunmi's "Pporipipam", and Loona's "Star", but none of these are near as transcendent as "La Di Da". Rife with blink-and-you'll-miss-it references to Britney's Toxic, a dash of Rihanna and a Daft Punk/French house breakdown, the sophisticated arrangement and relentlessly aerobic beats drive a plastic, arpeggiated, snake charmer hook into a whole much bolder than the individual parts. "La Di Da" totally transforms the tepid simmer of synthwave with boiling over k-diva attitude.

Yukika - Neon

In severe contrast but no less ambitious homage, Yukika's "Neon" hews towards the optimistic and mellow aesthetic of 80's Japan. Though not the first to re-cover the fertile ground of city pop and idol music, Yukika's vocals comes closest to the humble sweetness of the era. An easy listening and romantic album, the eponymous video for Soul Lady invokes Macross lensflares and Lynn Minmay styling over moody cityscapes.

If you live under a rock, see also: Tatsuro Yamashita album, For You, and song "Jody", anything by Kirinji (including Takeshi Fujii's "Watashi no Aoi Sora"), or just for shiggles, Daft Punk's "Something About Us".

Apink - Dumhdurum

If "La Di Da" exceeds the matchpoint of a particular trajectory, "Dumhdurumm" deftly sidesteps logical endpoints. That first blush of disco is a little too cold. The touch of italo bounces a bit too much. A tick of Bangalter bass and tantalizing hint of moody vocals never quite materializes into posh late-90's house, instead, the melody develops into a song without brass or chirpiness. Trance synths, surprisingly accented with trap snares, dominate as discrete chords and operate as chorus in the forefront rather than hypeline. With all the references used just slightly out of context in the larger framework of synthpop, "Dumhdurum" performs the magic trick of feeling both familiar as well as placeless, and singularly out of time rather than simply timely.

MCND - "Ice Age"

"Oh, It's cold.... Make it snow."

Echoes of "Moments In Love" ping pong briefly amidst a chunky beat in MCND's "Ice Age", with a rain of handclaps building up a to a pop-pretty prechorus that promptly collapses into chilly shards of tik tok syncopation and rave mentasm. Also Note: Charming rookie rap track "Top Gang".

The Boyz - "Salty"

The Boyz had a strong year with both The Stealer and Reveal, but b-side "Salty" stole the spot by incorporating unusual melodic toplines and uncommon synth chord progression with electric guitar squeals to elevate this funky-break, two step pleaser into something bittersweet and haunting.

Mino (ft. Zion T) - "Wa"

Piano reverie and trap minimalism unfurl slowly into an epic film score as the emotional stakes rise on "Wa". The album, Take, emotes more exuberance than discipline at times, but the sizzurpy beats and loosey goosey ruminations add up to a luminous listen.

As a big fan of the Planetarium Records vocal crew from 2018's delightful Hocus Pocus, the R&B bossa collaboration for Beautiful was a welcome reappearance of June's swaggy warble and Moti's sensual rasp. However it was Gaho, with his super smooth and precise vocal agility, who really took the spotlight in a range of solo ballads and rock inflected tracks this year. These are properly appreciated through live performances: "Start Over", an OST from Itaewon Class (great drama to Netflix), "Song for You", or even his rendition of Black Pink's "How You Like That".

Another not-to-miss live performance is a cover of "Bad Boy" from newbie band Lucy, whose "Jogging" single is yet another charming but not wholly emulative tribute to the sweet vocal style and gentle folk rock energy of Asia's yesteryears.

Woo Feat. Tiger JK & 김아일 - "JOB"
I love the sheer aural audacity of chewy chewy lyricism in my rap. Over a super minimal, slowed down, Hyphy beast of a beat, Tiger JK basically serves up extra large gummy bears with a dash of Doggfather swagger, and Woo Won Jae conversationally cusses out the posers and haters on a verse that rolls off his tongue with casual vitriol. Chewy. See Also: Finely textured and cohesive album.

BTS - "Life Goes On"

Be may be the most cohesive BTS album thus far, a soothing delivery vehicle for star rider "Dynamite". But while western charts enjoyed tailormade pandering, "Life Goes On" conveyed the bittersweet mood and the healing songwriting that touches hearts in Korea. Melancholy melt into remembrances of better days through delicate infusions of harmonies. "I remember, I remember" is answered by heavenly echoes, both a promise of unifying hope and bittersweet acknowledgement that for some, the reunion might be in the afterlife.

See also: "Ugh!", a rap showcase hearkening to the group's roots, and "I'm On It" from Hyundai's Korean commercial. Earlier this year, we replaced our old Subaru with a used Hyundai Veloster - nothing to do with the Ioniq release or Kai's epic promotional partnership in any way. I swear.

I'm having a hard time picking a G-Idle favorite between lyrically subversive "Lion", where my girl, Soyeon, shreds her first verse like talons, and "Oh My God", where her title exhortation at the top of the reverse drop plummets through the chorus like treasure down a deep well.

Monsta X - Fantasia

Every year there is one song that is so over the top, I can't tell if it is good or bad.

"FANta...seee...ya"

NCT 127 - Kick It (Valentino Khan Remix)

Ok... So every year there are one or maybe two songs that are so over the top, I can't tell if they are good or bad. NCT's mess of groupings and myriad releases were more a retrospective of SM than a rival for the conceptual highs of Exo's preceding, very cohesive albums. Shifting tonally from one preoccupation to another, the NCT singles followed a template of mashup maximalism and/or easter eggs cartons of references such as "90's Love". However, we miss the riskier promise of "7th Sense", "Firetruck", "Baby Don't Stop", et al., avenues we implore SM to resurrect.

WJSN (Cosmic Girls) - "Pantomime"

My usual blathering about prog pop arrangement, sophisticated songwriting, and the benefits of group harmonics is getting a tad tedious, so I'm going to take a shortcut with ReacttotheK's take on the matter instead. If you haven't already, listen to these classical pros-in-training wax nerdy about music theory in Korean pop and be validated on your artistic choices in life.