Kpop Countdown 2022
By Lionina - 10:37 PM
I prioritized travel and uw photography at the beginning of this year, and never got around to posting my yearly kpop list! Here it is now without revision, but with some hindsight commentary.
Le Sserafim - "Antifragile"
Reggaeton gets the kpop treatment with a sea sawing hook (after another hook), stuttering into a bad bitch anthem. The choreo is fire.
"AnTi T T T. Fragile. Fragile"
Also check out: "Impurities"
StayC - "Run2U"
StayC is the logical evolution of the muscial legacy that includes Twice - catchy, girly but not overly saccharine, often big and exuberant, always bright and pure, pop with memorable, thoughtful twists. There a lot of groups that follow this trajectory, withmuch less sophisticated results.
Also check out: "Beautiful Monster", "Same Same", "Poppy"
New Jeans - New Jeans EP
New Jeans dropped an unprecedented NON-STOP string of releases that fully embraced unpretentiously throwback pop - structurally modest but sonically interesting, nostalgic 90's styling washed through the digital age, youthful and accessible. Wholly effortless and intimate - two words that don't typically describe the big/brash/pomo world of kpop. StayC might have felt like the crest of that decade long Halyu wave, but New Jeans virtually wiped the kpop sonic slate clean, like the refreshing morning after a storm. There is no bad New Jeans song thus far (and into 2023 with "OMG").
"Attention"
JT "Senorita" vibes
"Hype Boy"
Check out: "Ditto" Which is basically Citypop mixed with Jersey Club a la reverb. If you don't believe me, mix the vocals with Tatakai no Ketsui (Side A Track 3 of Go for Break, the film score album for 80's japanese film V.Madonna) at 120 bpm and check out the chord changes.
Seulgi - "28 Reasons"
A cavernous space where weeping violins meet DBSK style vocal phrasing, and light knifes through the drowning darkness.
"I kiss your brother..."
NCT 127 - "Time Lapse"
That digital bloop bleep is a notification sound for out of control confusion windmilling down a wonky downtempo cliff of broken relationship uncertainy and sultry yearning.
"Can we fix it,? Baby can we fix it or face it?"
OnlyOneOf - "Ultimate Bliss"
An arpeggiated siren song of thready piano over sounding depth bass, at slow-jam slow-burn mode. Between glissandos of temptation and the repetitive lull of the chorus, an extended temporal glitch that fulminates into an assertion of dominance... "come, Come, COME, COME WITH ME." Edging that "Ultimate Bliss"
NCT Dream - "Glitch Mode"
Bubbly arcade robot stricken with a fatal error stands in as apt songwriting metaphor for an inability to deal with overwhelming adolescent feels.
Stray Kids - "Case 143"
Appreciate all the Stray Kids flourish - goofy antics, sonic hijincks, and hard carry energy - on what is essentially an anti-confessional for a guy trying to stay cool at love, yet failing miserably.
Treasure - "Darari", "Darari (Remix)"
Released in two flavors, apropos to the times and your mood. First, a sweetly simple and earnest, root beer float confessional. Second, a bold high energy pop punk with straighforward joy. Both infectious.
Taeyong & Wonstein - "Love Theory"
Lyrics fit awkwardly within this plinky song like a mouth full of marbles. Equally awkward, the sax-y but decidedly unsexy bridge. All part of the hapless charm.
Xiumin - "Brand New"
An enormous Atlanta Bass banger, threatens and pivots adroitly into a perfectly balanced yet rather delicately mussed 2-step bop with deeply satisfying ad libs.
Kihyun - "Youth"
Refreshing pop rock by the powerhouse vocal fairy of Monsta X.
Victon - "Virus", "Stay", "Stupid O'Clock"
Nothing groundbreaking here, just well-executed versions of formulas we know and love.
Max Changmin - "Alien"
Max is stretching his chops all over this highly uneven album, and then there's "Alien", smack dab in Tommy Bahama just left an island full of steel drums for a Vegas lounge vibes, ending in a dubby, as in dubstep, breakdown that brings it all full circle.
"Oooh G Luuuva"
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