Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
There’s actually a couple interesting and listenable releases in here and also a bunch of shit.
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PIXY – “Villain”
A lot like aespa‘s “Next Level” and LE SSERAFIM‘s “FEARLESS” in a way, though both of those were uninterestingly monotonous to me. Effectively, it’s a kind of track that relies a ton on K-pop being a visual medium, focusing more on looking cool and giving off a cool vibe than actually making it cool to listen to. Not the direction I was hoping for from them, but hey, it’s the trend and there’s obviously a market for it.
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DAWN – “Stupid Cool”
I support what him and HyunA stand for in an industry almost creepily averse to being honest about idols not being asexual virgins, but what in the fuck is that brass section.
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SUPERKIND – “WATCH OUT”
This actually makes me appreciate other fourth generation boy group releases in the same sound because this is as lifeless as I’ve heard the trendy sound. Brutal debut.
At least there were jokes for the AI member.
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Lapillus – “HIT YA!”
I actually kind of like this for what it is, but it’s more like scoring a dance number for a studio than a pop single.
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Kep1er – “Up!”
An interesting and fresh instrumental can’t resist going trendy by dropping said instrumental out and including trap elements even though the group isn’t the type that can carry a vibe like that with their rapping/vocals alone. Bizarre choice. Disjointed in an off-putting way and the melody of the chorus that tries to tie it together is far too generic for that to work.
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Youngjae (GOT7) – “SUGAR”
Missing a quality central melody in the chorus to push this into excellent territory but it’s easily the best non-Jackson Wang GOT7 solo effort that I’ve heard.
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TAN – “LOUDER”
Again, I don’t think I’m wrong. They just gave up on trying to make choruses. Like everything about this is fine and then the instrumental drop that’s just boring as shit.
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Kang So Yeon – “Loca Loca”
Guess there’s a reason people like her because of her Singles Inferno stint and not her past as an idol.
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The Boyz – “Sweet”
I’ve disliked enough The Boyz releases in a row by now where fans usually start whining to me that I’m an anti or something. But I truly have no feelings on them, it’s just their music hasn’t hit in a while. I’m sorry, man.
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KARD – “Ring The Alarm”
I was actually very optimistic about this because while I see a lot of comments around here hating on trop house stuff, I actually enjoyed that era just fine. This seemed like they were going to throwback to that, and I really do enjoy it more than most that’s been released this year, but it doesn’t quite hit on either the instrumental strengths or melodies of their best work.
