Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Sorry about the layoff in covering anything music related, as I took some time off with the Olympics break and all that. Anyway, I thought I was gonna come back to having missed a ton of stuff but … not really?
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KARA – “I Do I Do”
A solid summery song that’s eminently listenable but doesn’t really standout until the very end aside from the fact that it’s by KARA. Enough for fans to enjoy, but not up to “When I Move”, much less their past mega-hits.
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JEON SOMI – “Ice Cream”
Certainly one of the songs of all time, but I have to say that the brass instrumental is nowhere near interesting enough for it to go on and on like that post-chorus, lol.
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UNIS – “Curious”
Actually love the production here as it keeps pumping throughout and has a nice rock edge to it. That said, it sorta peaks in the intro, partially because it’s just absolutely not a fit for UNIS (who have no edge to them) and there’s not much of a melody in the chorus. There’s even a bizarre amount of dead air around the post-chorus for no reason.
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LIGHTSUM – “POSE!”
Even NewJeans are struggling to make impactful easy-listening tracks now, so the generic off-shoots don’t really have a chance.
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HYOLYN – “Wait”
This feels almost a bit late in terms of it being made for Waterbomb, and feels like a facsimile of other trend Afrobeat tracks, but the “wait” hook pales in comparison to the best from that genre.
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Fromis 9 – “Supersonic”
The girls have never looked better and the underpinning of Ghost Town DJ‘s “My Boo” gives it an above-average floor at worst (much like TWICE’s “Moonlight Sunrise”). However, the more I listened to it, the more the “super super, supersonic, supersonic” part of the chorus feels like a downshifting momentum killer and it got a bit repetitive. Still, I can see the appeal, I just think for them it’s probably not one of their strongest.
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KARD – “Tell My Momma”
I loved KARD‘s initial concept and music, and even though their next phase didn’t appeal to me, I understood it since it was performance-oriented stuff that they could use on tours. However, I dunno what this is, man.
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LUN8 – “WHIP”
I thought “Super Power” was a bit underrated considering it executed the ongoing trend nicely, but this was just a bit flat and forgettable for me.
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Maybe Fromis 9 will find its way to a playlist? But that’s honestly about it for me.
