Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Due to me missing out on a lot of releases due to being busy with my actual job and the MLB trade deadline, there’s much more decent stuff thrown in here than usual.
Don’t worry, though, clunkers too.
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Park Ji Won (Fromis 9) – “Talk To Me”
Flavorless pop.
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YUGYEOM (GOT7) – “LOLO”
Flavorless R&B.
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ILY:1 – “My Color”
Early GFRIEND-lite that does just about everything right except for the chorus, which is almost bizarrely simplistic compared to the soaring GFRIEND blueprint. An odd choice considering the CTRL+C/CTRL+V of the rest of it, but I still like the direction.
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SATURDAY – “STAY”
Did a memo go out that GFRIEND has been dunzo for long enough that it’s time to revive their sound or something? Anyway, this is in the same mode and is enjoyable for the same reasons as the ILY:1 song, but also falls short of what it’s imitating for the same reasons as ILY:1’s effort did. Over the years, I’ve learned that Yuju‘s vocal is pretty key to making this sound work. Either way, I’m just glad SATURDAY are not disbanded.
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SHOWNU X HYUNGWON – “Love Me A Little”
Inoffensive seductive R&B track that won’t stand out in the crowd, but if you’re a fan of the artists it should be fine.
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NewJeans – “ASAP”
Well, STAYC don't have to worry about their "ASAP" being replaced, at least in my book.
— Asian Junkie (@asianjunkiecom) July 21, 2023
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Xikers – “Koong”
TheBiasList recently made a lot of people mad by saying that this was absolutely horrible, but I’m sorry to say that he was absolutely correct. If you’re going to do this abrasive sound, then at least lean into it. This is just uninteresting on top of all that.
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Soyou (Feat. Bora) – “ALOHA”
Nice and vibey summer hit that sorta coasts on that fact and Soyou’s fitting vocal, but Bora’s rap has never been that annoying, I think. Sorta fucked up the mood, but still, it was nice.
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TREASURE – “BONA BONA”
Things were going pretty well until the “boner boner boner luv ya” chorus that sounds like it was what I hated from a generation ago.
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Xikers – “Do Or Die”
See, at least this has rock energy to it. Unfortunately, it’s still not my thing as it includes hardly any melodic notes, and the rap section is not only subpar but also slowing the momentum of the song.
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NINE.i – “Turn It Off”
I enjoyed this overall as it seemed like more of a traditional maximalist K-pop production, but it was missing the hooky, addictive element to really make it shine. Still, I could see many enjoying this if the chorus works for you.
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MAMAMOO+ – “Dangdang”
I actually like MAMAMOO quite a bit, and these two are probably my favorite members, but not much from this sub-unit has appealed to me yet. It’s not the talent, but the song choices are a bit uninteresting?
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XG – “TGIF”
International netizens love them, and I get why, but half the time (especially here) I feel like they’re doing 2NE1‘s concept but with less catchy songs.
