My First Love Story

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[maddieloveskpop]

My favourite K-pop of 2016

Albums: (* indicates a mini album)

B.A.P, Noir

Crush, Interlude*

Tiffany, I Just Wanna Dance*

Day6, Daydream*

BTS, Wings

ELO, 8 Femmes*

Seventeen, Going Seventeen*

Yezi, Foresight Dream*

Jonghyun, 좋아

Hyuna, A'wesome*

BTOB, New Men*

100%, Time Leap*

Topp Dogg, First Street

GOT7, Flight Log: Turbulence

Cosmic Girls, Secret*

Pentagon, Five Senses*

MVs:

Sistar & Giorgio Moroder, “One More Day”

Ladies’ Code, “Galaxy”

Monsta X, “All In”

Stellar, “Sting”

Beenzino, “Life In Color”

Live, Sik-K, Punchnello, Owen Ovadoz, Flowsik, “Eung Freestyle”

Iron, “System”

Oh My Girl, “Windy Day”

BTS, “Blood Sweat & Tears”

Nam Woohyun, “Still I Remember”

25. Beenzino, “Life In Color” It turns out that being in love is a good look for Beenzino, and the zigzagging beat of “Life In Color” shows that if anything, his creativity has only increased since he’s settled down.

24. Day6, “Letting Go” I find Day6 charming because they remind me of the high school bands of my youth, who I’d see at school talent shows and nondescript downtown bars playing Red Hot Chili Peppers and John Mayer covers. Day6’s mini albums, last year’s The Day and this year’s Daydream, are full of the kinds of songs these high school bands might’ve covered in another universe, funk-inflected pop-rock so earnest that it swings back around to cool. (“Wish” is one of my favourite songs of the year.) “Letting Go” is last year’s vengeful “Congratulations” grown sadder and wiser. It’s a wave that gets bigger every time it breaks.

23. Nam Woohyun, “Still I Remember” I always say I hate ballads, but quietly, this became one of my most listened-to tracks of the year. The strings and brushed drums keep it moving, and contrary to my expectations, Woohyun’s falsetto lands as softly as snow.

22. NCT 127, “Fire Truck” Of all the year’s boy band singles with the “Turn Down For What” drop, this is my favourite, for the same reason that 127 is my favourite NCT unit so far: Between the extremes of NCT U’s dead-fish “The 7th Sense” and NCT Dream’s hyper-fluffy “Chewing Gum”, it hits the perfect balance of hard and fun.

21. Cosmic Girls, “Secret” I came to this one late, but it has the propulsion I was longing for in Stellar’s “Sting”, with the same perfect retro-pop form and a nicely squishy synth hook. The music video deserves the same level of thinking-face-emoji discourse that BTS’s “Blood Sweat & Tears” has been getting.

20. Mino, “Body” Song “apology to Korean gynaecologists” Minho releasing a full-length track on the topic of a woman’s body could have been a disaster, and it nearly is. But the words are not just “I want your body”, but “I miss your body”, and he means the latter just as much. It’s hard not to be compelled by the way Mino moans the title--horniness and despair as the same emotion, which they often are. (This makes two Winner members who have released songs about not being virgins. If we never get anything from Winner again, at least we have that.)

19. Lovelyz, “Destiny” This is the first Lovelyz single that makes them sound like they’re related to their labelmates Infinite, with swooning strings and minor-key romantic obsession, so of course it’s my favourite of theirs yet. (Well, I liked their pretty matching costumes, too.) It makes a great “Moonlight Densetsu” substitute, but I don’t really hear this as “anime music” in the way others have referred to it; maybe it’s the beautiful, mysterious mood that sits over it all.

18. Oh My Girl, “Windy Day” Racist promotional tie-ins aside, the trick this pulls off never gets old.

17. Hanhae, “I Used To” I’m a little embarrassed about this one, because Hanhae’s tale here is very petty and not a little misogynist and yet this is one of the songs I listened to most this year. I’d love to say it’s only because of that galloping blue-neon beat, but truthfully, it’s also because of how Hanhae rides it, fading away on the choruses and working himself into hysterics at the bridge.

16. Red Velvet, “Russian Roulette” Hearing the Oh!-era SNSD and Yasutaka Nakata in this unlocked it for me, and turned it from a bauble into something more forceful but no less cheerfully frivolous.

15. Blackpink, “Playing With Fire” As the last 4-member YG girl group with electro-rap tendencies standing, Blackpink have their work cut out for them. “Playing With Fire” has none of the tricks of “Whistle” or “Boombayah”, with the girls rhyming their own names with “bottle full of Henny” or changing tempo and genre at whiplash speeds. It’s just a straightforward, confident pop song that makes each member already sound like a superstar--the real legacy of 2NE1’s music.

14. Heize, “And July (feat. DEAN and DJ Friz)” I’ll fume forever about what a good, proper duet this could’ve been with more Heize, but I can’t stay fuming while I’m listening to this beat and their perfectly matched vocals.

13. NU’EST, “Overcome” “Overcome” is a return to NU’EST’s debut-era dubstep premise that is firmly contemporary. The electronics swirl and rattle and swarm, and the members are the calm at the centre of the dust storm.

12. Sistar, “I Like That” Their summer sax mode teams up with their dramatic strings mode, and the result is a high-energy stomper about how men are unreliable garbage--in other words, peak Sistar.

11. Taemin, “Press Your Number” I still love the idea of a lukewarm description of intimacy (from when the song was called “Press Your Body”) being transformed into a distant plea for it instead, and the contrast of Taemin’s natural coldness with the warmth of the production.

10. Tiffany, “I Just Wanna Dance” Tiffany’s mini album, I Just Wanna Dance, was one of the highlights of the year. In the title track, she sings about being so overwhelmed by the beauty of the city at night that she can’t even express it in words. That overwhelming feeling is channelled into the music, too, and those whistle notes soar like fireworks, bypassing words completely for pure emotional power.

9. ELO, “Rose” As a member of VV:D, ELO is in some rare company (plus Loco). Gray, Zion.T and Crush have been confidently renovating Korean R&B over the last few years, and with his 8 Femmes mini album, ELO proves himself worthy of joining that list. Produced by Gray, “Rose” is an effervescent summer roller disco dream, with funky guitar strokes, a drummer that won’t quit, and ELO smoothly holding his own over it all.

8. Giriboy, “I’m In Trouble (feat. Loco)” The opening sounds huge to me, especially once that syncopated jump-rope beat comes in. It heralds Giriboy’s transformation (on this song, anyway) from slightly obnoxious soft-boy rapper to full-blown pop star. To that end, Loco plays the “featured rapper” role perfectly, down to the little bit where he sings the melody.

7. GFriend, “Rough” I often get stuck on the question of what makes me love GFriend so much when I can’t stand singles by APink that seem to be a similar kind of ‘90s-inspired uplift. But I think the answer is that unlike APink’s major-key cooing, GFriend’s singles have a knowledge of the bitterness of life--it’s that slight toughness in Yuju’s voice when she sings the first line of the chorus, I wasn’t able to tell you, but I liked you--which makes me buy the sweetness so much more.

6. EXO, “Lucky One” The beat never lets up; even when it drops away in the prechorus, the heartbeat of the bass drum still thumps in the background. The vocals don’t let up, either--there’s hardly four counts without them until the end--and their counter-rhythms and harmonic chords are an endless source of listening pleasure.

5. Crush, “woo ah” “woo-ah” is pretty and it knows it, so Crush is more interested in exploring how far he can push that prettiness: with his angelic voice, exercised to its full crooning/falsetto/whisper/breaking point potential; and with the restless production, which subtly foreshadows the spaceship-blastoff coda (toward the next track on the album, the loopy “9 to 5”) that lifts this song into the stratosphere.

4. 100%, “Better Day” This is the kind of song I listen to K-pop for: fully committed, soaring drama that moves with the sleek swiftness of a light passing over the window of the getaway car.

3. BTS, “Blood Sweat & Tears” There’s not much more I can add to what’s been written about this song as one of the best songs of the year. It’s a last dance before the end of the world, and it goes silent just before that ending comes, and leaves you holding your breath.

2. Ladies’ Code, “Galaxy” While “The Rain”, their second single of the year, is also excellent, the arresting quietude of “Galaxy” is hard to forget. The song is a swirl of stardust, but at its core is stillness: “안녕, 기다렸어”, delivered by Zuny with quiet understatement, the most beautiful lyric of the year. Hello, she sings to the universe, I’ve waited.

1. Luna, “Free Somebody” 2016 was the year I started dancing again, picking up new dance styles (waacking, house, vogue femme) and learning other people’s choreography. 2016 was the year that K-pop embraced dance, too, more than ever before: with dance-oriented idol competition shows like Hit the Stage; with a surge in special stages and variety show segments of idols doing other groups’ choreography; and most of all, in the music, as house has joined EDM as an essential part of the current K-pop sound.

SM didn’t originate the use of house beats in K-pop, but they kickstarted the current trend of it with SHINee’s “View” and f(x)’s “4 Walls”, so it’s no surprise that they’ve offered the year’s best K-pop songs to dance to. EXO’s thumping “Artificial Love” and NCT 127’s optimistic “Switch” have kept my feet moving on the bus and down the street all year.

“Free Somebody” is another SM song that makes me want to dance. But more than that, it’s a song that captures how dancing makes me feel: so full, so free that you’re erupting with it, and you want to help somebody else find that feeling, too. (Though I agree with Katherine St Asaph that it’s also “freak somebody”, perhaps in the demo.) Dance is about expressing emotions found in music, and that’s what’s so absorbing about it. And it’s so nice when the emotion of the music is joy.

[oneweekoneband]

BTS - “N.O” (O!RUL8,2?, 2013)

In 1994, two years before Sechs Kies debuted with “Song of School Life”, Seo Taiji & Boys released the song “교실 이데아” (“Classroom Idea”), a heavy metal-style song complete with a death grunt guest vocal. The morality police responded by accusing the group and Seo Taiji of leaving hidden Satanic messages in their music. It’s possible this would have happened regardless of what the song was about, but it probably didn’t help that the song’s lyrics that were heavily critical of the country’s school system and expressed a need for reform.

The South Korean school system is as famous for its role in the country’s successful economic turnaround and high-achieving test results as it is for its rigorous schedule and high-pressure, competitive atmosphere. BTS’s median age at debut was 19 (20 in Korean age), meaning half of the members were either just done with school or still in it. As a group whose lyrics draw on their lives, it’s natural that school comes up in a lot of their songs.

Most songs about school from a student’s perspective stick to describing the mechanical aspect of long days and the stifling lack of freedom. “학교의눈물” (School of Tears), a predebut track recorded by Jin, Rap Monster and Suga over the beat of Kendrick Lamar’s “Swimming Pools”, goes even further. It paints a grim picture of a system that perpetuates violence against students and in turn encourages them to be violent to each other: “This is a ring called a classroom / This is a stadium with no referee, only an audience / You know there will never be a victor, everyone will lose / There will be no victor, everyone will lose.”

“N.O” is the follow-up single to “No More Dream”. It zooms in on the “school wrong, society wrong” idea of “School of Tears”, showing how the pressures of the school system are also pressures from society. “I want a big house, big cars, and big rings, but in truth, I don’t have any big dreams,” Suga says at the beginning of “No More Dream”. Rap Monster’s opening line in “N.O” responds, “A good house, a good car / Will these things bring happiness?”

While “No More Dream” is about having higher expectations for yourself, “N.O” implicates parental expectations that are too high. The hook makes reference to prestigious “in-Seoul” and SKY universities (Seoul University, Korea University, Yonsei University) and puts them on the same level as dreams of a big house and big car — dreams as heavy and empty as the reverb on the strings and horns in the background. “Classroom Idea” described an environment where “everybody steps on each other to get ahead”; almost 10 years later, “N.O” repeats this exact description but also asks, “Whose fault is that?”

The video is a sci-fi extrapolation of the song’s theme, where the rote memorization technique of South Korean schools is depicted as a literal pill the students are forced to swallow. The imagery is rather on the nose, but sometimes the choice can be that stark: an op-ed published by feminist journal Ilda about a teenager’s decision to drop out of high school is titled “This is Choosing Life, Not Giving Up on It”. Unlike “School of Tears”, or even “Song of School Life”, “N.O” doesn’t stop at railing against the system or depicting its ills. “Everybody say no” is as positive as a message of negation can be, encouraging its listeners — teenagers close to BTS’s own ages — to get up and do something about it.

[maddieloveskpop]

Reblogging to commemorate BTS covering “Classroom Idea” at today’s KBS Gayo Daechukje! (I love vocoder Rap Monster, but please get well soon, Suga.)

[thesinglesjukebox]

BTS - BLOOD SWEAT & TEARS [7.43] Hard work that pays off…

Madeleine Lee: Right now, BTS is the best boy band in K-pop (and therefore the world), and “Blood Sweat & Tears” is proof. The song’s of-the-moment tropical house sound is obviously meant to capitalize on current pop trends, but it still retains BTS’s unique character as a group by returning to the romantic, fatalistic mood of “I Need U” and “Run.” But where much of the appeal and atmosphere of those songs came from the beat, this time, in “Blood Sweat & Tears,” it’s the performances that make it. For instance, the slang J-Hope puts into “wonhae manhi manhi” does this same double duty, sounding like both an emulation of some American rappers’ voices and a howl of lonely desperation. The most crucial part, though, is the vocal line’s recurring chorus (“My blood, sweat and tears, my last dance, take it all away”), and Jimin and V in particular deliver each line like it’s the last moment before everything is lost, and they make you believe it. Like BTS, “Blood Sweat & Tears” is a song that tries to accomplish a lot of different things, and thanks to BTS, it does. [9]

Lilly Gray: I listen to a lot of K-pop. I especially enjoy the thrill of comebacks, especially when big names are all stacked against each other, the promise and sugar rush of each batch of flashy, fun singles – but nothing made me lose my goddamn mind this comeback cycle like “Blood, Sweat & Tears.” I had been peripherally aware of BTS before, mostly because my students adored their baby faces, but nothing I had heard prepared me for this. This hit me like a ton of bricks. I couldn’t believe it existed, that a pop song seemingly crafted to my exacting, bizarre expectations was available with a sumptuous, Secret History cosplay video to match. What I’m saying is that this has made me a crazy person, from the first desperate, breathy plead to the surprise Caribbean drums to the exuberant, crotch-grabbing dance moves and just the complete, wild weirdness of it. God! Someone save me from myself! I keep listening for the weak link vocal and there isn’t one; I keep replaying the two textured rap parts to see if there is one I prefer and it’s all just a seamless box. Help me! [9]

Cassy Gress: This is one of the flat-out sexiest songs/videos I’ve heard from a K-pop boy band. Lyrics about bondage, getting drunk on her, taking her deep down in his throat, addiction, and of course “wonhae manhi manhi.” To top it all off, Jimin there at the very end has a VERY strong falsetto, not breathy at all like a lot of falsettos are. Goodness gracious. [7]

Will Rivitz: Breathy falsetto is always a precarious proposition in pop, as it’s always one move in any direction away from being unlistenable (think Joe Jonas, typically an excellent singer, on the chorus of “Cake By The Ocean”), but BTS nails the chorus here. I could do without the “Lean On” ripoff that follows, but it’s not a cardinal sin. [7]

Will Adams: The chopped vocal hook is a nagging product of our time, but the rest actually brings to mind Stargate’s work at the turn of the decade. It’s a respectful bump that’s fine to listen to. Where BTS err is by adding in the falsetto. [6]

Jessica Doyle: Yaoi stories have been in circulation in Japan since the mid-1970s, and I don’t know when or how that trend spread to Korea, or when K-pop managing companies discovered that particular female gaze as a potential market. But trust BTS to head, in the grandest way, back to the source material: Hermann Hesse’s work also inspired Tōma no Shinzō. Musically speaking, the meat of Wings is elsewhere: it makes sense to make the title track relatively thin song (it would be positively tubercular if not for J-Hope’s Wonhae manhi manhi; bless you, Hobi) with room for all those arrows and statues and blindfolds. Sensible, too, to include the unabashedly uplifting, aegyo-and-fire “21st Century Girl” in promotions: it adds up to BTS enthusiastically catering to their devoted, complicated, occasionally destructive, perpetually thirsty, female fanbase. But it’s one thing when the protagonist/object is Earl Dorian Red Gloria (whose adventures turned comic pretty quickly; but BTS has that ground covered too) and another when it’s real people (not to mention that “Jungkook, on a swing, with a lollipop” is the most corrupting game of Clue I’ve ever played). So, then: is this turn by a group that’s been grappling with expressions of just-post-adolescent masculinity a welcome embrace of a wider range of expressions of female sexuality, or just a slightly more novel method of cash-grabbing exploitation? Oh, hell, with this group, why not both? [7]

Alfred Soto: The best of the K-pop bands babble about chocolates like Savage Garden mumbling about cherry cola in “I Want You,” and the guitars glisten over a reggeton beat. What the hell are BTS up to? Fuck knows. That’s why they never bore. [7]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox ]

[maddieloveskpop]

Some really excellent writing here, worthy of an excellent song. The main reason I didn't give this a [10] is because I think BTS will get even better than this. (The other reason is the ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ transition from the bridge back to the hook.)

[thesinglesjukebox]

AGUST D - AGUST D [6.50] The penny drops too late as your editor only just realises “Agus” is “Suga” backwards.

Iain Mew: I hope his tongue technology came with a heavy usage warranty. [7]

Madeleine Lee: Two years ago, Suga of BTS introduced his “Agust D” persona in the group’s “Killer” cypher track, with a verse showing him at his most crotch-grabbing and outrageous. His proper debut as Agust D is basically a song-length expansion of his “Killer” rap, repeating phrases almost wholesale (“doesn’t matter if I’m wack or fake”) and turning its most triple-skull-emoji boast into the chorus: “Sending you to Hong Kong with my rap, my tongue technology.” He’s without a doubt one of the better K-pop idol producers and idol rappers currently active, but I’ve always been more impressed by the producing than the rapping, and the same is true here. Lyrically, “Agust D” is a manifesto we’ve heard from him before, never mind other idol rappers, and that spelling refrain is exhausting by the seventh or eighth go-around. But the way he’s handled “It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World” makes an able foil, chopped and spun into pure triumphant sonics. [5]

Alfred Soto: Jukeboxes who lament the dearth of rappers with booming voices need to hear Agust’s stentorian huffing and puffing, which owes a debt to Eminem and Linkin Park. I’m not sure what else is going – good horns though – but it sounds important. [6]

Edward Okulicz: Emphasising “S-T-D” as part of your name is Comedy ESL at its most tragic, as if Jay(-)Z had interrupted the chorus of “Izzo” to tell the listener “by the way, I have herpes.” On the other hand “tongue technology” is Comedy ESL at its best. A line that looks that whimsical, when the flow immediately brings to mind a fictional psychotic dictator is a bit of a head-fake, but the fanfare and James Brown sample make all the noise sound like a party. [8]

Jonathan Bradley: “Agust D” is a frenetic and excitable song helmed by a rapper adept enough to sound at home on a beat more American than the average Korean artist is usually awarded. Maybe that’s why it makes me uneasy; Agust D’s proficiency, his speedy, growling flow that seems too skilled for what one would expect a Western artist who isn’t black to possess, his Just Blaze-derived production, reminds me of OG Maco’s criticisms of the similarly not-quite-K-pop Keith Ape track “It G Ma.” What happens when a boy-band MC doesn’t remain sufficiently boy-band? In some ways, this is a question for all of us who aren’t American: what cultural borrowings are we entitled to, and what foreign history and context must we understand to embark upon them? But it’s also something for Americans to deal with too: what does globalization mean for a cultural hegemon? (Beyond whining about trade pacts, that is.) What does it mean to have the privilege of having your own culture being, in many ways, a global culture – a privilege that extends to all Americans, not just those who are advantaged in their own nation? [8]

Adaora Ede: I’m not quite sure that I’ll buy what you’re selling if you package it in the form of a repetitive GarageBand loop, but I’d probably be more willing to put it on layaway if you told me that the very generic MIDI beat in the background of your song is actually a distilled version of the big band intro from James Brown’s “It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World”. BTS Suga’s mixtape pre-single goes a more antiquated route for song style: who out here is still using heavy brass based samples since Kanye quit it? Agust D shows bravado, unsurprisingly so, as his rapid fire verbiage would not be that unusual of a BTS cypher B-side. In fact, one of the raunchier hooks in this song (“Get turned on by my tongue technology”) is a pretty direct reference to another just as raunchy lyric in BTS’ Cypher Pt. 3. I do like a bit of a boastroduction track (even excusing the production), but render me unimpressed by an inability to distinguish oneself from one’s group. That name change feels jarring for nothing. [5]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox ]

[maddieloveskpop]

And there it is. I like how Adaora and I felt the same way about this song but also completely different.

[maddieloveskpop]

have you listened to BTS Suga's self-produced mixtape 'Agust D'? I find it interesting how underground it sounds, definitely exceeded my expectations. it would be amazing if Singles Jukebox can review his single Give It To Me (I find it the most interesting production-wise among the 3 singles) please consider it

Hi! I’ve listened to the Agust D mixtape a couple times now. I’d always thought Suga’s solo work would be something more along the lines of his downer BTS songs (“Rain”, “Tomorrow”, etc.) and so the more, I guess, trap-sounding stuff on the mixtape surprised me. It does sound like a Korean underground mixtape, possibly even less polished in some parts.

I don’t know if I want to listen to the whole thing repeatedly, and I admit a preference for the overwhelmingly heavy lyrical content of “The Last” to the bombast of “Agust D” and “Give It To Me” because I think it demonstrates more what Suga can bring to the table that’s different from other rappers. (If I have a favourite track, it’s “so far away (feat. Suran)” for the same reason; I like how it calls back to the “Dream” interlude just before it.) But I think this is what fans were waiting for from Suga, and his mixtape is a good demonstration the range of his musical and lyrical interests in the same way that RM was for Rap Monster, even if Suga’s overall style has less wild variation than Rap Monster’s. The direct Future homage in “Tony Montana” (including Yankie’s echoing of “Move That Dope”) surprised me the most and still surprises me, since I don’t think I’ve heard Suga make such direct reference to another rapper’s style before.

As for TSJ, we’re actually covering Agust D very soon! Though not “Give It To Me” (but I did suggest it on your behalf). Please look forward to it, and thanks for the suggestion!

[maddieloveskpop]

2016 HALFTIME REPORT

A few things I’ve observed in idol pop from January to June:

I keep calling this “the year of the ballad”, and I mean it somewhat facetiously but I still think it’s true. There’s the literal sense, with Red Velvet, Beast, and Block B of all groups releasing downtempo singles, and there’s a general sense, where a lot of idol pop has continued moving toward the mature coffee-shop sound of the rest of popular Korean music and K-indie. (I think of Ladies’ Code releasing a remix album that turned Myst3ry from haunted R&B into gentle café-pop.) In my head this also has something to do with major labels getting into the indie/boutique label game, but that’s a similar trend, not a directly related one.

This is also the year of SM Entertainment pop-house tracks (and it’s been a full year -- 14 months since SHINee’s “View” was released). Personally, I don’t mind at all, including the samey graphic design, because it’s to my taste. And for the record, my favourite non-single of the year so far is EXO’s “Artificial Love”.

On a similar pop-house note, I’m looking forward to the day when “Where Are Ü Now”/“What Do You Mean” finally replaces “Talk Dirty” as the default popular American song that lesser-known groups draw on to sound more hip (ahem, History). Bigger names like BTS (“Save Me”), BoA and Beenzino (“No Matter What”), and Taeyeon (“Why”) are already there.

This half-year, many of the biggest second-wave groups have lost members or disbanded entirely as members’ contracts finally expire -- KARA, 4minute, 2NE1, and Beast all come to mind. Worth reading on this note is @appears on T-ara’s “Sexy Love” and the “Golden Age” of K-pop from 2011 to 2013, and Korea JoongAng Daily on the emerging “third generation” of girl groups (thanks @mjohnso).

My favourite albums of the year so far: Jonghyun’s absorbing, fascinating 좋아; Crush keeping K-R&B adventurous on Interlude (go back to sleep, Dean); Tiffany’s perfect night-driving soundtrack I Just Wanna Dance; Day6’s idealized high school rock band songs on Daydream; Yezi’s tough, unapologetic, and cool Foresight Dream; and BTS’s satisfying resequencing and expansion of their last two EPs on the Young Forever compilation. (Winner came close, but the further away EXIT : X gets the less interested I get.)

My favourite singles so far:

Luna, “Free Somebody”

Ladies’ Code, “Galaxy”

Sistar, “I Like That”

Crush, “woo ah”

EXO, “Lucky One”

Taemin, “Press Your Number”

Hanhae, “I Used To”

Oh My Girl, “Windy Day”

NU’EST, “Overcome”

Tiffany, “I Just Wanna Dance”

Beenzino, “Life in Color”

Lovelyz, “Destiny”

GFriend, “Rough”

Stellar, “Sting”

Nam Woohyun, “Still I Remember”

Giriboy, “I’m In Trouble (feat. Loco)”

Day6, “Letting Go”

VIXX, “Dynamite”

BTS, “Save Me”

GOT7, “Fly”

[thesinglesjukebox]

EXO - MONSTER [5.70] We’ll call you whatever you want, Chen…

Madeleine Lee: If SM Entertainment’s new Pantone-and-impeccable house beats aesthetic is getting too samey for your liking – or too tasteful – here comes zombie “Overdose” to save the day, a broody gnarl of electro-trap-R&B limbs. It trips in and out of a minor key, knocks over some drums and slips on a string section, but always lands on its feet for the chorus (which is, as expected, pristine). I appreciate the effort to Keep K-Pop Weird, but this is too funereal to be fun, and it somehow sounds both empty and overthought. I’ll admit that it sounds better the more I hear it, but still, I’ll take the one with the impeccable beat over this. [5]

Crystal Leww: So much EDM-pop that leans more pop than EDM sounds so goofy these days, but “Monster” perhaps shows that it just needs the right production team and performers to pull it off. I love that this is so committed to the maximalism of it all; Exo are committed to the idea of being called monster all the way throughout and everything is at full throttle, despite the lurching quality of the production. [6]

Thomas Inskeep: The verses and bridges give me a “Formation” vibe, while the chorus is pure, slickly-choreographed menace – but no less effective for that. Shiny-sounding, dark-feeling K-pop on a hip-hop tip. [6]

Edward Okulicz: The method, if not the ingredients are exactly the same as “Monster,” so I listened to them in a quick A-B comparison. This one’s more successful at evoking the idea of pure, creeping menace than “Overdose” was of imminent danger, and it has a better chorus, so it gets more points. [7]

Patrick St. Michel: For all the clanging and tension-rich build, “Monster” is a K-pop boy band cut at its heart, and the chorus offers a something that feels apt for just that. Nothing incredible but solid, a nice reminder the new age of K-pop can hit on all the good stuff as the groups that came before them. And deliver raps that I can’t decide are good or goofy. [6]

Cassy Gress: This song is “Treat You Better”’s Persona. There’s bits and pieces of things I’d like here (the block chord harmonies in the chorus, the surprise switch into F major for a beat or two), but they get stomped out by Exo referring to themselves as a monster, and apparently equating being controlling and abusive with attractive and sexy. [4]

Brad Shoup: The throwback tonalities of the chorus are remarkable: Exo puts on an existential shrug. The synth chimes like mourning bells. As much as they invoke monsterdom, they’re not promising menace. [6]

Adaora Ede: “Monster” falls into the same realm of EXO’s other edgy, bass heavy tracks: industrial drum beats, harmonic belted out choruses, alphabetic rap verses. I don’t like or dislike this more than 2013’s “Overdose” or 2012’s “Mama” because this sounds like exactly how SM Entertainment has always created all of their ‘dark’ concept tracks for EXO: to be a slightly more trendy version of whatever they did last time, just current enough. “Monster” integrates a trap-inflected intro verse (she’s got.me.goin.crazy whoooo!) to change it up this time, but it’s not enough to captivate. The effect of the mysterious bad boy concept remains stagnant. [4]

Taylor Alatorre: Nice chorus you got there. Be a shame if someone were to weigh it down with some haltingly percussive verses, a hilariously overwrought bridge, and a two-note car alarm that never… goes… away. Oh wait, you guys already did all that to yourselves. Well, that’s what you get for inhabiting the jerkass role with such gleeful abandon. The brazenness of the villainy is sort of refreshing, but a rudimentary sense of shame might’ve prevented lines like “I’m sorry you make me so crazy” from making it past the recording booth. [5]

Anjy Ou: On about my 5th listen to this song, I picked up on the Dawn Richard influence - the vocal uptick and the production are straight from “Bombs”. Watching EXO dance to this song a third time, I noticed the Aaliyah-influenced choreo (RIP, still the queen of dancing to downtempo tracks). And THEN I discovered that it was co-written by Rodnae “Chikk” Bell. Black girls and women continue to shape the culture, even years after the fact, even when they don’t get credit for it. I was going to like this anyway: it’s EXO’s typical frownyfaced R&B pop with better rapping (bless you, Deepflow), fantastic drums in the bridges, and lots of Chen and Kai vocals. But seeing girls like me actively shaping the music I love that doesn’t always love me back? Hits me right there. [8]

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[maddieloveskpop]

1. To quote @seasquared, “Monster” is the kind of EXO comeback and song I wanted during “Wolf” era, but now I just want more “Love Me Right”.

2. Anjy’s blurb makes me appreciate this song a lot more as an object even if I still don’t like it as a song.

3. If VIXX did this instead of “Dynamite” I probably wouldn’t have been so down on it as a song; and if VIXX did “Lucky One” instead of “Dynamite” I probably wouldn’t have been so skeptical about their style shift. (And if you think I’ve privately done up a line distribution of “Lucky One” for VIXX, you’re absolutely right, and message me off anon if you want to see it.)

[thesinglesjukebox]

OH MY GIRL - WINDY DAY [6.75] Are we blown away?

Madeleine Lee: If you’ve never heard “Windy Day” before, I don’t want to spoil it for you, so go listen to it now. Then come back here so we can talk about how good it is at leading its listener down the garden path, with a disposable verse and a chorus that’s all sunshine and flowers, before it blasts you away with a power droning string hook out of nowhere. There have been two major girl group trends in K-pop over the last year: a revived interest in the “pure” image (see: GFriend, Lovelyz), and the “girl crushes” that not only appeals, as usual, to men, but makes (assumed straight) fangirls fall in love with their coolness and charisma (see: the recent uptick in girl groups covering boy group choreography). While this might seem like a dichotomy, Oh My Girl have released a pure single and a girl crush single back to back, and now they’ve given us one that’s both. “Windy Day” thrives on the contrast created by putting these two styles next to each other, and on the thrill of making a connection between them. [8]

Jessica Doyle: I’ve started to rush to Oh My Girl singles in anticipation of those unexpected delights that startle me and keep my attention. With “Cupid” it’s not so much the marching-band drums themselves as the combination of the marching-band drums and that “I see you,” which makes the song the love child of a marching band and “Piano in the Dark,” and if a group is willing to start with the love child of a marching band and “Piano in the Dark,” certainly let’s see what else is on offer. There’s “Closer,” their blandest single to date – yes, well-constructed and a nice platform for inventive choreography, but nonetheless – which still provides the surges in the background and Seunghee’s sudden “Can you hear my cry.” “Liar Liar” is a series of leaps: from Binnie’s “Andhwe, andhwe” to Seunghee’s “roller coaster” to Mimi’s “Pinocchio,” with the collective’s yells as the connective tissue. (While I probably can’t count Seunghee’s face as an unexpected delight, I’d be, er, lying if I left it out.) And now there’s “Windy Day,” which starts out as the coronation music for Actualfax Fairy Princess Hyojung and then gleefully changes course – it’s nothing but the unexpected. The lyrics, the video, and the creeping guitar all suggest uncertainty, but “Windy Day” works because it’s a journey (to be fair, “Closer” is as well), an embrace of the uncertainty, finding excitement in getting swept up. [8]

Thomas Inskeep: Musically it’s like 3 songs mashed into one. Lyrically it’s too cutesy-poo by half. [4]

Katie Gill: There are three distinct parts to “Windy Day”: the bizarrely delicate beginning, the bog-standard good harmonies, girl group chorus, and that vaguely Arabian, vaguely “Come Out and Play” riff, which is easily my favorite part. The overall composition is less of a full song and more of three pieces shoved together to make a song. Still, for all it’s slightly disjointed nature, the end product is something pretty darn good and an annoyingly perfect earworm. [6]

Leonel Manzanares: Saccharine folk that somehow turns into an ABBA outtake and then it goes into a chaotic A phrygian post-chorus. Yet it all still feels native to OMG’s universe. Man, i love my K-pop wild, but i truly flip out when that madness is this well executed. [8]

Alfred Soto: The tinkling piano and harmonies suggest dew drops on flowers or, at worst, too strong a plug-in deodorizer: Febreze, like that. The harmonies are still a bit much on the chorus, but the guitar helps. [7]

Patrick St. Michel: “Windy Day” solves the problem that was at the center of EXID’s “L.I.E” by making the stylistic transitions flow really smoothly, so nothing ever feels jarring or awkward. Alas, Oh My Girl could really use something interesting to happen here, as none of these change-ups leave an impression beyond “oooo, something different!,” and the end result is a skippy song that… well just skips ahead. [4]

Moses Kim: Oh My Girl has quietly emerged over the last year as one of the most intriguing acts in Korean pop, but more importantly as one of the most delightful. “Windy Day” unfurls like a kite string on a warm May afternoon; the strums that set up the beginning weave a light tapestry for Arin and Seunghee to trade lines over before the song hits a slower wind, Yooa’s honeyed vocals working well with Binnie’s gently-posted question of whether her spring has finally found its way back to her. Then there’s that gust of a chorus, strings and vocal melodies and surprisingly prog-metal guitar chords punching upwards and upwards until we soar into the clouds, where a stormier collection of harmonies meets us. And that’s all before we hit the eye of the storm, an earworm of an Arabian Nights riff with choreography to match. But it’s the eight voices that center a ride that in the wrong hands could be vertigo-inducing, riding the track with boundless conviction, playfulness, and joy. [9]

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[maddieloveskpop]

I’m fascinated by the “girl crush” trend, but haven’t really been able to develop any thoughts about it beyond “this is a thing”. I like that it’s able to co-exist with other concepts, as Oh My Girl demonstrate, because even if it’s more motivated by profit margin (female fanbases are more loyal and spend more on physical goods than male fanbases) than, I don’t know, some kind of pure feeling about female friendship and role models, its flexibility at least suggests it won’t go away soon.

[thesinglesjukebox]

NCT U - THE 7TH SENSE [5.44] According to the Internet, the seventh sense is the doorway to the Universal Self via Unity Consciousness. Discuss…

Patrick St. Michel: Usually, fixating on all the facts surrounding an artist instead of the music does a great disservice to them, but sometimes that other stuff is so fascinating it really does deserve some time. This site is “The Singles Jukebox,” not “The Accelerationist Global Capitalism Chathouse,” so I won’t dwell on the tribble-like idea behind Neo Culture Technology (top that, vaporwave!), but you should definitely read up on it. It also does provide some good context to “The 7th Sense,” primarily why it sounds so generic. It’s a solid approximation of what could be considered the dominant world sound in 2016 – hip-hop-leaning, trap, sparse, Diplo-ish. If you were to build your own pop song, “The 7th Sense” would be a solid template. The saving grace is the lyrics, far more abstract and lonesome then expected, though ironically that’s the one part of the song you have to do any work to figure out. The rest is, as NCT U’s parent company hopes for, easily digestible. [5]

Madeleine Lee: Of the Big Three K-pop entertainment agencies, SM Entertainment has always been the worst at hip-hop. Their stilted, line-by-line style of rapping isn’t much worse than JYP’s, but JYP hasn’t attempted to make trend-chasing rap songs to the extent that SM has and failed. (Awoooo!) But in the BTS era, a boy band that is going to do hip-hop has to do hip-hop right, and SM’s newest group NCT U not only sounds correct in this song, but convincing. It’s mostly thanks to an incredible minimal beat (and of the Big Three, SM still has the best taste in instrumentals), but even the rapping is not embarrassing here. It helps that my countryman Mark is the first rapper to come out of SM with the same kind of slangy, syncopated delivery as the kids in Monsta X and Seventeen, but Ten and Taeyong do just as well with dead-eyed verses that are technically just as artless as EXO’s but seem drawn from a primary source, rather than learned secondhand. Overall, “The 7th Sense” is nothing earth-shattering, but it’s a welcome development, especially since NCT U represents SM’s future: “that’s a long-ass ride” is about as far from “my name is Minho” as you can get. [5]

Cassy Gress: It’s less like a first single from an exciting new international SM concept, and more like the hidden bonus track–a little patchwork, and more of a toss-off than anything that preceded it. With the instruments doing so little, all I can do is focus on the vocals, and that mostly just led me to think about who this sounds like (Drake, Timberlake… Zayn?), rather than anything interesting NCT U was actually doing. [4]

Jonathan Bogart: Whether he or SME means it to or not, Taeyong’s nasal, affectless flow is enough like Drake’s that a suspicion of tryhard bandwagon-jumping hovers over this otherwise mostly-fine slice of self-important miserablism. [5]

Alfred Soto: When they rap sllowwwwly over the lethargic beat, they remind me of Big Sean – for better or worse. [5]

Juana Giaimo: This may not differ a lot from the hip-hop and R&B minimalistic tracks that often go around on the internet. However, the gloomy vibe adds an almost uncomfortable depth that is hard to put into words but that lingers once the song finishes. [7]

Brad Shoup: I’m all for singles that offer a complete traumnovelle of self-actualization. Existential new-jack voicings and nagging sing-talking, all over a blinking bass melody and trap drums like creaking doors. [8]

Leonel Manzanares: The intro, with the droning bass and the distorted chant (which kinda sounds like a Middle Eastern wind instrument) anticipated something sparse, nocturnal, but ultimately engaging. What we got is a decent rap song – killer second verse, though – that stayed on the edge of great and never quite crossed the line. Quick lesson, kids: sparse does not mean stationary. [6]

Jessica Doyle: Those background layers are beautiful; so it’s all the more puzzling that the vocals seem constructed not to match. The dissonance I hear doesn’t let up until almost three minutes in, and then only briefly. SM might have refrained from smoothing things out to subtly suggest that this new group is somehow more challenging and less eager to please than past products. In which case I like the theory but find myself shying away from the execution. [4]

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[thesinglesjukebox]

I.O.I - CRUSH [5.86] Hey, we ran out of words, give us a break…

Alfred Soto: This newly minted K-pop group curls their vocals around bits purloined from Kesha and Grimes with the zealotry of the converted. [5]

Brad Shoup: All those OMGs are Minajian; the bridge is frightening, like Britney in high dudgeon. “Crush” is frantic but not desperate. It’s like experiencing a rainstorm in a car with good tread. [7]

Cassy Gress: I.O.I. has the problem that I imagine SNSD and Super Junior had when they first came out - there are way too many members to smush into one three-minute song. If I.O.I. sticks around for a while, then familiarity will help a lot with that issue. Aside from that, “kungkwang oo-oh-oo-oh” is a great hook, and lyrically this evokes some of the chaos of a new crush, though the sound doesn’t evoke much more than “dance.” [6]

Thomas Inskeep: This is supposedly “trapical [not a typo] Dutch funk,” which I think is someone having a bit of fun, because to my ears it sounds like contemporary dance-pop that gets a little pneumatic on its chorus. Ridiculously fun. [6]

Iain Mew: “Crush” reminds me of the all-action approach of the kind of songs that got me into K-pop in the first place. It’s not just the passage of time that means that keeping up constant energy isn’t enough on its own though. Ideally this kind of thing should sound like it was thrown together in ten minutes but also that the ten minutes was of such magical productivity that there would be no way to improve on it. This sounds like it was thrown together in ten minutes and pressing deadlines kept anyone from going back and fixing it to fit together properly. [5]

Patrick St. Michel: If you haven’t watched Produce 101… well, maybe don’t read too much about the people who appear in the “Crush” video, because you should really spend a week of your life burning through the just-finished show, wherein a new K-pop girls group is put together in a show half American Idol and half AKB48 election. There is no way I can listen to “Crush” without being a bit biased – mainly because I’m so happy for you, Kim So-hye, who likes collecting trash and playing the ocarina – but it does a good job of, well, highlighting all the things these women were judged on, gathered in a tight package. It peaks with the chorus, a nice electro explosion, but it’s so good it makes the forced elements (errr, the rap) feel OK. [7]

Madeleine Lee: In the period where most of my K-pop-loving peers were following Produce 101, I became obsessed with the Japanese franchise Love Live! School Idol Project. It follows nine girls who become “school idols” to keep their beloved school from closing, but are really just a front to sell character goods and CD singles. The songs are solidly written and hit on the major strains of mainstream J-pop: the uplifting anime theme song, the sparkly electropop song, the epic rock song, etc. For every song, each character’s voice actress records the entire thing, and then the line division is adjusted in the mixing. This probably isn’t how “Crush” was made, but it has that same quality of sounding both highly individualized (the performances) and completely impersonal (the assembly). I realize this accusation could be made towards many large K-pop groups, and that this tension between the individual and the interchangeable is the nature of Produce 101 itself. Still, I can’t help but hear this song as a fill-in-the-blanks template for whoever the top 11 contestants happened to be, and it doesn’t do much to convince me that it’s not. Basically, if you’re listening for your best girl, you will enjoy her part and probably wish she had more. If you’re not, it’s a lightly clubby girl group track with shouty bits and a smooth chorus, and the song that description makes you think of is probably more compelling. Another Love Live!-obsessed friend wondered what the Korean equivalent of its accurately generic J-pop might be like; between the “35 Girls 5 Concepts” sampler and “Crush,” Produce 101 seems to be the answer. [5]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox ]

[maddieloveskpop]

See also Melissa Johnson on the similarities between Produce 101 and idol-raising games like The Idolmaster.

[thesinglesjukebox]

The Singles Jukebox is seeking new writers

The Singles Jukebox is home to a talented roster of writers from around the globe with passionate, critical voices dedicated to the spectrum of modern music. We are an unpaid collective with a friendly community and many writers and alumni writing professionally elsewhere. If you’re a writer interested in exploring diverse genres and unfamiliar sounds we want to hear from you.

The site is seeking applications from writers with bold ideas and a willingness to tackle new subjects. We are particularly interested in writers whose voices are under-represented in music criticism and strongly encourage women and people of color to apply. All are welcome to apply, including those who have previously expressed interest in writing for the website.

If you’d like to be considered, please submit the following as an email to [email protected] (no attachments, please) by midnight at the end of May 15th:

Keep reading

[maddieloveskpop]

VIXX, “Dynamite”. Let’s get this out of the way: My initial response to this song, like a lot of people’s initial response to this song, was that it sounds like SHINee. More accurately, it sounds like the Michael Jackson-meets-“Rhythm of the Night” pop that SHINee has made their brand from Dream Girl - The misconceptions of you through Married to the Music, but that doesn’t stop me from wanting to hear Key’s voice doing the “Come on, girl!” part every time. There’s even a song called “Dynamite” on Dream Girl, which in my dreams would sound great as a VIXX cover, like the runway beat of “Chaos” cosplaying as “Beautiful Killer”. (Leo gets Taemin’s first lines, and the rest continues from there.) That said, it’s not like SHINee has a copyright on horn riffs or multi-part harmonies or bright pattern-problem outfits, and the more I listen to “Dynamite” for its own merit, the more the comparison dims. (Still, I’d like to think that SHINee would never have let that ballad bridge happen, or at least would have spun it off into its own song.)

As for what the concept here is, since that’s what we’ve come to look for from VIXX, there’s something about the evil eye, an idea that’s very them, but only loosely applied. However, this lack of their trademark concept saturation has become something of a tradition for their more upbeat songs, the others being “G.R.8.U” and “Love Equation”. Jellyfish seems to be playing a longer game with this one, anyway; the album, Zelos, has been teased as part of a year-long “Conception” project loosely based on Greek mythology. If there’s any concept at play here, it’s that Zelos (or Zelus) is a minor Greek deity who represents rivalry and envy, and romantic envy is the main lyrical theme of “Dynamite”, cleverly capitalizing on the Korean pronunciation of “Zelos” being the same as the English word “jealous”.

Concept or no, the live choreography is still fun to watch, with dynamic formation changes adding interest to the classic boy band moves that fit the song’s beats. Their live vocal stability as a group has also come a very, very long way over the last few years (and shout-out to Hyuk, who's earned his line distribution upgrade here). Overall, “Dynamite” represents a fresh style for VIXX that still incorporates elements of their established style (deep harmonies, a steady beat, Hongbin muttering things), and a nice, bright song that fits for spring and anticipates early summer.

[maddieloveskpop]

VIXX, “사슬 (Chained Up)” (Chained Up, 2015). This song does quite a few things differently for VIXX. It changes up their usual template, most noticeably with Ravi’s parts being distributed throughout, rather than just a single long verse. Its instrumental is relatively spare: at first it’s only a lurking bass riff over percussion that resembles clinking chains and the slap of a whip, and so quiet that Hongbin even whispers his lines, and then gradually the layers of synths and multi-part vocal harmonies get added in.

As for the concept, it’s pretty clear what’s going on, so much so that I’m surprised nothing got censored in music show broadcasts. The album’s intro track is called “Mistress”; the collars they wear merge the BDSM reference into 2015’s unisex choker fashion trend; they hold their wrists together or behind them in the dance as if handcuffed. The lyrics emphasize submissiveness and masochism, and reverse the usual idea of possession in K-pop boy group songs, though the theme of being completely obsessed with and consumed by someone else is not so different. (It’s at least implied that the relationship goes both ways, however healthy or unhealthy.)

Rather than the dark concepts VIXX has become known for, “Chained Up” is a try at the “sexy concept”. It’s usually girl groups who are labelled in this way; for boy groups, “sexy” tends to fold into the “beastly”, hypermasculine concept, which is the boy group opposite of “cute concept”. (I’ve previously discussed this regarding BTS’s “Boy In Luv”.) It’s not unheard of for boy groups to be explicitly presented as sexy, such as all the butt-displaying and heavy breathing accompanying 2PM’s slow jam “A.D.T.O.Y. (하.니.뿐.)”. But when they are, it’s often while retaining an emphasis on masculine power and virile capability.

In “Chained Up”, the appeal is in vulnerability and ceding control. It’s a very specific kind of sex appeal, and it’s one that isn’t necessarily tied to how much of the body is being shown, despite the emphasis on their exposed chests and tight pants in the costuming. When Ravi ripped off his blazer during the 2015 SBS Gayo Daejun performance of this song, it was shocking, but not the same kind of appeal as the song has in its lyrics and in other performances where skin is revealed accidentally.

Truthfully, the degree to which this concept appeals to me makes me feel uncomfortable writing about it. I like it, but I feel bad about liking it. Definitely a part of what makes it so uncomfortable is the subversive aspect of men singing about enjoying being owned by someone else sexually -- and if I like that, going against what is usually presented by these sexy concepts, what does that say about me? (It's something similar to the Japanese concept of the fujoshi, literally “rotten woman”.) I think this discomfort is what makes this concept still feel similar to their previous “dark” releases to me, despite not being about gore or supernatural horror.

[maddieloveskpop]

VIXX, “이별공식 (Love Equation)” (Boys’ Record, 2015). “Love Equation” is a modern take on a 1995 R.ef single usually translated as “Farewell Formula”. As far as ‘90s covers made 20 years later go, I think this is much more successful than their Dublekick Music-assisted update of Deux’s “나를 돌아봐” (Turn Around and Look at Me) for a 2014 tribute album. A lot of that is owed to the iconic status of Deux’s original, which casts a long shadow over the technofied remake (and who wants to hear 1993 new jack swing dressed up as 1996-via-2010 techno, anyway?). But it helps that “Farewell Formula” is a song that’s more suited to VIXX’s voices, and that unlike the Deux cover, the updated beat of “Love Equation” doesn’t work against what makes the original so memorable.

The structure has been rejigged a little: the long instrumental break and second rap verse have been replaced with a new verse with a B melody, and the pre-chorus high note of the original is only released then, too. Ravi’s rap verse is actually an upgrade compared to what constituted K-pop rapping in 1995, and not too showy or self-conscious (as in the Deux cover). Like their last happy single, “G.R.8.U”, it’s accompanied by a toned-down concept that offers the group a bit of a break and the chance to wear casual clothes for a few months. The dance is less easy-going than “G.R.8.U” was: it has their characteristic human-props setups and circular formations, their characteristic callbacks to previous singles, and their characteristic literal as fuck interpretations of the lyrics, all done in a fun way. Overall, “Love Equation” remains what “Farewell Formula” was: a fluffy song that’s just okay, but has lots of individual catchy bits.

As a side note, Boys’ Record was promoted as a “remake album”, but of the album’s three songs, “Love Equation” is the only cover. A missed opportunity, in my opinion, but it becomes a different opportunity instead: the other two songs were composed by Leo and Ravi, and work as a preview of their self-composing VIXX LR subunit, which would promote a few months after “Love Equation”. Leo’s “차가운 밤에” (On a Cold Night) is a ballad that skews a little slow-jam; Ravi’s duet with Hyuk, “Memory”, is more in VIXX’s dramatic wheelhouse, with Hyuk working out a previously undiscovered falsetto range. I personally prefer “Memory”, but both songs are very competently written. Unlike other idol composers whose early releases still have audible kinks to be worked out, Ravi and Leo’s introduction as composers comes more or less fully-formed. (More or less: Ravi does have a track on 2013’s Voodoo, “Secret Night”, that is both stupid and incredible and includes some of the most guttural performances VIXX have ever given on record, and I mean that in its favour.)

[maddieloveskpop]

VIXX, “Error” (Error, 2014). “Error” gives me a particular feeling that I don’t know how to articulate. It’s a feeling that has to do with sad piano melodies and wrap-around string arrangements at a dance tempo. It’s a feeling that makes me close my eyes and turn up the volume just before the chorus hits. It’s not a feeling I expect anyone else to feel when they hear this song, but quietly, I always hope they do.

It’s a similar feeling to the one I get from Infinite’s “Back”, which was released a few months earlier and to which “Error” has a superficial resemblance. But...how can I say this? The chorus of “Back” feels like it’s blasting out of my chest when I listen to it, whereas the chorus of “Error” feels like it’s falling on me, or like I’m submerged in it. “Back” is vital and triumphant and angry; “Error” is beautiful and swooning and most of all it is sad.

I’ve mentioned Kim Eana’s lyric writing a few times this week. “Error” is the most recent VIXX song she’s written lyrics for, and I think the lyrics are the most poetic she’s written for them, both in metre and in meaning. It seems absurd that just reading someone’s English translation of the lyrics without any sound would give me the same beautiful/sad/swooning feeling that the song itself does, but there it is: “I don’t want to let go of myself / I don’t want to ruin myself anymore”.

And more than just the translation of the words, I think VIXX’s delivery of the words in this song is very effective. In other songs they’ve been purposefully brutal, or else just trying to sing the best they can, where “best” equals “loudest”. In “Error”, there’s actually dynamics. The verses have a hushed delicacy, and even Ravi uses a (short) crescendo in his parts, rather than a fortissimo bludgeon. And while I’m usually not a fan of Leo’s whiny vocal tone, this song’s higher key and sustained notes are perfect for him, and there’s a reason why his voice opens and closes the song. He sings “love in the end is a lie to one person” like it’s his big truth, and no matter how melodramatic it is, I believe it.

[maddieloveskpop]

VIXX, “기적 (Eternity)” (Eternity, 2014). While “G.R.8.U” broke up a run of dark-concept singles by going cute and light, “Eternity” suggests another alternative: instead of casting feelings of romantic discontent as the work of a literal monster (“The devil you saw last night was not me,” the protagonist of “hyde” pleads), the feelings themselves become the scary part.

The Korean title translates to “miracle”, and from N’s first lines, the miracle seems to be that “you came back to me”. “I had a terrible nightmare that you left me forever,” goes the chorus, “but it didn’t make sense, because there’s no way I could lose you.” The concept is “time”, however, as a sort of synecdoche for memory, and as the song continues, the story that we’ve been led to believe by the narrator unravels. The rap verse relates the relationship to a Möbius strip, and then the chorus lyrics change from the nightmare being the protagonist’s lover leaving to the nightmare being the lover coming back. What turns the miracle into a nightmare is that it’s not true, and that you eventually have to wake up. (The last line also suggests never waking up, which is unsettling for different reasons.)

“Eternity” changes things up musically, too, with a quiet-loud-quiet structure and a directly Eurodance-inspired beat, enhanced by post-chorus “whoa-ohs” that remind me of a soccer stadium chant. Like “Voodoo Doll” there is a lot of extra noise, and this time I don’t think it adds to the mood the song is trying to portray -- it’s just clutter. The same goes for the choppy pace of the chorus, as if the words were written separately from the music and then crammed in to fit. (A lot of that is probably the "ONE-two ONE-two" stress pattern on the syllables.) But I can appreciate this as VIXX using their newfound recognition to try new things: new variations on their usual song patterns, new genres to draw from, and new definitions of what constitutes “dark”.

[maddieloveskpop]

VIXX, “저주인형” (Voodoo Doll) (Voodoo, 2013). After a brief break with “G.R.8.U”, “Voodoo Doll” plunges back into the dark concepts of “On and On” and “hyde” with a vengeance. Everything is amped up, more sinister and more ambitious than ever before. The “hyde” MV is rated 19+ because it has scary imagery like snakes and skulls and Leo choking himself; the “Voodoo Doll” MV is rated 19+ because it includes explicit gore and torture scenes that I still haven’t seen to this day because I’m squeamish — the “clean” version is what’s embedded above (with the full version here if you want to see it). (I haven’t even watched the “RATED R” teaser because the exposed brain in the preview frame is more than enough for me.) Even the original choreography was banned from music broadcasts because it’s essentially them stabbing each other with a foreign object.

The song is just as ambitious, grafting industrial metal onto what’s more or less the underlying structure of “On and On” and “hyde”. (In 2016, it might be worthwhile to note that this was co-written by K-R&B golden boy DEAN in his “Deanfluenza” songwriter mode.) The push-pull pacing is new, and while I know I complain a lot about sudden tempo changes in songs, I think this one works because it is integrated into the structure of the song; that is, it’s not just a bridge changing tempo or key because This Is The Bridge. It’s brutally noisy — the clipped electronics, the little clicking noises in the mix — but I would say this is also a deliberate choice, not just an attempt to have as many layers going as possible. That said, it does have a lot of layers going, with the same depth of vocal harmony as “On and On” and the spiralling synth arpeggios adding a counter-melody.

Kim Eana’s lyrics are ostensibly about undying devotion, but combined with the music, they become sour and creepy. (Well, Ravi’s verse that begins with “open the doors of hell” and ends with “my flesh is an offering to you” is plenty creepy on its own.) The idea of the “voodoo doll” is a metaphor for being a willing servant of the one you love, even if that means helping them find someone else -- a uniquely masochistic take on the old “loving someone who doesn’t love you” saw.

And on this topic: at the time of the song’s release, a lot was made in international fandom of the appropriation of the term “voodoo”. The Korean title translates to “cursed doll”, and though the specific trope of “voodoo” as sticking pins into a doll is what’s being referenced, it’s definitely a use of the term as a generic spooky idea that pays no regard to its deeper cultural and religious origins. Over time, I’ve become more blasé about using it as the song’s official translation, but really, the English word “hex” has the same rough meaning and linguistic impact, and an X.