January is over and despite my lack of attention, there have been some interesting releases this month. Whether it's a preview of things to come or the rest of the year will deviate wildly, remains to be seen. Hope everyone has had a good (or at least better) start to their year than both myself and or last year. Stay safe out there. But then why are you "out there?"
Hyuna - I'm Not Cool
As I've said before on this series, not every song that makes it here is good. Hyuna has always been hit or miss with me and this time, she's struck out on three pitches. I just...don't like anything presented here. Some commenter on reddit said "the song isn't that good but Hyuna just makes it work." To that I say, "what exactly did she make work?" The structure is all over the place and I legit couldn't stomach a full second listen. Also this video thumbnail do be hella uncomfortable.
My blog and random breaks, name a more iconic duo. It's been a rough time across the holidays...I won't front, my mental state has been in disarray for a while and even before that. Still, I'm gonna keep fighting and writing, as the latter is one of my most surefire ways to focus and recenter. I have some typical end of the year stuff to wrap up 2019, and we'll start December as we should any month: with the Late Report.
(G)I-DLE - Lion
I dread writing this group name every. Single. Time. Anyway "Lion" is their most complete work in their short careers thus far. The usual contributors are doing their thing: Yuqi and Soojin have their beautiful voices, while Soyeon drops yet another bomb rap break. But then the surprises like Miyeon rocking the chorus and sounding her best since "Pop/Stars," Minnie getting her chances to shine, and Shuhua getting more lines! This is as balanced a performance you'll ever see, and they continue to improve with every subsequent release.
Should probably have had some more of these throughout the years - they're simple, easy to write, and have basically no restrictions on what or how I want to write. Anyway, Kpop has had an...interesting week. All kinds of news and most of it is not the good kind. The main headline is of course that Hyuna and E'Dawn would be leaving Cube Entertainment. This comes a month after their revealed relationship which has been a thing for over two years. Buckle up because this is quite the doozy.
Woah, another female soloist? Get outta here! There's a emotion I felt when writing this up and tagging this post with "Hyuna" but not "4minute." Perhaps a mixture of nostalgic and sad. Hyuna's life post-group has been enjoyable, as to be expected. She literally went from the face of 4minute to the face of Cube Entertainment. Since the disbandment, she's onto her third solo release after "Babe" earlier this year. If the teasers were anything to go by, this would a Hyuna release through and through. Her songs have yet to be my cup of tea, and I haven't been attached to anything since the prechorus of "Red" so let's see if that has changed.
Credit is needed where credit is due, "Lip & Hip" is catchy and in a good way. Past Hyuna releases were not this fortunate. Overall the song is loud enough and embodies the typical Hyuna track yet is contained with moments of vulnerability, much like "Red" was. Also like "Red," the prechorus is the high point of the song and takes a sharp but successful transition into the sassy chorus. Perhaps the reason why I've loved these prechorus sections so much is that it shows Hyuna is capable of more than rapping (indeed, some of her B-sides showcase this as well). These singing moments are great and if the verses didn't exist you'd think she was a pretty competent vocalist. That quick drop right before the chorus at 1:06 is awesome and throws you right into the fray. In the past I've lamented songs that built up only to fall apart in disappointment so it's nice to see a song taking the shorter route yet have it work.
It's been nearly a year since the first Best Of B-Sides. There's really no excuse that this shouldn't be a more recurring series. In fact, I'm going to aim for a new installment of these every month. On top of that, I'm going to make any artist that shows up be ineligible for future posts. This will ensure that everything stays fresh in terms of the groups (or soloists!) and their music. After all the purpose of these posts is to highlight some music that might be overlooked or less popular. Diversity in representation is something I strive for here and that applies to both the groups and their music.
FIESTAR - Turn Off The Light
At this point, "remember when ___" has got to be the most typed phrase on my blog. FIESTAR have been out of the spotlight for so long that I almost forgot about the other songs on their "Black Label" EP. "Turn Off The Light" is a great track that mixes dance and R&B elements together. The high tempo means a good choreography could've been coupled with it. Then top it all off with a fierce Yezi rap and it's no surprise this song is splendid on the ears. If not for the masterpiece that was "You're Pitiful" this could very well have been the title track.
Red Velvet - Zoo
If there's (only) one thing to rely on Red Velvet for, it is their constant string of sweet instrumentals. The "Red Summer" mini album was no different, and "Zoo" has one of many more exciting instrumentals. The animal noise mimicry is abundant and fitting, then there's Seulgi's gorilla scream which is certainly...something. All of the songs on this EP play to Seulgi and Wendy's vocal strengths, and also lets the rest of the crew play support rather well. Irene's starting to get a little better in the rap department, so we'll see how that develops in their newest album.
We have a Hyuna sighting. I repeat, we have a Hyuna sighting. But is that really a surprise? This is her first release since the disbandment of 4minute, which also doubles as her first as an official solo artist. She has never been shy in any of her songs since the days of "Change" and if the teasers were any indication, there's to be zero changes from the standard Hyuna formula. We're likely in for some electrifying beats, some snappy rapping, and plenty of explicit material. Korea hasn't been able to handle Hyuna videos for a long time now and 2016 should be no different.
This song is indeed a spiritual successor to "Roll Deep" AKA "Because I'm The Best" AKA "Ilhoon's Rap and Nothing Else." It's extremely repetitive and simplistic in nature, and I don't think has worked for either release. A bright spot here is that Hyuna's voice is not as nasally (for the most part) which does work in her favor. She sounds more comfortable and outside of the "eoddae?" screeches is tolerable to listen to. On the other hand, the instrumental touches base on both extremes: during the chorus it's very grating and almost hurts my ears, but is pleasant during the verses justifying "How's This?" as a dance-happy anthem. Even though the verses are the best-sounding part of the song, "How's This?" will almost certainly be defined by the snazzy prechorus sections where Hyuna and the instrumental climb together to reach the chorus. It's embarrassing that I don't have more to say, there's simply a verse, prechorus, and chorus repeated ad nauseam so if anyone can figure out how to write more about this song, please let me know.
Alright so I haven't been "busy" per se, but there has been some interesting entertainment for me lately, with Hearthstone's Archon Team League Championship and Team Fortress 2's Insomnia55 competitions. Nonetheless, I've made good progress the last few months with the sheer number of reviews so before I probably wrap up August with Big Bang's series we'll take a look at Hyuna's recent comeback with...uh...
I'm a little confused as to the title of this song. Supposedly there is "Because I'm The Best" and "Roll Deep" for the English titles. The former is more or less the translation from the Korean, so I'm not too sure where "Roll Deep" came around. I'll just call this "Because I'm The Best" since the music shows have been calling it that. Anyway, this song is a dance / club track at heart. Everything from the electric instrumental, colour palette, constant spam of "hey," and the chant-like chorus certainly fulfill this characteristic. The song isn't particularly bad, but it does suffer from the whole multi-song syndrome, where parts of the song seem too different than (the) others. Just comparing the chorus to the break at 1:16. Neither really take away from the dance theme but they are different enough to where it's noticeable. Bringing up that segment is important because Hyuna's English is really bad haha. I'm really having a tough time believing the English lyrics. "You can't touch me, don't touch me" sure sounds like "You can touch me, don't touch me" which I was gonna criticize for being ridiculous. "Sorry I'm a dope girl" and "baby I'm bad all day" is also highly suspect with her pronunciation of "dope" and "bad" just being way off. Hell, even some of her Korean isn't very clear. For example, some of the lines at 0:48. Speaking of, that section is extremely hard to listen to based on how she's squeaking those words out.
When I reviewed Hara's "Choco Chip Cookies," I mentioned how Giriboy's rap feature helped the song stay relevant as opposed to being a strength of the song. Here, we have BTOB's Ilhoon who does an absolutely fantastic job with the rap but whether it's good enough to make the rest of the song good remains to be seen. I'm definitely impressed though, considering the last time I saw Ilhoon feature was in G.NA's "Oops" which was over 2 years ago. Seems like he has gone through rapid improvement since. He also shows up rather prominently in the music video, which is a nice show of Cube team support, though I'm not sure why he had to remain hidden earlier.
Honestly, black will always be the dominant hair colour for Hyuna. She doesn't make the blonde look bad or anything, but black is way more fierce which is sort of what this song was going for. Speaking of fierce and aggressive, Hyuna once again pushes the envelope and she isn't even subtle about it this time. I mean she's literally dancing in a bra. I'm 100% positive this choreography will be modified for the live performances and maybe even the lyrics. This is Hyuna and Korea we're talking about. The video is pretty standard. As mentioned earlier Ilhoon hangs around and there's a variety of colour and settings. Even some whips here and there. There are also some parts where they show Hyuna in a bunch of quickly changing outfits. It wasn't really that cool when f(x) did it with "Danger" and it's not really that cool now. I suppose you can't blame for trying, or reviving an old thing that happened in another video.
All in all, it seems Hyuna took a decent gamble with "Because I'm The Best" and didn't really win. The song is loud and fierce but fails to live up to the expectations set by "Red," which was also racy and charismatic. The only true strength of the song is the rapping, but if that's the prize of your song (as a soloist especially) that isn't a good quality. She'll receive praise and criticism alike, and there will more than likely be modifications on the song and choreography. It's just not quite as powerful as past hits.
Continuing with the “red” releases, we have Korea’s #1 sex kitten in Hyuna, with “Red”. Playing off a children’s rhyme, Hyuna is looking for a chance to redeem herself, since I consider her career on a downward trend with both 4minute and solo releases since “Change”.
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Vocals: 9 / 10
To clarify, I’m only considering the prechorus as the vocals. Everything else is either rapping or chanting, which is obviously not singing. Anyway, this prechorus is glorious. It’s probably the best of any song released thus far this year, and still contests for one of the best all time in any Korean music. It’s just that good. The crescendo / buildup is pristine and right before the active chorus, there’s that shouting / howling going on which wasn’t as terrible as I thought it’d be. Probably makes more sense given all the monkey references.
Dance: 8 / 10
This dance was just casual twerking to me. At the very least, this choreography was a lot more tame than I had expected, coming off the heels of “Bubble Pop” and “Ice Cream”, both of which are releases I don’t want to watch more than once so I’m not going to backtrack and check. There was that one move where she does a split or something? Seems random and out of the blue. Still, the fact that I went in expecting some Stellar or 4Ladies’ choreography and was surprised is a good turn of events.
Rap: 8 / 10
Despite Hyuna’s nasally voice, the rapping was pretty good here. The flow is good and Hyuna shows that she’s still the lead rapper in 4minute, since I don’t think Jiyoon could do as well as she did. The chanting of the chorus is energetic and all, but severely weakens in the 2nd half. As for the chorus itself, I know it’s referencing a children’s rhyme, interchanging her own name within the lyrics, so talk about serious product placement. The amount of times you’ll hear “Hyuna” in this song is way more than the amount of times you saw “body” text in Sistar’s “Touch My Body”. As amazing as the prechorus was in “Red”, the rapping more than holds its own.
Music Video: 7 / 10
Standard boxes, multiple camera angles, and extreme fanservice are the trifecta of Hyuna’s videos and there’s no changes here. Considering the excessive use of “Hyuna” and monkeys, there were quite a number of both in this video. Despite the monkeys and crazy partying in the video, it’s pretty bland. I won’t call it boring since the partying looked fun and saying that’s “boring” is just being rude. Nonetheless it’s a pretty mediocre MV but I will give bonus points for the monkeys.
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Overall: 80 / 100
“Red” is certainly no “Change” (Hyuna’s best solo title), but it’s actually a solid song that while a little repetitive, has good rapping supported by a beautiful prechorus which holds onto the hype and high energy feel of the song. It’s not much of a change of pace as it is a different step forward for Hyuna, who has failed me the last couple of years.
