[Review] KARD - Hola Hola

KARD is finally here! Well let's not kid ourselves, this is a debut the same way EXO's "Mama" was their "debut." Three other MVs and a world tour before this moment hardly make it a debut, but I digress. KARD have been sensational since "Oh Nana," and even though they don't have Youngji in the ranks, the complete lack of coed groups make this squad a refreshing team to watch and listen to. Their vocals are good, rapping is strong, dancing is exciting, what more could you need? Let's hope "Hola Hola" continues to deliver the hype.

This song is definitely a sort of fusion of their previous releases. I love callbacks and references to other songs in general, so I was especially delighted to hear the callback to "Oh Nana."  They even did the same point move of the dance, too! Somin's voice seems very flexible: she can hit notes from all ranges on the spectrum and easily carries the group vocally. Granted there's only two real vocalists between her and Jiwoo but that isn't to say Jiwoo is bad. In fact her versatility was shown off like never before in "Hola Hola," which is awesome. She got the usual healthy dose of singing lines along with a rap / rap-singing verse. The potential for Jiwoo to be the next big jack-of-all-trades is there, and it's up to DSP to use it. Can we also enshrine that "uh" before Jiwoo's rap as one of the best in the business outside of Jessi herself?

[Misc] Girl Group Visual Power Rankings III: Summer 2017

I don't even know why I do these. Probably because I'm bored and all the Power Rankings are extremely fun to write about even if they are subjective lists. That said, this will be the last installment for a while, maybe even the last period. As it's getting sillier and sillier to be ranking members based on their looks. And also because we all know that Taeyeon is the fairest of them all kappa. Here's the list of the prettiest faces during this hot hot summer.

12. Minhee (NEW) / 11. Junghwa (NEW) / 10. Tzuyu (--) / 9. Yoona (NEW)

The newest entries to this esteemed group are Minhee and Junghwa. Lately I've been captivated by Junghwa's Instagram and there's no denying she's gorgeous. Hani oppa would very much agree. Minhee has a really cute face but she's obviously known with her group for being the epitome of sexy. Tzuyu will probably stay until the end of time here, even though Mina and Momo are far superior and that's scientifically proven. And the only reason I'm putting Yoona here at this point is because Girls' Generation is making a comeback. She's the visual even though she's like on the bottom half of the group in terms of appearances for me.

[Review] Red Velvet - Red Flavor (Blitz)

Even though Red Velvet has made their third comeback under the dance category (or red concept / style), things looked promising from teasers. "Red Flavor" is a deviation from the styles of "Russian Roulette" and "Rookie" and more closer to the solid "Ice Cream Cake." Both song names have to do with food, hmm. Perhaps that's why both are so enjoyable. Wendy is in her element (belting out another bridge) and Seulgi's voice is wonderful. And as usual the rest of the squad holds up, too. Unlike other shared rap situations, I don't mind this one as much since both Irene and Yeri get their share of singing lines in the rest of the song. The rap itself isn't bad and might be Irene's best showing since "Ice Cream Cake." "Red Flavor" is really consistent from start to finish, despite the super awkward fuzzy(?) noises - the ones at the end of the first chorus for example. As expected, we have a vivid and colorful music video to accompany this track. Fruits are everywhere and you'd almost think this was sponsored by some local fruit market. The girls interviewing giant fruits are hilarious, and the overlay during those scenes are great. Too bad another (girl) group struggles to have visual consistency because Irene's bangs have to go. Thankfully they aren't omnipresent in their live performances. While I'm salty we didn't get another ballad masterpiece like "One Of These Nights," "Red Flavor" shows a return to form for the upbeat dance tracks that make Red Velvet dangerous on both sides of the ball.

Word Count: 262

[Review] DAY6 - Hi Hello

Apparently it's been over a year since the last review about a boy group. Holy cow, let's fix that haha. DAY6 is one of the groups that my sisters really love (besides BTS that is) so I hear a lot of their music throughout the days and weeks. Given their band nature and constantly putting out new songs (and I mean constantly), it's hard to ignore them. Plus this goes back to my middle school years and early foray into Kpop when rock and pop rock were my bread and butter. So let's see what DAY6 has to offer in their July releases.

"Hi Hello" is soothingly slow and soothingly soft. Those harmonies during the chorus are something spectacular, man. I could honestly repeat those small sections over and over again. I've always been a bigger fan of Jae's voice than Sungjin truth be told, but not sure if I can explain why. Sungjin's voice tends to be higher and a little more nasally. Jae's tends to be more distinct and I like that. Younghyun is also a good contributor for vocals so it's nice to see him not get the usual rapper treatment. Speaking of which, I'm glad they haven't been adding any raps in their music lately. Not only does it make sense - bands don't generally have rappers (or at least I feel that should be the case) but as with most JYP rappers not named Yubin, they aren't that good and their actual raps themselves aren't that good either. A slow rap could've ruined this song so smart moves were made to exclude one.

[Blog] KCON 2017 NY

KCON was something that had been on my radar in the past, but never had the opportunity to attend. This year was my first KCON, and additionally third Kpop concert following concerts in New York 2011 and Hong Kong 2012. I decided against writing about the non-concert aspects of the event, because honestly there was so much that happened throughout KCON I feel like I could write a book. Anyway the concert was truly the main draw of the show. Here are a little bit of my thoughts on each of the performing artists, in the order that they performed during the concert.