[Review] Yves - New

So Loona is the new hot commodity. Thanks to an extensive investment in the group, they're milking as much about of this debut process as possible. Think EXO's predebut but on steroids. Loona started teasing in October 2016 and the group won't debut (as a whole) until 2018. As long as it works, their management will look like geniuses rather than idiots. Anyway they've already had a plethora of releases for individual members as well as subunits, and today I'll tackle the newest member to take the stage. I'm hesitant to create a new tag for her since who knows if they'll have solo material once they've debuted. But Yves (how the fuck do you pronounce that) is here with "New," let's take a look.

First off I apologize for the lazy banners, cropping the images proved difficult without having any text or logos. Anyway the song is a light dance number that makes use of Yves' lively voice. Her singing is somewhat betrayed by the heavy instrumental, but the mixture does make for an enticing listen, I'll give it that. There's two instances where the depth makes the song better: the first is when there's no singing after the chorus. The instrumental takes over and it's not an abrupt change since it remains constant from the beginning. Second, the "bridge" (I dunno if I would classify it as a bridge since the lyrics are the same from an earlier part) sounds good with all other sounds removed, then suddenly climbing right back into the active chorus.

[Bonus] Best Of 2009

Now that I'm obsessed with these Timeline posts, I want to make another where I see which groups have made the most appearances in my Best Of 20XX series. But in order to do that, I'll have to go back at least one more year. That way, the compilation will cover 2009 through 2017 (this year's edition will be coming out in early December). Plus, writing this post will refresh me and act as a primer for the Best Of 2017. I've taken the liberty of tagging the Best Of 20XX with an additional "20XX" tag if only for easy organization when looking at all my Best Of posts (since they're not simply restricted to these year-end runs).

#12. After School - Because Of You
This song is great at describing 2009 Kpop. The beat, the dance pop, the haircuts (...) and the MV quality all scream 2009. It might not be the best song from that year but "Because Of You" is one of the most iconic, without a doubt. After School is a group that you can really see the evolution of, mostly thanks to the graduation system (that was somewhat legit then). Bekah Raina, and Kahi were the driving forces of After School in this era and the microscopic amount of lines from Jungah, Jooyeon, and Nana highlight that.

#11. Davichi - 8282
Davichi has been killing it for years. I can't imagine that they have been even more underrated back in the day than they are now. "8282" The switcheroo that occurs going into the first chorus is a hilarious wake-up call because you're sitting there thinking this is another traditional Davichi power ballad but instead you could dance during the first chorus. They even include a pseudo-dance break that cuts immediately back to a slower second verse. It's a classic Davichi track through and through.

[Review] Super Junior - Black Suit

It's due time to revert to some old-school blogging for a change. Starting with the "DDD" post, I'm gonna write at least three (full) reviews before the next Blitz piece. Doesn't matter if I complete this next week or next month. No Blitzes until that happens. Super Junior steps up to the plate, with yet another change in the promotional lineup. Siwon, Kangin, and Sungmin are absent from this comeback - though Siwon is part of the song and video. Since "Bonamana," they haven't had consecutive comebacks with the same roster. Even though comes from mandatory military service and controversies, that's crazy. Having at least seven different lineups since 2010 is tragically impressive.

This song is classy as fuck. Everything about "Black Suit" screams class, even the title. This is to be expected now that Super Junior are reaching crazy levels of longevity but yeah. Particularly killer is that chorus, giving plenty of breaks for that juicy instrumental to pop in. "Black Suit" and "Devil" have the similar strong sound and really lets the vocalists shine. And by vocalists I mean Yesung. Since Kyuhyun and Ryeowook are in the army (plus Kangin making more stupid decisions), he's all that's left for their strong vocalists. And man this song shows me how much I've missed Yesung. I know he's been back since "Devil" but he's always been one of my favorite voices ever since I first got into Kpop.

[Bonus] Best Of B-Sides: Part II

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.

[Review] EXID - DDD

EXID is back. Back again. Brand new song, tell a friend! Okay moving along: EXID has made another appearance in 2017, with team mom Solji having further recovered from sickness (hyperthyroidism or whatever). Unfortunately, she isn't 100% back and by proxy probably not 100% healthy either. She isn't participating in any live performances, and also didn't film for the MV. Nonetheless I'm glad she's back. "Night Rather Than Day" was a temporary relief effort without Solji but EXID music being void of Solji's voice makes me sad. And I don't wanna be sad. Not all the time, anyway.

The electrifying instrumental that has been so crucial for many EXID songs continues to light up the background air. Those buzzing noises sound odd and grating at first, but they eventually sink into the rest of the beat and you hardly notice them until when it's blatant. I'm displeased with Hani's start to the song. She has good range but she sounds so much better in her lower register. Honestly, if I was less familiar with EXID I wouldn't have even thought it was her singing that intro. On the other hand, Junghwa is making huge strides in her support vocals and has really come a long way from the awkward transition parts like in "Hot Pink" and "Ah Yeah." She sounds far more in her element than Hani with their high notes. Her case really proves that bad parts can obscure even an average voice.

[Misc] Girl Group Power Rankings Timeline

For the next installment of the timeline posts, here's the state of girl groups as they've battled across the years on the rankings chart. This covers every Power Ranking starting in September 2015, going all the way to the most recent update a few weeks back. As usual, I'll drop the image and then provide some brief thoughts after the jump. With this, the timeline series comes to an end for now.

[Review] TWICE - Likey (Blitz)

The first Blitz piece was Twice, and the 10th Blitz is Twice. Time is a flat circle. Twice might also be a flat circle, as "Likey" gives a lot of "TT" vibes, plus both were released in late October. Good news is that "Likey" is much better than the two title tracks before it. Bad news is that it's still not as good as "Cheer Up" or "TT." The song itself is good, but I continue to lament heavy inflections in Twice (and JYP artists') music. Thankfully they aren't as severe this time around. While that hook is catchy, the linguist in me absolutely despises it because "me likey" is something a toddler would say. Then again, better than the hook from "Signal" so beggars can't be choosers. The most exciting part of the song is the bridge, where Nayeon leads into a surprisingly great (and fun!) rap break from Dahyun and Chaeyoung. This rap is better than anything they've shown so far, and the Dahyun dab was very cute. Thought it was odd during the first chorus where only half the group was doing the dance. It appears that this was only for the MV but weird nonetheless. Maybe due to space constraints? But then why film in an alley. You have another stereotypical MV but there is nice editing thrown in, as some of the transitions are really clean. Mina is stunning and I'm glad to see Chaeyoung grow her hair out. Lastly, Momo's hips continue to not lie.

Word Count: 250

[Bonus] Wild Kpop Episode II: EXID & BESTie Edition

"What if BESTie went viral in 2014?"

This series is inspired by the Reckless Speculation posts over on the NFL subreddit, which in turn was inspired by the "N-if-L" series by Dave Dameshek. The "wild" is a reference to the wild format of Hearthstone where any and all cards are available. In short, it theorizes how a single decision or event being altered would create a series of domino effects and change the future. Granted, the world of Kpop is more rigid than the world of football (there's no free agency, different contracts, etc.), but it's all for fun speculation and puts my imagination to the test, and that's precisely why I decided to take a crack at it. In today's episode (that's been sloppily pushed back month after month), we look at what could've happened to the careers of two "sister" groups if some fortunes had been reversed.