[Review] Olivia Hye - Egoist (feat. Jinsoul) (Blitz)

The Loona hype train has come to a stop for now with the final member's solo release. Olivia Hye (dropping her last name from now on) is here with "Egoist" which is funny considering she was the last member / release. Anyway back when I reviewed "New" from Yves I said that simplicity worked out well for her. In "Egoist," Olivia gets to do a little more and the instrumental provides a nice assist. Those dance breaks were easily the high point of the song and matched the choreography well (or vice versa). Vocals-wise I don't think she's that impressive and the backing audio does well in masking what she really will sound like in live performances. At this point in Loona's time I have no idea which member is gonna be what so they're all decent support vocalists until I hear otherwise. Jinsoul's rap feature is a solid B+ in my book. She has that disparaging filter but I can look past it in favor of the overall good rapping. Rapper Power Rankings are being worked on for April so this new material is welcome. Loona is definitely in capable hands with her manning the rap department. The video has crazy strong aesthetics once again, but those ripped pants triggered my trypophobia and made me extremely uncomfortable the rest of the video. The ending where Olivia meets Heejin is a quality touch and gave me goosebumps. We could be on the verge of something magical here with Loona.

Word Count: 248

[Misc] Apink Power Ranking

I too enjoy some simple writing full of flavorful text. After Twice's Power Ranking was finished I immediately thought of fixing up another one. For some reason Apink was the group that came to mind. They have a good number of members and besides an obvious #1 pick the rest of the lineup could take some disassembling. I'll probably do more of these for shits and giggles, combining multiple groups with smaller numbers to make thing easier. For now, here's the Apink crew from worst to first.

#6. Namjoo
Every group seems to have one member that I just can't get behind. For Apink, that's poor Namjoo. I don't really know what it is about her. As far as within the group is concerned, she's not standout in any aspect. She doesn't possess a special voice (might be bottom of the entire team actually), and whenever I watch her on variety I get annoyed. I might think she's being really fake or something. At least visually she's not far behind the team, but her short hairstyles were not a favorite of mine.

[Bonus] Girl Group Power Rankings VII: Spring 2018

This was actually a difficult piece to write. Outside of an obvious top 3-4 groups, the rest of the rankings were murky for a long time. I tried using some "sophisticated algorithms" to help look at each group from a music and activity perspective but even then I still changed the final list like five times at least. In any case, these are the best girl groups right now based on their lineup, recent showings, and where they're headed, with some legacy points tacked on. Also a reminder that "new releases" covers anything that was released since the last ranking, and that even goes for groups that are appearing on the list for the first time.

Honorable Mention: Sonamoo
* New Releases: I (Knew It)
After flailing around in concept inconsistency Sonamoo have appeared to settle down in a zone. "Friday Night" and "I (Knew It)" are solid tracks that deviated from the much less enjoyable bubblegum dance pop they had throughout 2016 and early 2017. Currently the group is watching Euijin take center stage with UNI.T which could be a turning point in their group's career path. This will either give them a jolt of life or be the beginning of the end. Considering their label is TS Entertainment, I'm keeping them on my radar but not trusting their label until they prove otherwise.

Honorable Mention: CLC
* New Releases: Black Dress
Similar to Sonamoo, I can't trust CLC because of Cube. They're already planning another girl group despite CLC not yet having a stable foothold in the industry yet. "Black Dress" was a great track but last time we were treated to a tougher, girl crush concept they immediately heel turned into "Where Are You?" which was the exact opposite. With both label and genre uncertainty, I'll place them in the Honorable Mentions for now. Fun fact: three out of five groups that started in Honorable Mentions went on to join the official list so maybe there's hope for them yet (and Sonamoo).

#10. Black Pink (-6)
* New Releases: N/A
Live footage of Yang Hyunsuk working on Black Pink. Seriously, what a joke. They are the least active high-profile girl group and it's not even close. Even 2NE1 out the gate was not this pathetic discography-wise. What's that? Black Pink has an album coming up soon? Nice! Oh, it's merely their prior five songs in Japanese. Fuck off outta here YG, this is some bullshit. The only reason they're not in Honorable Mentions (or off the list entirely) is that their worst song is still better than CLC and Sonamoo's best song.

[Review] Mamamoo - Yellow Flower EP

One of these days, I will review a studio album and it will be glorious. However today is not that day. Instead we'll check in with Mamamoo because they're a group I love and also at the top of the girl group ladder. I'm going through their "Yellow Flower" EP for the first time, jotting down my thoughts on the songs as they go by. Since I'm beginning and planning to publish this on Friday, I'll probably have three listens at most for each track. This is about as pure and unfiltered of a review as I've ever done. Let's go.

2. Star Wind Flower Sun

Ignoring the intro "track" which lasts a whole 24 seconds, "Star Wind Flower Sun" leads off the EP. Given the current weather in New England, it's appropriate because it's a relaxing ballad. Besides the fact that it's mid-March and spring is theoretically around the corner. Anyway it's a pretty simple ballad but Moonbyul singing with her alto tones at 1:22 caught me so off guard. Her section of the song is by far my favorite. The song reminds me of EXID's ballad "Like The Seasons" mainly due to their Korean titles being four words. Obviously this is much slower and more flashy from a vocalist standpoint but still. We're starting off wonderfully.

[Review] Heize - Jenga (feat. Gaeko) (Blitz)

Heize always delivers. If you expect her new songs to be amazing, she will not disappoint. If you expect them to be bad, she'll blow you away. Heize ain't a digital monster for nothing. This is Heize at her finest, backed by a fusion of jazz and hip-hop that create a groovy atmosphere and an enthralling listen. Her voice is delicate and firm, gliding over the verses and chorus while that smooth piano in the background takes me back to my high school days and love for jazz piano. The pure instrumental bridge is fantastic at bringing you to the final chorus. Even though Heize is a solid singer I would have loved to hear her drop a light rap in "Jenga," but that's why she brought in help. Gaeko's appearance was great. He's always been capable of any style of rapping and so fit in with the groovy theme just fine. It's honestly been so long since I've listened to anything new out of him and Dynamic Duo that his rap was arguably the highlight of the song for me. But don't let that distract you from the fact that "Jenga" is constructed brilliantly to suit Heize's strengths. The ending is a little abrupt and the MV is rather plain but the former is excusable while the latter did have some nice throwbacks in its defense. All in all yet another wonderful track by Heize.

Word Count: 236

[Misc] Twice Power Ranking

After Girls' Generation's unofficial demise, let's see how I rank the members of Twice - who have taken over as the most popular girl group and essentially the successor to SNSD. As with any sort of bias ranking, the main factors include their talent, roles, and consistency. In terms of their personality I've not watched too much variety material on them besides Weekly. I realize now that this is actually the first formal group member ranking. There's not been a single group member ranking in my entire blog, I would've thought I did at least one official writeup for Girls' Generation. I suppose it's the changing of the times in both the Kpop world and my blog. Here we go!

#9. Sana
I wonder how many crimes this amounts to. Sana is a good mix of adorable and gorgeous but overall not really my cup of tea. Where she's strongest is that Sana has been one of the most consistent visually, or least ruined by their stylists. I mean yeah that's great since Kpop is so visuals-based but whatever. It's quite shocking to have such disparity within the J-Triplets, which you will see later.

#8. Jungyeon
Outside of f(x)'s Amber, I'm usually indifferent to other girl group members who followed that trope, though usually through no fault of their own. Jungyeon's the androgynous one of Twice but what's more important is that she has the strongest voice on the team - we won't see a vocal duel between her and Jihyo but I'm more for her voice.