#Discography Deep Dive

[stylized-corpse]

The fourth album from The Ocean is a monumental masterwork of progressive metal.

[married-2-the-music]

K-pop Discography Deep Dives: BTS (Part ONE)

A Disclaimer: I was planning, when I first started Tumblr, to be a lurker, but then I began an office job and needed something to listen to to keep myself occupied. And then, I started going through entire K-pop groups’ repertoires, album by album, and jotting down my thoughts. And then, I stumbled into K-pop tumblr and decided, you know what, there’s at least four people on this hell site who would read in depth rants about these discographies and at least five who wouldn’t read it and then get mad because it’s kind of our job as K-pop fans. My lukewarm takes should be taken with an entire silo of salt and the knowledge that this is completely for fun and occupying my very bored, very neurodivergent brain. All this to say, for the love of god, I’m a sleep-deprived student and I don’t have time for internet hate, so don’t kill me. With that being said, enjoy!

So, my credentials: I’ve got nothing this time, folks. I’m not an Army; I’m too casual to even be a casual fan. I like most of what I’ve heard, based on friend recommendations, but I have no idea how representative of their work the songs I’ve heard are. I know the group members’ names, but barely anything about them, although I’m always open to learning more. The reason I wanted to do this deep dive is because I’ve been a k-pop fan for almost five years now and I’ve heard every opinion between “BTS is the second coming of Christ” and “BTS is responsible for the collapse of society,” and I want to make up my own mind, free of influence.

Since BTS has over 200 songs, I’m also doing short supplementals each week, both to give myself and you guys a break and to look at groups / soloists with discographies too short to need a full week (because this is gonna be a dissertation and I’ll have to separate it into two parts). So, grab your lightstick, get some ice cream, steal a fluffy dog, and settle in folks. Let’s do this.

BTS, as you probably know, is short for Bangtan Sonyeondan, or Bulletproof Boy Scouts, and debuted in 2013 (they just had their tenth debut anniversary) and they have seven members: Jimin, Namjoon (RM), Taehyung (V), Jin, Yoongi (SUGA), Jungkook, and Hoseok (J-hope).

First things first, I love a good intro, and the loudspeaker is funny; 2 cool 4 skool is not what I was expecting. I’m not the biggest fan of “I’m too cool for you” hip-hop personally, but I can respect We Are Bulletproof (p.2) for the fact that the message doesn’t feel empty. I believe what they’re selling, even if I don’t want to buy it. To be honest, I’m a singer, and I listen to artists to hear their singing voices, because I know that they can sing beautifully.

On the album I’m much more a fan of Like, although I prefer the slow mix from their later work. The rest of the first album gave me a bit of whiplash to be honest, but I can appreciate how unique it is, both in k-pop and music as a whole. The skits are very odd, but they did make me feel like I know more about the members than I would about an average k-pop group from their album; I can see why so many people became fans early on.

On O! R U L8 2?, N.O. immediately caught my attention with the interesting instrumental and the sing-talk and singing combo. I did enjoy it more than We Are Bulletproof, because of the melody, but I liked it, didn’t love it. (I could’ve done without the growling). Most of the b-sides aren’t for me, but I do want to talk about Coffee and Paldongangsan.

I did like Coffee (especially the harmonizing on the Baby~~ part of the chorus) but I really didn’t like the rap verses. I don’t have anything against them being there in theory; raps can be done in a quiet, calm way (like in “Child” by Mark from NCT), but it’s not happening here and they feel very out of place. It’s all well and good to rap excellently, but you need to have some variety or else everything threatens to feel the same.

But, my hidden gem from this album is definitely Paldongangsan. Look, one of my majors is linguistics, so it’s no surprise I went wild at this song. It’s about the different dialects of Korean (which originate from different places there) and the stereotypes associated with each one, and it ends with Namjoon yelling at the rest of them to stop ragging on each other for their dialects and be accepting because it’s all the same language anyway. It was actually the first BTS song I heard, about two years ago (barring Dynamite, of course), because an Army friend of mine recommended it to me. I’ve never heard a song like it before (or since for that matter) and it’s remained on my Top 25 K-pop songs playlist ever since.

Anyway, digression over, and onto the next album, Skool Luv Affair. Boy In Luv is definitely a turning point in their discography, with its drive and rock elements. I wish it was more melodic, as I always do, but it grew on me after a couple more listens and it's my favorite of the title tracks so far. Hidden gems for this album are Just One Day and especially Outro: Propose (which I wish wasn’t so short, because I thought it was pretty good.)

With Dark & Wild we turn another corner. Danger intrigued me from the first part’s guitar riff and interesting instrumental. Although I was a bit wary, the set-up of the pre-chorus, pay-off of the chorus, and earworm of the post-chorus reassured me. It’s the first single from this deep dive that I’ve liked on 1st listen. (The “don’t get me confused” is stuck in my head now.)

War Of Hormone arrives with a record scratch and a bombast of horns. And arrives is the right word: it makes its presence known. I really enjoyed this one, and I even replayed it a few times. At its best moments, it mixes very different parts together without feeling like whiplash and becomes anthemic. I especially love the contrast between Namjoon’s scratchier, lower voice and Jungkook’s higher notes, and of course, harmonizing, my one true love. It’s a bit of a dumb song but they don’t take it too seriously and I appreciate that they aren’t afraid to laugh.

This album was also a turning point for me when it came to my enjoyment of their work; I didn’t really dislike any song on it and the better balance of rapping, sing-talk, and singing made me less reactionary towards the raps that were there. There’s more variety in the raps themselves too: sometimes they’re upbeat, sometimes they’re pensive, sometimes they’re angry, but they don’t all sound like they’re trying to kill me through my earbuds. Improvement! Also, showing some vulnerability helps balance the more boastful songs that are there, so I disliked those less too.

Yes, I’m fully aware that their rapping is technically very good, I just don’t always enjoy it. I appreciate songs like Hip Hop Phile and their meanings, but appreciation still can’t make you like something that you don’t like. As for what I did like, my hidden gems for this album were Let Me Know (which finally lets them sing and be open with their feelings), Could You Turn Off Your Cellphone (harmonizing again), and Look Here (very odd but I enjoy the horns).

I Need U is surprisingly calm in its intro and is very much poppier than the last few title tracks have been, with more of an anguished edge than a youthful “I’m cooler than you” edge, which I appreciated. I liked this one. It’s much better at balancing the harmonizing with rap and the instrumental (which is very interesting, by the way) than the previous songs, and I can see how it sets them on the path after that leads to their more melancholy and contemplative title tracks further down the line.

Run works as a good foil; it’s pretty upbeat, which does make sense given that it’s (somewhat) a love song. I love the way the chorus surges forward and even though it’s poppier than the others, it doesn’t feel like they’ve lost their identity. It still feels like a BTS song, basically. It’ll probably be making an appearance on my gym playlist, which is never a bad thing.

As a side note, I love that so many of their songs embrace the idea of full pre-choruses, choruses, and post-choruses, because it makes each track feel more intentional and lived in, not like they’re trying to fill space on an album or have empty space. In the k-pop songs that are on my top 25 (of which two are BTS), this holds true for the vast majority of them.

Dope is a song that, like War Of Hormone, feels like it arrives, not begins, with its “Ladies and gentlemen”, and I love the build-up that it has leading to the chorus. But…it just doesn’t have enough payoff to that build-up for me, with an empty, shouty chorus and more lyrics about how great they are. I know a lot of people love it, but it has too many of my pet peeves to get past. Sorry, guys.

In the same vein, I should like Fire. I love an explosion of a chorus and I adore a song about burning down the system as much as the next witch. I love the lyrics, and I think that pre-choruses are good and the bridge especially is great. But I don’t like this song. At all. It comes dangerously close to grating one too many times for me, and embraces all of the worst aspects of their early material with none of the charm that had me chuckling with, not at, the first few albums. I’ve mentioned many times how much I hate an anti-drop and this song does absolutely nothing to change my mind. I expect the cursing to the heavens to come in in about 3…2…1…

Save Me is the last single from the album, and the most similar to the BTS songs I’ve heard before: ethereal, wispy, ruminating, and with a soft electronic background. I do like this one, although I wish the last chorus had more of an end (like I was a bit confused when the next song started) and I wish the main rap was a bit calmer to fit with the rest of the song. It’s at its best when it allows their voices to just be and meld with each other.

I have one main hidden gem for this album, which is Butterfly. It’s no surprise that I love this one with how insane I am about harmonizing and vulnerability, but I really do love it. I feel like this should’ve been a single instead of Save Me, to be honest. All of the main gripes I have with it are remedied here: the chorus is fuller, the ending feels earned, and the raps are just calmer enough that they don’t stick out like a sore thumb. I also appreciated Taehyung’s voice more than I have in the past, and I’m glad for him in the chorus.

Also, speaking of vulnerability, I also, somewhat surprisingly, like the intro of the Most Beautiful Moment In Life, although I didn’t plan to on first listen. I appreciate that this song doesn’t try to paint them as above the world or better than anyone, but embraces the genuine emotion that they’re so good at conveying. It’s such a raw expression of exhaustion that I felt sympathy even before I looked up the words, which is pretty damn powerful.

And….breathe. Would it surprise you to learn that we’re only in mid 2016? Yeah, yeah, me too, kid. This is where Part 1 ends, I do my Supplemental for the week tomorrow (a boy group who I highly doubt you’ve heard of), and we all go touch some grass and eat some Doritos. K? K.

I’ll see you next week, for both Part 2 of this odyssey and a girl group supplemental!

[yelena-bellova]

I can’t claim to be a mega Michael Jackson fan…

But I will wholeheartedly stand alongside his fans to fight the Swifties saying Taylor Swift is better than him.

[chloeoriginal]

Taylor Swift Discog Deep Dive: TTPD + The Anthology

Upper. Echelon. Other eras will be discussed later. No more words. Here are the standouts on first listen.

Cassandra, Florida!!!, ICDIWABH, The Alchemy, Clara Bow, WAOLOM, Track 5, Guilty as Sin, Peter, The Albatross, ILIPW, Robin, The Manuscript, et al.

April 26-June 6. Taylor Swift deep dive done. Rep, Lover, 89, Midnights, TTPD, Speak Now. The eras in my mind's rotation. Thank you, the music industry. Rest in peace, my finances.

The end.

[ghost-proofbaby]

sometimes you just need to giggle and scream about grown ass men with your best friend for a couple hours to remember that life is good and it’s all gonna be okay

[letsbealone-together]

I just discovered a new band. ✨

[myenharoha]

what’s ur favorite p1harmony song(s) + ur bias ?

[hella1975]

me: i really really really don’t need a new band with complex lore and characters to get invested in i don’t have the time or mental capacity idc how cool they are or how much presence they bring to their performances

also me seeing sodo from ghost playing a white guitar so hard his fingers bleed and smear all over it and he KEEPS PLAYING: um. umm

[wienners]

i cant die there are so many things i have yet to be annoying about

[ribbittrobbit]

half alive makes me want to learn choreography is this what kpop fans feel?

[pocima]

Thinking about how SICK this track is… the production is everything (♫ Pineapple Kryptonite by Atarashii Gakko!)

[stylized-corpse]

The fifth record from The Ocean, Heliocentric, is my favourite from the band.

[married-2-the-music]

K-pop Discography Deep Dives: Chung Ha

Chungha first debuted in 2016, through the temporary group I.O.I., which also launched the careers of soloist Jeon Somi and actors Kim Sejeong and Kang Mina. As a soloist, she debuted with Why Don’t You Know in 2017 after I.O.I. 's disbandment.

Here are my credentials: I’d consider myself a casual fan of Chung Ha, who I know mainly through her friend Sunmi. I’ve heard a decent amount of her title tracks, and a few b-sides, but I’m looking forward to hearing more of her songs and forming a more accurate opinion of her work as a whole.

Why Don’t You Know is surprisingly chill with its acoustic guitar and lighthearted whistling effects, but has a calm kind of tropical summer catchiness that’s honestly pretty effective. It’s not an instant classic, as it does sound a lot like other tropical-inspired songs, but I did like it, minus the rap, which felt a bit too harsh for a song like this. (Also, can I say, I love that yellow, green, and red cardigan she wears in the MV! It’s stunning.)

From the EP, Hands On Me is a jazzy little opening, and I wish it was longer. It reminds me of a 9Muses track in the best way possible. Make A Wish continues that jazziness with a self-assured, smooth Chicago-esque showmanship that I really appreciated. It’s definitely a shoulder-dancing song, if you know what I mean. Cosmic Dust is a pretty traditional ballad, but provides a nice showcase for Chung Ha’s vocals.

Roller Coaster is pretty minimalistic at its beginning, and I was a bit worried that it’d be boring, but it turns out that those worries were unfounded. By the chorus, it spirals into an engaging dance floor bop that had me nodding my head. My only gripe is that I wish it took its high points a little higher, with perhaps more vocalizing or more of a cathartic point at the end of the chorus (a la TXT’s Chasing That Feeling), but overall that’s a small critique.

From the EP, Offset, I wasn’t the biggest fan of Do It at the beginning but I grew to appreciate its energy. I liked Bad Boy a lot, though I enjoyed the fast-paced verses and pre-choruses more than the chorus. Its last minute got me, though, and it became a solid hidden gem of mine. It was a bit of whiplash, though, to go from the fun of Bad Boy to the abject heartbreak of Remind Of You, a good lesson that not every album necessarily needs a ballad if it doesn’t fit in.

Love U is a song that I hadn’t realized I’d actually heard before, since I’d only heard the chorus. The opposite of Roller Coaster, its intro starts with a hard-hitting trap beat, while the song itself feels more like Why Don’t You Know with its bright summery energy. I enjoy the background vocalizing and the underlying drum beat too, though I feel like the chorus is a bit too empty for me to like as much as I did Make A Wish or Bad Boy. From the EP, Blooming Blue, I enjoyed the bright call-and-response of “I’m in love, I’m in love” from Cherry Kisses and the bass guitar contrasted with Chung Ha’s high voice in Drive.

Gotta Go is a single, and intrigued me right from its unique flute-meets-trap sampling, that matches with Chung Ha’s signature synthy background. The chorus is very interesting, because it both is and isn’t an anti-drop; it doesn’t exactly release the tension of the song, but it doesn’t let it fall away either. Instead, it’s a little like a Taemin track in that the tension never really goes away. I do like the high note before the last chorus, though I wish that there was more of a bridge. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this one. It’s not a favorite, but I don’t hate it, and I don’t think I’d skip it if it showed up on my shuffle.

Snapping picks up similarly to where Gotta Go left off, with a beat in the middle of a lot of k-pop; not a super invigorating one, but not boring by any means. I’m glad that the anti-drop was left until the end of the chorus, as if it was the entire thing, I would be disappointed. I do really like the “now I let you go.” As is, I don’t mind this one, and I wouldn’t skip it, but I wouldn’t search it out either.

From the EP, Flourishing, I had a clear standout in Chica. Clearly taking influences from Latin Pop and some Spice-Girls-esque feel-good-you-can-do-it-babe Girl Power, it’s hard not to smile when you hear it, especially at the “chica, chica, see you’ve got it all; chica, chica, see you’re beautiful!” All in all, it’s a delightful addition to my playlist. I also liked the song Flourishing itself, especially its pre-choruses.

Now, we start Chung Ha’s 20-song epic Querencia, which has four sides, Noble, Savage, Unknown, and Pleasures, and each has a title track. Side A, Noble’s, is Bicycle, a sing-talk track that leads with a trap-beat background and melds K-pop girl crush with Ariana Grande-esque lyrics. I…really do not like this song. I have a very low tolerance for “I’m cooler than you” music in general, but when it’s pared with such an empty chorus and feels like a recycled Blackpink b-side? Yikes. Sorry, Chung Ha. From Side A {Noble}, I liked the subtle Latin-pop influences and interesting percussion of Masquerade and the great, chugging beat that’s so great at leading Flying On Faith (a rare completely English song that I loved).

Stay Tonight is Querencia’s second single, and thankfully returns to her signature synthpop. The verses had me nodding my head—a huge improvement from Bicycle—and had me excited for the chorus. But, after the great high note in the pre-chorus, the chorus itself didn’t feel like enough of a payoff, instead feeling more meandering and unengaging. While I absolutely liked it more than Bicycle, it’s not in my top 10 of her singles.

From Side B {Savage}, I enjoyed the way-too-short a-capella section at the beginning of the choruses and the “don’t make me, don’t make me dream of you” in Dream Of You (another English language track I enjoy). I also liked the breathy vocalizations in both Bother Me and Chill, Chill especially.

Play is the third single, and embraces a more playful and upbeat sound that harkens back to Why Don’t You Know, Love U, and Cherry Kisses. Though the subject isn’t that different from the other two, the genuine fun that its chorus is when it explodes and the excellent interpolation of reggaeton (in both the beat and the choreo) and brass makes this one something special. The chorus here absolutely delivers, with several parts all coming together to form a very satisfying payoff. Definitely my favorite single so far.

Demente is also a single from this side, and shockingly, it’s all in Spanish. It’s not unusual for K-pop idols to release songs with Latin pop inspired beats, or even in different languages, but this is definitely a rarity. Demente (which means “crazy” in Spanish), is honestly a really solid, catchy pop song, and (though Spanish isn’t my first language) if I didn’t know that she wasn’t fluent in it, I wouldn’t have guessed. As I’ve mentioned on my blog before, I’m a linguistics major, so this was a delight to listen to. Genuinely, kudos to Chung Ha, and to Guaynaa, the featured artist, who has the distinction of having a rap that I thought really added to the song. From Side C {Unknown}, my hidden gem was the acoustic guitar and piano led, comfortingly slow Byulharang.

X is the final single from Querencia, and is a more emotional, stripped-back performance that Chung Ha dedicates to her mother and the work that they both put in to achieve her dreams of becoming an idol. Filmed entirely in black and white and featuring an enormous, Godzilla-like Chung Ha wandering through a tiny, closed-off city fighting against her, it’s a great example of why soloists should write their own tracks. It’s imbued with a lovely sense of pathos and feels like a fitting way to end a magnum opus of an album. From Side D {Pleasures}, I liked the restful album closers in Everybody Has’ traditional ballad structure, the calmly catchy Comes N Goes, and the instrumental Querencia.

Killing Me is another single, and while it’s similar to Gotta Go, it feels sleeker and more streamlined, focused on achieving the goal that is its chorus. Because of this, it’s quite short–under three minutes–and, though it’s not the best of her singles, it doesn’t overstay its welcome. Another perfectly fine track that I wouldn’t skip but wouldn’t search out.

Sparkling feels more like Roller Coaster than anything from Querencia, which had me excited right away. It has, well, unsurprisingly, a sparkling quality to its instrumentals, and would be right at home on a dance floor. It’s delightfully bubbly, tip toeing and tap dancing all over the place with delight, and that energy is infectious. As always, I wish it had a more defined chorus, but I really like the lead-in in both the bridge and pre-choruses.

From the EP, Bare & Rare, Good Night My Princess caught my ear immediately with a sense of warmth that’s unusual for a ballad, and I loved it even more when I found out that Chung Ha wrote it as a thank you for all the sacrifices her mother made for her to be able to grow up and pursue her dreams, similarly to X. The song features Chung Ha’s voice at its most lovely, and it made me tear up a little, if we’re being honest. I also enjoyed Bibi’s feature and the excellent sense of drama in Crazy Like You, the celebratory mood in Louder, and especially the crying-on-the-dance-floor vibes of Love Me Out Loud (which gets more addicting with every repeat).

I’m glad I did this! I enjoyed Chung Ha’s work more than I thought I would, although I shouldn’t be surprised as a big fan of Sunmi and synthpop in general. I learned that she writes many of her own songs, and that she speaks some English and a little Spanish, so color me impressed. I found a bunch of songs I enjoyed—mainly b-sides—that I added to my playlists. So I’d say you could consider me at least a fan now!

My Top 5 songs are Play, Love Me Out Loud, Chica, Cherry Kisses, and Flying On Faith, with Good Night My Princess as an honorable mention. Chung Ha gets an 8.25 out of 10 from me, which is about what I expected. I think that where her songs often falter for me are the choruses, which unfortunately is one of the most important parts. When she pulls it off, she’s made some excellent tracks. But more often than not, I find myself loving the buildup but being disappointed by the pay-off. There were very few tracks I didn’t at least enjoy, and this isn’t me saying that I think her work is bad. But with just a few changes and a greater sense of pay-off, she would have a pretty unbeatable discography.

Next time, we’ll be starting a two week series on a pretty huge girl group, and we’ll be having a boy group supplemental next week. Tschüss!

[chloeoriginal]

Just finished TTPD w/ The Albatross on CD. How do they do it every single time? Like, holy. Fucking. Shit. The pacing? The unfilteredness woven with her trademark poeticism? Wow. Anthology time. Going straight in, fuck it. More thoughts after this.

[ihavenothingtosayandimsayingit]

Discography Deep Dive: GY!BE

Part 3

Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada (1999)

Label: Constellation, Kranky

Producers: Dale Morningstar

Scores

Ranking: 7

Overall Average Score: 2.9

Mixing: 2.5

Pacing: 2.5

Track Ordering: 3

Orchestral/Textural variety: 1.5

Melodic  Ingenuity: 3

Aesthetic Consistency: 5

Stand-out track: Moya

Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada is a huge moment in the early discog of Godspeed. Its long two track arc ebbs and flows gorgeously as a sonic journey checking all the boxes of true Godspeed style: the long minimalistic crescendo built upon evolving and unfurling textures of strings, drums and guitars, with interspersions of "vox pop" field recordings (the extensive interview of Blaise Bailey Finnegan III being the central character). 

Throughout "Moya" (one of the stand-out tracks in Godspeed's canon) we hear gorgeous melodic fragments germinate from the seeds of a twelve-note passacaglia. As this movement builds and transforms, the textures remain rather homogenous. While the pings of the glockenspiel are initially welcomed as a bright touch to the introduction of the twelve-note ostinato they become more awkward and out of place when the texture thickens, especially when they become tremolos. Despite this attempt of textural variety, what remains consistent is exemplary melodic ingenuity and symmetry that is consistent with Godspeed's minimalistic approach to building textures. The twelve-note ostinato doesn't show up in its complete form until 3'45" into the movement. Preceding this is a haunting seven-note motive introduced by the strings. As the twelve-note passacaglia proceeds several countermelodies spin out in a neo-baroque style finally give way to a five-note descent into the requisite field recording moment of "BBFIII". Thus, a twelve-note passacaglia is symmetrically bookended by patterns of seven (at the beginning) and five (at the end): 7+5=12.

Although less poetic than other field recordings, "BBFIII" stands out as a dramatic documentarian style, undergirded by the deft touches of guitar harmonics with a melodramatic string tremolos and drum fills. The inevitable forces of the instruments take over to create a compelling climax of riff-like power chords and four-on-the-floor drumming. This would be a fantastic ending, yet the strings enter again in a coda-like fashion with washed-out reverb more in a neo-baroque style . This seems to be a blurred and all-too-short hazy memory of the opening moments of "Moya." Although aesthetically consistent, this use of coda seems almost perfunctory when heard within the context of Godspeed's innovative endings where entire movements act as dedicated codas. To round off the structure of this diptych, Slow Riot really needs to be a triptych. This would be consistent with the baroque style alluded to throughout (which are often in three parts) and proportional to what is asked of the listener in this sonic journey. The aesthetic and imaginative demands upon the listener in this EP is one of the main reasons why it is included in this discography deep dive. It is simply unfair to attach a diminutive EP label upon this transcendent record. 

Additional Listening

Symphony No. 3, Op.36: A Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, String Quartet no.2 "Quasi una fantasia" Henryk Górecki

Passacaglia in C minor (BWV 582) Johann Sebastian Bach

"Passacaglia" from Peter Grimes Benjamin Britten