#in which jagu has opinions

[yuuana]

Music Monday #227: EXO - Cream Soda release: July 2023 genre: Kpop

I had something else entirely planned for today, especially since I usually like to let new videos sit for a day or three (and several viewings by me) before I even think of doing a feature. Plus I am already so far behind (this is the third of the three MVs EXO has released in relation to EXIST and my new music playlist on YT is still well north of 200 entries), but ... it's EXO. So buckle in and let's go.

One of the things you notice pretty fast is the way Cream Soda continues the tradition of EXO title tracks being Hard Mode for karaoke with all that falsetto. Those high notes are mad high - there's not too many outside of EXO who could hit all those notes that cleanly while dancing any choreo, let alone that active a choreo - so I suspect this isn't going to be going onto very many boy group's list of covers they want to do. Maybe on aspirational lists, but yeah. Dance covers will no doubt abound because they always do (not for nothing EXO is called Korea's national boy group), but vocal covers not so much.

As for the lyrics themselves ... oh boy. It's funny, I was listening to a podcast ep from the start of the year where it came up that a lot of pop music is love songs, whether that's happy in love or melancholy for lost over or something else, in part because of this perception that we all know what love is. Whatever our specific thoughts about it, we have thoughts about love and can relate to some extent, making those songs more broadly accessible than, say, a song about working on a fishing boat. Many (most? nearly all?) of EXO's biggest hits fall into this very broad category, so no surprise this one does, too. The lyrics are written in a way to provide plausible deniability for how sexual, but you can only sell that so far when you're talking about cream like this song does.

Given the two pre-release MVs included Kai, I'm curious what happened that this one doesn't, outside of his name on a place card. I suppose even with knowing when he was going to be enlisting, there was only so much they could cram into his schedule, between EXO and his solo music and then his fashion label commitments. And so we start the long two years of Kai's service and not seeing him while he works in the civil service.

But that aside, the video is quite the collection of call backs to earlier MVs - Lotto is probably the most obvious, but I'm also seeing callbacks to Monster, Ko Ko Bop, and Obsession. There might be more, but doing a rewatch of all of EXO's previous MVs to check would take too long, so for now we'll leave it at that and note that this could have interesting implications for EXO's lore ... if weren't stuck at a crossroads of wondering what is even going on with the SMCU lore-verse. For various reasons, I'd already paused trying to speculate on SCMU lore because it wasn't clear it was even still a thing and to be honest, this far along, I was almost half hoping we might be getting a reboot on EXO's lore, which has been a steaming mess since 2015 (I love the guys and the lore they've had has its compelling parts, but as a writer, I'm fully aware that it's a mess that could take a couple novels worth of storytelling to fill out and put straight again). Coupled with the two pre-release MVs, best guess is that EXO is still working with the same lore and like with Don't Fight the Feeling, there's some sense that Cream Soda is also pre-Obsession, but other than that? I've got some thoughts, some theories, but nothing really that settled. Compared to some other groups with ongoing lore, EXO leaves a lot more open to interpretation, for better and for worse. I'm going to need a few more viewings before I feel any degree of confidence in trying to kitbash things together into a coherent whole.

All in all, Cream Soda manages to both surprise and be completely what one might expect from EXO, a balance not every group can manage. This one's definitely going into the playlists going forward. And maybe even one of its very own?

EXIST is out now for sale at all the usual suspects, both digital and physical, and for streaming on all major services. I look forward to EXO adding music show performances (and wins) and can't wait to see who all they net for dance challenge exchanges. SHINee seems the low-hanging fruit, but other than that there are many, many, many possibilities and the dancer in me wants to see them all. XD

Want to see Music Monday deep dives more often? Sponsor a song selection! For the low, low price of one (1) KoFi, I'll write up the song of your choice. ANY song of your choice. Yes, even that one that's been played to death. Yes, your obscure faves too. With sponsors, I can stop skipping weeks and falling further and further behind in the releases! Sponsor a current CB for the next open Music Monday slot or sponsor a throwback for a Thursday feature! But seriously, if you've been enjoying my selections and analyses, we (me and the foster kittens) would love a KoFi in thanks. DW | Twitter | Mastodon | Ko-fi | Patreon | Discord | Twitch

[yuuana]

Music Monday #228: VICTON - Virus release: November 2022 genre: Kpop cw: intermittent bright flashing

Yeah, I know, I've been saying I'd feature this MV for how many weeks now? Several. Like, all month. And it was supposed to come up here even before that and then didn't because reasons of my health being complete shithouse for months now. But I am determined, dangnabit! And have some things to say.

Let's just say VICTON has been Going Through It over the last couple of years. Debuting in November 2016 as a seven member unit on Plan A (later Play M) Ent, VICTON has been on a steady if not very flashy progression, releasing several singles and EPs and one OST before finally putting out a full album in 2021, then changing companies to IST in 2022. It could have been a promising new phase - IST is among the more successful of the small labels - but between Chan's DUI investigation last September (and subsequent departure from the group) and then Subin, Hanse, and Byungchan being unable to come to satisfactory contract terms this past April (due to military service requirements, Seungsik, Seungwoo, and Sejun are still on their original contracts), there's a very real chance that we've hit the end of the road. There hasn't been an official disbandment notice, but it wouldn't be unprecedented for a group to have a silent disbanding. On the other hand, the industry also has yet to pull out a success with a group whose members are signed across different labels1, so while I'm still clinging to hope as an ALICE, I know that hope is quite thin indeed.

Getting back to the song itself, Virus isn't really fast enough to be called a proper dance beat while at the same time having too many EDM elements to be properly called a ballad either. The use of flanging on the members' voices works for me, but makes this a somewhat atypical track for a group whose fandom name is an "acronym" for Always We Love the Voice. XD The rest of the EP is more straightforwardly melodic while still being in that space between dance and ballad.

Maybe because of what happened in the two months ahead of its release, the video carries a certain melancholy feel to it that may or may not actually be warranted? This also only has the five members in it which, given the usual production cycle, makes me wonder if they weren't made to take an afternoon to redo the group scenes and then the whole thing re-edited to remove Chan's participation in it. My ear isn't tuned enough to tell if they re-recorded the EP as well - I suspect not, because that could have been a potentially huge expense, depending on where in the cycle they were when he was dismissed, but I really couldn't say.

Seungwoo (who was not part of this EP) has completed his service, but Seungsik and Sejun have only just started theirs (enlistments in March and June of this year, respectively). Given the contract issue and the low level expectation that Hanse and Byungchan will start their manditory service terms next year, if they are still able to work together, another comeback is likely to be some time off yet.

"Choice" is out now wherever you like to do your Kpop streaming and likely still available for physical purchase as well. If that EP tickles your fancy, I recommend giving the rest of their discography a try as well.

1. yes, I know there are groups doing the still-together-across-labels thing, but GOT7 has done one release this way and no one else has been doing it long enough to be called a success yet, so I stand by this claim.

Want to see Music Monday deep dives more often? Sponsor a song selection! For the low, low price of one (1) KoFi, I'll write up the song of your choice. ANY song of your choice. Yes, even that one that's been played to death. Yes, your obscure faves too. With sponsors, I can stop skipping weeks and falling further and further behind in the releases! Sponsor a current CB for the next open Music Monday slot or sponsor a throwback for a Thursday feature! But seriously, if you've been enjoying my selections and analyses, we (me and the foster kittens) would love a KoFi in thanks. DW | Twitter | Mastodon | Ko-fi | Patreon | Discord | Twitch

[yuuana]

Music May for May 4th: OnlyOneOf - libidO  release: April 2021 genre: Kpop

If you follow me on Twitter, you've already seen me do a short rant about this selection, but here I am with even more thoughts. Because this queer has nothing if not ever more thoughts. :p

It's not often I feel the need to warn for this, but ... do not attempt this choreography without appropriate supervision. On either yourself or someone else. These gentlemen are trained professionals who spent hours learning to get this choreo exactly right each time. With a song title of "libidO," it's probably no surprise to hear this song is about sex. Which should not have been the least bit controversial - whatever certain corners try to say, sex is as common a theme in Kpop as it is in any other modern pop music scene. The staging notes call it EDM beats over R&B melody with lyrics meant to "express the impulses a boy experiences with love" (their words) and with the usual heteronormative lyrics, if they'd left it at that, things might have been fine. But then the MV came out and between the narrative segments and the choreography, a very different story appeared and the antis soon had both their knickers and quite a few others in a twist. Because skinship is fine, but the MV was somehow queerbaiting and therefore wrong. Putting aside that the MV is pretty much the exact opposite of queerbaiting ... if you took the song off of the narrative film sections, you'd be left with scenes that could easily be waved off as Passionate Male Friendship. Like come on, when do we ever call a pickup game of Shirts vs Skins queerbaiting? That said, I have nothing but respect for a group and company that, in the middle of an industry that can be almost aggressively "zomg no homo!!" over their fanservice actions, took a look at what netizens were saying and basically said "fine, here, have an even sexier/hornier, gayer, and kinkier version" the next week: "libidO (Guilty Pleasure ver)". Was the dance-only version already in the can when "libidO" originally released? Almost definitely. And they could have chosen to let it die in there, to back down and tweak the choreography into something less instead of continuing as planned, but they didn't. Sometimes it's the little things, you know? And oh yeah, it's actually a good, fun song and OnlyOneOf is actually also a talented group of guys with a bunch of other good songs? That I'd hardly even heard of before this controversy started because fourth gen is huge and I am smol, so hey, the antis accidentally did something good. And they can just die mad about that. XD If you’ve been enjoying my selections and analyses, please consider buying me a Ko-fi! DW | Twitter | Ko-fi | Patreon | Discord | Twitch

[yuuana]

Music Monday #118: DEZERT - Rhapsody in My Head  release: December 2019 genre: visual kei, visual rock

This song starts out sounding like a discordant mess, but give it a bit and the sound develops into ... okay, there's still discordant passages, but it's less mess and more purposeful. Blame it on Chiaki's piano banging? On the other hand, given that it's a song talking about feeling frustrated by the shallowness of pop culture trends, that dissonance is entirely appropriate.

I actually really love DEZERT for a variety of reasons, from the blatantly superficial (Miyako (guitarist) is a total cutie and SaZ/Sacchan (bassist) has Zero Fucks Left To Give) to the actual enjoyment of their music. "Rhapsody in My Head" feels like a bit of a tangent off their usual sound while the video suggests they've decided Sora (drummer) is the ultimate source of their sexiness. Plus their icon has changed (again) to a kind of macabre smiling daisy. Besides, in a genre that is all about the look, SaZ and Dezert are an important 'fuck you' to the pressure to conform to a given look and body type.

If you’ve been enjoying my selections and analyses, please consider buying me a Ko-fi!

[yuuana]

So this is not her most recent release, this is her previous single, which got a second release this spring in the form of a remix triplet. And also comes in English, as have her other two singles under this name. And once again our golden dancing queen shows off her multiple talents. Not gonna lie, I've been loving watching Hyoyeon step out on her own and gain confidence in herself as not just a dancer.

But here's the thing, and this is where I get a little ranty - she is NOT getting SM's support the way her SNSD sisters do. Minimal promo for either her new single ("Badster" on Spotify) or the DJ gigs she's doing in Japan right now. She's racking up some #1s in the charts (11 of them at last count, all for the English version, and no chart number from Korea), but our girl is doing that herself, working SNS to promote herself. Which is the time-honored way of EDM artists for decades now, it's true, but COME ON. Also, the MV is an unlabeled migraine and/or seizure-inducing MESS. Saying the avatar looks like her requires a level of generosity I'm not especially feeling, given SM's resources, and did I mention no warnings about the severe strobing? If I hadn't happened, by chance, across a single fan warning on Tumblr (which was caveated with an "I'm sure someone's said this already"), and thus been ready for it ... yeah. I still can't actually watch the MV, hence the Spotify link.

Hyoyeon's been putting out solo singles for a couple years now, the woman has genuine talent and she deserves a full stage, a full album, or at the very least, the full support of her own damn label, especially when SM are the ones who ponied up for her to learn spinning in the first place. Instead we get a series of under-supported singles that then doubtless become the justification for not spending more on her work.

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