#my second favorite everglow song is la di da or bon bon chocolat

[a-moth-to-the-light]

In honor of Everglow's comeback tomorrow, I wanted to take a minute to spotlight my favorite Everglow song--it's kind of an unexpected one, so I think it'll be fun to share :)

I tend to have a problem with the production in Everglow's b-sides--I don't know if it's a budget thing, but they tend to feel strangely hollow to me, which means I rarely replay them (I really really really want to enjoy "No Good Reason" more than I do...). But "Nighty Night" is a major exception--I've been obsessed with this b-side since it came out! The messiness of its production works in its favor--the produced-in-a-garage sound is an asset when your song is trying to sound like a garage. Like, a mall parking garage where construction is going on or something? I love every weird sound in this song, but that random brick of synth that drops in at 2:20 to underscore the final chorus is EVERYTHING to me. It stops my heart--"Nighty Night" is like a rollercoaster ride where you're just waiting waiting waiting waiting for the drop, and when it comes the thrill is so stim-worthy! And though this song doesn't show off their abilities like "La Di Da" or "Don't Speak" (we see you, second verse Mia!!!), the members have to do some heavy lifting to make the disjointed instrumental feel coherent, so I definitely wouldn't underestimate their contribution to making this strange arrangement work.

I would recommend "Nighty Night" for my fellow enjoyers of weird sounds--if you like dissecting the instrumentals of songs in your head & trying to pull apart all the layers, I think this one will be a real treat! --and for people who appreciate the more deranged type of girl crush songs (in the vein of 4minute's "Crazy").

[wickymicky]

wickymicky’s Top Ten Kpop Songs of 2020

4: Everglow - La Di Da

Retro concepts are hit or miss with me. I don’t have nostalgia for 80s music, for instance, because I was born in 1996 lol. And yet, as soon as the instrumental in this song got going and those synth hits came in right after the first line, I knew I was gonna love this. This song isn’t just a retro concept… its genre isn’t just “80s throwback”... it’s a genre called synthwave or neo retro wave or other names like that. It’s a relatively recent genre that, yes, is obviously based on 80s nostalgia, but is a new thing all its own. It’s based on the sound of action movies and science fiction movies from the 80s, but if you really look at stuff from that era, there wasn’t anything that quite sounds the same as synthwave from the 2010s. It has a lot in common with vaporwave in this way. Vaporwave is clearly retro inspired, but there wasn’t anything like vaporwave back then, lol. It’s a modern reimagining of retro aesthetics.

So like, as soon as it got going, as soon as I saw the visual aesthetic, I knew exactly what was happening and I was 100% on board. As far as I know, there weren’t any other kpop songs in this style, though Twice dabbled with some synthwave aesthetics and sounds for I Can’t Stop Me which came out around a month after this song (and that’s almost certainly a coincidence, I’m sure JYP picks these songs wayyyy in advance and it was probably chosen even before La Di Da came out), but La Di Da commits to this aesthetic and genre way harder than that song does. The thing that struck me the most on the day La Di Da came out, and still makes me lose my mind when I listen to the song now, is how authentic it is. Synthwave has had some mainstream acceptance and some songs in this vein have been released by some big artists recently I think, but for the most part it’s been kind of a niche underground genre. I first discovered it by stumbling on hour-long youtube videos that were “compilations” or “mixes” of various synthwave/retrowave songs or soundscapes found on soundcloud and sites like that. This song is a pretty hard commitment to a style of music that really does come just from the internet, and I think it’s amazing that the songwriters paid tribute to it in such a prominent way.

With that out of the way, let me talk about the song itself lol. Fuck, what a good chorus. I do have my complaints with it, but they’re relatively minor. First of all, though the line distribution in this song is marginally better than their previous title track, the chorus is still sung the exact same way all three times it plays in the song. Sihyeon begins it, Mia sings the second part, and that’s it. They’re great at it, but I would have appreciated a little more variety, at least for the second chorus, to break things up in the middle of the song. Also, I just think the word “haters” is pretty silly, there’s no way to say “I don’t care about haters” without sounding like you do really care about the haters. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be saying it lol. Anytime anyone’s like “Got no time for haters” I’m just like “wow the haters must really get to you, huh?” But anyway, they didn’t write that line, they’re just singing it, it’s not a huge deal lol, it’s fine. The chorus is undeniably really really good, it’s so good that I got over my eye-roll about the “got no time for haters” line pretty fast and I sing along with it every single time now haha. Damn, it’s so catchy. With so many choruses in kpop songs being drops lately, having a chorus sung this powerfully and prominently is like a religious experience lol, it’s fantastic. I love the verses too, I think they flow really well and really complement the synthwave aesthetic well, something about it all coming together just *works* for me. All the little synth additions throughout the song are so authentic too, it just makes me so happy. That synth solo right after the second chorus is perfect.

This song kind of snuck up on me. I like Everglow, I’ve been into them since their debut. I liked Adios, but I wasn’t as happy with the direction it went in. Dun Dun was pretty similar to Adios, and although I like it better than Adios, I still wished that they would do something like Bon Bon Chocolat again, and I could feel myself losing interest in the group as they went more and more down a road that didn’t excite me as much. Their style of girl crush in those two songs is cool, but isn’t something I come back to over and over. It’s a little too… idk… beefy, lol. Too ostentatious. Too built around the drop and saying cool lines as if they’re just catchphrases, and not as much around just being a catchy song that I find new reasons to love every time I listen. By the 10th listen, I pretty much got all of what those two songs had to offer. I do like them, and I listened to them both a lot when they each came out, but they haven’t stayed with me the way you hope a song does. 

So when La Di Da was announced, I didn’t expect much. I expected another song that I would listen to on repeat for a week or so and then move on to something else. And tbh, I was fine with that. There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s like candy or junk food lol. Not everything has to be monumental and become my favorite song instantly, some things can just be something fun to listen to for a little bit. There’s value in that. And I mean, a song that is junk food to me, that I listen to for a bit and then move on, could be someone else’s favorite stuff, and the stuff that is junk food to them might be my favorite stuff, so I’m not saying that Adios and Dun Dun are objectively uninteresting, I’m being very subjective with this lol. Just speaking for myself here. In any case, yeah, I didn’t have a ton of expectations for La Di Da. 

So like, when it came out and I listened to it for the first time, I was absolutely floored. Nobody told me it was gonna be that good lol, I was not prepared at all. Cignature, Fromis 9, and CLC also released comebacks in September, and I had high hopes for all those. I thought for sure that the Cignature or Fromis 9 comeback would be my favorite song of the month, but I ended up listening to La Di Da like twice as many times as any of those other ones haha. I wasn’t even intending to! I wasn’t streaming it and forcing myself to listen to it over and over! I just couldn’t stop. I didn’t think it would be in my top 10 either, because Everglow, while being a group that I like, aren’t one of my ult groups or anything like that. But I can’t deny it. This song is so damn good lol. Here it is, at 4th place. Incredible. Completely reinvigorated my hype for Everglow too. Can’t wait to see what they do next, and I hope Yiren and Sihyeon get well soon

links to the rest of the list: 10 - Fiesta (Izone) 9 - Crossroads (GFriend) 8 - Assa (Cignature) 7 - Boca (Dreamcatcher) 6 - Kick It (NCT 127) 5 - Cool (Weki Meki) 4 - La Di Da (Everglow) 3 - Mago (GFriend) 2 - Tag Me (Weeekly) 1 - Scream (Dreamcatcher)

[wickymicky]

you know how there are some groups you like but you don't think they're gonna be one of your favorites, or you don't think they'll put out something you adore, just a lot of stuff that you think is pretty good? like, maybe there's a group you think is interesting and promising, but if you were asked whether or not they're likely to release a song that becomes one of your favorite kpop songs every, you would say "probably not". you like them, but judging based on the stuff they're released so far, you don't think they'll put out something that you'll become completely obsessed with, because at this point your opinion of them is already pretty much done forming, you know?

that's why it's so wild to me that Everglow put out La Di Da. i liked Everglow, i always have since they debuted, but after Dun Dun i was pretty sure i knew the vibe they were going with, and i was on board, but if i had to list the groups who i thought would be the most likely to put out a song that would become one of my favorite kpop songs ever, i don't think i would have listed Everglow. they were my favorite girl crush group, so i don't wanna make it sound like i didn't like them, cause i definitely did! i just didn't think they were likely to do what they did with La Di Da, lol

i remember the night when it was released, because i remember thinking to myself "eh, I'm not gonna stay up for this. I'll probably like it, and hopefully i like it more than Dun Dun and Adios, but i probably won't like it more than Bon Bon Chocolat because that song is still great. so I'm just gonna go to bed and I'll listen to it tomorrow". and then it ended up being in my top 5 songs of the year which is suuuuuper high praise lol, i listened to a LOT of songs last year. 4th place out of several hundred is huge. i had no idea that i would like it this much, but i do. not only is it better than Bon Bon Chocolat, it really is one of my favorite kpop songs ever, at this point.

it fully reinvigorated my hype for Everglow, and made me rethink the whole idea i was talking about a second ago, where there are groups i wouldn't expect to blow me away. cause like, now I'm thinking about which group will be the next one to subvert my expectations and come out with something that i'll be listening to for the rest of my life hahaha

LDD is so fucking good, ugh. the synth sounds get me every time. especially the first ones in the first verse, after Sihyeon says her first line... just those two synth chords or notes or whatever... when i first listened to the song, after thinking about my expectations the night before, i started it casually, but when those synths hit i stopped everything i was doing so i could pay full attention to the song cause it caught me so off guard and i was so into it. and that chorus holy shit lol... that first moment right before the chorus, the "everglow forever let's go" could have led to anything, because that's something they've done in their other comebacks too, so it built up my suspense like "what kind of chorus will this be... probably a drop chorus, but let's see...." and then it was one of the catchiest choruses I've heard from a new song in the two years I've been into kpop.

this is just an unstructured ramble and I'm reusing things i already said in my review of the song when i made my top 10 list, so idk, maybe you should just read that, lol. i just wanted to barf my thoughts into a text post cause i just listened to the song again and it really hit the spot haha, it's such a satisfying song