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loonarii · 8 months ago

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Ari's K-Pop Roundup: February 2024 (Twice, Le Sserafim, BabyMonster, JYP Family, BIBI + MORE)

If there's a comeback coming up you want to see talked about in March's roundup, drop me a message/ask and I'll make sure to include it :)

I Got You + One Spark - TWICE (With YOU-th)

GIF credit: @femaleidols

Twice are officially back lets fucking go, the girls are here.

Unfortunately for TWICE, only one girl group can have a good release at a time in JYP apparently, and NMIXX have snatched that privilege from them in this instance (Fe3O4: Break is a 10/10). The concept teasers for this era were super interesting and really beautiful actually, kind of reminiscent of 2018 LOONA and the ASAP - NewJeans music video, but its JYP, so naturally that vibe was completely absent from the music videos whatsoever, but I digress. The pre-release, 'I Got You' is a thrumming, synth fueled track that attempts to be anthemic, but doesn't quite meet the bar. It's pretty catchy, sure, and the lyrics are actually reasonably good, but it feels slightly uninspired and very dated. The y2k trend's days may be numbered, but its still a bit early to be referencing 2015 in our 2024 tracks, in my opinion at least. While I see the appeal, this track really doesn't blow me away, and I don't see myself returning back to it much in the near future.

The title 'One Spark' suffers the same pitfalls as 'I Got You' if not even more so. Maybe it's just me, but I found the hook to be so unbelievably boring, and the rest of the song felt wholly pedestrian in its construction. It's really quite frustrating that a song this dull got past the many rounds of production required to be released, because the producers for it are certified hit makers, and TWICE are far too talented to be releasing insultingly boring music. The music video is all about TWICE being timeless, which they are, but if they keep releasing subpar title tracks like this, that's not how they will be perceived by the average kpop listener. It's a shame, really, but with JYP's track record over the last couple of years, I can't honestly say I'm surprised. It's not unlistenable, but it's hardly up to TWICE's standard.

What's even more frustrating is that the b-sides are actually really fun, 'Rush' is evocative of PinkPantheress and is super cute, 'New New' is such a punch up from 'One Spark' that's far more exciting and catchy, and 'Bloom' is gloriously ethereal and kind of giving Chungha realness - its SUCH A FUCKING HIT. Even 'You Get Me' that I assumed was going to be the apparently obligatory end of album ballad turned out to be a laid-back, easy going finale that is both catchy and well produced. How is it possible that the two least exciting songs on the record are the only ones promoted??? Literally any of the b-sides could have been the title, especially 'Bloom' which I will be treating as the title track in my delusions. Great b-sides, boring promoted tracks, JYP doesn't know what they're doing yet again, what's new.

Easy - LE SSERAFIM (EASY)

A little bit Rosalia, a lot a bit Tyla, with a healthy dose of platinum blonde Chaewon, this is Le Sserafim doing CONCEPT better than pretty much everyone else in the industry right now.

Right off the bat, this is leaps and bounds ahead of 'Unforgiven', which had its moments, but generally failed to make an impact. 'Easy' is an effortlessly cool R&B trap track that's heavily inspired by the afrobeats trends in western pop. It's stylish, exciting, and suits Le Sserafim well - this is how to develop a musical style while not abandoning your roots. The overall metaphor that harkens to a swan on a lake (pure elegance on the surface, intense effort below) is interesting and works for their concept, but the actual lyricism in this song is utterly nonsensical. Maybe I'm just being dumb, but does 'pull up and I rip it up like ballet' actually mean? There's an English version out, which is somehow even more unintelligible, but I digress.

Lyrics aside, I like this track a lot, and the music video is utterly gorgeous. Does it live up to the heights of 'Antifragile'? No, not really, but it's definitely up there with 'Fearless', in my opinion.

The b-sides were okay, not bad, but not especially exciting. 'Smart' was easily the most exciting out of the trio, but I don't see it having the longevity of 'Blue Flame' or 'EPATBW'.

Great title, slightly dull mini album - I am seriously excited for where Le Sserafim goes sonically, they and NewJeans are undoubtedly the trendsetters of the 4th generation, and I can't wait to here more of their stuff.

Like Magic - JYP, Stray Kids, ITZY, NMIXX

GIF credit: @thankyou-taeyeon

If you are ever in doubt that capitalism is destroying music, feel free to give this one a stream. Genuinely awful.

Bam Yang Gang + Sugar Rush - BIBI

requested by @a-moth-to-the-light

Bibi is such an exciting idol. Her music is consistently exciting and innovative, and rarely dull. 'Bam Yang Gang' is such an honest, realistic, and in many ways comforting song that is as simplistic as it is perfect. It's a little nonsensical, and oddly relatable. Not sure what the rat thing in the music video was about, but on the whole, it's a beautiful, hilarious, highly enjoyable song, and I'm so happy it is charting so well in South Korea.

'Sugar Rush' is a little less my speed, but it is successful in what it sets out to achieve. The production is trappy, synthy, and feels a little bit NCT 127? This kind of concept is difficult to pull off, and when some idols do it, it comes off as kind of goofy, but Bibi pulls it off 100%. Not really my thing, but a fun song nonetheless.

(also yena and soyeon make cameos in the mv so that's fun)

Stuck In The Middle - BABYMONSTER

'Batter Up' was a huge grower for me, originally I found it a bit dull and uninspired, but I'm a dancer, and sue me, the dance is fun, so naturally I ended up streaming it a bunch while learning the choreography, and now I think I enjoy it. It was undeniably a controversial release though - the comparisons with blackpink inevitably flooded in, the whole drama with Ahyeon being on hiatus and potentially being fully out of the group was a total shit storm, and there were zero performances on music shows to boot. Not sure why that last one happened, BabyMonster do not have the kind of influence to chart with longevity without domestic promotions but me being confused at YG's creative directors is literally nothing new.

Then we got 'Stuck In The Middle', an slightly bizarre English ballad with decent (if a little vapid) lyricism, and 'Moonlight Sunrise' meets Kwangya esque music video sets. I'm not going to do my monthly rant about how shit the vast majority of kpop ballads are, and how boring this song is, but I will say this. BabyMonster currently has no clear concept that sets them apart from their predecessors and everyone else in the industry, and outside of the YG bubble of ad boosted music video views, this song was unsuccessful. It went utterly undiscussed by the wider kpop fanbase, and has minimal streams on Spotify for a big three group. I don't say this to rub it in the faces of the girls and their fans, if anything, I am hugely upset that young women this talented are under a company so stuck in the past. YG needs to get their act together if they actually want a shot at creating blackpink the sequel, because what they're doing right now is not working.

Since the release, it's been announced that the it girl of the group, Ahyeon, is making a return for the first mini album, 'BABYMONS7ER', thank god for that, and apparently YG is now labelling all songs released thus far as predebut tracks, which is actually hilarious, they have no idea what they are doing.

Good luck babymonster, I think you will need it.

BONUS:

Super Lady - (G)-IDLE: (I know this was a January release I just forgot to talk about it ok) kind of iconic ngl; some of the English lines were questionable but the song is fun so lets move on; not sure why the song is only like 2 minutes literally nobody wants short songs

DNA - YENA: (requested by @a-moth-to-the-light) Yena is such a strong performer, but I think the production team let her down with the mixing of this song. The vocals should have more layers, or at the very least, be louder than the bass line. Overall though the song is super fun, and super Yena. I love the j-rock influences, I love Yena's gorgeous vocal colour; she is a soloist I am always sure to keep up to date with. It is so evident in her performances that she loves the music she is releasing, and for me at least, that's enough.

Holssi + Love Wins All - IU: Love wins all had a beautiful music video although the song itself felt a bit boring, but Holssi was unexpectedly groovy and understated - I can feel that it's going to majorly grow on me.

Diamond - TRI.BE: I was very pleasantly surprised that this song is actually really good? I haven't really tuned into their discography since the whole 'pretty savage' plagiarism stuff, but this is such a fun song that is impressively unique to them considering most groups of smaller companies like them tend to follow what the bigger groups are doing. Maybe I should check them out more - any tri.be stans reading, lmk some good recommendations :)

Young Posse Up - Young Posse: As a british teen, this sent me into fight or flight lmao

That's all for February, feel free let me know your thoughts on the comebacks discussed (or any I didn't mention) in the reblogs or comments, I'll look forward to reading them. Make sure to check back in for next months roundup but yeah thats it so byeeeeeeeeeeee

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bunayeonnie · 8 months ago

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🔸With YOU-th, TWICE's 13th Mini Album Discussion and Review

This blog post is formatted with...

An introduction that contains information of the With YOU-th mini album, a description of the rating system, and a warning for the readers.

The actual review of the album songs which includes both information of the songs and my personal opinions.

Each album track review is arranged as such: 𓇢𓆸🦋〰˚ ༘ ೀ⋆｡˚🏵️ Intro Text Body Text Music

A conclusion of my final thoughts of the album as a whole and its place in the entirety of TWICE's discography.

Short TL;DR section of the whole blog post with a total ranking of all the songs in the album.

I am going to start my TWICE's discography reviews with their newest KR release, With You-th. On their official album-selling website (twiceshop.com), this new release is described as an album that "tells the members' tight sisterhood and unbreakable bond" and that it is "[providing] a glimpse into their radiant youth together" (source directly from twiceshop.com).

The album was released on February 23, 2014. It has a total of 6 tracks, with I GOT YOU being a pre-release and ONE SPARK as the title track. While I listened to I GOT YOU on release and enjoyed it, I didn't listen to ONE SPARK fully until this week (March 3, 2014 - March 9, 2014). My rating system is pretty simple, it goes from 1 to 10 (TWICE reference, get it). 1 being absolute crappy poopoo, 5 being mediocre (won't listen to again unfortunately), and 10 being perfection. Every point increase is HUGE, a 7/10 is a good song but not special... maybe I'll listen to it if my playlist has the song, or maybe I'll only listen to it today and move on tomorrow. Now an 8/10? You bet I'm coming back for seconds and thirds for this song! IMPORTANT!!! I want to remind everyone that the opinions are of my own, and everyone has different opinions. Music taste is subjective, you can enjoy what you like and I can enjoy mine. This is for fun and should not be taken seriously. Another reminder is that there is a TL;DR section at the end that summarizes everything with a total ranking of every song in the album.

Now, here are my first impressions:

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I GOT YOU (pre-release): This is TWICE's third original English release. It's a pop song with heavy synth and disco elements (is it called synth-pop haha) with a total length of 2:53 minutes. The song is cute and easy to follow. The lyrics of the song are nice and can be seen both in a platonic and romantic way. My favourite part is the pre-chorus sung by Momo and Dahyun: "No, we'll never fall apart Even million miles apart We were lightning from the start And it keeps me going to know that" This song is safe, as always with English releases. However, if we consider all of TWICE's English releases, Moonlight Sunrise and The Feels are stronger in my opinion. This is a 7/10 for me if I'm just listening to it. The music video though... a 10/10 and one of my new favourites.

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ONE SPARK (title track): As the title track of the album, the song mixes TWICE's new and more grown music identity with a catchy tune. It's a fast dance-pop song with lots of drum and bass. The song has a length of 3:04 and has a classic pop arrangement (intro, verses, pre-choruses, chorus, and bridge). I was surprised when I realized that Momo's part in the pre-chorus was the best part for me. The way Momo sang "Bring me the, bring me the spark in my veins. Give me the freedom, the freedom to chase..." gave me chills. Momo's raspy and unique voice added so much contrast to the more melodic voice of Jihyo, I think I might loop the song specifically for that. Overall this is a solid addition to TWICE's hefty discography, and I know that if the girlies go on tour again - ONE SPARK will be a hit for the audiences. For the rating, the song is a 7/10 or 8/10 depending on my mood. I CAN'T STOP ME and FANCY is still that girl if we're talking about songs with a more mature sound by TWICE. I will discuss the music video more in a new post that focuses specifically on it, but it was classic and absolutely stunning to watch. P.S. Honestly, there's a chance this title track might work its magic in my brain and force me to love it, I'll update you if it ever gets to me.

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Rush: While I knew that the UK garage sound was starting to pop up in Kpop thanks to PinkPantheress influence (queen), I somehow didn't expect TWICE to make a version of it. Chaeyoung was the one to write the lyrics for the song, and she states that she was inspired by PinkPantheress (queen again omg). The song has obvious drum and bass with a Jersey club rhythm combined with soft synth elements. The song runs for a total of 2:36 minutes, which is perfect for catchy and straightforward songs. For a B-side, this is a strong song. It's fun and easy to listen to, and it was so catchy that it almost brainwashed me. TWICE's soft and feminine voice paired with the beats was like the perfect combo of a super sweet fruit with salt. Mina and Sana popped off so badly on this song, that I almost fell in love with them romantically. I also want to note the lyrics in this song are the cutest from the album. This song is an 8/10 or 9/10 depending on the mood. This song WILL be added to multiple Spotify playlists, I will be looping this song until I forget it due to amnesia caused by a car crash... a car crash caused by me looping this song in my future car.

youtube

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NEW NEW: As the 4th track of the album, this song did not disappoint me personally. The song runs for 3:01 minutes, with heavy drum and bass and electro sounds. The beat drop in the song before the chorus hits reminds me of the house genre that hit the K-pop scene by storm during the late 2010s. This is the "brightest" sounding song in the album so far, it's very upbeat and happy. The chants in the song were added tastefully. Again, I have to praise Momo for her distinct voice. HER VOICE IS SO GOOD IN THIS SONG! This is also the first/last song with a distinct rap verse. Jeongyeon personally stated that this song reminds her of music they did at the start of their career and I can definitely hear it! The song is an 8/10, and I need people to add this song as a club or festival banger. I think if I listen to this song more, it'll slowly sneak up and become one of my new favourites. However, I think this song is one of those where you have to be into the genre to like.

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BLOOM: The 5th track of the album starts itself in an ultra-unique way and runs at a length of 3:23 minutes. This song gives a completely different vibe than any other song in the album. BLOOM lyrics were written by Jeongyeon and was considered as a B-side for Jihyo's solo debut mini album Zone. Considering the background of this track, this is the most mature-sounding track of the album. It's a pop track with influence from up-tempo R&B with deep synth and a fast-tempo drum and bass. This song made me think of tracks from MORE & MORE for some reason, as it is a bit more experimental for TWICE in my opinion. In conclusion, the song is a 7/10 for me. It's solid but I think I need more time to digest its sound. For now, this song is my least favourite from the album personally.

youtube

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YOU GET ME: The 1st verse of the song made me suspicious at first, but the song progressed more... I fell in love! The track is a dance-pop with synths and a fun bassline. The song has a length of 2:32, and while I am not the biggest fan of 2-minute songs... this one didn't make me mad. The lyrics were written by Dahyun, and she says that this song is a sequel to I GOT YOU. The song is cute while maintaining a mature vibe. I have to say that MiSaMo and Tzuyu's voices were the greatest contributors to this song. Their voices alone helped this cute song maintain a mature vibe. The best part of the song has got to be the transition from the 1st verse to the 1st pre-chorus, and it is specifically that part. I felt my body jump up like a razor clam being dosed in salt, it was so beautiful. This is a 9/10 for me as it is right up my alley, and I think this is my favourite song from this album. It's easy to listen to with a danceable beat. Cute and short, but developed enough to not sound incomplete. Now to address the fact that the song is a sequel to I GOT YOU... the lyrics are stronger in this track and I can see how they connect to each other. My favourite lyrics are "Oh, when I'm with you, I'm the best of me". It's simple and strong.

youtube

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Overall: This is a solid 8/10 mini album, there were no bad songs at all. In my opinion, it’s up there with Feel Special and BETWEEN 1&2 mini albums for their B-sides. The side tracks of this album were stronger than the main title track in my opinion, which isn't a bad thing! For the member that did the strongest this comeback... I think I have to give Momo the crown. She absolutely shined this comeback, and I have to say that her parts made the experience for this album! Of course... Nayeon too :) Furthermore, if we are discussing the album as a whole, excluding NEW NEW, it has a pretty consistent sound. I'll say only 3 songs (I GOT YOU, ONE SPARK, and YOU GET ME) told the messages of "being there for each other after everything" and "being happy with each other now". Personally, every song other that BLOOM gave a nod to the theme of "Youth" as well. I also want to note this is one of the best-named albums by TWICE, WITH YOUTH but can also be seen as WITH YOU... they ate I fear!

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TL;DR Section

It was good, below is a ranking of the songs (from favourite to least).

YOU GET ME ♡

RUSH/NEW NEW ♡

ONE SPARK

I GOT YOU

BLOOM

Also Momo stood out this comeback, along with Nayeonnie (no bias I promise... :3) If you read the TL;DR, heeey~ If you read everything, here's Nayeon being cute!

#twice #once #kpop #kpop blog #kpop review #kpop gg #kpop girls #kpop twice #kpop music #with you th #twice with you th

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