Kpopalypse roundup – new k-pop releases 12/2/24
It’s time for Kpopalypse roundup! Let’s take a look at some new releases!
Sorn – Cool
Sorn looks great here, and the colourful retro vibe is indeed cool, taking me back to the days when popular websites had user interfaces that were actually useful and didn’t fuck the end user in the ass constantly. The song on the other hand is just kind of there.
Billlie – DOMINO～butterfly effect
The presence of “Japanese version” makes me think that maybe there’s a “Korean version” but fucked if I can find it. Anyway, the song isn’t too bad but it certainly suffers from backings that are too ambient, the drums don’t really cut through all the vocal layers and other mush for some reason.
Lim Kim – ULT
Lim Kim’s been allergic to actual music ever since she dumped the commercial end of k-pop years ago in exchange for a bunch of sloganeering over bland rhythm tracks running on 99% vibes and other people’s samples. I’m all for independent artists exploring their whatevers so good on her for following her own path I guess but I wouldn’t say no to an actual song from her again at some point this decade.
SUPER JUNIOR L.S.S – Joke
The real joke here is how much they just recycled all the same footage. That’s precious extra shirtless Siwon footage that they could have included but didn’t. Let’s send a protest truck!
Moonbyul – Think About
They only used 30% of the screen for this video so here’s my customary 30% of a review. I did a speed fanfiction about Moonbyul recently where in only two hours of writing I tried to explore the important and rarely acknowledged dichotomy between the
VCHA – XO Call Me
JYP is just so far behind the ball on this group that its embarrassing. I really don’t know what the next huge k-pop group to pop off globally is going to be, but I’m about as certain that it won’t be VCHA as I am that Wonder Girls aren’t going to have a reunion and dominate the US market.
Cignature – Mess With My Mind
Cignature have had better songs, and the vocal arrangement here could be better, but this is still decent enough to shit on most of this week’s content.
Kim Changwan x Changbin – 8th Grader (Respect Your Dreams)
I’m not sure why this song exists, or why it’s on Samsung Korea’s YouTube channel. I assume this has got something to do with selling phones or TVs or whatever but I don’t get the connection. Anyway here it is for what it’s worth. You can tell nobody is playing live for real when people are holding Gibson guitars and actually smiling.
NOMAD – Oasis
Not much is going on this week in k-pop thanks to Lunar New Year, so I guess companies thought it would be a good chance to debut some fresh nugus. This song isn’t too bad but the choice to not sync the chorus vocals to those synth stabs seems a little odd, things get a bit jumbled. Oh well, I doubt anyone besides me gives a fuck.
NOMAD – Automatic
Their other song is a bit less exciting so let’s not even talk about it and move on yay.
DK – LTNS
I like how they had to include “IKON” in brackets to clear up any confusion. Clearly it’s because this song goes so fucking hard that people might confuse it with a Dead Kennedys track. Just kidding this sucks sorry.
Mingi – Tunnel
What is “Fix Off Desire Project”? I’m not sure, but I do have a desire for this dull project to fix off.
Balming Tiger – UP!
I knew they had a good song in them and finally here it is. Pissing around stops and actual song starts at 2:23 you’re welcome, stick with it, it gits gud.
Tiger JK, TAEKWONCRE – T.K.D
Hey, K-Tigers have some competition! This is what we need in k-pop, more people kicking the crap out of bits of wood. Fuck dancing lessons, why not teach people the skills they’ll actually need to deal with the music industry. Imagine how many people would have been spared grief if Jimmy Saville copped a knee to the balls on Top Of The Pops.
015B feat. Minjeong – Little Match Girl
This was super boring and the poor girl looked awkward as shit like she was being tortured so why don’t we put our weekly Asian-but-non-Korean non-pop non-“world-music” feature instead? Yes, that’s a good idea. This week it’s High Tension, who were actually an Australian band but also featured the amazing Indonesian vocalist Karina Utomo, and honestly she’s the only Karina in music right now that I feel I can confidently stan, unlike certain other Karinas I could mention she doesn’t have a single dud track anywhere. “High Risk High Rewards” is a great kickass song, but it’s here mainly because it’s the song that’s probably most likely to appeal to pop listeners, yes their other material is mostly even more extreme than this. Sadly, Karina fucked off out of this band a few years back when they disbanded but the good news is that she then joined some Indonesian sludge doom metal band called Kilat (a surprisingly un-websearchable band name, must be a common word in Indonesian I guess) and they’re even more of a mindfuck so check that out too and send me their music videos if you can even fucking find any.
Jena Powder – Woong-woong
I dig the committment to plush everything. I feel like that if you were her boyfriend and you remembered her birthday at the last minute and needed a quick gift you could just go to Plushies R Us and blindfold yourself and pick out anything random and she would be totally okay with that.
Sik-K, HAON, Leellamarz – KC (Bust It Down)
Are they just making baby noises or what.
JMIN feat. Sik-K – Body
Still waiting for Autotune to go out of fashion. It’s so weird to me how k-pop fans are obsessed and I mean OBSESSED with vocals to the point where it’s fucking downright creepy, but then they hear shit like this and lap it up too, and if you say anything’s wrong it it, how dare you. I mean, pick a side.
Don Mills – OK
Remember when Don Mills could actually rap? Of course you don’t because he never could. Anyway that’s enough roundup for the week. Let’s stop before we destroy our brains.
Eric Reprid – Suki
Oh shit I nearly forgot song of the year, damn. Enjoy.
RANDOM BONUS VIDEOS OF THE WEEK
via – My problem with survival shows in kpop
The YouTuber here highlights a fair few different problems with k-pop survival shows that exist, and I do agree with her. However she also leaves out the main problem, which is that music is not sport, and should never be treated as such, therefore survival shows are intrinsically wrong by design and should not exist.
Velvet Tube – things to do in Japan: meet capybara in Yokohama
Look at the cute capybaras. There’s also some tree creatures of some sort I don’t know, plus some chickens and guinea pigs and other stuff. Truly, Velvet is a friend of the animals, and they seem to like her also. Good wholesome fun times.
Block B – Her
I never liked this song much, it didn’t annoy me or anything but it just seemed to be leaning away from all the things that Block B did well up until that point in their careers. The good Block B songs are the ones that have a bit of fucking meat to them, not this light harmless fluffy stuff. I guess if you want to see them do aegyo (or whatever the fuck this is) in a music video it’s a rare opportunity for that, but that’s about all.
That’s all for this week! Kpopalypse roundup returns next week!
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