#dreamcatcher has been dethroned

[moonfromearth]

Happy Spotify Wrapped a.k.a. the one day a year I download the Spotify app just to take screenshots 😉

[stuff-diary]

Top 20 K-pop songs in 2023 (Part 2, 10-1)

As promised, here comes the top 10:

10. Snooze by Agust D (BTS) feat. Ryuichi Sakamoto & Kim Woosung (The Rose)

There's something very special about this song. It really is a perfect combination of amazing talents.

9. Blessing In Disguise by Huh Yunjin (Le Sserafim)

She's such a superstar. Like, listen to this. And she hasn't even officially debuted as a solo artist yet!

8. Dear My Light by Dawn

For me, this is the best, most gut-wrenching ballad we've gotten this year in K-pop. It breaks my heart every single time I listen to it.

7. Firework by &Team

One of the best songs to come out of the retro trend in K-pop. The lyrics are gorgeous, the vocals are emotional and the darkly melancholic instrumental gives me goosebumps in the best of ways.

6. ETA by NewJeans

I had a really hard time picking one single song from them, but I went with this one because it's the most original song they've released this year. Also, it generated one of the most ridiculous controversies I've ever seen, which is always fun.

5. Bon Voyage by Dreamcatcher

I guess You & I has finally been dethroned as the best Dreamcatcher song, cause this one is absolutely incredible in every way. I really don't see how they could possibly top this, but I'm excited to see them try.

4. Sugar Rush Ride by TXT

I adore the contrast between the funky verses and the sensuality of the chorus and the drop. Also, that final chorus is probably one of the best things I've ever heard.

3. Smoke Sprite by So!YoON! (SE SO NEON) feat. RM (BTS)

The first time I heard this song, I felt like I was ascending into a whole new dimension, and it has made me feel like that every single time. It's enthralling.

2. Standing Next To You by Jungkook (BTS)

This is Jungkook's world and we're just living in it. He's the best pop-star in the world right now, and this showstopping song is proof of that. Everything about it is mesmerizing.

1. Eve, Psyche & The Bluebeard's Wife by Le Sserafim

This song hasn't left my brain for a single second since I first heard it. It's the perfect example of Le Sserafim's biggest strengths, and no other group could even try to pull it off.

And that's all, folks! Let's hope 2024 brings us another wave of brilliant K-pop.

[onlyjaeyun]

I was devastated when I found out it doesn't count if you do, like wow look the consequences of my own actions. I think we really do, like we all know about how much we listen to, I also found out wrapped only counts full streams of songs, so like imagine how different our wrapped would be if it didn't, like that one song we all have on our playlist that it always plays and we automatically skip it would be our top song probably.

My niece specifically had a Mark phase, like anything Mark, she'd eat it up. Like she stole all my Mark photocards from my NCT albums. She knew no one in NCT except Mark, and she could recognize him despite concept and hair changes and all. She was all of like 7 and called herself Mrs. Lee like her ass was convinced she and Mark would get married in the future.

Honestly, if Enha becomes my top artist, it will be the first time in 7 years that Dreamcatcher has been dethroned. Like since their debut in 2017, every year they've been my top artist. Like honestly, they've got some competition.

your niece is so real for that mark phase bc are you a real nctzen if you didnt have a mark lee phase?🤕 and omg ngl i have never met an actual dreamcatcher stan so this is super impressive like SEVEN years ??? you're dedicated and i love it so much

[clelevanter]

yeehaw @theyoungflexer i love ranting about my superior tastes

tagging: @holy-bagels if you wanna! also @cvsseulgi if my tastes are superior, yours are Elevated so,,,

— fandoms:

longtime bts, although i don’t particularly identify as army / currently most active w skz !!

— ult bias(es):

taehyung occupied my brain rent-free for about 7 months and i will forever be slightly in love with him but,,, and this might be the first time i’m saying it out loud,,, he may have recently been dethroned by none other than bang chan 🤭

— ult group(s):

bts, stray kids!

— other groups/soloists:

i’m like a halfway stan of blackpink, dreamcatcher and twice! 💗 i’ve also picked up a decent amount of nct lore as a byproduct of hanging around the kpop fandom at large - plus i do enjoy their music. i also stan ateez, #gun and eric nam for the music. i Also accidentally know A Lot about monsta x due to a close personal friendship/legal living arrangement with local monbebe influencer @theyoungflexer 😌

— biggest wreckers:

everyone in skz has bias-wrecked me at least once tbh, but the Habitual Problem Children seem to be jisung, minho and hyunjin :^)

— favourite songs:

bts: save me, i’m fine, fake love, best of me, butterfly, lost, young forever, mic drop, spring day, black swan, lights, your eyes tell / stray kids: miroh, hellevator, victory song, side effects, double knot, you can stay, go live, easy, pacemaker, levanter, placebo / blackpink: boombayah, ddu-du ddu-du, don’t know what to do, kick it / nct: mad city, replay, love me now, the 7th sense / ateez: hala hala, pirate king, answer, horizon, precious, twilight, wave, win / monsta x: someone’s someone, zone, trespass, fallin’, x-phenomenon, play it cool, middle of the night

— favourite albums:

bts: love yourself: answer, you never walk alone / stray kids: clé levanter, go live / ateez: treasure epilogue: action to answer / got7: flight log: turbulence / eric nam: the other side

— kpop doppelganger:

soooo as someone who is not asian idk if i feel comfortable self-identifying a kpop gorl as my doppelganger. i exist to counterbalance the vibes oli london puts out into the universe <3 lisa and i both have bangs?? hair inspo tbh. although i will say that i spiritually identify with han jisung

[ujuro]

as it is halfway through the year i have decided to do my  fave songs so far (i wanted ten but ehhhhhhhhh fuck that)

in no particular order:

Apink-Eung Eung: i was wondering if their concept change followup would be as strong as im so sick and wouldya look at that this song is good AND hella interesting. im still not down with the disrespect ifans give apinks past songs but im becoming more and more happy that a 2nd gen gg is successfully creating a new life for itself

Dreamcatcher-Piri: every new dreamcatcher title track has dethroned the last one as my fave so even though rn im like THIS IS AMAZING AND NOTHING WILL EVER TOP IT EVER ill probably eat my words pretty soon. Anyway this is amazing and nothing will top it ever. shout out to diamond and atwnol as well duh

(g)i-dle- Senorita: while i was originally pretty pissed at this song for the drawn-out end section that doesnt use the great chorus, this song is still greatly replayable and has wormed its way into my heart. i listen to it all the time

dia-woowa: the fact that this song wasnt a massive hit is a CRIME. an x-treme gameshow bop, and who knows how many times ive played it. i dont even know how to explain my love for this song other than it just bangs REAL hard

clc- no and me: i dont think i can really rank these two songs apart from each other. just two really solid hard-hitting songs that work with the ideas of “girl crush” and “empowerment” without falling into the annoying and grating parts that those songs often have. the styling, choreography, and execution is way above groups that are much bigger, and i just love clc

wjsn- 12 o’clock: it is blasphemous to say that i like this song more than cantabile and you got? maybe. Does not change my opinion tho. its just so...bouncy. i love it. this entire mini is amazing though.

Monsta x: stealer: ITS SO DRAMATIC. shout out to mx for being the only bg that is consistently wack and interesting i love them so much.

everglow- bon bon chocolat: this song still goes just as hard as it did when it came out. the truest banger released this year. with this and moon (also a fave), i cant wait for more.

im-scent: admittedly i do not listen to horizon pretty much at all but scent is just so good. a perfect melancholy little creation. and NO im not just saying that cause im biased i just really like this song

oh my girl: the fifth season: like many others, during the first verse of this song i was like this is it? really? but then that bomb of a chorus drops and this song becomes next level. it speaks for itself really. this album is also really good, though ive been in the mood for hype songs lately so checkmate speaks to me the most of the b-sides lol

bund-i mean bvndit- dramatic: i really liked hocus pocus as well but this song has a slight edge to it that made me really interested in the group. despite being a pretty standard trop house-style song, it just flows so well

favorite-loca: for me, the spanish trend is pretty hit-or-miss (as in i mean i only like it when ggs do it lol). but this song also has an amazing chorus that carries it

momoland- im so hot: this song is fun as hell fite me. sucks that momoland is in such a load of shit with members not appearing tho cause i love and would die for my girls. mld ent and the wack brigade of stan twitter momoland haters can fite me too. 

fromis_9- love rum pum pum: im so predictable. retro pop sound=i love it. fun is nice but its a bit much ya know.

cherry bullet’s entire love adventure single: i really like really really despite it being kinda generic and something that i should scoff at, but ruddy and ping pong are even better? i didnt expect to like this groups music so much but their songs so far are charming i love my girls. 

wjsn- lets dance: IM PREDICTABLE AND LOVE BANGERS’

hong jinyoung-rain of tears: SHUT UP I LOVE THIS SAD TROT BALLAD

twice- hot and breakthrough: new concept twice can kill me and id say thank you

yunho and boa- swing: im so glad that i force myself to listen to as many releases as possible because i probably woulda skipped over yunhos solo album but then i woulda missed this song and holy fuckin shit yall its another banger i love

red velvet-sunny side up: well duh

also the entire fuckin mini i made mini by idle and no1 by clc cause this is long but i just realized id have to list all of the bsides on them too fuck

shout out to my sexy girls girl crush and camila. In fact shout out in general to every sexy dance team and gg that gets more fancam views than your faves. Ive grown way attached to all of them honestly lmao

i feel bad not listing songs by them as like a TOP fave because theyre both my ult groups but despite being good overall the only standouts i really like from loona and izones minis are colors and highlight. butterfly really grew on me, but i often wake up at night in a cold sweat thinking about how loona as a group may never put out a song i like more than egoist or eclipse or love cherry motion or oecs mini

also shout out to moonlight by geegu because im just shocked they came back at all and only lost 3/9 members too. same with leggo by wannab though that song isnt as good. tmi by hot place as well for eurodance wack. 

if you have made it this far you can now know the real song i have been listening to the most over the past week or so and that is time bomb by icia. i could go into detail and try to explain myself but i shall not. i love this fuckin song. in fact ive been more into ultra nugus than my faves lately. thank god for ultra nugus. 

the end

[vskpop]

July 2017 ⋅  It goes down down baby

Verse 2 - JJ Project

Ever since the return of JJ Project was announced, I’ve listened to their modern classic Bounce quite a lot. I didn’t think for a minute that JB and Jinyoung would go back to that kind of image after the role they have been carving for themselves in GOT7, but it was fun to imagine they would.

Verse 2 reminds me a lot of GOT7’s Fly and the rest of Flight Log: Departure, one of my favourite albums of 2016. At the same time it makes me think of my true JYP darlings, DAY6 - especially Tomorrow, Today; I was quite surprised that they had no credits in the album at all, because a lot of it really sounds like something they would do.

Honestly, what they came out with was exactly what I expected and at the same time beyond my wildest expectations - probably because I was terrified that they would release an album of ballads. Both the Js are incredible vocalists, and they managed to find a compromise between music that could show off their skills and something trendier that still had a connection to GOT7. I think this might be my album of the year so far.

The War - EXO

KoKoBop might be the comeback to finally dethrone Wolf as the worst EXO comeback of all time. Just the concept in itself is so problematic that I really struggle to watch a live performance (let alone the MV) and not think of how much SM messed up this time (more thoughts on the matter here).

Setting aside the controversial elements of the comeback, I thought that the production seemed strangely low-budget for EXO. There was only one music video (a step down from Monster + Lucky One), the styling seemed haphazard, the choreography not as well designed as usual, and even the teasers were just clips from the video (so long, Pathcodes).

I don’t think that KoKoBop was meant for EXO when it was written. The reggae-inspired verse has nothing to do with their musical style, and the EDM breakdown (which is instead very EXO) feels forced into the song. Even after dozens of listens, I can’t see how it relates to the ambiance of the rest of the song.

While there are a ton of catchy EXO singles, they were never as explicitly hook-y with their lyrics as they are with “Shimmy shimmy KoKoBop”, which sounds like it belongs in a NCT song (see “if you’re happy and you know it clap your hands” in the recent Cherry Bomb).

All in all, I don’t hate it nearly as much as I thought I would, but it is definitely one of their weakest picks in terms of title songs, and not a very well composed track in general.

KoKoBop is a strange choice in every way. All the other songs on the album are coherent with what EXO did in the past; even the title The War, as ridiculous as it is, fits into the EXO brand - but there is nothing war-like in this comeback. If KoKoBop came with a matching album I would have taken it for what it was, but in this context it sticks out and, to me, it feels like EXO had an entire album planned and changed the title track and the concept last minute.

Literally any song on the album would have been more suitable as a title track; my personal choices would have been Forever, with a soaring chorus that makes me shiver every time, or Going Crazy, aka the song from the Exoluxion VCR.

Since Ex’act was amazing and the repackage Lotto was questionable, I hope that the situation will flip this time, and that the repackage will be everything I wanted from EXO.

Side note: I also hope that in the next few months we will get some clarity regarding Lay’s status within EXO. I know the Christmas single doesn’t count, but he really hasn’t been around for a long time now, THAAD and all.  

The Red Summer - Red Velvet

I don’t think I will ever not be suspicious about a Red Velvet comeback after Rookie and Russian Roulette. I thought I was more of a fan of the red concept comebacks, but at this point I find myself longing for a velvet concept album, even after The Red Summer, which is all in all harmless in comparison to Red Velvet’s previous production.

Red Flavor is a good comeback, as far as I’m concerned: the song is catchy without drilling the hook into the listener’s brain, none of the members is dressed like a preschooler, the lyrics border on nonsensical but aren’t too cringey. I still don’t think that this song gave enough space to the vocalists of the group, but it did confirm my theory that Irene is one of the best, if not the best rapper in SM.

The video was definitely the weakest part of this comeback. Large portions of it seemed to be taken directly from a fruit juice commercial, and the other segments were so mismatched they seemed to have been shot independently by different people and then randomly assembled. The weird fruit interviews, the girls dancing, the mega-random child-costume single shots, the dodgy party - most of these don’t even remotely go together.

As it’s been happening a lot with SM, I find almost all the b-sides more interesting than the title track. You Better Know would have made for a perfect summer single, provided Red Velvet had the chance to look a bit less whimsical and and behave their age. I love Mojito, and I love even more how Zoo echoes Red Velvet’s first single Happiness, but is way weirder.

Even though I enjoyed Red Flavor, I really struggled to enjoy this comeback’s promotion, mostly because of Wendy getting thinner with every performance (really, I double checked).

At the same time, Irene doesn’t even try to hide how much she hates what she was doing; I watched an insane full recording of a music show where she went through the whole performance six times and didn’t smile once (unfortunately it has been removed from Youtube and I can’t find it anywhere else).

I think Red Velvet will always be a weird group, because cute concepts will always be too silly for Irene and mature concepts always too out there for Yeri, but I think that if they went just a smidge more towards the mature side than Red Flavour, they will have something they can work with until the new girl group debuts and Red Velvet disappear into nothingness like f(x).

RAPID FIRE ROUND

Prequel - Dreamcatcher

While the (still really good) title track Fly High might be my least favourite Dreamcatcher song so far, this mini album is incredible. I appreciate so much that they are sticking with the ...metal-pop concept and didn’t just stick some random tracks in the album. Wake Up is a fantastic song that reminded me how much I want a pop-punk concept in k-pop.

 Summer Episode - AKMU

I adore AKMU. They always manage to bring something new to the table; even when they try to incorporate trends in their music, like with the EDM in Dinosaur, they make it fresh and unique to them. The pseudo-Stranger-Things-y video is the most beautiful thing I’ve seen this year.

Jelly - Hotshot

I’m a bit sad that Hotshot didn’t gain the immediate, roaring success that Nu’est did from humiliating themselves on Produce 101. It’s also true that Pledis has significantly different resources than Hotshot’s company, so I will take what I can get and rejoice that they got a decent song for their return to the scene after two years.

MORE SONGS OF NOTE

Forever Young - Bumzu & Han Dong Geun

Be Lazy - DAY6

Hello - Favorite

Sunday - GroovyRoom ft. Heize & Jay Park

Somewhere - GroovyRoom ft. Suran & ph-1

Gucci - Jessi

Hola Hola - KARD

Feel So Good - KNK

Black - Lee Hyori

Puzzle - LOONA Choerry

Newton - Monsta X

Why, You? & Moonwalk - Park Boram

The Star of Stars - Snuper

ABC - VAV

Kiss Me - WJSN

Anti - Zico ft. G.Soul

STRAYS

 I’ve been listening to this song obsessively; can Luhan do anything wrong?

Seventeen have been releasing a bunch of their concert VCRs and they are perfection

I love when Monsta X members put out totally random songs

EXO-CBX and soundtracks: the story continues