#ringo galperin

[a-moth-to-the-light]

Songs of the Summer, 2023: Honorable Mentions

[intro & rules]

Allergy – G-IDLE

I like this more than I want to, and that’s mostly because of how catchy that chorus is--it almost makes up for the messy production, but not quite. But I have a feeling this is one of the songs I'll remember the summer by, given how many times I've listened to it--so "Allergy" deserves a place here!

Cool With You – NewJeans

It’s not boring, it’s PEACEFUL!! You just don’t understand me!! *stomps off to my room*

Dance the Night – Dua Lipa

This was my last cut from the official list, actually. It’s mostly a wrong place, wrong time thing--"Dance the Night" would have been THE song last summer, but this summer I’m just kind of like, “Huh, that’s pretty cool, I guess.” 

Estúpida Mentira — Ringo Galperin

Beat of the summer! Outside of that beat, there’s not much else going on with this song, but it’s MY good-texture anthem and you can’t take it away from me!!

Fast Forward – Jeon Somi

Meh, the formula works on me. I love it, I love it, I love it. I could listen to boring club music from a performer like Somi all day. 

Lemon Black Tea // Taxi – Jo Yuri

More good-texture anthems… at least one of these two would have been on the main list if the album had come out earlier in the summer. Maybe “Lemon Black Tea” will be on my Songs of the Year list in January, once I’ve had more time with it! That title alone is worthy of a spot. 

Madeline – Limelight

Obligatory tropical house!! I'm still not sick of tropical house--leave me ALONE. *giggles* This is just so, SO good though, with beautiful performances from the members. After this one AND “Eye to Eye”, I have high hopes for Limelight. 

Sunshine Baby – The Japanese House

“Sunshine Baby” is awesome! … I think? I don’t know, give me two and a half years to get back to you on that--that’s how long I took with the similarly-gloomy “Dionne” (which I now think is her best song), so…

Wicked Love – Yena

Obligatory Yena! I mean, she sounds GREAT in this style of song (I think I called it a top-tier Red Velvet bside back when it first came out), but I have to admit that “Wicked Love” is mostly just here because of how much I’ve liked Yena's previous releases. She’s my favorite of this generation of soloists, and I love the distinctive persona she's built with her discography!  

Zero (J.I.D remix) – NewJeans

This is a VERY begrudging addition; I couldn’t avoid it, though, because of just how much I’ve listened to “Zero” in the past few months. The production on this remix is gorgeous, especially that future bass in the chorus, but even considering how muted the rest of my listening this summer was, I find SO MUCH of this song SO BORING that I really can’t explain why it was so huge for me this summer. 

Air Force One – Odd Eye Circle // None of My Business – Itzy

These sound like fall songs to me, not summer ones, so it feels weird including them here, but I want to at least shout them out, since they were both released this summer!  

[these two were released in early may, but close enough to summer to be songs of the summer for me, anyway]

Kaze – Younha

Younha performs soft songs so well. This is two summers in a row where she’s blown me away with some random understated acoustic track. “Kaze” isn’t quite as wonderful as last year’s “Rain Song”, to be fair, but it still meant a lot to me these past few months. 

Welcome to MY World – Aespa

This probably would have been a new favorite even without Aespa’s vocals, which make any melody a thousand times better, but WITH them, well... I think we have a new kpop classic on our hands, folks. Listening to this at like 5am while I was staying up all night to see the sunrise, just because it was summer and I could, is what finally made it click for me, so I think I’ll always associate it with the summer.

[a-moth-to-the-light]

Summer of K-pop Tag, 6

[introduction/full list of questions]

Today has been rough health-wise, but I wanted to sit down and jot this post out--for myself, mostly, since I'm working on choosing consistency over perfection! Does consistency on this blog really matter? Not particularly, except that I really enjoy posting here (which maybe I should be giving more credit to!), but I'm hoping that attitude will transfer over to other areas of my life, too! I think consistency is good for me, but it's also something I'm notoriously not-great with, especially when it comes to things that I do just for myself.

Happy news: I got a new heating pad today, AND I bought myself an ICEE when I went to pick the heating pad up! I chose the cherry flavor :)

In terms of k-pop news: I saw that an Oh My Girl comeback is happening later this month!! The teaser looks heavenly—I’m hoping we’ll get something like “The Fifth Season” again?? And the Kiss of Life album is on Spotify now, so I'd like to check that out pretty soon! And I keep hearing people shower praise on the Ateez album, so it's been on my mind as something to listen though at some point--I've heard "Wake Up" and "This World" but that's it!

Current Obsessions:

Estúpida Mentira — Ringo Galperin (this again! i think it is a comfort song now)

Questions of the Day: twice: "dance the night away", "more & more", or "talk that talk"?

"More & More" of course. I like "Talk that Talk" quite a lot, but "More & More" has a special place in my heart. It was my first comeback as a fan of Twice (I still remember learning the dance to it back in 2020!!), and it's dark, moody club music, which is a sure way to my heart. Twice sound fantastic on this song, too--it feels like, despite the unfamiliar style, they really made it their own, not too mysterious or brooding. "More & More" just makes me so happy, but "Talk that Talk" does inspire similar feelings for me, including the admiration of their performance skills, so in a few years it may well have "More & More" status in my heart.

[No, I don't like DTNA at all, really. I feel like "DEJAVU" should have been the title track of that album??]

what's your favorite song from twice's taste of love?

"Scandal" was my first love from this album (I mean do you HEAR those house keys at the end of the chorus??), but "Baby Blue Love" won in the long run. "Baby Blue Love" is just such a sweet song, and the chorus has this nice swing to it that makes it really addictive. It's not exactly a cute song, but it uses Twice's experience with cute bubblegum-pop to its advantage--the members sound particularly natural and comfortable here, and that makes it not only my favorite from this album, but also my favorite Twice song ever.

Tomorrow: Red Velvet!

[a-moth-to-the-light]

Summer of K-pop Tag, 5

[introduction/full list of questions]

Current Obsessions:

Hard — SHINee (verdict: yeah i actually like this a lot more than don’t call me! they’re such great vocal performers, and this song really brings that out!!)

Estúpida Mentira — Ringo Galperin (this is TOO fun it reminds me of the despicable me movies in the best way possible??)

Moonlight — Cruz Cafuné, Alba Reche (i was way too late to this but alba reche truly never misses! it's fun to hear her on a song this sleek, too, because she doesn't usually do stuff like that)

Question of the Day: what's your favorite summer album?

The ReVe Festival Day 2. “Umpah Umpah” is fine--I get why lots of people aren’t huge fans of it, but this album is just so full of top-tier b-sides that the title track doesn't bug me at all! "Carpool" & "Ladies Night" are go-to songs for sweet, sugary fun, "Love Is The Way" is one of my favorite RV songs ever, and even the ballad, "Eyes Locked, Hands Locked", leans into the sugary aesthetic in a way that makes it quite an engaging listen. This consistent mood-booster of an album is the soundtrack for the most memorable days of the summer, for adventuring on bright mornings and staying out, tired but full of joy and (probably not the healthiest kinds of) food, in the snug warmth of the afternoons and early evenings.

Tomorrow: Twice!