Hug Posted January 5, 2018 Posted January 5, 2018 i should've put Hobgoblin on my list for 2017, but for some reason I thought it was a 2016 song. I'm also surprised Girl's Day's song made it this far f
The Destiny Hope Posted January 5, 2018 Posted January 5, 2018 Wow, at "Look" placing. What did you think of "Little Litle", "Talk To Me", and "Body Talk" last year? That Rania song though...
Red Light Posted January 5, 2018 Author Posted January 5, 2018 2 minutes ago, Red Light said: #10 Reveal hidden contents With half-baked energy and dull, interchangeable tropical synth plucks running rampant in 2017, BoA’s comeback was like a drop of water in the middle of a desert. Oozing mature, understated confidence from beginning to end, the slow, teasing tempo combined with BoA’s sultry vocal delivery makes this one of the sexiest K-pop songs ever. The instrumental is almost entirely built in low-range frequencies, whether that be in the clean 909-esque bass kick, the plethora of pulsing, murky sine basslines, or the faint sub-bass that fills in the leftover space in the soundscape. The song steadily builds as it progresses, sneakily dropping in bits of cowbell, funky acoustic guitar riffs, and spacey whooshing effects before it’s all over--but the main events are the tense, steeley pre-choruses and the satisfyingly melodramatic bridge. Admittedly, the choruses could be a LOT better, even as the instrumental becomes more layered, but unsatisfying choruses are nothing new in K-pop and are part of what makes it so addictive. Effortlessly cool, sexy, and mysterious, Camouflage is the kind of track that could only be delivered believably by someone who knows that she is a pro, icon, trailblazer, and indisputable queen of a major music genre. So everything is on page 3.
Red Light Posted January 5, 2018 Author Posted January 5, 2018 1 minute ago, The Destiny Hope said: Wow, at "Look" placing. What did you think of "Little Litle", "Talk To Me", and "Body Talk" last year? That Rania song though... Little Little and Talk To Me were good, but not good enough that I bought them on iTunes. Body Talk is very good though; just not good enough that I felt like writing anything about it. Speaking of Red Velvet...
The Destiny Hope Posted January 5, 2018 Posted January 5, 2018 "Camo" was such a slay. The production on it is phenomenal. The queen of K-Pop
Red Light Posted January 5, 2018 Author Posted January 5, 2018 #9 Spoiler With the disastrous missed abortion that was Rookie, it was good to have a song on the EP that reminded me why I love Red Velvet. Like a lost track from Pink Tape, Happily Ever After uses its quirky metaphors to sneak in themes of feminism, coyly stealing fairytale tropes and forcing them to coexist with modern reality. Further capitalizing off its fairytale theme, it incorporates a twinkly chromatic music box and medieval, regal flute synths to set the whimsical tone. The dreaminess finally gets squashed with the distinct beeping of a car being unlocked (likely a contemporary wink to Cinderella’s horse-drawn carriage, as the clock striking midnight is referenced immediately after this) and throwing you into an exhilaratingly explosive chorus that bursts with color, giddiness, charm, and confidence. Superbly mixed with irresistibly optimistic melodies, Red Velvet self-assuredly chirps, “I don’t care if you’re not a prince; I’ll complete you instead.”
The Destiny Hope Posted January 5, 2018 Posted January 5, 2018 Rookie was truly a misstep by the girls but "With the disastrous missed abortion that was Rookie" That being said HEA is great and have you seen the live performances of it? The hit that got away.
Red Light Posted January 5, 2018 Author Posted January 5, 2018 #8 Spoiler And there were, in the same dungeon, managers abiding in the field, keeping watch over their trainees by night. And lo, the ghosts of 4Minute came upon them, and the glory of their discography shined about them. And 4Minute said unto them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring unto you tidings of Certified Bops™, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day at Cube Entertainment, a savior, which is Hobgoblin by CLC. And this shall be a sign unto you: You shall find the single held prisoner by Jihyun, hidden in a shoebox in the corner of her old cellar/dressing room.” As though 4Minute’s Crazy and 2ne1’s I Am the Best made a baby, Hobgoblin seamlessly mixes a dirty, reeling portamento bassline with the dense, 808-laden trap beats that Cube does so well. And as if that wasn’t good enough, the pre-chorus features my all-time favorite scale progression: the half-wistful-half-badass-half-“**** is going down”-sounding melody that you can hear in songs like Red Light and, another song on this year’s list, I’ll Be Yours. With Hobgoblin, CLC at least coats the wound of 4Minute’s disbandment, and proves, for better or for worse, that K-pop groups are mostly interchangeable.
Red Light Posted January 5, 2018 Author Posted January 5, 2018 10 minutes ago, The Destiny Hope said: Rookie was truly a misstep by the girls but "With the disastrous missed abortion that was Rookie" That being said HEA is great and have you seen the live performances of it? The hit that got away. fjhjdhkjdh I said the same thing when they performed it at the KBS festival a few days ago!
Red Light Posted January 5, 2018 Author Posted January 5, 2018 #7 Spoiler Well, here’s the oddball track of the year. While the other tracks on the Red Summer EP eventually grew on me to at least some degree, the obligatory Velvet ballad that wraps up just about every Red Velvet comeback is the only track from Red Summer that I instantly loved, and have never stopped loving. With the rest of the EP being effervescent summer-y dance tracks, Hear the Sea is a calm, understated midtempo, with melodies and an instrumental so warm and cozy that--with a few jingle bells--it would be just as suitable for a Christmas album. I couldn’t be less surprised when I found out it was produced by the always brilliant MonoTree, a sort of production subunit that branched (pun unintended) out from the legendary Sweetune. As always, the production here is genius, with insanely clever and characteristic touches that artfully do their part to set the right tone. The slow, volume-vacillating strings emulate ocean tides washing ashore, the off-beat percussion sample deliberately sounds like a splash of water, the soft guitar plucks make for perfectly intimate background ambience, and the romantic piano chords sound about as real as they can without being live. On top of that, the intricate harmonies are stunning, and Red Velvet’s vocals are impeccable. All these components beautifully complement each other, and the result is a breathtaking masterpiece that somehow literally sounds like a late-summer night in music form.
Cotton Posted January 5, 2018 Posted January 5, 2018 I hardly ever really listen to Hear The Sea but it's a very pretty song that's soft on the ears so yassss
The Destiny Hope Posted January 5, 2018 Posted January 5, 2018 Oh, I totally loved HtS. It wasn't your typical Korean ballad at all nor regular Red Velvet ballad. It was what you listen to when you want to feel at peace, calm, happy. Beautiful song IMO. Good placement!
Red Light Posted January 5, 2018 Author Posted January 5, 2018 #6 ... ... This one hurt. Spoiler There have been two saving graces in 2017 as far as girl groups who’ve had more than one comeback--one being the always fantastic 9MUSES, and the other being, in my opinion, the most intriguing and promising new girl group to come along since Red Velvet. With most of their discography so far consisting of the kind of weird, hypnotic synthpop that should have comprised more of f(x)’s 4 Walls album, Loonatic stands out as the most ambitiously experimental. Probably the most gloriously trippy girl group song to make way since Brown Eyed Girls’ Brave New World in 2015, nearly the entire song is perfectly delivered in distant, fever dream-ish falsettos. The production borrows influence from the shoegaze genre, mixing and blending its audio stems into one dreamy blur--and as such, the appropriately otherworldly vocals are drowned out by the cacophony of psychedelic guitars and fizzling basslines--turning Loonatic into a foggy, disorienting, and deliriously enjoyable mess.
Red Light Posted January 5, 2018 Author Posted January 5, 2018 AND THUS, MY TOP 5 OF 2017 IS: Come back tomorrow for the finale!
Antunes Posted January 6, 2018 Posted January 6, 2018 Hear the SeaThe only good b-side on Red Summer Hobgoblin surprisingly still sounds fresh. Love all the songs form 9-6.
Asphyxia Posted January 6, 2018 Posted January 6, 2018 amazing top 15 9muses finally getting their number 1 ?
Red Light Posted January 6, 2018 Author Posted January 6, 2018 #5... Spoiler @Asphyxia sorry sis. Spoiler Chu chu chu, pa pa pa, la la la! Perhaps the most reliable girl group in the game when it comes to music quality, 9muses threw a double whammy this year, with two singles that would land in the top 5. The decidedly lighter comeback, Love City, is what happens when you take an already terrific product and manage to improve it even further--in this case, that terrific product is their 2015 comeback, Hurt Locker. With the same staggered, syncopated drum kick groove, the same gristly bass wobbles, and even the same song lengths, Love City is the upgrade. The aggressively sexy banger starts off with a mysterious, nonsensical spoken-word chant over a bedding of sub-bass (what the hell is a saucebox?), giving way to playful, sing-songy verses and ambient pre-choruses with loungey piano stabs. The choruses are manic and ferocious, with tambourine-laden snares, hissing hi-hats, and flowing synth lines, all finally reaching a peak with the demented-sounding hook, which chromatically ascends through an even more nonsensical chant of chu’s, pa’s, and la’s. It is just plain awesome. The best part of the track comes right after the first chorus, which places the dirty bassline at the forefront with a seductively dark melody that unfortunately never shows up again (if it had, it likely would have been #4 instead of #5). Nonetheless, Love City is the refreshingly intense piece of high-voltage electropop that’s becoming harder and harder to come by these days.
Asphyxia Posted January 6, 2018 Posted January 6, 2018 at least it's top 5 ajsdkljas there's still remember i have faith
Red Light Posted January 6, 2018 Author Posted January 6, 2018 #4... Spoiler sowwy While Love City is certainly catchier--and perhaps mixed slightly better--than its predecessor, there is something profoundly addictive about Remember. The harsh, clunky production style ends up working in its favor, complementing the dark subject matter (and even darker video) with an Industrial-like noisiness. Remarkably, the EDM influence (although in this case EDM would more suitably stand for Emo Dance Music) being incorporated into a song about breaking free from an abusive relationship doesn’t come out to be distasteful at all. The only trace of any cheesy, stereotypical EDM sound is in the building sound-effect leading up to the choruses--and while the choruses are eruptive enough to function like drops, they’re subtle enough to enhance the song instead of hinder it. Running mostly off of a pensive guitar sample that sounds straight out of Hotel California, Remember has to run a thin line between sounding acoustic and electronic, and it does so beautifully. The busy choruses are furnished with exceptionally catchy, animalistic-sounding background synths, an urgent four-on-the-floor beat that sharply contrasts the more unstable syncopation in the verses, and a pulsating, warped, gothic synth lead that proves its compatibility with the electric guitar. The disjointed structure is not too heavy-handed (although admittedly I have a high tolerance for disjointed K-pop songs), but just volatile enough to keep the song from getting old too quickly. Most importantly, the melodies sound appropriately anguished, with the highlights being the desperate “Love me love me love me love me love me” in the pre-choruses, and the tense, powerful bridge that all culminates in Keumjo’s hair-raising high note. 9Muses is, by far, the girl group that I've been most impressed with this year, being the only group to release more than one Top 5 worthy track. Even if they didn't snag the #1, they indisputably won 2017 overall--and if I gave out different kinds of awards (ooh, maybe I'll do that next year!), they would certainly take home Best Artist.
Red Light Posted January 6, 2018 Author Posted January 6, 2018 #3... Spoiler By far my favorite track of the year as far as melodies that hit my musical G-spot (my brussy?), Girl’s Day came roaring back in 2017 with a killer retro banger that sounds as though their 2015 album track, Macaron, returned in the afterglow of a two-year crack binge. It opens up with a classic walking blues bassline that gives the impression you’re in for a full-fledged Boogie-woogie throwback, but after three bars the momentum gets sliced by a zany brass ensemble and slings you into a sexy slice of hip-hop heaven, complete with heavy sub-bass (THIS is how you do it, Peek-A-Boo) and crisp snare rolls. The verses switch back to basics with swanky low-pitched brass, orchestral hits, and an almost monotonous piano pulse. The snare rolls lead the way to the pre-choruses and mark the return of the dense 808’s, now joining forces with the brass to play the all-time favorite scale progression I mentioned in my review for Hobgoblin. Just like in the intro, the overpowering brass brings everything to an abrupt halt, this time preparing you for the wallop the chorus is about to bring. I’ll Be Yours pulls out some interesting tricks during the choruses: The hard, ear-splitting kick drum is programmed in a way that sounds more like a distorted snare than a bass kick, and as far as the off-beat percussion (where an actual snare would go)--well, there is none! This gives the beat a slow, brutal galumphing rhythm that I really can’t compare to anything else I’ve heard in K-pop before. A badass electric guitar enters the picture with all of this, applying a hard rock treatment to the minor blues bassline heard during the intro, and the finished product is spectacular. The headbanging beat matches the brutish guitars perfectly, and the resultant combo augments the psychotic moodiness of the chorus’ chord structure, propelling the song from sounding merely aggressive to outright violent. This is in tone with the lyrics, which narcissistically line out Girl’s Day’s seduction techniques--assaulting the listener with nothing but pure, unwavering, commanding self-assurance. It all reaches a peak with an absolute beast of a bridge, which boosts the tension from 0 to 100 with its head-spinning array of emotional melodies and stunning vocal harmonies--bringing every element of the song together for one final beautiful, momentous, pivotal punch; sealing it as the best bridge of the year.
Red Light Posted January 6, 2018 Author Posted January 6, 2018 RUNNER-UP: Spoiler It seems like it’s becoming a yearly tradition on these lists for there to be one song where I spend an abnormal amount of time gushing over the snare sample (2015 was 4Minute’s Crazy, 2016 was HyunA’s Do It), and that honor for 2017 goes to Choerry/LOONA/Odd Eye Circle’s (seriously which one am I supposed to pick?) funky bubblegum jewel, Love Cherry Motion. This year’s Paragon of Percussion is tighter and snappier than that of the last two years, and subsequently sounds more synthetic--but sparkling plasticity is the name of the game for Love Cherry Motion, and there is no stem (pun unintended, again) of the production that doesn’t revel in its sleek, polished artificiality. The impossibly sunny dance track mixes bright, incandescent synth stabs with intermittent slap bass, and interacts with the erratically syncopated rhythm in such a way that it sounds like the two elements are exchanging the spotlight with one another. The voice samples--from the peppy “Ah! Ah!” clips, to the nursery rhyme-ish falsetto runs, to the main vocals--function in the same way, sputtering in tandem with the beat so that every last production detail gets a chance to flex its sonic muscles. Melodically, the song is brisk and blithesome, magically employing semitones that lighten the mood instead of darken it, ala many of the songs that made my list last year, such as STELLAR’s Sting and Red Velvet’s Russian Roulette (both of which, ironically, also incorporate high-pitched synths and slap bass). The track practically takes you on a roller coaster through every positive emotion imaginable, from enthusiastic playfulness in the verses, to softer, more ambient euphoria in the pre-choruses, and a colorful mixture during the choruses for a kind of celestial drunkenness. The darker post-chorus drops are handled remarkably well, straying far enough from the original sound that they jump out at the listener and prevent the song from getting stale. Paradoxically, they also sound as though they belong, and--most importantly--they sound necessary (unlike, for instance, the random trap sequence in Girl Front). While the first drop is nothing particularly special to write home about, the second one is the main event. Significantly longer than the first drop, the second showstopper boasts two distinct halves: One accented with sexy Arabic scale synth strings, and the other is the highlight of the entire song, melodically featuring what I consider the most effective earworm of 2017.
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