The Destiny Hope Posted December 13, 2019 Posted December 13, 2019 I LOVED BRAVE NEW WORLD AND THAT COMEBACK!!! The strings and change-up in the song when Miryo started rapping gave me goosebumps at first omfg. Glad it made top 100 of the decade Lemme give it another listen, it's so good
Red Light Posted December 13, 2019 Author Posted December 13, 2019 Spoiler IU’s Modern Times album is completely and thoroughly one of the greatest K-pop albums ever created, to such a degree that it actually seems borderline insulting to call it a K-pop album. With her 2013 record, it started to feel as though IU was in a completely different league, and all it really took to ascend to that level was a little bit of maturing from her girl-next-door image. One of the particularly admirable things that set IU apart was that she didn’t shed her youthful innocence by having a slut era, but aged up her image in a precociously understated, sophisticated manner. The song that most exemplifies this growth is the slow-burning jazz ballad, Between the Lips (50 cm). A calmly swung rhythm and an acoustic guitar foundation can class up the sleaziest joints available, but they’re never more potent than in sensual love songs. The agonizingly slow pace and lack of steady percussion works in the track’s favor, leaving lots of short, leisurely breaks and pauses, as though it keeps stopping for a kiss. Just like another song I’ll be reviewing once in the top 50, the jazz roots and minimalistic production magically take what is in essence a sex serenade, and make it sound like high art that could be stored in the louvre. Whereas another vocalist might have been interested in heaving out a strong vibratro or belting out high notes, IU’s vocal instincts are spot-on--the weak, breathy register she carefully and deliberately stays in (it’s certainly not from lack of range, as she’s proved in other songs) truly captures the heart of the track. And, the few times at the end where she does slide into her full voice makes for a perfect, understated climax in a song that wouldn’t normally have one. Which brings me to the most outstanding quality of Between the Lips: its fluidity. From the time IU opens the track in brief acapella, all the way down to the closing guitar strums, Between the Lips is an ever-changing animal. But not in the rhapsodic, I-Got-a-Boy-way--it flows so beautifully and so naturally that it sounds almost improvised. The chords--which consist of typical jazzy 7ths, add9th’s, add6th’s, and suspensions--last anywhere from over a whole bar to no more than one beat. No matter how much they tangle and weave, however, they always end up finding their way back to resolve in some form of a V/i resolution. And there’s the last point, which is most responsible for earning the song such goodwill from me: while it could have ventured into a very light, milquetoast R&B love song, the melodic choices of Between the Lips are tense and angst-ridden. The winding path of applied chords and the fragility of IU’s vocal performance make it an unexpectedly melancholy love song that means business. This in tandem with the slow swung rhythm gives it a creeping quality that leaves it as one of the most wispy and haunting K-pop love songs ever penned. Songs About Lips, Part II coming up next!
Red Light Posted December 13, 2019 Author Posted December 13, 2019 Spoiler This was a song I completely disregarded until the last quarter of the year, and disregarded for all the wrong reasons. I didn’t brush it off because I didn’t like the song--I’ve been in love with Kiss My Lips, both the song and the album, since the day it came out. I overlooked it because, when I was compiling my list and struggling to pick the last few songs to include, picking something from my queen felt like the easy way out. But, by October, I still had about three slots left and no idea how to fill them, so after a long break between the two of us, I gave Kiss My Lips one last confirmation listen. It was then that I realized what a grave mistake I’d been making all along. When did I come to this realization? Literally the moment the song opened. Not that I had actually forgotten the qualities that made me consider Kiss My Lips for the top 100 in the first place, but after about two years of not listening to a song (even if you’d been listening to it practically every day up until that point), you start remembering more of the why you like a song instead of the how (that was unfortunately the most sensical way I could think to phrase that). For the most part, the instrumental is pretty minimalistic, with a pretty light bass kick (but a stronger, crunchier handclap sample than I remember); a soft, rippling bassline; a crooning set of romantic guitar strokes; and a few transient synth effects. Kiss My Lips knows it has two prized possessions and it keeps them front and center at all times: The lead synth, and the vocalist. The warm, milky synth pads that it debuts with are among the most uniquely pleasurable I’ve heard in K-pop, and that working alongside BoA’s moaning, seductive vocals makes it one of the most alluring R&B songs of the decade. Admirably, Kiss My Lips never once ventures away from being anything more than beautifully subtle. Even in the song’s most intense (and greatest) sequence--the bridge, where BoA belts out the wistful “I never meant to fall in love” line--the belting is only used as backup harmony; satisfying the listener without overpowering the softness of the song. Tipping it all over the edge is the astounding thickness of the track’s chords: Similarly to another 2015 song from an SM artist which was eliminated last night, the harmonies in Kiss My Lips are so layered that it almost seems (and plausibly could be) unintentional. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a single chord in the entire song that isn’t embellished with a minor or major 7th, 9th, 11th, or 13th. The only difference is that Kiss My Lips is NOT as instantly catchy as 4 Walls… and that’s precisely why it’s a few spots higher. Songs that take awhile to grow on you always take just as long to wear off on you, and as we’re hitting on five years since its release next May, Kiss My Lips has aged incredibly well. Yes, as soon as I pressed play on Kiss My Lips a few months back, not just the why came back to me, but the how as well: how the hell wasn’t this in my top 100 since the very beginning? Next up, a Tier 3 artist falls from 100% to 33%!
Red Light Posted December 13, 2019 Author Posted December 13, 2019 Spoiler While their Love City comeback from a few months later 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) by giving it an unpleasant noisiness. Remarkably, the EDM influence (which, in this case, would more accurately stand for Emo Dance Music) doesn’t stand out as distasteful in the slightest, despite being incorporated into a song about breaking free from an abusive relationship. The only trace of any cheesy, stereotypical EDM sound in Remember is the tell-tale “Building” sound effect leading up to the choruses, while the rest of the track has to run a very thin line between sounding equally acoustic and electronic, and doing so beautifully--sequestering its electronic elements to its choruses and having the rest of the instrumental run off of a pensive guitar sample that sounds straight out of Hotel California. While the choruses are eruptive enough to function like drops, they’re subtle enough to enhance the song instead of hinder it: The chaotic choruses are furnished with exceptionally catchy, animalistic synth riffs; an urgent, pounding, foor-on-the-floor beat that sharply contrasts the more unstable syncopation in the verses; and a pulsating, warped, gothic synth lead that proves to be surprisingly compatible with the guitars. 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. If it sounds like the song literally gets faster in the chorus, it’s a clever illusion--the verses have a swung rhythm while the choruses are mostly straight. Most importantly, the chords work out perfectly, with a dull, gloomy i-v⁷-iv⁷-V⁷/i progression until the pre-choruses, which replaces the 7th’s in the iv chord with sus2’s. The choruses, are much more dynamic, running at i-VI-III-VII-iv-V/i, while the bridge takes a critical turn to i-III-VII-V/VII. In addition to that, the vocal melodies sound perfectly anguished, with the highlights being the neurotic, ascending “Love me love me love me love me love me” in the pre-choruses, and Keumjo’s hair-raising high note at the climax of the song. With rustic guitars, EDM drops, bluesy adlibs, and such a dark subject matter, Remember is one of the more enigmatic releases of the 2010’s, to the point that it will never be quite clear what exactly they were going for. But, whatever it was, it worked--for me personally, K-pop is never more exciting than when it’s confusing the **** out of you.
Red Light Posted December 13, 2019 Author Posted December 13, 2019 Spoiler Chu chu chu, pa pa pa, la la la! During my 2017 rate, when these songs were eliminated back-to-back once before, Love City was eliminated before Remember. Oddly enough though, in spite of Love City being more dated even upon its release, Love City is the song that's aged the best for me as we head into the 20's. Whatever the case, it's pretty remarkable that they released two songs of such similar quality within such a short amount of time. 9Muses were one of the most reliably great girl groups in the game during their nine-year tenure, and their last era was their best, releasing a pretty solid EP, and two singles that would come to be apart of my top 100. Their first single, the darker Remember, which was just cut, saw them as the victims of an abusive relationship. Love City saw an inversion of the concept, where in the MV, they basically turn into angry doms. And the song matches the concept perfectly: Love City is an aggressively and relentlessly sexy electronic banger that lyrically takes sadistic pleasure in rejecting an infatuated man. “What do you think you’re doing? You have no tact; I’m so tired of you,” “Please shut it; stop it, boy,” “Foolish boy, you’re so pathetic,” “I’ll confidently walk and drive you crazy; my tightly shut, chic red lips; don’t expect anything, you’re unbelievable; I’m not interested, pretty boy.” I LOVE IT! The melodies in the verses are surprisingly cheerful, and for awhile I was perplexed by why I liked them so much. Then, when I started analyzing it for the top 100, it became perfectly clear: Love City is an F# minor song that prefers to spend more of its time in F# major--in other words, it lives in the land of secondary chords. The glorious end product is a set of cheeky V/iv, Vˢᵘˢ⁴/iv, and V/VII verses that sound like gleeful taunts; mystical, euphoric V/VII-VII-V/iv-V/VII-VI-VIIˢᵘˢ²-V/iv pre-choruses; and manic i-III-VI-V/VII choruses. Sonically, 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 hard, staggered, syncopated beat; the same gristly basslines; and even the same song lengths; Love City is the upgrade. The spoken-word chants are like ASMR audio over a bedding of sub-bass, giving way to the playful, glitchy verses and ambient pre-choruses with loungey piano stabs, while the choruses are wild and ferocious, with tambourine-laden snares, hissing hi-hats, and flowing synth lines. Most responsible for Love City’s inclusion in the top 100 is the demented-sounding hook, which chromatically ascends through a V/iv-V/VII-V/v-V/i progression of chu’s, pa’s, and la’s. And then the ultimate high point of the song: a redux of the robotic spoken-word chant--only instead of being backed by pounding sub-bass, the dirty electronic bassline comes to the forefront instead, playing a seductively dark i-vii°/ii°-v-i-III-ii° melody that sounds positively evil. If it showed up more than once during the track--maybe during the bridge, or at the end--Love City would be even higher. Honestly, I’m not sure why they didn’t use it at least one more time, because it seems like a pretty obvious decision. Nonetheless, Love City is still the shimmering, refreshingly intense piece of high-voltage electropop that’s becoming harder and harder to come by these days.
Red Light Posted December 13, 2019 Author Posted December 13, 2019 (edited) Spoiler T-ara isn’t usually known for being too experimental--in fact, one of their biggest draws is that they’re so reliable in their Shinsadong Tiger-penned electropop bangers. Thus, they’re not given enough credit when they do go a more artistic route in their music, and none were more artistic than their gloomy midtempo, Day By Day. I can say with the utmost confidence that there is nothing else in K-pop like this, at least as far as girl groups are concerned. It’s basically a soft rock midtempo with roots in renaissance music. And it’s ****ing beautiful. There are some tracks that are just iconic and instantly recognizable from the very first second they open, like the opening bassline in 2ne1’s I Am the Best, or the opening saxophone in EXID’s Up & Down. The sorrowful medieval flute melody that Day By Day opens up with is right up there with the best of them. As has been established at this point, I adore songs with dramatic, melancholy melodies, but surprisingly enough, you get those in uptempo songs more often than midtempos or ballads, as far as K-pop is concerned (K-pop ballads unfortunately tend to go for boring R&B flavors). So it’s particularly special when you have a song as close to ballad territory as Day By Day (it would sound like an unadulterated ballad if not for the beat) also sound so unapologetically somber. The i-V/VII-VI-VII-i progression underlying the gorgeous flute hook is like loneliness in musical form, and the angstier i-v⁷-VII-iv making up the verses and pre-choruses has a weird, subtle edginess to it that adds a lot of emotional variety. Also deserving of being commended is the audio engineering, with one of the cleanest, richest acoustic guitar samples in the countdown; tasteful accents of dark synth waves; gentle, graceful strings; and a surprisingly strong beat with spectacularly mixed bass kicks and harsh snare crashes. Then the slam-dunk highlight that’s most responsible for landing Day By Day in the top 100 (I mean, besides the flute, obviously): The bridge kicks the song’s neurosis into overdrive, with a fragilely-sung VI-III-V⁷/i-i-VII, VI-III-V⁷/i lamentation that pivots in Areum’s agonizing high note. The lyrical hook in the chorus is even worse Engrish nonsense than usual, but the instrumental is so stellar that with enough listens, you can learn to completely ignore it and focus on how beautiful this haunting acoustic midtempo really is. Edited January 20, 2020 by Red Light
Red Light Posted December 13, 2019 Author Posted December 13, 2019 And we finish night two with... Spoiler ^Okay that graphic's kinda ugly ngl. It was one of the first ones I did. Confession time: I didn’t listen to this song all the way through until like, four years after it came out. I saw the endless praise for it, but just rolled my eyes and wrote it off as stan bias. The reason for my skepticism was because the iTunes snippet was so interminably boring and anticlimactic. On the iTunes preview, they pretty much preview the worst part of the song, with the boring buildup and even more boring first chorus. I never really had any reason to think the song was anything more than that. But, like a lot of songs in the top 100 of the decade, I Love You is a track that’s designed to be listened to from beginning to end. Otherwise, you can’t even comprehend the direction that it takes near the end, and you can’t give it the appreciation it deserves. I Love You’s initial chorus drop IS boring, because I Love You is designed like a roller coaster ride. It waxes and wanes in intensity from beginning to end, and what’s more--it does it all without sounding disjointed or messy. It starts off with a tense build and an underwhelming, insufficient drop; slowly gains momentum in the second verse, has a more adequate drop to tide the listener over; and finally has one last, lengthy, agonizing build, and ends in a riveting, wildly climactic drop that makes the whole song worth the winding journey. Besides all that, the production is top-notch, with a treasure trove of first-rate synth samples (particularly the main pulsation that oscillates like an old-fashioned house track, as well as the dreamy, atmospheric pads); not to mention the fact that it possesses one of the cleanest and most well-mixed bass kicks in the countdown. The heavily warped, altered, and distorted EDM soundscapes that comprise the sonic mania of the final drop is one of the best production jobs of the decade. And, of course, the overall structure and progression of the song is its most brilliant quality of all. Melodically, it’s a bit boring, which is really the only reason it isn’t much, much higher up. The VI-i-VII-VII, VI-i-VII-v pre-choruses are nice, but otherwise, the monotonous vacillation between i and III holds it back a lot (this is another one of the boring few I didn't bother making a hookpad sample for). One of the best parts of the song is when it deliberately teases you with a delirious build, making you think you’re in for an epic drop, then mercilessly tricks you with Dara’s spoken, “Bring it back,” and almost literally resets, going all the way back to the first verse. The extra bit of tension that it adds is palpable, and makes I Love You one of the most strategically produced tracks in the countdown. If it were melodically richer along the way, it would undoubtedly be in the top 50, because the anticipation that I Love You stores up all comes together and pays off in one of the most rewarding drops in K-pop history.
Hug Posted December 13, 2019 Posted December 13, 2019 How an Earth did you manage to not only make such impressive-looking graphics for each song, but have them be DIFFERENT in structure, font, style, etc...The effort that must have took is mind-blowing. The bingo cards are also such a cute touch. I think I only saw 1 or 2 bingos though...will there be a statistic for how many bingos there are/were at the end? I was just reading back on the two days I didn't see yet, and even though I'm more into BGs and flops, there are a few songs I liked. Nu ABO I think is the song I like most from the past two days, but I also like 4 Walls and Electric Shock a lot too. Even though I already knew this about you already, your music theory knowledge is impressive to me because I couldn't tell you wtf you were talking about at all even though I've made music before. I wanted to say you're doing a fantastic job so far and it's kinda sad that the decade end section is flopping because your thread definitely deserves more attention for how well-presented it all is.
Red Light Posted December 13, 2019 Author Posted December 13, 2019 1 hour ago, The Destiny Hope said: WAIT 4 WALL GOT ELIMINATED??????? WOW. It's one of my favorite f(x) songs/titles but I agree. It was very much "SM's sound." I mean, we had BoA, SHINee, Luna, f(x), EXO, and iirc TVXQ all release that type of sound within the span of 2 years I'm glad that phase in SM is over. But I'm not exaggerating when I had only this song on repeat for one month straight lol. Can't wait for round 2! Yeah, the deep/trop house fad for me I think must have been what the dubstep fad for most K-pop fans was like. I never had a problem with it because I always liked dubstep but now I understand why people were so annoyed with it. 1 hour ago, The Destiny Hope said: "with Red Light being a Wild Cat and the followup track Milk being the Sleepy Cat. Butterfly, however, pretty much combines the two into being some sort of narcoleptic tiger" Omg I NEVER thought of it like this!! This makes so much sense. Especially since they promoted Milk as the B-side Electric Shock is so catchy and still sounds so FRESH! They really found their sound with that, Hot Summer, and Rum Pum Pum. And they still were able to pull off such different concepts with Red Light and 4 walls whew. Legends fff I could just be over-analyzing it, it's SM after all. But the cat at the beginning of the Red Light video and at the beginning of Milk is odd. 52 minutes ago, The Destiny Hope said: I LOVED BRAVE NEW WORLD AND THAT COMEBACK!!! The strings and change-up in the song when Miryo started rapping gave me goosebumps at first omfg. Glad it made top 100 of the decade Lemme give it another listen, it's so good whew if it weren't for you I would have been talking to myself the whole night. Stan BEG. It sickens me how underrated they are. TOMORROW NIGHT: A Tier 2 group takes their first spill (), a trip to Europe, and three artist eliminations!
The Destiny Hope Posted December 13, 2019 Posted December 13, 2019 OMG REMEMBER AND LOVE CITY The best title tracks in the last Namyu lineup. I was a stan of the Sera days (Dolls, Glue, Wild, etc.) but I still loved the group and their music. What are your thoughts on Lip 2 Lip? Day by Day is ****ing ICONIC. Probably my favorite T-ara track. You're right in that the opening is just so recognizable! The guitar/flute in it is so catchy. Love love love this song. I'm glad it made it! "The lyrical hook in the chorus is even worse Engrish nonsense than usual" The fact that these bitches make you want to SING that Engrish too Ugh I was legit just on a 2NE1 binge earlier this week. I can't believe you only had it in your life for the past 3-4 years then Glad it got recognition then. Probably one of my favorite 2NE1 tracks along with Goodbye and a few others
The Destiny Hope Posted December 13, 2019 Posted December 13, 2019 9 minutes ago, Red Light said: whew if it weren't for you I would have been talking to myself the whole night. Stan BEG. It sickens me how underrated they are. TOMORROW NIGHT: A Tier 2 group takes their first spill (), a trip to Europe, and three artist eliminations! Nnnn, girl, I've been gone for ATRL for months. I only came back this month to talk to the K-pop thread, other ATRL acquaintances, and see users' I like year-end rates I'll be gone in January again but talking about music and this is why I joined the site (and OH back in the day, RIP) in the first place 15 minutes ago, Hug said: Even though I already knew this about you already, your music theory knowledge is impressive to me because I couldn't tell you wtf you were talking about at all even though I've made music before. I wanted to say you're doing a fantastic job so far and it's kinda sad that the decade end section is flopping because your thread definitely deserves more attention for how well-presented it all is. I know!!! This quality is so good, even though I don't know the musical theory stuff either. It takes the thread a little longer to load just because of the graphics klsdcklsamcsaklcs but I'm perched I have a best of decade list and best of 2019 list but I usually just do it for myself kladskclasdmcsdca. I do best-ofs every year, but just for me
Red Light Posted December 13, 2019 Author Posted December 13, 2019 5 minutes ago, Hug said: How an Earth did you manage to not only make such impressive-looking graphics for each song, but have them be DIFFERENT in structure, font, style, etc...The effort that must have took is mind-blowing. The bingo cards are also such a cute touch. I think I only saw 1 or 2 bingos though...will there be a statistic for how many bingos there are/were at the end? I was just reading back on the two days I didn't see yet, and even though I'm more into BGs and flops, there are a few songs I liked. Nu ABO I think is the song I like most from the past two days, but I also like 4 Walls and Electric Shock a lot too. Even though I already knew this about you already, your music theory knowledge is impressive to me because I couldn't tell you wtf you were talking about at all even though I've made music before. I wanted to say you're doing a fantastic job so far and it's kinda sad that the decade end section is flopping because your thread definitely deserves more attention for how well-presented it all is. oop Thanks, Happy Huggy Stuffy Bear! The graphics actually aren't that different when you realize they're all just basic collages with different designs or shapes plastered over them. The font thing was much more of a challenge at first, since the graphics maker only had the set selection to choose from. Then I started searching online for fonts to upload to the graphics maker myself and realized you can find a font for ****ing EVERYTHING. For Love City I was like, "I wonder if there's even a 1% chance to find a font that looks like a skyline" and sure enough, I found one! Not to worry. I know of at least one song in the top 40 that you've told me you stan. And like I said in my disclaimer in the OP, I've never taken any classes or anything, so there's definitely stuff that I'm wrong about, especially with the more complicated songs (for instance, 11th and 13th chords are ridiculously uncommon, so I'm doubting that that's what I'm actually hearing in 4 Walls and Kiss My Lips). Thank you. It's actually more successful than I imagined it would be. Last night was by far the most variety I've ever gotten in posters (which is probably sad ) and my expectations were below the ground. Oh and yeah I'll name off the bingo stats at the end but there won't be a graphic or anything; I didn't have time. The bingo cards are just for the people who don't feel like reading all my ****. (Oh and btw, this is probably obvious, but anyone who's having a hard time seeing which tiles on the bingo cards are marked, just click on them.)
Red Light Posted December 13, 2019 Author Posted December 13, 2019 21 minutes ago, The Destiny Hope said: OMG REMEMBER AND LOVE CITY The best title tracks in the last Namyu lineup. I was a stan of the Sera days (Dolls, Glue, Wild, etc.) but I still loved the group and their music. What are your thoughts on Lip 2 Lip? Day by Day is ****ing ICONIC. Probably my favorite T-ara track. You're right in that the opening is just so recognizable! The guitar/flute in it is so catchy. Love love love this song. I'm glad it made it! "The lyrical hook in the chorus is even worse Engrish nonsense than usual" The fact that these bitches make you want to SING that Engrish too Ugh I was legit just on a 2NE1 binge earlier this week. I can't believe you only had it in your life for the past 3-4 years then Glad it got recognition then. Probably one of my favorite 2NE1 tracks along with Goodbye and a few others Ooh I forgot about 9Muses A. They were great too. I stanned Shh! from that EP a lot and I think it and the title track were on my preliminary 2016 list back in the day. "I must be stay here day by day" and "I likey likey this" are so iconically terrible. Same with "I gotta get some fresh urr" from BNW. 16 minutes ago, The Destiny Hope said: Nnnn, girl, I've been gone for ATRL for months. I only came back this month to talk to the K-pop thread, other ATRL acquaintances, and see users' I like year-end rates I'll be gone in January again but talking about music and this is why I joined the site (and OH back in the day, RIP) in the first place I know!!! This quality is so good, even though I don't know the musical theory stuff either. It takes the thread a little longer to load just because of the graphics klsdcklsamcsaklcs but I'm perched I have a best of decade list and best of 2019 list but I usually just do it for myself kladskclasdmcsdca. I do best-ofs every year, but just for me Ugh I thought having all the graphics in the spoilers would keep the thread from lagging for some reason. You should make a thread! I'd read it. It doesn't have to have fancy graphics or anything. I saw one user who just put their whole list in the OP and called it a day!
Red Light Posted December 13, 2019 Author Posted December 13, 2019 Spoiler Spoiler Yes. I see the off-center silver crown on top of the LOONA bar. It's not my fault. The graphics maker literally wouldn't allow me to center it. I almost called off the whole idea of doing Survivors graphics because of that one little ****. It took every bit of strength I had left in me to overcome my OCD and upload that chart as though it looked presentable.
Red Light Posted December 14, 2019 Author Posted December 14, 2019 Spoiler This is basically the only Korean song from Afterschool that I really like. I mean, there were other songs that I liked, but nothing top 100 material. Something about Flashback just sounds like an inherent classic, even with the dated dubstep elements. Part of that classic feel is probably due to how simple it is melodically: Outside of the bridge, half of Flashback is a lovably basic vi-I-IV-ii chord progression, while the other half is just some variant of the vi chord repeated over and over and over again. You’d never guess Flashback was so simple just from listening to it, though: It boasts one of the most colorful and dynamic instrumentals in the entire countdown. The opening sound effect alone is not quite like anything else in the top 100, with a weird, vaguely industrial, laser-like synth shoot (that unfortunately doesn’t show up anywhere else in the song). The kick samples are absolutely massive, and they need to be in order to wade through the jungle of ironclad electronic mania that Flashback is comprised of: the harsher, edgier verses are home to an intricate pattern of manic synth stabs, robotic vocoding, classic dubstep “”Yoy” bass wobbles, and--my personal favorite feature--a detuned, distorted gabber-esque square wave that undercuts the bass kicks. The transition to the vi-I-IV-ii portion starting in the pre-chorus is flawless, with the sudden melodic focus giving the track a sense of flow and movement, and the rapidly accumulating synth stabs adding an extra sense of urgency. The choruses sonically remind me a lot of 4Minute’s Volume Up, with the emphasis placed on the rapidfire synth stabs. It’s still the same vi-I-IV-ii progression as before, but the vocal melody overtop of it is much sweeter and more anthemic, which lends in giving the track more emotional variety, as well as making it catchier and more palatable to pure pop fans. The most notable thing about Flashback, of course, is how elaborate the three-part bridge is. The pre-bridge strips down to a gentle, ambient synth ensemble, and in the absence of the usual layers-on-layers of brash bass wobbles, gives the listener a chance to enjoy the brutal sheen of its kick sample without distraction. Of course, this is quickly offset by the grimey dubstep break. Here’s the thing--I loved the dubstep craze of the early 2010’s. I understand why everybody hated it and how annoying it must have gotten, because I hate the current tropical house craze. But I, personally and embarrassingly, am pretty much a sucker for dubstep infusion in pop, and Flashback is no different. That said, the absolute peak of the song comes in the post-bridge, where it adopts the instrumental soundscape of the choruses without as many vocals to overshadow it. Finally, it all comes to an abrupt pause by way of a long, piercing high note, and closes out with a shortened final chorus. It’s a really, really awesome moment. Flashback won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s hard to deny how impeccable of a song it is, production-wise.
Red Light Posted December 14, 2019 Author Posted December 14, 2019 Spoiler Similarly to EXID a year earlier, GFriend’s career really began to take off in the wake of a performance fancam video going viral--only, instead of it going viral because of how sexy one of the members was, it went viral because Yuju fell flat on her face six times in one song. I’ve ended up coming to refer to it as “The Moth Performance,” because of the gigantic moths that terrorized the stage as the disaster was occurring. If you haven’t seen the video and you’re thinking, “Oh, they must not have been very hard falls, then,” ...watch it. There are a few times near the end where the poor girl is exhausted and doesn’t even seem to try bracing herself, and you can hear her head hitting the floor on the mic. It all paid off, though--they were commended for their professionalism, and Me Gustas Tu came to be one of the longest-charting song in Melon history, remaining somewhere in the top 100 for 63 weeks. I can certainly understand why: Me Gustas Tu is a brilliant, addictive piece of electric guitar-driven bubblegum pop. It’s everything their debut song, Glass Bead (which I’ve called Anal Bead ever since its release) is, except leagues better. It’s fantastically produced and mixed (no surprise, coming from Iggy and Youngbae), the vocals are pristine, and it ranges in sonic tone from sickeningly sweet synths reminiscent of 90’s teen pop, to distorted electric guitars and screaming strings more reminiscent of an anime theme during the dance break. Of course, the main reason I love it is for the nostalgic melodies, with a chillingly catchy “tututu” hook over a bittersweet IV-V-Vb/vi-vi, IV-V-I progression, and a grand, anthemic I-IV⁷-IVᵃᵈᵈ⁶-V-V/vi, vi-iiˢᵘˢ⁴-ii-IV-V-I chorus. It all reaches a fever pitch with the intense, wistful bridge, starting with a repetition of ii-ii7-vi and then gorgeously climbing up another IV-V-Vb/vi-vi before resolving in ii-V/vi and kicking into the rocking dance break. Yuju’s voice ascending semitonically along with the crucial IV-V-Vb/vi-vi bars is one of the most well-executed vocal runs of the decade, and it’s the final ingredient needed to make Me Gustas Tu a homerun. Me Gustas Tu is sweet bubblegum pop and weighty, nostalgic rock in its perfect hybrid. In spite of its main strength being its instant catchiness (not to downplay its ear candy production either), it’s still incredibly addictive and likable to this day, which is rare for songs of its kind. Additionally, it began one of the most admirable strings of excellent girl group singles in K-pop history, hence GFriend’s having a whopping three songs left.
Red Light Posted December 14, 2019 Author Posted December 14, 2019 (edited) Spoiler Much like 2ne1's I Love You, this is another incredible track by a group with a number in their name that’s leaving way too soon, simply because I’m such a close-minded slut for secondary chords. Of all the Sweetune-penned products, this one probably sounds the most out of character for them, trading in their usual funky guitars and regal strings for a thorough and unapologetic master class in hardcore electropop. Yet, in spite of it sounding so far outside their niche, you would think from listening to it that it’s the type of music they’ve mastered for years. Of all the accomplishments that Wild has under its belt, perhaps the most impressive is that it actually manages to sound wild. The most prominent feature of the instrumental is a heavily distorted electronic bassline that sounds like it’s literally screaming. I’m not sure what the production method is to achieve this sound, but it’s a feature that’s very common in dubstep, although not an actual dubstep wobble. ...Oh, wait--never mind, all it took was one Google search to find out that it has a pretty obvious and logical name--scream bass. I wish every music stem was this easy to find terminology for. Anyway, Wild is NOT in any capacity a dubstep track--it just borrows a trait from it to achieve a sound that matches its title. Beyond the fat, spikey scream bass sample that kicks off nearly every new measure, its second most notable quality are the haywire, pitch-bent synth squelches that shoot off like fireworks in the chorus. It also employs an impressively sharp, icy bass kick sample that dutifully pounds out the 133 BPM in a straightforward, driving four-on-the-floor rhythm. Why is all this so notable? The mixing. Besides the vocals, these are pretty much the only components of the instrumental--but the mixing sounds totally, well… mixed. And by mixed, I mean that, instead of some “Ingredients” being louder than others, there’s not much moderation--it all just sounds like one big, colorful torrent of noise that makes the track impressively chaotic. With a bassline that sounds like a factory-made animal cry, its erratic shrapnel of synths, and its exhaustingly harsh beat, Wild’s choruses make the listener feel as though their ears are under attack in a computerized jungle. If the melody was moodier, Wild would be a lot higher. The “Oh oh oh” hook is catchy, but the song--particularly the chorus--suffers a lot from its rather dull i-VI-VII-i chord loop. It does, however, make up for it in the end with the demented vii°/v shift at the end of the bridge, which leads into the one feature that does sound characteristically Sweetune, and boosts the song to top 100 material: The awesome key change. That's curtains for 9Muses, who are our first multi-entry artist to be cut. Edited January 20, 2020 by Red Light
Red Light Posted December 14, 2019 Author Posted December 14, 2019 (edited) And FINALLY, after nearly 25 places, we see our first elimination from... Spoiler Yep, Orange Caramel’s most iconic song is their first to get the boot. I feel bad, but then again--spoiler alert--they only have one more elimination after this before the top 50, which is a nice consolation. So what is Catallena out so early for? Mostly just the stiffness of the competition and the fact that, well, you can’t include more than 75 songs in the top 75. It’s also getting to the point in the countdown where one tiny flaw can be enough to set a song back several places--with Catallena, its most iconic and distinguished quality is also its downfall: the song, for whatever random reason, samples India’s Punjabi wedding folk song Jutti Meri Jandiye, and employs the original chant (“Jutti Meri! Oye Hoi Hoi! Paula Mera! Oye Hoi Hoi!”) as its hook. It’s a very cool, off-the-wall idea and a terrific example of the random, unpredictable weirdness that K-pop so often throws at you… it’s also annoying as ****. Orange Caramel’s #1 detractor for me is their baby-voiced vocal inflections, but their Punjabi wedding chant is on a totally different level. They sound like a kennel of yipping dogs getting spayed and neutered without anesthesia. And even beyond the chant, the baby vocals are particularly ugly here. As a matter of fact, it warded me off from buying the song for over two years before I could finally get used to it. Every other component of Catallena, however, is absolutely brilliant. I’m going to sound like a broken record by the time the review for their last song is written, but Orange Caramel are such a distinctive group that it’s hard not to repeat the qualities that made them so special. The first being the heavy European flavors that comprised their catalog. Just about every Orange Caramel single took heavy cues from HI-NRG music, which itself took heavy cues from Italo disco. In this case, Catallena is particularly heavy on the "Disco" part of that classification. And then there’s the cinematic moodiness prevalent in most of Orange Caramel’s chord progressions. Catallena channels an urgent i-III-V/i-i loop through a relentless blast of symphonic strings, pulsating synth bass, reverberated snare lashes, more strings, erratic flute riffs, pitch-bent synth squirts, more strings, and more strings. The chromatic vocal ascent in the post-chorus (D-D#-E) is my personal favorite part, escalating the urgency of the chords to a level of outright mischief. Also of note are the lyrics, which detail a lesbianic infatuation with a difficult and high-maintenance, but somehow strangely alluring and irresistible woman. It’s actually somewhat descriptive of the song--brash, moody, and off-putting, while still possessing a quirky infectious charm. Catallena may have been taken too soon in the countdown, but it’s Orange Caramel’s quintessential track, and their biggest and brightest legacy. Edited December 14, 2019 by Red Light
Red Light Posted December 14, 2019 Author Posted December 14, 2019 Spoiler Alright, time to finally cut the BS: I have no idea what I’m doing here. I don’t know anything about music. I just have a lot of free time and a lot of enthusiasm. So, when it comes to an incredibly intricate song like Sonatine, which has a music sheet that would have Mozart’s head spinning, I have no choice but to just cut straight about my fraudulence. I have no authentic clue as to what the real chords are for this song. I spent an entire day working on replicating it in hooktheory, and was at a complete loss until contacting the immensely talented Eric Lee, who very kindly made what was basically a Sonatine For Dummies music sheet--and I STILL couldn’t complete it. It went smoothly (that’s a lie, the IVᵃᵈᵈ⁶/♭V chords really tripped me up) until I got to the bridge, where I can’t tell whether you have to change key to find the right chords or if I’m just too clueless to find a D minor chord, but either way, these have been struggles completely unique to this one enigmatic masterpiece. It’s by and large, with no contest at all, the most melodically complex song included in the countdown. The only thing I can say for sure is that nearly every single chord in the entire 3 minutes and 17 seconds of Sonatine has some sort of extension attached to it. To the best of my ability, I’ve pretty much copied Eric Lee’s homework and recreated it in hooktheory to its maximum accuracy, and the composition includes everything from 7th’s, to half-diminished 7th’s, to augmented 7th’s, to suspended 4th’s, to 7th’s WITH suspended 4th’s, to 9th’s, to dominant-7th-sharp-9th’s, to 11th’s, to chords borrowed from a completely different scale. It’s like Sweetch had to sacrifice a virgin and cast a spell to ever get this song to harmonize. Whatever the hell the chords actually are, they’re as mystical and enchanting as you can possibly get in K-pop. The melodies are constantly taking twists and turns and going in unexpected places, straying as far away from simplicity as possible--and yet, somehow, Sonatine isn’t uncatchy or hard to get used to at all. It’s too beautiful and majestic to be the least bit off-putting or unpleasant. That’s partially thanks to the warm, lush spring of symphonic strings that lay the foundation of the instrumental. In fact, that’s just about the only instrumentation that Sonatine has--a duet of strings and piano chords, with an accordion-led tango dance break in the first post-chorus and bridge. There is almost no percussion at all, except in one barely-audible bass kick that ushers in new measures in the second and last choruses, and a breezy clave rhythm during the aforementioned tango interludes. The ladies’ silky smooth vocals also help things out a lot, gliding beautifully between the odd assortment of notes with a swan-like grace. As a whole, Sonatine is less like a swan and more like some kind of glowing, magical creature that should only exist in myths. It’s a song that shouldn’t work under any capacity, and somehow totally defies the laws of K-pop physics. It’s a beaconing example of what set Loona apart and stands out as one of the most unique and inventive tracks of the decade. But let’s be real here about why it’s in my top 100--it’s just so PRETTY!
Red Light Posted December 14, 2019 Author Posted December 14, 2019 Spoiler Picture it: Sicily, 1922… or Paris. I can’t really decide whether this song sounds more French or Italian. I went with Italian because its more acoustic guitar-driven than accordion-driven. And I wanted to do the Sophia Petrillo bit. Whichever country it is, Clara’s Dream is the only song I know of in K-pop that will make the listener feel as though they’re having breakfast at an outdoor cafe in Europe. Granted, it’s not uptempo--but, I mean, I’m guessing they have ballads over there too. This is Orange Caramel’s second elimination, so I'll be repeating myself a lot, but Orange Caramel were one of the most european-influenced groups in K-pop history. I’m really not sure why, since it was never a niche that they actually acknowledged, but from the eurobeat-ish Lipstick and My Copycat to the hyperactive Italo disco of Shanghai Romance and Catallena, they rarely released a track that didn’t have some sort of european flavor to it. Clara’s Dream, however, is by far the most blatant and recognizable instance of that element coming into play. The melodies and harmonies are considerably long and complex, with several diminished chords, suspensions, and extended chords like add6’s. To add to that, most of the progressions don’t resolve until a whopping 16 measures, and the song also lacks a readily apparent verse-chorus structure. In effect, Dream of Clara is like a really long, melodic poem. It’s not only one of the gloomiest songs in the countdown melodically, it’s also one of the gloomiest lyrically. A classic torch song, Clara’s Dream longingly narrates the flashbacks of a lost love, with lines such as, “Like the snow in the middle of winter, waltzing with you made me laugh”--which is appropriate, considering the song is in ¾ time, not unlike a very sad waltz. The instrumental is where Clara’s Dream really sets itself apart, opening with lonely flamenco guitar strokes and progressing to a beautiful accordion sample; by far my favorite accordion usage of the decade (not that it’s used all that often, unfortunately). The track is scarce on percussion besides some mild drum rolls, up until the two big, haunting climaxes, which also usher in a nice, weepy backing of strings and an electric guitar. The first climax includes vocals, while the second just lets the listener enjoy the gorgeous instrumental. It’s painfully effective, not only sonically but melodically, where it shifts to a different, simpler i-VII-VI-III-iv-i-iiø7-V/i progression that offers an incredible dramatic payoff. Orange Caramel were known for their quirkiness as far as their image went, but the quirkiness of their music was sadly overlooked. Borrowing influence from italian folk and waltz music and cutting out all the typical aegyo Orange Caramel baby vocals, Dream of Clara is one of K-pop’s most beautiful hidden gems, and shows what the group could have become, had they been allowed to mature.
Red Light Posted December 14, 2019 Author Posted December 14, 2019 Spoiler Oh My Girl is a girl group that somehow, in spite of their excellence, flew completely under my radar until 2018. Closer and Windy Day in particular are songs that I’m especially peeved that I didn’t listen to upon release, as both would have undoubtedly made the top 5 of 2015 and 2016. They had a bit of a misstep in 2017 with what sounded to me like an overproduced Red Velvet reject (everyone else adores the song, but I have no clue why), but they came roaring back at the start of 2018 with the corner of the market they truly excel in: Mature, ambient synthpop. The lead title, Secret Garden, is a slam-dunk in that category--and yet, as soon as you hear the sound of the clock being pulled back in the intro of this gorgeous B-side, even the lead single pales in comparison. I know the clock sound effect is in tandem with the actual concept of it being “Love O’Clock,” but combined with the overall tone of the song, I can’t help but interpret it as being themed around sleep instead. The whole song just sounds “Sleepy,” from the whimsical melodies to the dreamy production and, most importantly, the best feature of the entire Secret Garden EP and one of my favorite music moments of 2018: The magnificent, soothing, lullaby-ish I-I⁷-iv⁷-ivᵃᵈᵈ⁶ “Ooooooooo”s scattered throughout the track that sound like a choir of angels serenading the listener to slumber. The ♭VI-I-Isus4-iv-ivˢᵘˢ⁴-v-V pre-choruses are perfection as well, with a slower beat and a symphony of heavenly strings building in the background before being topped off by a tense semitonic climb in the vocals. The choruses are surprisingly extravagant and complex, starting off with an I-IV-IV⁷-vi-V progression before elaborating it by nearly climbing up the entire C major scale in an I-ii-iii-IV-V-vi-V; followed by an awesome, totally different second half that runs at iiˢᵘˢ⁴-Vᵃᵈᵈ⁶-I-V/ii and resolves with iiˢᵘˢ⁴-IV⁷-V. Tonally, the choruses are effervescent bursts of nostalgic joy straight out of a Disney movie--and yet it doesn’t sound overly cutesy or saccharine. It reminds me a lot of Orange Caramel’s Bubble Bath (which, spoiler alert, is part of the countdown): Both songs are like neon-lit joyrides of dreamy romanticism, mixing warm yet mysterious melodies with icy, ethereal instrumentals that create a hazy, almost otherworldly level of gushing ambience. Love O’Clock is quite simply sonic euphoria at its purest and most heavenly. 2018 was a banner year for ambient synthpop tracks, and thus to make it all the way to being the top-rated of that crop is a particularly admirable feat. With Love O’Clock, Oh My Girl didn’t just release what I consider to be the best ambient synthpop song of 2018, but they released what I consider to be one of the best ambient synthpop songs of all time.
The Destiny Hope Posted December 14, 2019 Posted December 14, 2019 Flashback - OMG WHAT? I can't at you saying you loved the dubstep craze akdkclamdcklascas. *shudders in LMFAO* Jkjk, but Flashback was such a bop. After School has to be one of the HARDEST working girl groups in the K-pop scene at least. The amount of attention their eras had was insane! In my mind, I always saw Flashback as like the sort of natural progression of the whole electronic T-ara sound. (Which I guess makes sense since T-ara went full on EDM later) Me Gustas Tu - Awww! GFriend's rise was so unexpected but I'm glad they got their minutes of fame since Me Gustas Tu is literally SO catchy and was so fresh at the time. Like 3rd generation girl groups were still trying to find their identity at the start of 2014/2015, this was so different and unique... well, for the time. I remember weirdly hating them for trying to "copy" SNSD and even having their own knock-off Jessica (hardcore Sone 2010-2014) Wild - YESSSSSS an old 9muses entry!!! Wild really was just that good and the fact so many K-pop fans back then and now think so just shows it should've been their breakthrough. I'm literally so bitter it wasn't. The key change is so iconic. Ugh Catallena - This is SO iconic omg only #77 I-. But I get what you mean, the chanting is actually really annoying. I remember a few years back, I had a resurgence in wanting to listen to OC and at one point with this on repeat I was like, '... wait I'm actually getting annoyed' akcmaklscmascas Sonatine - "Alright, time to finally cut the BS: I have no idea what I’m doing here. I don’t know anything about music. I just have a lot of free time and a lot of enthusiasm. So, when it comes to an incredibly intricate song like Sonatine, which has a music sheet that would have Mozart’s head spinning, I have no choice but to just cut straight about my fraudulence. I have no authentic clue as to what the real chords are for this song. I spent an entire day working on replicating it in hooktheory, and was at a complete loss until contacting the immensely talented Eric Lee, who very kindly made what was basically a Sonatine For Dummies music sheet--and I STILL couldn’t complete it. " Holy ****, I can't believe it's THAT complex? I knew it was really complex but I never knew it was THAT hard. I love this song so much. Honestly, I find Loona overrated a lot of the time but in times like this I think maybe their stans have some right to say that akkcmaklcmasdcas. I want them to go back to releasing music like their pre-debut songs. For some reason they just had it way better with the units and stuff? Love the placement though Dream of Clara - omg what I've NEVER heard this before but this is such a rare sound to hear in K-pop. Very pretty!
Red Light Posted December 14, 2019 Author Posted December 14, 2019 Spoiler ^That's definitely one of the uglier graphics of the 100. Step aside, Gaga and Bradley--the debut single from the Ace of Angels is the only “Shalalala shallow” hook that I care about from this decade. AOA is a girl group that has absolutely no resemblance to the way they started out, where they were intended to be a more organic, late-Wonder Girls-esque girl band. The nostalgic, rockier track Get Out released in this period exemplified this niche much better. Puzzlingly enough, their debut single seemingly went against everything they stood for--Elvis is an unapologetically clean, sleek, manufactured piece of electronic pop gold. The kick sample is absolutely massive and I might even go as far as to say that it’s my favorite bass kick of the decade, and it’s complemented by a splattering snare sample equally as crisp. Also incredibly crisp are those razor-sharp binaural guitar strokes, which cut particularly harshly as they practically place an exclamation point at the end of each measure in the verses. And, of course, the screeching strings are as effective and dramatic as always, along with the brass and woodwind furnishings. Of particular note with Elvis is how well and how varied it’s structured. No part of Elvis is monotonous or stagnant--it’s constantly moving from cell to cell without sounding the tiniest bit disjointed. The amount of different earworms it packs into its three minutes and twenty seconds is nothing short of astounding, and what’s even more impressive is that these earworms aren’t incessant, annoying bubblegum melodies like that of Girls’ Generation’s biggest hits, but ferocious, brash secondary chords and semitones. The verses are the song at its most fiendish, fundamentally being an i-V/i progression, so I would already be in love with it--but what really stands out are the more brief progressions wrapped inside of that, including a devilish IV/VI chord in tandem with the aforementioned guitar exclamation, and a demented V/i-III-V/v-IV/VI descent as it falls back to its home chord. Then comes the more lush, disco-y pre-chorus, which is strong enough on its own that it could easily act as an actual chorus in any other song. The energy is much easier and less crazed, and that’s partially thanks to the lighter i-VII-III-VI-V/i progression and irresistable “Shalala shallow” hook I mentioned at the beginning. The i-III-VI-V⁷/i choruses aren’t anything mind-blowing, but are a return to the manic energy of the verses and thus appropriately climactic. And, if you do happen to be left cold by the choruses, the post-choruses make up for it: taking cues from the repetitive post-chorus synth riffs of T-ara, Elvis deals a devastating final blow with an addictive, pitch-bent sax parade. I got ****ing 503'd and it didn't save the progress in the editor.
Red Light Posted December 14, 2019 Author Posted December 14, 2019 Spoiler Here it is: The only tropical house song that I truly love. No surprise that the one exception would be a MonoTree production. But first, let me delve a little bit into my tropical house hatred, because I rag on it as often as I can without ever really explaining the problems that I have with it. I didn’t have a problem with the dubstep fad back at the start of the decade, but I understood why everyone did. It was uninspired trend-chasing that all sounded the same, which every single artist seemed to dabble in at least once, no matter how out-of-place it was in their discography, or even in the very song it was included in. When you heard that first wobble enter your ears, you were bound to start rolling your eyes. One thing you couldn’t criticize it for, however, was underproduction. Any heavy electronic music is pretty much overproduced by nature. So, when there was a big EDM build in K-pop, as cheesy as it was, you at least knew the big drop was going to warrant it. Tropical house, however, is light and airy by nature, which is why it doesn’t make sense to use it as a drop. Take Gashina by Sunmi, for example, which is in my opinion not only her worst song but one of my least favorite tracks of the decade: nothing in that drop warrants its tense pre-choruses. There’s nothing in that instrumental besides that godawful screechy vocal synth (by far the worst example of that sample in all of K-pop, which is saying a lot), relatively weak sub-bass, and some light marimba tones. And it only has a marginal tropical influence in the first place, so it just sounds more like an excuse for the song to be boring. STELLAR were not immune to the terrible tropical takeover of 2016, but their foray into the fad put every other track before or since to shame--it didn’t illustrate the limitations of the genre, but the potential that it had. It places much more emphasis on the tropical than the house, which inverts it from being tired and cringeworthy to charming and exotic. As can be expected with MonoTree, the melodies are much more layered and interesting than they have any right to be, with sevenths, ninths, suspended seconds, and borrowed chords. The production is where it really shines, though. The sub-aquatic instrumental is brimming with a multitude of colorful details, with a boundless array of bright synth samples (including a pitched vocal synth like in Gashina, but in a much more tolerable dosage); an erratic, bubbling bassline; funky slap bass; and brass-loaded choruses. Sting doesn’t become truly exceptional, though, until after its second chorus, with a woozy post-chorus, a slamming dance break, and a tense, solemnly chromatic bridge. Basically, Sting works because it sounds like it belongs under palm trees instead of strobe lights. By the end of it, you’re totally inundated in a sonic ocean, and you never want to come back up for air.
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