Red Light Posted December 14, 2019 Author Posted December 14, 2019 And tonight's last elimination is: Spoiler ^Yes, this and the Love O'Clock graphics were just stolen from my 2018 thread and given animations. The Sonatine graphic took a lot out of me, okay? In spite of never having quite the same kind of success as more mainstream-leaning K-pop artists (her highest-charting position on the Gaon chart was her 2014 single Cheer Up, reaching #19), Hong Jin-young has left a more unconventional legacy that never needed wild mainstream appeal to be respected in Korean culture. At this point, she’s the indisputable queen of traditional Korean trot music, practically guaranteed to take home any yearly Best Trot awards that may be doled out from year to year. Her 2018 spin on the genre, which was runner-up for my favorite song of 2018 (or technically the winner, since Heart Attack was released at the very end of 2017) is horrendously overlooked compared to the rest of her catalog, despite being close to total perfection. K-pop has always tried its damndest to copy whatever sound is popular in the west and run it into the ground, but it’s never been quite as noticeable as it is in the current musical climate, because the trendy “It” flavor of mainstream pop at the moment--tropical house and future bass--has almost as little sonic variety as the dubstep fad back at the start of the decade. That’s why unapologetically eastern-sounding songs like Goodbye are so admirable, not to mention so impressive when, as this song demonstrates, managing to sound so fresh and modern. Goodbye is traditional Korean trot music built with glossy electronic foundation, and the distance between those two elements could not have been bridged more beautifully. The former most reliable distributors of trot-influenced electropop songs were the sorely missed Orange Caramel, whose distinctly european-influenced catalog was frequently composed of theatrical instrumentals, aegyo vocal affectations, and the unmistakable duple-meter bounciness that made their music so one-of-a-kind. Goodbye takes all the great elements of Orange Caramel at their best, and eliminates the cutesy vocal affectations that always somewhat, in my book at least, held Orange Caramel back. With crystal clear production and pristine sound mixing, Goodbye seamlessly whips the listener through a dazzling array of of tonal and sonic variety, opening with its trademark athletically modulated falsettos; flamenco string accents; high-energy, mischievous, brass-loaded verses; and gut-punching, emotional VI-i-Vb/iv-iv-V/iv choruses with exotic lute-family synthesization in the background that I swear are supposed to sound like balalaikas. Finally, the song goes above and beyond, jumping to an IV/VI-iv-VI-i, IV/VI-iv-VI-V/iv post-chorus hook with a saxophone riff (not to mention a handclap rhythm that has to be the hardest passage of music to not clap along to since the Friends theme) that ranks up there with the best of any Seo Yeong-Bae & Iggy or Shinsadong Tiger-composed classics.
Red Light Posted December 14, 2019 Author Posted December 14, 2019 Spoiler Spoiler TOMORROW NIGHT: Multiple songs with storybook motifs, two of my favorite synthpop songs of the decade, and a certain song with an iconic saxophone riff!
Red Light Posted December 14, 2019 Author Posted December 14, 2019 1 hour ago, The Destiny Hope said: 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! Dubstep has always been one of my guilty pleasures, kii. Me and @Hug were talking recently about how we both bopped to The DJ Is Mine fkhjdfhkdfjak (and speaking of Wonder Girls... ) mess why'd you think they were copying SNSD? Because Into the New World had that nostalgic J-rock sound? (omg that's also a SAWNG!) omg when you think about it the The Moth Performance was GFriend's Black Ocean moment. fjhdfjkhjkda earlier in the year Wild was like #81 I think, instead of #78. Which means they would have gone from having 100% health on night 1 to being dead the second night. I really like 9Muses, I'm surprised they're the first Tier 2+ artist out tbh. They were randomly my top artist of 2019 on Spotify too fjhdkfjh Yeah, for awhile Catallena was higher (like mid-50's I think) just by virtue of how iconic it is, but I decided that was a slippery slope. Well "A music sheet that would have Mozart's head spinning" is obviously a huge exaggeration jhfkdfha but Sonatine is one of the few songs that I'm fairly sure actually employs a lot of the ludicrous chords that I think it does. There are two other songs like that in the top 100 that I can think of off the top of my head. One gets kicked tomorrow night and is an even bigger mess than Sonatine because it has key modulations (which I don't even bother with and just end up settling for inaccurate information). The other one is later on in the top 40 and was the only one that I actually GAVE UP making a chord analysis for. In hindsight, Sonatine was probably the easiest of the three, so it's probably less the song being complicated and more my ass being stupid. And yeah, I still like them a lot but they're nothing compared to what they were in 2017 imo. I don't know what that **** they released today was but it sounded like a goodbye single to me.
The Destiny Hope Posted December 14, 2019 Posted December 14, 2019 1 hour ago, Red Light said: Hide contents ^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. OMG YESSSSS ELVIS JIRIT JIRIT ELVIS!!!! I loved AoA since they debuted and while I was totally on board with their sexy bops and newfound success starting in 2014, I always had a special place in my heart for their debut sound. This is honestly SO catchy. Suuuuuper glad this made top 100 of the decade. I wonder if any of their sexy songs will make the rate? The SNSD shade though 1 hour ago, Red Light said: Hide contents 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. This was really good!!! As I recall, this was AFTER Mask, I think? Mask was SUCH A GREAT, SENSUAL SONG BTW From Marionette to Mask to Sting (and later Vibrato WHEW A ****ING SONG ) Stellar was a 3/3 for me with Sting. I liked how it wasn't so dark and gloomy compared to Marionette and Mask. Mainly because I saw those YT videos where they were like signing for help or something and people were scared they went the sexy route For me personally, I might have it in the 90s or honorable mentions but it's so cute still. 1 hour ago, Red Light said: And tonight's last elimination is: Hide contents ^Yes, this and the Love O'Clock graphics were just stolen from my 2018 thread and given animations. The Sonatine graphic took a lot out of me, okay? In spite of never having quite the same kind of success as more mainstream-leaning K-pop artists (her highest-charting position on the Gaon chart was her 2014 single Cheer Up, reaching #19), Hong Jin-young has left a more unconventional legacy that never needed wild mainstream appeal to be respected in Korean culture. At this point, she’s the indisputable queen of traditional Korean trot music, practically guaranteed to take home any yearly Best Trot awards that may be doled out from year to year. Her 2018 spin on the genre, which was runner-up for my favorite song of 2018 (or technically the winner, since Heart Attack was released at the very end of 2017) is horrendously overlooked compared to the rest of her catalog, despite being close to total perfection. K-pop has always tried its damndest to copy whatever sound is popular in the west and run it into the ground, but it’s never been quite as noticeable as it is in the current musical climate, because the trendy “It” flavor of mainstream pop at the moment--tropical house and future bass--has almost as little sonic variety as the dubstep fad back at the start of the decade. That’s why unapologetically eastern-sounding songs like Goodbye are so admirable, not to mention so impressive when, as this song demonstrates, managing to sound so fresh and modern. Goodbye is traditional Korean trot music built with glossy electronic foundation, and the distance between those two elements could not have been bridged more beautifully. The former most reliable distributors of trot-influenced electropop songs were the sorely missed Orange Caramel, whose distinctly european-influenced catalog was frequently composed of theatrical instrumentals, aegyo vocal affectations, and the unmistakable duple-meter bounciness that made their music so one-of-a-kind. Goodbye takes all the great elements of Orange Caramel at their best, and eliminates the cutesy vocal affectations that always somewhat, in my book at least, held Orange Caramel back. With crystal clear production and pristine sound mixing, Goodbye seamlessly whips the listener through a dazzling array of of tonal and sonic variety, opening with its trademark athletically modulated falsettos; flamenco string accents; high-energy, mischievous, brass-loaded verses; and gut-punching, emotional VI-i-Vb/iv-iv-V/iv choruses with exotic lute-family synthesization in the background that I swear are supposed to sound like balalaikas. Finally, the song goes above and beyond, jumping to an IV/VI-iv-VI-i, IV/VI-iv-VI-V/iv post-chorus hook with a saxophone riff (not to mention a handclap rhythm that has to be the hardest passage of music to not clap along to since the Friends theme) that ranks up there with the best of any Seo Yeong-Bae & Iggy or Shinsadong Tiger-composed classics. Oh wow I never heard this??? Crayon Pop kind of ruined trot for me akdcmkalsdmcas;casd but this is REALLY cute
The Destiny Hope Posted December 14, 2019 Posted December 14, 2019 24 minutes ago, Red Light said: Dubstep has always been one of my guilty pleasures, kii. Me and @Hug were talking recently about how we both bopped to The DJ Is Mine fkhjdfhkdfjak (and speaking of Wonder Girls... ) mess why'd you think they were copying SNSD? Because Into the New World had that nostalgic J-rock sound? (omg that's also a SAWNG!) omg when you think about it the The Moth Performance was GFriend's Black Ocean moment. fjhdfjkhjkda earlier in the year Wild was like #81 I think, instead of #78. Which means they would have gone from having 100% health on night 1 to being dead the second night. I really like 9Muses, I'm surprised they're the first Tier 2+ artist out tbh. They were randomly my top artist of 2019 on Spotify too fjhdkfjh Yeah, for awhile Catallena was higher (like mid-50's I think) just by virtue of how iconic it is, but I decided that was a slippery slope. Well "A music sheet that would have Mozart's head spinning" is obviously a huge exaggeration jhfkdfha but Sonatine is one of the few songs that I'm fairly sure actually employs a lot of the ludicrous chords that I think it does. There are two other songs like that in the top 100 that I can think of off the top of my head. One gets kicked tomorrow night and is an even bigger mess than Sonatine because it has key modulations (which I don't even bother with and just end up settling for inaccurate information). The other one is later on in the top 40 and was the only one that I actually GAVE UP making a chord analysis for. In hindsight, Sonatine was probably the easiest of the three, so it's probably less the song being complicated and more my ass being stupid. And yeah, I still like them a lot but they're nothing compared to what they were in 2017 imo. I don't know what that **** they released today was but it sounded like a goodbye single to me. Yeah akca;klcamkcads granted, back in 2015 when they debuted - despite me highkey hating SNSD for the whole Jessica thing (which I'm now totally over) - I thought they were SNSD rip-offs Omg wtf 9muses being your top artist??? In 2019??? I don't judge jk nnn. But wait so they're out for good??? What are your thoughts on Choice and Drama then? And Not a goodbye single I really wonder what they're doing because it feels like after they dropped Butterfly they've just been posting boy group dance covers??? They actually have something going for them with their international and solid Korean fanbase
Red Light Posted December 14, 2019 Author Posted December 14, 2019 15 hours ago, The Destiny Hope said: OMG YESSSSS ELVIS JIRIT JIRIT ELVIS!!!! I loved AoA since they debuted and while I was totally on board with their sexy bops and newfound success starting in 2014, I always had a special place in my heart for their debut sound. This is honestly SO catchy. Suuuuuper glad this made top 100 of the decade. I wonder if any of their sexy songs will make the rate? The SNSD shade though This was really good!!! As I recall, this was AFTER Mask, I think? Mask was SUCH A GREAT, SENSUAL SONG BTW From Marionette to Mask to Sting (and later Vibrato WHEW A ****ING SONG ) Stellar was a 3/3 for me with Sting. I liked how it wasn't so dark and gloomy compared to Marionette and Mask. Mainly because I saw those YT videos where they were like signing for help or something and people were scared they went the sexy route For me personally, I might have it in the 90s or honorable mentions but it's so cute still. Oh wow I never heard this??? Crayon Pop kind of ruined trot for me akdcmkalsdmcas;casd but this is REALLY cute Basically once the Marionette era started, STELLAR never released a bad song. I loved them so much and I'm disgusted at what they had to go through (but I still have reviews left to talk about that ). And Vibrator was before Sting. I remember the EP had to be crowdfunded and they signed a bunch of copies. I also distinctly remember their label saying Sting would be a more innocent comeback and then out came the album cover where they had no pants on. The only Crayon Pop song I ever used was FM. Not enough to include it in my top 100, though. 15 hours ago, The Destiny Hope said: Yeah akca;klcamkcads granted, back in 2015 when they debuted - despite me highkey hating SNSD for the whole Jessica thing (which I'm now totally over) - I thought they were SNSD rip-offs Omg wtf 9muses being your top artist??? In 2019??? I don't judge jk nnn. But wait so they're out for good??? What are your thoughts on Choice and Drama then? And Not a goodbye single I really wonder what they're doing because it feels like after they dropped Butterfly they've just been posting boy group dance covers??? They actually have something going for them with their international and solid Korean fanbase GFriend actually don't really remind me of any second generation groups too much. SNSD had those songs at the very beginning of their career but they branched out really quickly. I guess if anything they've taken KARA's place. Well I only got Spotify for the purpose of doing research for the top 100 (I literally listened to thousands of songs looking for hidden gems, which is how I found one of the tracks that will be eliminated tonight). I had a separate playlist for the songs I found that I liked and there were several 9Muses songs on there, so I'm guessing I put one of the songs on repeat one night and fell asleep with it looping. And yeah, they were a Tier 3 group, meaning they had 3 songs in the top 100. Their aggregate score (17 points for Remember at #84, 18 points for Love City at #83, and 23 points for Wild at #78) was 58 points. AOA were a Tier 5 group, meaning they had 1 song (Elvis), so they're now out as well. The artists who have been completely eliminated from the top 100 are the ones who receive red X's through their picture and point totals in the recap graphics. I probably should have made that clearer. So far, there have been six eliminations: Rainbow, Luna, Lee Hyori, 9Muses, AOA, and Hong Jin-young.
Red Light Posted December 15, 2019 Author Posted December 15, 2019 Starting in 15 minutes, and it should go by a little bit faster tonight.
Red Light Posted December 15, 2019 Author Posted December 15, 2019 Spoiler Alright, hot take time again, I guess. On an objective level, L.I.E should be nowhere near this list--if for no other reason, the airhorns would have at the very least knocked it into the Honorable Mentions category. Beyond that, I think the instrumental is fantastic, but little details like that make all the difference when you’re getting into decade-end top 100 territory. But, this isn’t an objective list. It’s a subjective countdown with some objective elements underlying the placements, but make no mistake--no song on this list would be here if I didn’t “Like” it (hence the reason for objectively catchy and well-produced music like the discography of TWICE being snubbed). And when I really sat down to think about all the potential candidates for the top 100, how big of an impact they had on me in their respective years, how much longevity they had, the melodies that connected with me the most, and everything along those lines, it became clear that L.I.E had to be recognized somewhere in the countdown. Conceptually, L.I.E is like the opposite of Girls’ Generation’s I Got a Boy, which went through different perspectives of a relationship. L.I.E takes you through the different emotional stages of a breakup. The somber, reggae-tinged III-v-i-VI first verse contains nice, breezy guitar strokes; jingly synths that strike in a similar fashion to orchestral hits; and an excessively catchy pitched vocal synth. Overall, L.I.E has a very acoustic feel, and that only gets more profound as you edge towards the choruses. The moodier, suspension-built pre-choruses lead into the emotional rawness of the choruses very well, which--besides the out-of-place airhorn sample--are the highlight of the song. The choruses, in all their acoustic guitar and orchestral string glory, somehow manage to emulate a ballad flying at 155 BPM. The delightfully melancholy III-v-i-VII-VI-iv, III-v-V/i-i-VII-VI chord progression (seriously, listen to how pretty the melody is without the airhorns) along with the emotional, wailing vocals gives the track a weirdly stripped, organic quality. The dance break, with its chunky bass kick; fuzzy, pitch-bent bassline; and ferocious rap, keeps these effusive choruses from becoming stale or tiresome. The rest of the song immaculately continues this tightroping, giving each segment just the right amount of attention. So, with all that out of the way, let’s get to the biggest reason for L.I.E’s top 100 placement: the stellar vocals. Hyerin and Solji were always terrific vocalists, but I never realized just how outstanding they were until L.I.E came out. The choruses are not only chock-full of effortless high notes (with Solji instantaneously reaching a high F# flawlessly), but they’re also delivered with the perfect emotional cadence. It sounds like the sorrow of the song is being ripped right out of their throats, and, for me at least, it’s one of the most unexpectedly emotionally effective songs of the decade.
Red Light Posted December 15, 2019 Author Posted December 15, 2019 Spoiler A strong contender, if not the winner, of the weirdest and artsiest song included in the countdown, IU’s Cruel Fairy Tale sounds exactly as you’d imagine based on the title--a dark, cold slice of oppressive orchestral pop that sounds like it was recorded in the lair of a Disney villain’s tower. If her 2010 smash Good Day evokes the feeling of Bambi romping around in the woods, Cruel Fairy Tale evokes the feeling of her mother getting shot. Probably the most objectively dramatic song in the countdown, Cruel Fairy Tale is the only song I know of in K-pop that employs genuine samples of classical opera. And not just as accent--it’s one of the most prominent presences in the instrumental, second only to the wicked tempest of orchestral strings and booming trombones. The track starts out looping an i-VII-v-i progression for the intro and outro, followed by verses that build tension with an i-v⁷ repetition in the first half, before slowly creeping into madness in the second half with an i-VII-VI-V/VII-VI-III-V/v-V/i progression. The refrains are surprisingly the simplest sections, trudging through a grand i-VII-V/VII descent. The “Pre-choruses” (I’m really not sure what to call them, since it doesn’t follow a typical pop structure) are probably the most intense sequences, starting out soft with III-VI-iv-v, and then looping it until the last chord, where it pays off in a sinister V/i. The beat is also definitely worth mentioning: Not only does Cruel Fairy Tale have an anachronistically electronic-sounding bass kick and noisy industrial snare sample that sounds like chains beating against each other in a dungeon, but it’s based in a clumsy 6/8 time signature, like it's actually a genuine waltz of some kind from the 19th century. Then there’s IU’s demonstrative vocal performance. For the most part, she sings the song in a weak, defeated, almost possessed, zombie-like whisper, but amps it up to an agonized wail for the big finish, where she laments in English that, “Nothing lasts forever; nothing really matters.” That one line just about sums up the tone of the entire piece: Bleak, hopeless, bitter, and well, cruel. What makes it even better is that--at the time of this dirge’s release--IU was the queen of bright, happy, Disney-esque orchestral pop, and Cruel Fairy Tale is simply a corrupted twist on what people wanted and expected from her. Cruel Fairy Tale is essentially the evil twin of the majestic 2010 single that made her a superstar, Good Day (which, I’ll go ahead and spoil, is part of the top 50). Instead of immediately releasing a Disney princess follow-up, she went for the evil witch instead, making Cruel Fairy Tale as deliciously sinful as a poison apple.
The Destiny Hope Posted December 15, 2019 Posted December 15, 2019 I'm about to get lit as **** tonight but I will be checking in when I sober up I'm already SO surprised LIE made it because... yeah the airhorns But I played the hell out of it 2016 summer and STREET was such a great album. I will still be shook at Hani's handjob/pepper thing nnn. EXID really took innuendos to he next level
Red Light Posted December 15, 2019 Author Posted December 15, 2019 Spoiler Okay, so remember when I said Sonatine was the most harmonically complex song in the top 100, with no contest? I flat-out lied. That paragraph needed a dramatic ending. Sorry. Sonatine is actually tied with this song right here, the criminally overlooked Red Velvet B-side which, coincidentally, was also released in 2017. Actually, Hear the Sea might have a slight advantage over Sonatine, due to the fact that Hear the Sea is packed not only with extensively complicated chords, but key modulations to boot. I don’t know how to find home keys, though. So we’re just gonna pretend it’s all in A minor and has a ****load of borrowed chords, instead. So let’s just get the (inaccurate) chord analysis out of the way now: The harmonies are unusual right from the start, with the gentle piano intro playing an III-Vᵃᵈᵈ⁶/VII-V/i-III-V⁷/VII-Vˢᵘˢ⁴/v-V+/v progression that somehow hilariously ends up being the simplest sequence of the song. From there, Hear the Sea progresses to the #vi⁷-V⁷/v-IV⁷/iiø-ii-V⁷/#vi, #vi⁷-V⁷/v-#vii⁷-V⁷/VII-V⁷/#vi verse, followed by the IVˢᵘˢ⁴/i-IV⁷/i-viiø⁷ˢᵘˢ⁴/v-V⁷/#iii-ii7-#vii⁷-v⁷ˢᵘˢ⁴-VII⁷ˢᵘˢ²-V⁷ˢᵘˢ²/iiø-V+/v-V/v pre-choruses. And that’s nothing compared to the choruses: VI⁷-♭V-V/VII-IV⁷/VI-VI-V/#vi-V/#vii°, and a second half that starts the same for the first three chords, but has a descending iv-V⁷/i-IIIᵃᵈᵈ⁶-V⁷/v-vii-iv-V/#vi resolution in falsettos. I’m not done: The chorus lead-out is VI-Vˢᵘˢ⁴/#vii°-IV⁷/#ivø-V/ii°-VI, VI-Vˢᵘˢ⁴/#vii°-VII+ˢᵘˢ⁴-V+/v. The highlight of Hear the Sea is actually the bridge but I’ll be damned if I’m writing that out too. You get the point. Hear the Sea is also a lot like Sonatine from a sonic standpoint, almost solely driven by an elegant ensemble of dense piano chords and warm orchestral strings. As always from MonoTree, the production is genius, with lots of clever touches that aid in establishing the appropriate tone for the song. The slow, volume-vacillating strings emulate ocean tides washing ashore; the off-beat percussion sample deliberately sounds like a splash of water; and the soft guitar plucks make for perfect background ambience. And lastly, one little thing I neglected to mention back in the original 2017 review--Hear the Sea is in ¾ time, and it’s the most creative utilization of a song’s rhythm that I’ve ever heard. The distinct sway of the ¾ beat causes the listener to feel as though they’re bobbing up and down in water, like the steady up-and-down of a boat. All these components in tandem with the warm, jazzy melodies result in an absolutely beautiful song that somehow sounds like a late-summer night in music form. Listen to it on a beach or in a pool in the moonlight and I promise, it’s a magical moment.
Red Light Posted December 15, 2019 Author Posted December 15, 2019 Spoiler MAMAMOO is great with silly, quirky fluff like Mr. Ambiguous and You’re the Best, but they really have something special to offer when they take darker, more mature turns like in Piano Man and Decalcomanie. A big reason for this is that their powerful, steely vocals sound so much suited for more intense tracks like this. Their voices are just too strong for lightweight dance-pop--they need big, brash, emotional anthems like this to truly excel. The husky growl of Hwasa’s voice is never more at home than it is at the start of this banger. That first verse is one of the tensest passages of the decade, with its urgent bassline; its austere, foreboding iii⁷-V-V/V-V/iii-iii chord progression; and an intense, tribal-sounding beat reminiscent of Adele. The choruses are where Decalcomanie really shines, however. For the first time in their career, the instrumental is just as rich and grand as the vocals. The soundstage is massive, and the emotional IV-I-V-Vˢᵘˢ⁴/vi-V/vi-vi change (I’m pretty sure this is another song that modulates key for the choruses but, like I said, I suck at that) makes for the perfect contrast to the more biting verses, aided by a euphoric backing of cinematic strings that sound simultaneously bleak and triumphant. There’s much more vulnerability in the chords and much more passion and soul in the vocals, which in conjunction with the tremendous instrumental make the choruses feel larger than life. The producers need to teach a class on composing satisfying choruses in K-pop, because few songs nail it as well as Decalcomanie. The other incredible feat that Decalcomanie pulls off is the fact that it continuously gains momentum--once it picks up steam in that first chorus, it maintains it and snowballs through to the very end. If anything, the fact that the song contains two rap segments should have been enough to set it back, but the raps are actually one of the primary highlights (I don’t know if I’ve ever said that in a review and I’m not sure I ever will again). They actually fit the song, with Moonbyul delivering just the right amount of energy and passion to make them effective. Every second of Decalcomanie drips with power and drama, but this is especially true for the exhilarating, fiery bridge--which for me, is the high point of the entire song. The stomping beat is never more effective than it is here, attacking the listener with the help of militant brasses to complement the ferocious rap, growing more and more urgent until abruptly halting for the final chorus--making the last act and all its hawkish ad-libs all the more devastating. Since this is a subjective list, Decalcomanie is unfortunately low, but on an objective level, it would probably be a contender for the top 50.
Red Light Posted December 15, 2019 Author Posted December 15, 2019 Spoiler This is probably one of the most beloved girl groups songs of the decade, and I can totally understand why. Shinsadong Tiger had mastered the art of the saxophone hook ages before he helped launch EXID’s career with it, although this example sounds much slower and more mournful--Volume Up’s iconic saxophone riff has a very prominent 80’s power ballad feel to it, more in the vein of Careless Whisper. And a lot of Volume Up sounds like a power ballad: The i-VI-iv-V⁷/i progression that the track founds itself upon is pure angst, and the powerhouse vocals are the kind only very rarely heard in uptempos. Jiyoon completely and utterly runs away with the whole damn song here. The long, drawn-out pre-choruses are only one chord--and yet they’re among the greatest, tensest, and most hype-building pre-choruses of the decade. Most songs with drops like Volume Up leave out the vocals during the builds and let the instrumental do all the work. One of the things that makes Volume Up so special is that the builds are where the most resonant and effective vocals go, with Jiyoon belting out a high note that lasts for an entire measure, climbing upward even more, and sustaining that note until the big drop. With an erratic, rapidfire deluge of syncopated synth plucks; a heavy, pile-driving four-on-the-floor beat; and a throbbing bassline to complement it; Volume Up’s choruses are basically EDM drops without the annoying bass wobbles, which is probably one of the reasons people love it so much. They’re certainly satisfying enough to qualify--the deliriously tense pre-choruses promise the listener a sonic thrillride, and the ruthless pounding frenziness of the choruses live up to their expectations. And if the first half of the choruses weren’t enough for you, just wait for the second half, where Jiyoon reprises her ridiculously long, wailing high note over the reincorporated saxophone riff that ties everything together. Even more impressive is that Volume Up manages to stay interesting all the way to the end, with a gentler, more wistful i-iv-VII-v, i-iv-VII-V/i bridge; followed by a more elaborate sax solo over the same progression; which leads into the climactic ad-libs of the final chorus. This is by far one of the weirdest songs 4Minute ever attempted, and thankfully, it paid off. Volume Up is pretty much K-pop firing on all cylinders. It’s unique, it’s immaculately produced and mixed, it’s emotionally versatile, and it possesses one of the most irresistibly catchy hooks of the decade.
Red Light Posted December 15, 2019 Author Posted December 15, 2019 Spoiler When I was doing research for my top 100 and compiling literally thousands of unfamiliar songs to try out on Spotify, I didn’t expect to make many discoveries that would have me beating myself up for not knowing about them sooner. And, in fact, I didn’t--out of those thousands of songs, under 350 went into a “Songs I Might Like” playlist, under 100 of those made it through to the “Songs I Definitely Like” playlist, and under 50 made it to the final, “Songs I Want To Buy” playlist. Uhm Jung Hwa’s Photographer stands out as not only one of the few to have been included in that final playlist, but also the only one, to my recollection, that bypassed the first two playlists completely. I’m always on hyper-alert to the possibility of any interesting genres a K-pop song experiments with outside of the usual suspects, since it makes the subsequent reviews easier to fill if I end up actually liking the songs. Photographer stands out as literally the only K-pop song I have ever heard that borrows influence from the EBM/electro-industrial class of music. I've been searching for a K-pop song with EBM roots literally for years, and in a way, it kind of makes sense that it came courtesy of an artist who debuted in the early 90's, when that sort of music was at its apex. Unlike just about every other song in the top 100, Photographer is electronic dance music at its least melodious. The scratchy acidic bassline is somehow both erratic and monotonous, and the gritty synth line in the choruses wail in siren-like pitch glides. Even the vocals don’t have much in the way of a discernible tune--the amount of time spent singing adds up to a total of 30 seconds at most and the rest is breathy, seductive chanting. As a matter of fact, the second verse kicks off with a sample of somebody literally just talking--not chanting, not rapping, but talking, like they took an excerpt from one of her fans’ interviews and said, “Yeah, **** it, let’s put that in.” It reminds me so much of indie electronic music, where you’ll often hear random movie or TV lines sampled as a substitute for professional vocals. It reminded me so much of indie electronic music, in fact, that I had to google Uhm Jung Hwa to make sure she was actually a K-pop artist and not some Soundcloud rapper that conned her way onto my Spotify playlist. What’s great about all this is that the lack of reliance on a catchy melody has kept its shelf life amazingly long. 90% of any uptempo K-pop song you hear wouldn’t sound horribly out of place in a club, but the aggressive, steamy Photographer is the only K-pop song I can think of off the top of my head that sounds like it was built for the clubs first, and K-pop fans second.
Red Light Posted December 15, 2019 Author Posted December 15, 2019 Spoiler Behold, the Eve Harringtons of K-pop! Well, actually, Blackpink fit that comparison better, but they’re not in the countdown. And it’s a reference that certainly applies to CLC as well: In 2015, 4Minute was Cube’s star girl group, representing the agency with dark, heavy trap music. In 2016, 4Minute broke up. In 2017, CLC was Cube’s star girl group, representing the agency with dark, heavy trap music. While not reaching the heights of 4Minute’s magnum opus, Crazy, Hobgoblin comes commendably close, without sounding like a shamelessly uninspired rip off. This is due to it not just being pure trap like its big sister, but more of an EDM track with trap influences. Ironically, in spite of being much more electronic-based than Crazy, Hobgoblin’s snare sample sounds a lot more like standard trap, while Crazy’s snare sample sounds more electronic. This is pretty much the sole reason Hobgoblin is being eliminated relatively early--now that we’ve edging closer to the top 50, one small inadequacy in comparison to another song can be enough to knock it back dozens of spots. I say this because, when listening to it, you would think Hobgoblin would be my preference. I’m a sucker for a dirty bassline, which it sports in its chorus, and the mixing job is flawless, with the deep, prominent sub-bass not getting in the way of the instrumental at all. And on top of that, Hobgoblin melodically aligns more with my personal taste as well, as the aforementioned dirty bassline reels its way down a chromatic fourth in the chorus/drop. And if you’ve heard the song, and you’ve read the previous reviews, you know what this next part is going to praise it for: The solemn, intense pre-choruses work off of my favorite type of chord progression--the “25 or 6 to 4” progression, where the primary note descends one whole tone from the root and then at least two more semitones. In Hobgoblin’s particular instance, it’s an iv-III-VIIb-IV/VI progression, and the vocal melody overtop it adds an extra kick of graveness. No, Hobgoblin doesn’t quite match up to Crazy. But that was sort of a losing battle before it even started, and the fact that Hobgoblin can even be seriously compared to it is an enormous accomplishment in and of itself. I love CLC and I consider them one of the best third generation girl groups out there, so I’m glad that, in spite of how recently they came on the scene, I was able to squeeze in a spot for them in the top 100. Hobgoblin isn’t the best electronic trap banger in K-pop, but it makes a formidable contender, and would still stand out as a highlight on any playlist. With CLC, Cube Entertainment proved that, for better or for worse, K-pop groups are largely interchangeable. Hobgoblin is an example of that being for the better.
Red Light Posted December 15, 2019 Author Posted December 15, 2019 Spoiler Boy, lots of 2017 songs tonight. I’m not sure there was ever, or will ever be again, another instance of a group so utterly dominating a year with incredible music as LOONA did in 2017. It’s one of the most remarkable K-pop feats I’ve ever witnessed--and unfortunately I didn’t totally get to witness it, as I didn’t start listening to LOONA until the last quarter of the year, and never bothered to listen to anything not from the Odd Eye Circle subunit. It’s something I’ll kick myself for forever, as I was truly miserable in 2017, looking for good new music in all the wrong places, and made one of my most inaccurate assessments of all time when I wrapped up the year by calling it the worst one yet for K-pop girl groups. Big band style tracks like Kiss Later have a tendency to be a bit sonically unpleasant, what with all the blaring brasses and woodwinds--and in terms of how easy it is on the ears, Kiss Later wins that battle. The instrumental is more string-oriented than songs like IU’s Red Shoes, so it sounds more polished and less harsh than other jazzy K-pop tracks. Even from the gentle opening, with the dreamy wind chimes and faint piano melody, Kiss Later is total ear candy. Not to mention that--while making the retroness of the track feel less authentic than in jazz throwbacks courtesy of smoky voices like IU--YeoJin’s pitch perfect baby vocals are so clean and crisp that they sound robotic. Melodically, Kiss Later stays true to jazz form through and through, with one of the most intricate compositions of the entire rate. It opens with its aforementioned twinkly piano intro in I-V⁷/V-IV-I before the gentle acoustic bassline ushers in the lengthy I-V⁷ˢᵘˢ²/V-vii⁷-V⁷/vi-vi-V-IV-I-ii⁷-Vˢᵘˢ⁴-V pre-verse--yes, pre-verse. After this comes in one of my all-time favorite K-pop moments, where the shuffled beat kicks in under a grand, wondrous display of orchestral hits, horns, and pizzicatos. This brief instrumental break, which consists of everything from augmented fifths to suspended fourths to borrowed minors, is one of the most ecstatically happy and scintillating music sequences of the decade, and Kiss Later maintains this joyful whimsy right to the last second. The extraordinarily complicated choruses (IV-iii⁷-V⁷♭⁵/ii-V⁷/ii, ii⁷-ii⁷ˢᵘˢ⁴-IV+/♭VI-IV+ˢᵘˢ⁴/♭VI-i⁷-IVˢᵘˢ²-IV, IV/IV-V⁷/IV-vi⁷-V⁷♭⁹/V-V/V, v⁷-I-Vˢᵘˢ⁴/♭VII-IV) are matched only in cheerful romanticism by the similarly brassy Loona venture that remains in the countdown, the winner of my 2018 rate, Heart Attack. The rest of Kiss Later, which is more or less the same as written above, could have started to grow dull near the end. But, in the last chorus, an insanely effective guitar solo comes out of nowhere and delivers the perfect final touch. The childish talk-singy post-choruses take some major points off (they would have been MUCH better as just instrumental breaks), but in spite of sustaining so much damage in that respect, I still consider Kiss Later one of the greatest K-pop girl group songs of the decade.
Red Light Posted December 15, 2019 Author Posted December 15, 2019 After a long break, it's finally time for... Spoiler f(x)’s final album, 4 Walls, was in my opinion, the weakest of what’s known in K-pop fandom as “The Holy Trinity”--the Pink Tape, Red Light, and 4 Walls albums. Not that it wasn’t a good album and that it didn’t have great songs, but in terms of cohesion, concept, etc, I considered 4 Walls the sloppiest of the three. The album did, however, bring about one accomplishment that f(x) had never quite succeeded at before--it ended the album with a good song. For their entire career, the last song on an f(x) record was either one of the weakest tracks on the album (Nu Abo’s Sorry Daddy, Pinocchio’s Lollipop, Hot Summer’s Chu~<3, Electric Shock’s Let’s Try, and Red Light’s Paper Heart), or just not quite good enough to be the wrap-up of an incredible album (Pink Tape’s Ending Page). But with When I’m Alone, f(x) not only ended the 4 Walls album on an excellent note, but they helped add some cohesion to a relatively mish-mash album. When I’m Alone wasn’t only great, but it helped tie the loose ends of the 4 Walls album and give it a clearer sonic direction: Chill, euphoric, atmospheric synthpop. It was--as just about everyone knows by now--originally recorded by Carly Rae Jepsen for what’s universally considered one of the greatest pop albums of the decade, E-MO-TION, but it didn’t make the cut. I’m not sure why it didn’t make the cut, since I think it would have been one of the standout tracks, but in any case, it somehow ended up in SM’s lap, and it happened to mesh pretty well with the rest of the 4 Walls album. You can hear a lot of the Carly Rae influence in the instrumental: heavy, excellently mixed bass kicks; calming, ethereal synth pads; and explosive, euphoric choruses. The chord progression isn’t exactly anything special, running the same V-IV/IV-IV-I loop until the bridge, where it undergoes a marginally different ♭III-IV-V shift. It’s all the melodies happening above the chords that are so fantastic, building tension in the verses with relatively monotonous, subdued vocals; slowly building harmonies in the pre-choruses; and then erupting with nostalgia in the choruses, which feature an awesome, trippy, chromatic vocal ascent (E-F-F#) that makes the chords, instruments, and vocals sound like they’re being launched into space. It’s hard to really do justice in words, but it’s so satisfying on the ears, and so beautifully intense. Even better is that the analog synth bass added during the first chorus stays throughout the rest of the track, making the progression of the song feel natural and fluidic. With f(x) all but officially finished (SM annoyingly never admits when one of their groups has disbanded), the long fade-out that concludes the song almost feels like a fade-out for their incredible career. They had a quick single for SM Station in 2016 and one terrible B-side to go along with the Japanese release of 4 Walls, but when you think about f(x) as we know them--the bohemian girl group that consistently put out incredible full-length albums--this is sort of a nice, bittersweet, and fitting way to close the f(x) chapter in K-pop. When I’m Alone isn’t just the best track on the 4 Walls album and the best album closer they’ve ever put out, but it’s also, in my opinion, one of their best songs in general--and they have more songs in the top 100 than any other group, so that’s pretty steep competition.
Red Light Posted December 15, 2019 Author Posted December 15, 2019 And tonight's last elimination is... Spoiler After a three-year hiatus, which might as well be a decade when you’re dealing with K-pop, Wonder Girls made their long-anticipated comeback with what is widely considered one of the finest K-pop albums of all time. You can technically classify every song in the countdown as synthpop, but to avoid redundancy, I try to reserve the label for that distinct, dreamy 80’s chillwave sound. I feel quite comfortable proclaiming the Reboot album to be the best collection of synthpop songs ever put out in K-pop. Faded Love is one of two songs on the record that are on a whole different level of perfect. The fade-in alone is something completely unparalleled. There’s something vaguely spooky about this song, or maybe just unsettlingly poignant. It’s technically an angsty breakup song, and the chords reflect that, while the hypnotic soundscapes feel like an anesthetic to the emotional pain of the melodies, and end up just making the whole experience feel foggy and disorienting. The chord structure is surprisingly jazzy, with hardly any chord not punctuated by a nostalgic seventh: The primary progression (the choruses and instrumental hook) is an infectiously moody VI-VII-v⁷ˢᵘˢ⁴-i⁷, then VI⁷-VII-V⁷/iv-V⁷/VII; the verses containing the dadada earworm are VI⁷-viiøᵃᵈᵈ⁶/i-i-V⁷ˢᵘˢ²/VII; the funky pre-choruses are VI⁷-V⁷/i-i-V⁷/VII, VI⁷-V⁷/i-i-i; and finally, the emotional, climactic bridge is VI⁷-VII⁷-i-ivˢᵘˢ²-v⁷-i⁷, iv⁷-v⁷-i⁷-VII⁷-VI⁷-V/i. Whew. Even with those fantastic, dense melodies, Faded Love wouldn’t be half the song that it is without the impeccable production. It blends a celestial keyboard riff with squealing disco strings; trippy, glassy synth pads; lonely acoustic guitar plucks; fretless gulps of funk bass; and light, gloriously artificial-sounding percussion, just like classic 80’s music. The finishing touch is in the tonal variety of the ladies’ vocals, from sultry deepness in the verses to breathy softness in the choruses and strong soulfulness in the bridge. Sunmi’s dark, mysterious voice in this song shines in particular--as it should be, since she gets the most lines and even helped in producing it! As we’ll see from her solo song that will be a part of the top 50, she thrives in songs with this sort of dusky mystique. Faded Love may not be quite as good as another song from the Reboot album, but it’s still a pillar amongst the unfortunately few hypnotic 80’s tracks in K-pop. It’s atmospheric, entrancing, mixed to perfection, and in spite of its relatively low spot in the top 100, I consider it one of the best synthpop songs of all time.
Red Light Posted December 15, 2019 Author Posted December 15, 2019 Spoiler Spoiler With the loss of When I'm Alone, that puts f(x) and Orange Caramel at a tie for the number of entries they have left in the countdown. With the loss of Volume Up, 4Minute looks to be at the lowest amount of health, but that's only because they had three songs as opposed to two (and the artists with two songs just stay at 50% yellow once they have one song remaining). TOMORROW NIGHT: A bloodbath. Five artist eliminations! Two songs from the same album get eliminated back-to-back! And coincidentally, a certain violent music video to match the mood!
Red Light Posted December 17, 2019 Author Posted December 17, 2019 Thank you very much ATRL staff for warning us all about that maintenance so that I could specifically schedule my rate to end the day before my brother came home for Christmas. Much appreciated. Okay so the finale on the 20th is gonna be pushed back to the 22nd. Annoyingly. I really didn't want it to still be going THAT close to Christmas but ATRL warned us after all, so I only have myself to blame. Since my brother is supposed to be home on the last two nights of the countdown and things will be more chaotic, the starting times will be more up in the air. Can't wait for my first 503 back.
Red Light Posted December 18, 2019 Author Posted December 18, 2019 The Great Slaughter begins in a few! Definitely gonna be talking to myself tonight but oh well.
Red Light Posted December 18, 2019 Author Posted December 18, 2019 (edited) Spoiler Maybe more than any other genre that K-pop artists experiment with, swing music is the genre that I most mindlessly devour; practically guaranteed to earn a spot somewhere on my year-end lists. Hell, on my preliminary 2016 list, I included the universally forgotten MAMAMOO album track Cat Fight in my top 10. So it isn’t any surprise that Is Who has earned such a high spot in my book as we finish the decade, even beating out classics like Flashback, Volume Up, and Catallena. But that also shouldn’t take any praises away from this spectacular song, as I feel Is Who ranks among the most authentic and well-done jazz tracks in female K-pop since IU’s legendary Modern Times album. As a matter of fact, Is Who is basically a more fleshed out, instrumentally diverse sister of the Modern Times gypsy jazz opener, Love of B. The song borrows the same kind of warm, deep bass foundation that helped make Love of B such a delight, but goes in a slightly less minimalistic direction with it, and instead builds upon it with light percussion, cinematic strings, and upright, swanky piano riffs. But my absolute favorite feature of the track is the ferocious, screeching violin. The i-V/v-iv-vii°/v-V/i progression Is Who generally follows is tension personified, and the rapid, anxious bowing that’s intermittent throughout the song perfectly complements the tense, frantic tone. It was apparently the producer’s favorite feature as well, because the ludicrously dramatic III-VII-iv-i, III-VII-iv-vii°/v-V/i bridge builds up to the epic violin solo as though it were a dubstep break. Beyond that, Minseo’s voice has that same kind of dirty, smokey quality to it that fits so well in retro-pop, which is yet another trait shared with IU that helped make the Modern Times album such a masterpiece (not to mention BoA’s swing foray in Jazz Club, which was just ahead of Is Who in my 2018 countdown). There’s something about that softer, more straightforward vocal style that helps sell this style of music’s believability--even during its campiest moments, such as the vocal follow up to the violin solo, whereupon Minseo breaks into falsetto scat singing. MAMAMOO, for example, in spite of how strong and soulful their vocals are, probably wouldn’t have sounded quite as believable in doing that. I suppose the more understated nature of voices like Minseo’s helps play into that sly, playful mysteriousness that makes swing music so great. As a whole, Is Who is catchy, nicely produced, subtle, and classy in every possible aspect. Edited January 20, 2020 by Red Light
Red Light Posted December 18, 2019 Author Posted December 18, 2019 (edited) Spoiler While the Woman album was no slouch, the real gems that the queen of K-pop bestowed upon us in 2018 were hidden under the Japanese side of her discography. The lead single--which, like another 2018 finalist, came out at the buttcrack end of 2017--was actually a dream that I had been waiting to come true for a long time. I have what’s labeled on my phone as The Ultimate Female K-pop Playlist--a collection of songs from as wide a variety of female artists that I can stand, from as wide a variety of genres that I can get my hands on. It’s a 100-song playlist split into about five sections of 25 songs, give or take. The third section of this playlist is everything retro-pop, from blues to big band to tango. (Update: Since writing this review, my phone died and I lost the playlist and can't remember the order of wtf was on it). But there was always one thing that was sorely missed from the retro category: Electro-swing. f(x) hinted at it with Pink Tape’s Snapshot, but settled for plain synthpop in the choruses--and, while it was strong for an album track, it wasn’t quite strong enough to be included as a representative of its parent genre on a playlist designated to the best of the best. But finally, with Jazz Club, BoA delivered the full-fledged, Caravan Palace-esque electro-swing banger that I’d been waiting for for years. More importantly, it’s just a fantastic song. It boasts a catchy Up & Down-ish saxophone hook; a punchy, treble-heavy house kick; a swanky scat-singing bridge that fully solidifies the swing background; and a very short running time at under three minutes that makes the song profoundly addictive. Jazz Club is excellent also in its subtlety: No element of the song is flashy or in-your-face in the slightest, which establishes that suitable vibe of understated mysteriousness that is prevalent in all the best electro-swing. On top of that, Jazz Club is quite emotionally versatile--the wily, caddish i-V/i verses contrast very nicely with the more nostalgic, anthemic quality of the i-VI-III-VII-iv-VI⁷-V/i choruses. Those choruses, by the way, are beautifully minimalistic, with practically no instrumentation in the chorus besides the light rhythmic guitar strokes. Last but not least, BoA’s smokey vocals could make a dirty rap song sound like the epitome of class, so she really gets a chance to thrive in the swing habitat of Jazz Club. The best part of the song is all thanks to BoA’s vocals--the iv-V⁷/III-IIIˢᵘˢ²-VIᵃᵈᵈ⁶-iiø⁷-V/i pre-chorus, with a swooning background choir of oohs and aahs. It’s audio heaven, and heavenly enough that I’ve only grown to love Jazz Club more in 2019. Edited January 20, 2020 by Red Light
Red Light Posted December 18, 2019 Author Posted December 18, 2019 And now time for what might be my favorite graphic in the entire countdown: Spoiler And here lies one of the many 2010’s girl groups to never quite make it. While maybe not as depressing as STELLAR’s career, Fiestar is one of many examples of the perseverance inherent in K-pop artists (except of course in T-ara’s Hwayoung, who had a different determination level ). Fiestar strived for success for years, starting in 2012 and ending on a last ditch effort single in 2016 that became what I consider one of the finest and most universally likable electropop tracks of the decade. I knew I would love Apple Pie as soon as it opened, with its laser-y bassline descending a chromatic fourth to reach the sly, mysterious ooh-aah’s in B minor. A binaural snare roll ushers in the first verse, which is our first encounter with the single best sound stem of the whole song--the bass kick. It’s one of the strongest, hardest, crispest, most indelibly mixed bass kick samples in the top 100. I’ve said it once before thus far, and I’ll be saying it again multiple times as we enter the top 50--there’s something inordinately addictive about a heavy, well-mixed kick drum. In terms of sheer magnitude and how much this one sound stem drives the song, Apple Pie might well be the greatest of all. Even better, Apple Pie strikes up one of my favorite formulas, with a syncopated rhythm in the verses and a high-energy four-on-the-floor spike in the choruses. Also of note is the trappy sub-bass in the bridge, which is mixed just as nicely as the bass kick. Melodically, Apple Pie is probably one of the most straightforward tracks featured in the countdown. The verses are pretty much the i chord (Bm) from top to bottom, not becoming any more dynamic until the pre-chorus, where it shifts to a still remarkably simple VI⁷-ivˢᵘˢ²-i-VIIˢᵘˢ², VI-iv-V⁷/i-V⁷+/i progression. The V⁷/i chord, of course, adds a little bit of tension to spice things up, and leads well into the chorus, which is pretty much identical to the pre-chorus, harmonically. Vocally, however, the chorus is where Apple Pie really blossoms, with a maddeningly catchy falsetto hook that worms its way into your ear like a worm through an apple. What really has Apple Pie so high up in the countdown, however, is the demented post-chorus and post-bridge. An icy techno bassline undercuts the ladies voices, which run through some sort of hellish vocoder as they maniacally laugh in a bizarre, pitch-bent chromatic descent. The madness finally concludes with an even more distorted voice seductively tempting, “Take a bite, babe.” In the future, when we have sex robots, and one of them malfunctions, that’s what it will sound like. The absolute highlight comes in after the bridge, with an even more roboticized choir of glitchy vocals psychotically building to the climactic ad-libs of the final chorus.
Red Light Posted December 18, 2019 Author Posted December 18, 2019 Spoiler Hyuna’s 2016 EP was released just a few months after her home group 4Minute broke up, but you’d never guess it based on her music. In fact, Do It is one of the happiest, most feel-good tracks in the top 100. I live for experiences like the one I had upon hearing the chorus for the first time, where I was actually shaking by the end of it. In fact, while it hasn’t aged quite as well as it could have, Do It has the distinct honor of being the most intense first-listen experience I’ve had since Red Light. I’ve seen mixed reviews for Do It, mostly commending the trappy verses and trashing the choruses for being cheesy and saccharine. But the cheesy chorus is what I love most about it, and the disconnect between the more mature verses and crackheaded sunniness of the choruses is what keeps it from growing too stale. Actually, Do It is sort of like a lighter counterpart to Red Light--slower, near monotonous verses with trap sub-bass and 808 snares, and heavy electronic mania in the choruses. Do It was produced by the same production team as 4Minute’s Crazy, so it’s no surprise how excellent the production is--like all the terrific hip hop-oriented tracks that come out of Cube Entertainment, the sub-bass is strong, deep, and excellently mixed, without interfering with the rest of the instrumental in the slightest. Even better, the snare sample used in Do It is almost identical to the one in Crazy. Crazy still remains in the countdown, and you’ll see just how in awe I am of that snare when it’s finally time to review it, but suffice to say, it’s probably my favorite percussion sample in any K-pop song ever--so naturally, I approve of its use here as well. So, those ingredients cook Do It into a song with both the insanely hard beat from Crazy, and the kind of gleeful, bittersweet semitonic melodies that make up some of my favorite songs of all time, like Heart Attack. How could it NOT be in the top 100? Interestingly, Do It was originally a song used for some kind of show on Nickelodeon back in 2016, which naturally and rightfully lowered public opinion of it. But the Nickelodeon-ish tone is exactly what I find so charming. The simple III-V/i-i-VI chorus is basically an adjective that hasn’t been invented yet, but you’ll know what I mean when you hear it--that weird feeling somewhere between happiness and nostalgia that gives off that kind of cheesy, heartwarming quality you’d hear in the theme music for a 90’s sitcom. It’s like, “Life is crazy, and it sucks, and the world is going to hell, but at least we have our friends, so let’s focus on the positive and laugh instead of cry!” And then there’s a special guest appearance from Suzanne Somers or Kelsey Grammer or somebody. Do It has rightfully mixed reception for its structural instability and unadulterated schmaltz, but for me, all it needed was that V/i chord in the chorus to totally sell it.
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