It’s time for this week’s Kpopalypse roundup!
NEW RELEASES 2/11/2015
f(x) – 4 walls
Plot twist: Sulli’s limitations have been carrying f(x) musically all this time as their songwriters have been forced to experiment and genre-bend to write around her. With Sulli absent, so is the necessity to be unique and f(x) are now free to be just as generic as any other girl group. Watch the video where the remaining f(x) members are (literally) lost in the woods and it’s as good a metaphor for their musical direction right now as any. We all know to expect the unexpected from f(x) each comeback but who expected SM to turf f(x)’s signature sound completely and replace it with a bland, pissweak version of SHINee’s “View“?
Beast – All Is In U
Not to be outdone for blandness, Beast’s new Japanese single is super-unremarkable and not likely to make any Kpopalypse lists except one called “Kpopalypse’s top 30 songs he’s least likely to make a list about”.
VAV – Under The Moonlight
The “gothic boy band” concept makes a return, and it’s a competent but ordinary debut with some nice background sonics unfortunately almost completely swallowed up by too much boy-band gang vocals. I really wish One Direction would attempt this type of thing one day just so I could laugh at the result, can you imagine how tragic it would look on them?
Kisum ft. Hwasa – Love Talk
Kisum needs to stop wasting her time with this constant soft R&B nonsense – go hard or go home, homegirl.
HIGH4 – Dead Or Alive
Definitely the best song for this group by a mile, some nice synth riffs propel this one just a little way out from generic boy-band 101 territory into something more interesting.
Ugly Duck ft. Reddy, JJJ & DJ Scratch Nice – Asia
They couldn’t even be bothered with making a proper beat for this one and instead just chained random noises together and it’s STILL in the top 10% of rap these days, that’s how awful the genre overall has become lately.
MC Mong & Daishi Dance – Secretly
Another rap ballad, sure it’s one of the better ones but without Soyou to stare at what is even the point of these. I apologise for making you aware that this exists.
DJ Chunja & Sam Hong – Yamma
This generic dance thing isn’t that great but I just played this so you know that it exists and Korea makes this type of music the same as any other country. This might be useful knowledge if you’re an ecstasy user travelling to Korea and worried about supply.
BONUS SONG
Casker – The Smiler
Pleasant enough electronica that doesn’t really make much of an impression on me but it’s still more interesting than the new f(x). Watch SM finally relent and give f(x) a fandom name and a live concert like every other group ever soon because now that they’ve scrapped the group’s musical uniqueness they might as well stop pretending and write f(x)’s “mainstream but not” aesthetic off as a failed experiment. If you’ll excuse me I’ll just be off crying somewhere, sorry Casker for not even using this space to talk about you.
Kpopalypse will return next week with another Kpopalypse roundup!
Tagged: roundup
