It’s time for another Kpopalypse Roundup! Let’s check out this week’s new releases!
Sungmin (Super Junior)
Nine Muses – Sleepless Night
The kind of swinging dreaminess that nobody would have expected from either Nine Muses or Bravesound, least of all me. A little monotonous maybe but then so it probably should be, because once you’ve got a mood like this going on in a song you don’t want to fuck with it too much.
Up10tion – Catch Me!
Okay so they have one of the most comical group names in k-pop but this song is actually decent, certainly their best so far. The pixelated video concept is also kind of cool and appeals to my Commodore 64 nerd side.
Road Boyz – Show Me Bang Bang
A pretty solid effort from these ultra-nugus, reminds me of the better Infinite songs although it’s not quite up to that level of polish. Lots of corners cut with the video’s spartan “boxes” which are obviously just spare staging areas that have been emptied but hey you gotta start somewhere.
Verbal Jint ft. Taeyeon – If The World Was A Perfect Place
If the world was a perfect place Taeyeon wouldn’t have returned the favour from Verbal Jint and thus spared us this insipid corny “pray for a better world” nonsense. Maybe what the world really needs to become better is less people praying, and more people not writing stupid rap ballads.
I.C.E – Over U
The bulk of this song sadly doesn’t quite live up to the bombastic first fifteen seconds, if they ran with that intro style of backing for a larger chunk of the song this could have been something really special. Oh well – for what it’s worth the rest of it is like a combination of early miss A and early T-ara, and that’s definitely not a bad place to be.
Jay Park – In This Bitch/My
“In This Bitch” is the usual awful yoloswag effort that you’re expecting, but the companion song “My” which starts at 2:05 is marginally better. Worth watching the video just for the silly dancing, do they know that they look like a bunch of ninja muppets?
Wilcox – Cake Shop
Average funk song that sounds like every other average funk song ever created. K-pop has thousands of these and they’re all equally nondescript.
K-Much – Tie My Hands
I predict not a skerrick of Bar Bar Bar style virality for Chrome’s male group.
Awesome Baby – Why Should I
I was wrong with what I said on air – this song DOES have a music video! Pity that apart from some cool beatboxing it’s just another average Beyonce clone song.
April – Muah!
Another unremarkable song but it’s definitely the best song by April yet. Give them time. On another note, these girls’ ages range from 18 to 13, which means the youngest was probably in training since she was 10 years old. Of course everyone will still say KKS is an evil pedo for recruiting Dani at 13 (who is now nearly 16 and still hasn’t debuted in her own group yet) because that fits the “KKS is evil” narrative everyone has a boner about but those same people will give every other k-pop CEO who does exactly the same bullshit a free pass. Double standards much?
BONUS SONG
Yerin (15&) – Across The Universe
Oh look it’s the member of 15& who isn’t Park Jimin, doing something or other. Gosh Park Jimin is hot, she needs to release more videos where she gets to do upbeat songs and dance in pretty clothes that actually suit her, preferably while also showing correct boob presentation. Sorry I just forgot what this song sounds like.
That’s it for another Kpopalypse roundup! More new releases coming your way in next week’s episode!
Tagged: roundup
