A big name two weeks that I apparently missed and needed to catch up on, which makes it all the more disappointing that most of them ended up in this post.
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NCT Wish – “Poppop”
That call-and-response type section with the shouting and the higher-pitched background vocals jutting out randomly was irritating and the repetition of “pop” wasn’t pleasant. There are more pleasant sections but when the core of it basically makes me wanna skip, it’s hard to get past.
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KWON EUNBI – “Hello Stranger”
Needs to go back to relying more on production and her charisma to carry songs like she has with some of her best, as the vocals are too thin on this to survive, especially without a quality hook.
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Apink – “Tap Clap”
Mostly putting it here because their who-gives-a-shit kind of anniversary video still has better hooks and melodies than like most of K-pop this year — and captures the kind of actual earnestness they’re all trying to emulate — which is very funny to me.
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TWS – “Countdown”
The chorus sorta felt like it tried to use the same gimmick as their “Plot Twist” breakout — a song I wasn’t enamored with as it is — and the song in general felt like a lesser version of that yet again. In particular the transitions to and the rap verses themselves took me out of the immersion.
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KAI (EXO) – “Wait On Me”
Actually, a surprisingly solid facsimile of an Afrobeats song, though it is carried by the beat/genre for the most part. It’s surprisingly anonymous except for the unfortunate “rap” sections, though the main problem is the melodies/hooks weren’t really effective, which is almost a requirement to make these songs standout.
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OSDS – “Bluetooth”
I don’t know why but this group has Dal Shabet‘s Subin and my favorite quasi-edgy-in-a-she-might-kill-me-in-my-sleep-type-of-way-but-still-conventionally-attractive model/streamer Go Mal Sook in it.
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YOUNITE – “Rock Steady”
This is almost too retro in the sense that every generation of K-pop boy group has utilized this sound extensively so we hear it a bunch every gen, and while this is a solid extension of that, I’m not sure it’s much more.
I give it extra points for the title reminding me of this song:
What a fuckin’ banger.
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MEOVV – “HANDS UP”
Man, the pre-debut hype around this group was crazy. Zero idea what they’re doing musically.
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HITGS – “SOURPATCH”
I know it’s fashionable for people to deny it cause they hate Min Hee Jin, but the amount of NewJeans soundalikes in the aftermath of their success has been truly deranged, which makes her schizo paranoia towards one group even more crazy. More importantly than her, their producers and topline songwriters were usually elite, which is why most of the imitations just don’t have the juice. Anyway, this is a somewhat decent attempt at it considering I have never heard of this group before. It’s a bit overeager in production and the hook gets repetitive, but much bigger groups have done much worse.
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HIGHLIGHT – “Chains”
Happy they got their name back, now they need to make B2ST music again.
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FIFTY FIFTY – “Pookie”
“Pookie” is an odd word to choose for FIFTY FIFTY to continue to do what like 80% of the industry’s girl groups have tried in joining the chase for the next “Cupid”, though their situation is unique as they’re sorta chasing their own tail. All of pop music is a rather cynical pursuit of commercial success, but some of it is so blatant that it’s hard to not think about while listening to the song.
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RIIZE – “Bag Bad Back”
Well they’ll go back to the melodic stuff at some point I assume, so whatever.
BAG BAG BAG BAG BAG
pic.twitter.com/zVk1lkNLu8 https://t.co/yCmxcMT5Um
— malewife (@firstmalewife) May 1, 2025======
There was some other stuff released in the last two weeks that I’ll probably be covering later, but not as much as I thought there would be.
English (US) · 