Board Thread:Off-Topic/@comment-29512888-20200131144040

Hello everyone! Welcome to a new episode of Weekly Boost!

More funkiness from Seratones, who already got featured in the series a while ago. I mean, now that Janelle Monae has no plans, someone must take her place, right? There are moments when you feel the entire world falling on you, and you feel miserable and powerless, without a clue of what to do. Demi certainly knows how it's like, as she released this song a couple years ago to address her alcoholism issues that brought to diatribes with her family and friends, and she wins everything by keeping everything low key instead of showing off her vocals (which is what usually happens in her songs). In spite of K-Pop's fame as a genre chameleon, ska has always been massively uncharted territory, which is a shame because we could definitely do with more songs like this. I particularly enjoy how it rotates the same four chords over and over but never gets boring, to the point where you can even listen to it without the vocals (even though that whispered rap breakdown is a true blessing). The first K-Pop song from 2020 I liked was Younha's "Dark Cloud", a truly excellent ballad that everyone should check out. However, as much as I love it, I wasn't prepared for this, because holy hell... what can I even say? From the soaring guitars, to Younha's impeccable performance, to the earnest lyrics, everything strikes absolute gold. And don't even get me started on that epic, lighter-waving-like chorus, just hear it for yourself. Reggaeton was a huge thing last year and everyone tried their hand at it, with terrible to average results; however, some gems did levitate above the manure, and here is one. Actually, there's not much happening but, once that neat riff comes, you'll immediately transcend to a new dimension. Easily one of the best debuts of 2018. Not only does it have one hell of a chorus that is more than enough to make me sit through all the cringe cheerleader shouting, but it also cemented what should have been this group's core sound, which was later readapted in "Hakuna Matata" but not in "Wish", which wound up being a bit too different. One of the negative sides of K-Pop is that there are very few groups with an established sound, and all the other ones constantly throw random stuff at the wall to see if it sticks, wasting all the potential that was created with their previous comeback. Oh well, at least they left us this great starting point. The reason why I often rely on Spectrum Pulse for music suggestions is because I can find excellent music like this, which would be nowhere to be seen in other sources due to it being too high-quality for mass consumption. It's a shame, as it could easily click on other people for sounding quite a lot like Joan Jett & The Blackhearts - but then that's old music and no one cares, right? Sigh. This is what happens when you try to make 80's pop sound more modern. It doesn't make sense on paper but, somehow, April's songwriters found a way to make it work. Everyone bow down to the Japanese Queens of EDM! We'll close the episode with more dance music, because why not? It's Friday, we're all allowed to have some fun! (Even though I have a lot of stuff to study and I can't find anyone to spend the weekend with but ok lol)  