Board Thread:Off-Topic/@comment-29512888-20190912201143

Welcome back to the K-Pop spinoff of my monthly series! After the huge buildup created by July, I was hoping for the quality peak to remain, but things went a bit downhill, sadly. However, the few good songs of the month are all really, really good. Let's give them a look, starting with some Honorable Mentions!

Honorable Mentions
Such a huge guilty pleasure! Also, I don't know what "BJ" stands for but it's definitely NOT what you think it is. Probably this girl's best song so far, a very calming mid-paced R&B-trot fusion. I don't know if this Billie Eilish soundalike will inspire a Billie Eilish trend in K-Pop but, in the meanwhile, I support this song with all of my heart.

8. Venus - Turn Signal
Damn, I absolutely miss Orange Caramel. Their quirky concepts and outfits were such a refreshing change of pace from all the glitz and glamour of typical K-Pop videos, and their song were so insanely catchy and creative! I mean, Catallena, Magic Girl, Lipstick... who doesn't jam to them? This completely unknown girl trio called Venus seems to agree with me, as they tried to capture their original vibe with Turn Signal, a nice little trot number that has literally all the keys to Orange Caramel's typical formula. Of course the results aren't as epic, but it's still an earnest effort so why not give it some points for trying?

7. Seventeen - Hit
Well, now here's a group I didn't expect to turn up in one of my lists. I've been certainly aware of their existence for ages, but not many of their songs grabbed me. I really like Thanks and Very Nice, and Don't Wanna Cry wasn't too bad, either, but... there's not much to point out besides that. However, here they are with their new song, and oh boy, does it deliver. It's not that original musically, it's just a really good EDM club banger like every other good EDM club banger but DAMN, it bumps in the whip so freaking much! It already starts off the right foot with that "hit hi-hit hit sound" hi- hihihihihit sound!" snippet in the intro and then it explodes and BAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMM!!!! Your ears are completely assaulted by a bunch of synths, yelling and other screechy noises, but you don't care about anything at this point because you've already started to jump like a crazy drugged party animal. I'll admit the lyrics are dumb and confusing as hell but, as I just said, there's not much to worry about once your head starts banging as if it had a life of its own.

6. JBJ95 - Spark
Another group that has always flown under my radar is JBJ, who have never done anything of worth in their career so far - and of course I can only care even less about their weirdly names sub-unit JBJ95. However, once again, we see such an average group getting their revenge, and the winning card this time is Spark. As opposed to Hit, the song starts off very dull and takes a lot of time to build up; however, once it finally does, it culminates in an incredibly anthemic chorus driven by its rollicking guitars and passionate vocals, which invite a lover to follow the singers in a reckless adventure. We don't know what they're escaping from, but the atmosphere is still set perfectly and makes for a lovely gem that everyone should hear this month.

5. IN2IT - Run Away
IN2IT, however, managed to beat JBJ95 at their own game (and also in the same week) with Run Away, which opens with a roaring metal intro and evolves into an even cooler chorus that creates an astoundingly tense atmosphere. Of course that doesn't stop Spark from being worthy of a listen but, even then, you'll eventually have to admit Run Away is way better on all levels.

4. PinkFantasy - Fantasy
Sadly, Dreamcatcher didn't get to perform in Australia this month because the venue was destroyed by a fire, thus robbing a non-Asian country of the rare occasion to see a beloved K-Pop group (even though people who wanted to see it said their tickets were refunded very quickly). To make up for that, however, we got this great track from nugus PinkFantasy, who had previously been mentioned this year thanks to a sub-unit and their Disney-inspired 12 O'Clock. There isn't one single element of this orchestral arrangement that isn't sneakily borrowed from Dreamcatcher's repertoire, and of course the result create an amazing sound that deserves to be remembered. Maybe their CEO could have let them book a quick flight to Australia and replace Dreamcatcher? Oh well... what a waste of a great opportunity.

3. Hongja - How Do I Live
The trot vibes aren't over this month, as a soloist called Hongja provides a great ballad called How Do I Live, which features the typical template of Korean ballads but also sprinkles some typical trot instruments (such as the strings and the accordion), which make the whole music feel more organic and touching. To be fair, the vocals are a bit too melodramatic with those screamed high notes, but at least they make this song more interesting than all the other Korean ballads of 2019 put together, so I can deal with that. I'd rather cry because the song is actually touching than cry because I'm bored to death and completely unable to put up with all that coma-inducing "music".

2. IZ - Final Kiss
HOLY S***********. HOLY. F*********. S********. Do these guys seriously want to kick DAY6 out of my bias list or what? They have been releasing nonstop quality this year, and Final Kiss definitely falls into this category, being probably their best song ever. As usual, Final Kiss revolves around a love story, which is over and leaves the main singer diving through all the memories, while a super punchy rock track plays with many prominent, melody-full guitars (you know a song is this awesome when you have to invent new words to describe it). And wow, that singer really nails the feeling! He's just so emotional, especially when the music drops to half time and he screams "Lovers in love" in falsetto - I swear, that part always gets me. Now, DAY6, what are you doing? Go back to work before these rivals fully dethrone you!

1. Tiffany Young - Magnetic Moon
Well... now we can say the surprised never stopped coming this month. This song is definitely out of the scheme on all levels: first of all, it's specifically designed for the Western market, as Tiffany has left SM two years ago and is now trying her best to break out in the US; secondly, her post-SNSD songs have always been appallingly generic and nondescript, so something this good was surely not expected from her; thirdly, what might be dismissed as a generic pop song sits at #1 over a trot ballad and IZ of all fricking people. How was that possible? Well, I currently don't have enough music theory knowledge to define what I love so much about it, but I can't help pointing out that gorgeous atmosphere, created by amazing keyboard touches and some clever use of vocal synthesizers. It all sounds so surreal, yet so beautiful at the same time, and it makes for a truly lovely song. I'm still surprised it managed to make its way into #1 but, as I said before, I have to give credit where it's due, and so I'll congratulate with Tiffany as much as I can.

Recommendations
For reasons that will be explained later, this Recommendations section is dedicated to disbanded groups who deserved better. This is actually a guilty pleasure more than anything else, but it's still impossible not to bounce to the tough rhythm and the screams of that green-haired girl. If you don't believe me, you can check out by yourselves. Behind T-ara's stratospheric success there were 5Dolls/F-ve Dolls, who were quite active in 2010 and 2011 and then were left in a hiatus trap until 2013, when they gave us this truly beautiful song before ultimately vanishing forever. When it comes to unfair treatment, Stellar definitely took the cake, with their terrible CEO treating them like pin-up dolls to masturbate to, to the point where they got even signed to a Chinese erotic TV show without being warned. As frightening as their career conditions were, however, I can't deny their music got significantly better once they entered the mature phase, and this song proves it with its melancholic chorus and weirdly sparse arrangement (something you don't see very often in K-Pop). Unfair disbandements aren't just for nugus and B-listers, and Wonder Girls are here to prove it. Oh well, at least they left us this great song to remember them by. And of course we close this month's Recommendations with f(x), who should have celebrated their 10th anniversary but can't because SM decided to let them die a slow and painful death. Why they were treated like this, it's a huge mystery that still isn't solved to this day (and never will). 