A K-pop act’s title track isn’t always the best song on their album, even if it’s the one most people will hear. Sometimes, b-sides deserve recognition too. In the singles-oriented world of K-pop, I want to spotlight some of these buried treasures and give them the props they deserve.
ZEROBASEONE’s last two mini albums were so strong that they turned me from a casual admirer of their music to a full-blown fan… just in time for a likely disbandment/reconfiguration. I can’t say I’m as smitten with their new album, which feels like a string of lesser material (including both promoted tracks). However, there is one easy standout in the form of Star Eyes.
I’m always drawn toward more upbeat material, and especially songs that throw everything at the wall and unabashedly charge forward with pop pizzazz. Star Eyes‘ big EDM sound feels like a survival show signal song, but that’s its only downside. I’m completely won over by its use of strings to create an ornate sound that manages to transform an energy-shifting second verse into a real highlight. In a year where it seems that everyone is muting their ambition, it’s refreshing to hear a song simply sprint forward full speed.
Star Eyes is also a whopping four minutes long. Nearly every 3:30+ K-pop track this year has been a highlight. That says something important. As a listener, I vastly prefer songs that develop into something. You simply can’t forge a sense of scale and scope within a two minute time frame, and this fully-developed experience is vital to a song like Star Eyes.
| Hooks | 8 |
| Production | 9 |
| Longevity | 9 |
| Bias | 9 |
| RATING | 8.75 |
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
Yasss well deserved buried treasure.
I have been a fan since In Bloom and I love most of what they have released until now. Do they absolutely have to disband? Ugh
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absolutely deserved. this is the type of music that makes me emotional. this would’ve been such a great choice for a final single. I really don’t want them to disband but rumors of Yuehua and WAKEONE’s relationship being terrible makes me hopeless.
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I’m keeping my hopes up that most if not all the Korean members stay, I doubt Yuehua is gonna let Zhanghao and Ricky continue knowing the fate of Uniq and the Chinese members of Wjsn.
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Yasss, thank heavens they continued for a full exuberant minute-long outro starting from 2:52. That is everything to this song. Showing how its done.
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How it’s… done done done? (I’m so sorry)
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WTH THIS IS SO… amazing????!!
drop the producers NOWWWWW
anyways, this brings me back to the first time I saw NAVILLERA being performed by GFRIEND with the audio of The Chaser being played, which is the first time I discovered that song too! Many people think that both songs have similar opening percussion and that’s why people accuse Iggy and Youngbae for copyrighting The Chaser. Have you seen the video?
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oh! And both songs have similar BPMs too! That’s why the audios are basically exchangeable for the choreography
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written by INHOUSE’s So-hee Park, 153/Joombas’ Seung-yeon Woo and Liljune, ARTiffect’s Ye-ji Yoon, Hye-yeon Bang and XYXX’s 12h51m
composed by ARTiffect’s Jake K, 3SCAPE DRM and Andreas Öberg and Rico Greene
arranged by ARTiffect’s Jake K and 3SCAPE DRM.
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ohh I actually didn’t expect someone to drop the producers because it was a joke HAHA. But thanks, really!
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Not trying to steal zb1’s thunder, I love this song and I’m really happy to see it rightfully chosen as buried treasure. But I was wondering, Nick, if you were gonna post about Apple TV+ kpopped? It’s at the very least an interesting unexpected collaboration and an opportunity for great exposure for some smaller groups. It’s also a really nice feel-good watch as the competition is all in good spirits.
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I probably won’t post about it but it’s on my list to watch. I haven’t gotten around to it because I’m still getting through Universe League right now. I’m happy to hear it’s worth watching, though!
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OMG I’m so pleased to hear you’re backwatching Universe League! You must really be invested in AHOF, then! I also felt that as a show, UL distinguished itself nicely from other survival programs by actually switching up the format for once, which made it more fun to watch.
I have soured on Kpopped considerably since writing my comment since I proceeded to stream the whole thing in one sitting, which I think is bad for your health, so I don’t recommend doing this.
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I’ve seen the Kylie Minogue and Ateez collab and I love it!
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It’s SO good. Definitely the best stage of the show and I would recommend people watch this one if nothing else. The mix itself is kind of fire (like somehow they made Can’t Get You Out of My Head into a dramatic gothy kpop song and it works?) and most importantly, Kylie matched Ateez’s energy, which I think a lot of performers on this show could not do. It’s not their fault that a lot of them are not dancers, but holy shit is she ever a performer.
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On that note, I also really liked JO1’s interpretation of Kesha’s Joyride, but Kesha unfortunately is not a dancer and also just generally seemed xanned the fuck out for this entire experience, which is a shame because if she’d locked in it could have really brought the performance to another level.
The worst performance was either Vanilla Ice X Kep1er or Boy George X stayc, and of course, neither of these negative ratings have anything to do with the girls.
Admittedly it was extremely funny to hear Vanilla Ice yell “KEP1 GOING WA DA DA DA” and Boy George singing in Korean sounding like a damn trot singer, but I maintain this is something that should not have been allowed to occur.
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Ugh she just works so well in anything. I saw her live in Feb and she was just stunning, it’s great to see that she can hold her own against Ateez and still complement them.
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She really is amazing. In a year where I also saw Lady Gaga and multiple acts at KCON, Kylie’s show ended up being my favorite.
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I had some of these “kpopped” performances pop up in my suggested youtube feed, though not the complete set. Some worked better than others. On balance all felt like they were all doing it for publicity. Something to do to either gain cachet with the younger stan crowd or gain cachet with the older crowd who remembers them when. I mean, these sorts of things happen in pop music, collaborations between the old guard and the new new.
I don’t think any of the collaborations in kpopped were one for the ages, but they were nice to see. But its not David Bowie x Bing Crosby.
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Yeah, streaming all the episodes back-to-back left me with the nasty taste of late capitalism in my mouth lol.
There were a few performers who seemed to be doing it for the love of the game. Emma and Mel B of the Spice Girls were just happy to be performing together again, Kylie Minogue took the whole thing very seriously, and Boyz II Men were very sweet and acted as mentor figures to the Black Swan girls.
The worst parts of the show were the obviously scripted bits they made the performers say about how much they love the kpop artist’s music. Vanilla Ice being like “I’m psyched to be here, I mean come on… it’s Kep1er!” as if he has any idea who they are 😭
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Definitely my favorite! We need more songs as long as this in the future!
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Your username suits you here, because a lot of people who prefer shorter songs are not real music lovers, they are music tolerators. lol
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Thanks.
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anyone else reminded of enstars’ upbeat bangers from this song? (yes i have fallen for niko’s advertising for the game and im obsessed with it now)
its so good!
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This is very much the stand out from the album and made a train ride I was on a bit more enjoyable.
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I’m so glad this track was chosen as Buried Treasure! It was easily the highlight for me too when I listened to the album. It reminds me of Here I Am, but it’s much better and… sort of nostalgic? Honestly, it’s one of my favorite k-pop songs this year!
Also, I genuinely didn’t believe this was over 4 minutes at first! I don’t like the idea of songs under 3 minutes, so this was a very pleasant surprise!
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Super late to the party but WOW what a song! With their impending/potential disbandment coming up this feels like it would be a great song to go out on for promotions. Bonus points if doing so brought them back from the brink “one last show to save the community centre” style.
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coming back few months later to say this has become a 9 for me
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