Now this is more like it! I’m not sure it’s possible for a single song to make up for an underwhelming March, but Without You certainly feels like a kick in the butt. Without any gimmicks or concessions to trends, it flies out of the gate on the strength of its melody and performance alone. … Continue reading
Most of the time, a kpop group’s title track is the best song on their album. But, sometimes b-sides and album tracks deserve recognition, too. In the singles-oriented world of kpop, I wanted to spotlight some of these buried treasures and give them the props they deserve. Oh My Girl’s entire Liar Liar mini is … Continue reading
Most of the time, a kpop group’s title track is the best song on their album. But, sometimes b-side tracks deserve recognition, too. In the singles-oriented world of kpop, I wanted to spotlight some of these buried treasures and give them the props they deserve. Now that B1A4’s Jinyoung is finally getting recognition as a … Continue reading
Jpop is not nearly as accessible to the western market as kpop has become, so I’m often late to the party when it comes to new releases. Yell has actually been available for a few weeks now, but I’ve recently become interested in boy group Bullet Train and wanted to offer my thoughts on the track. The … Continue reading
From time to time, it’s just not enough to write about individual singles. In the case of jpop group News’ Quartetto, I wanted to take a deep dive into several tracks. And, given the fact that I’ve already reviewed most of the album’s singles, it just made sense to take a look at the entire … Continue reading
Despite being a self-confessed Sweetune addict, I thought Snuper’s debut single was pretty lousy. For Platonic Love, they’ve worked with the production team again, this time to much greater effect. Sweetune has always been heavily 80’s influenced, but it’s been awhile since one of their title tracks has been so explicitly indebted to the era. From … Continue reading
Most of the time, a kpop group’s title track is the best song on their album. But, sometimes b-sides deserve recognition, too. In the singles-oriented world of kpop, I want to spotlight some of these buried treasures and give them the props they deserve. By all accounts, Taemin’s album Press It is a total triumph. … Continue reading
I came into this song without a lot of expectation. I know that new group Astro have a bit of a following due to web series and other online promotion, but I know next to nothing about them. In fact, I’d even say that my initial feelings for their music was less than positive, and … Continue reading
I’ve been waiting almost two years for this. As I mentioned before, I’m a huge fan of Taemin’s solo music. I got a little nervous when I heard that he was working with Bruno Mars on this single. Nothing against Bruno, but I don’t really like my kpop artists intermingling with American music (there’s a … Continue reading
Most of the time, a kpop group’s title track is the best song on their album. But, sometimes b-sides deserve recognition, too. In the singles-oriented world of kpop, I want to spotlight some of these buried treasures and give them the props they deserve. Though SS301 released shortened promo videos for every track off their … Continue reading
Girl group Rainbow have been kicking around the kpop world for quite some time now, finding great success in their first few years but struggling as of late. They’ve traversed through cute concepts, sexy concepts, and darker, more electronic terrain, and now they’ve returned with Whoo — a blast of pure, unadulterated pop. Other than admiring … Continue reading
Most of the time, a kpop group’s title track is the best song on their album. But, sometimes b-sides deserve recognition, too. In the singles-oriented world of kpop, I want to spotlight some of these buried treasures and give them the props they deserve. Action is a song from Nine Muses’ 2013 mini-album Wild. It … Continue reading
Most of the time, a kpop group’s title track is the best song on their album. But, sometimes b-sides deserve recognition, too. In the singles-oriented world of kpop, I wanted to spotlight some of these buried treasures and give them the props they deserve. Airplane is a song from f(x)’s 2013 album Pink Tape. It’s … Continue reading
VIXX has recently embarked on a push into Japan, and Depend On Me is their second original Japanese single. I thought the first, Can’t Say, was a catchy piece of pop and was happy with the general direction they were going, but Depend On Me does it one step better. VIXX is well known for … Continue reading
There’s no denying the fact that girl group GFriend’s speedy rise to fame has been nothing short of astounding. They debuted around this time last year without any real fanfare. And with a name like “GFriend,” I didn’t exactly have my hopes up. But like the good kpop fan I am, I took a look at … Continue reading
Most of the time, a kpop group’s title track is the best song on their album. But, sometimes b-side tracks deserve recognition, too. In the singles-oriented world of kpop, I wanted to spotlight some of these buried treasures and give them the props they deserve. Reason is a song from MyName’s 2015 2nd Mini … Continue reading
Let’s get the strange stuff out of the way first. The concept of this song is “finger love,” as the guys remind us over and over again in English. I know what they mean, but I can’t help but feel that this phrase’s more…adult… connotations were lost in translation! Now on to the song, … Continue reading
This track kind of passed me by until recently, but even though it’s not brand new, I still wanted a chance to talk about it because it’s become one of my most-played tracks of the month. For those who don’t know, LuHan used to be one of the Chinese members of EXO. He left the … Continue reading
There’s a very specific sound that’s become especially popular this year with Korean girl groups. It’s a bubbly, effervescent pop style that emphasizes bright melody and punctuations of synth that act more like guitar stabs. It’s a high energy mix, and one that groups such as Lovelyz and Gfriend have mastered in 2015. For … Continue reading
BTS have really thrown down the gauntlet this year and catapulted to the top tiers of the kpop industry. Their two part project, The Most Beautiful Moment In Life, has so far resulted in the brilliantly evocative I Need U song/music video and extended album trailer. Now we’ve got Run, which is itself a stunning long-form, … Continue reading
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 