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cha-ra-nui · 2 years

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2021 Retrospective Part 1: KPop

KPop was great in 2020, diverse and interesting. I hoped that energy would carry over into 2021, and some of it certainly did. Overall though, the year, while not lacking in good releases, felt much less creative than 2020 did. Where in 2020 most groups managed to release exactly one song I loved, this year it felt like everyone would either nail every single comeback or none at all, there was very little middle ground for me, and barely any random hits. (As usual, everything I talk about can be found in this YT playlist.)

I’ll start with a lightning round of everyone who got onto my radar last year, but who I don’t have anything to say about this time: CIX’s “Jungle” was phenomenal, but, like I predicted, they never released anything even half as interesting since. APink had no presence this year, EVERGLOW and Mamamoo did okay but never well enough to land on my playlist, LOONA’s music was bewildering in a thoroughly uninteresting way, (G)I-DLE went up in flames, and EL’AST failed to impress me this year. Once again, I wasn’t sold on most 4th gen groups, and I felt like 3rd gen groups, for the most part, didn’t leave much of an impact either. So for the first segment, here’re (some of) the big releases that felt underwhelming to me: BTS is still on top of the world, but all their English singles felt incredibly low effort, so if you aren’t trying, neither will I. “Butter” has some of my favorite terrible lyrics of the year, and I think that I dreamt up “Permission to Dance”, since I can’t remember anything about it. It’s probably the worst title track of 2021 to me because it’s so offensively bland. It feels like ages ago that I was invested in this group, and nowadays, it’s hard to remember why I liked them so much. I also retain the opinion that bighit, excuse me, HYBE has no idea what the appeal of Seventeen and NU’EST was. I’ve never been a fan of the former, but I appreciated their positive energy, which I found somewhat lacking since Pledis was bought out. NU’EST meanwhile was a group I’ve been rooting for, and HYBE not only failed to give them regular comebacks, but also erased everything I liked about them. “Inside Out”, while at least catchier than “I’m in Trouble”, is just as generic. NU’EST is a group I was mostly interested in for their unique music, so no matter how well their new stuff is produced, I just don’t care for it. Never mind that the music video is nauseating to look at. I appreciate that it’s cut on the beat (it can’t be that hard YG) but the camera moves way too much, it’s extremely disorientating. EXO was back for a hot second, with Lay even, but I don’t have much to say about “Don’t fight the feeling” either. It’s fine, a weaker version of “Love Me Right” in my opinion, and it’s still somehow one of the best title tracks SM released this year. They seem to have embraced the art of the train wreck wholeheartedly, and while I’m glad EXO didn’t get pulled into that again, it sadly didn’t leave much of an impact on me. Super Junior’s comeback was underwhelming too. “House Party” is upbeat with a positive message, and the weird SM breakdown isn’t as jarring as usual. It’s not going to age well anyway because it’s a shut-down song and not very memorable to begin with. I’ve since been told that the album is decent, but I can’t attest to that. And while I’m complaining about SM, Red Velvet’s “Queendom” was also one of the most forgettable major releases this year. SM in general tended to release either incomprehensible messes or the safest title tracks possible, and this was so firmly the latter, I literally can’t remember a single thing about this song while I’m listening to it. I honestly think I prefer their train wrecks over this, at least those are memorable. Then of course there were the BLACKPINK solos, two songs each for Rosé and Lisa, which I have the exact same opinions on too. The title tracks, “On The Ground” and “LALISA” respectively, are extremely safe. Both songs have a few ideas that could work, and a few that would never appeal to me, and both could’ve used a bit more polish. The also wildly popular B-sides meanwhile, “Gone” and “Money”, sound grating to me, and somehow even more generic than the title tracks. Finally, I wasn’t sure where to put STAYC. It felt like everyone was talking about them, and their title tracks “ASAP” and “Stereotype” got an overwhelmingly positive reception, but it’s hard for me to see where the hype comes from. They don’t stand out from other 4th gen girl groups stylistically, nor do they have a big label behind them. And their songs, while competently produced, don’t leave much of an impact on me either, so it felt like “popular but underwhelming” would be their category too. But their songs are catchy, and they seem to have a decent vocal line, the lack of which is a recurring problem I have with 4th gen groups. In the end, while I don’t quite understand how or why they got so popular, I don’t mind that they did. It wasn’t all underwhelming though. There are many groups, soloists, or even just popular songs who’s hype I never quite get, but most of them at least made sense to me this year. So, consider this the “oh, I get the hype after all” segment: “Drunk-Dazed” by ENHYPEN will probably be on many people’s best-of-year list, and for good reason. It’s the best song HYBE has released in a while, but it’s held back by the group it was handed to. ENHYPEN just doesn’t convince me, they stand out in neither vocals nor rap in any way. The vocals sound heavily processed, which I’m never a fan of, and I can’t help but wish that this song would’ve gone to ONEUS or ONF, to VIXX in an ideal world, anyone with a stronger vocal line really. Even with those gripes though, it is a very catchy release and deserved the attention it got. Their labelmates TXT, who I never got into either, did a lot to distinguish themselves this year. I liked “0X1=LOVESONG (I know I Love You)”, which is a terrible name for an oddly charming and catchy piece of music. And this time I don’t think it should’ve been given to anyone but them, they own every second of it. So much so, that I started to watch out for them afterwards, and I’m glad that I did, because “LO$ER=LO♡ER” is among the strongest title tracks of the year in my opinion. It’s very catchy and feels like a true step forward. Like they were testing the waters with “0X1=LOVESONG”, and now they’re fully committing to a rougher, indie-pop-rock style, perfectly nailing it on their second attempt. As a title track it’s also a complete package, the MV is good as usual for this group, and so is the choreography, and both perfectly suit the song. Their B-side “Frost” feels in many ways like this style taken to the extreme, a KPop song that has no interest in sounding pretty. It’s not what you’d get from rock or metal vocals, but a Pop appropriation of it, and this group is the first that made it work for me. The personalities of the members also shine through on the entire album, which is the most bewildering thing about this group for me. Don’t get me wrong, the type of music they made this year would fall apart entirely if that wasn’t the case, but how come HYBE lets the TXT members sound natural while BTS and Enhypen get their songs drowned in autotune? Kang Daniel also finally made sense to me with “Paranoia”, a fascinating song, memorable without being particularly catchy, lyrics that fit the theme perfectly, and an aesthetic that reminds me of Taemin, which is, oddly enough, something I haven’t seen around much. I feel like his influence should be all over male soloists by now, but maybe that style is just difficult to emulate. I didn’t like “Antidote” nearly as much though; the chorus just doesn’t work for me. Sumni is the other soloist who’s appeal I finally understood this year, but mostly the songs no one seems to like or talk about anymore. My newly found appreciation for her had little to do with her 2021 releases, and more with talking to a fan and discovering a few older songs I started to like. “Tail” was alright though, and “You can’t sit with us”, while a bit of a mess, at least has the decency of being a fascinating and inoffensive mess. ATEEZ isn’t for me, and I’ve accepted that fact last year. But they also make it easy to see their appeal. If this is the type of music you’re into, they’re most likely the group for you. And they’ve gotten very close to releasing a song I like with “Deja Vu”. But the real reason why they’re here is the MV they released for “The Real” because it’s an extremely cool and impressive production, even without being able to fully figure out what is happening in it. In a similar way, The Boyz might’ve been impressive on Road To Kingdom, but their music never worked for me. “Maverick” is the first song of theirs I enjoyed, it’s just plain cool. I can’t imagine being interested in their future releases though, this feels like random hit to me. Astro meanwhile was for me, at least for a while. I liked their quirky and cute early work, and found myself to be entirely uninterested in the “more mature” releases they’ve done for the past few years, so I’m glad to report that “After Midnight”, while not as creative as living soda bottles, is still fun, and I sincerely hope that the success of this comeback proves to their label that there’s still a market for cute and happy boy group releases. Transitioning to the less talked about stuff, I was pleasantly surprised by Eunhyuk’s solo, and I feel like I really shouldn’t have been. Super Junior has been around in KPop for what feels like an eternity, it shouldn’t be surprising that the members know exactly what they’re doing. Still, “be” wasn’t on my radar at all until I asked for recommendations of songs I might've missed this year, and I’m honestly not surprised about it. I will come back to this more with a certain other group later, but this is exactly the type of release we need senior idols to stick around for. It’s not exactly the chart-friendly bop that gets talked about, and even if a less experienced artist would be allowed to promote a track like this, I doubt it would be anywhere near as good. This song works because Eunhyuk is a really good singer and experienced performer who knows exactly how to deliver every single line to get the most out of this song. While we’re at SM solos, U-KNOW’s “Thank U” not only comes equipped with some clever lyrics (that only get held back slightly by questionable English), but the music video is also a great homage to classic revenge films, Kill Bill most noticeably, and U-KNOW too delivers everything with experienced confidence. In the “debuts I noticed” corner we have JUST B’s “DAMAGE”, which proudly proclaims to have been produced by Bang Yongguk. I’ve never seen the producer advertised in the title of the MV like that, but it makes sense. This could be a B.A.P song, all things considered, even if it’s too edgy to convince me. I mostly wanted to bring it up because the concept of the music video is a very weird cross of EXO’s “Love Me Right” and Stray Kids’ “District 9“ or BTS’ “No”. That’s right: dystopic football. I’m so confused. Then we have MIRAE’s “KILLA”, which I can best describe by being very of its time. Sci-fi and traditional concepts seemed to be all the rage this year, and this has both, if only a dash of the latter. The debut mainly stood out to me because they seem to have a decent vocal line, which isn’t really what 4th gen boy groups are known for. It’s also a solid song in general. Their follow up, “Splash”, was decent too, but it remains to be seen if they can find a niche for themselves musically, because both songs lack a bit of a unique identity. Finally, there’s is RBW’s new girl group PURPLE KISS, which is the first debut that ever convinced me of a group. I made an entire post about the MV for “Ponzona” when it came out since it was heavily inspired by Dreamcatcher, and my opinion only improved since then: I like the song a lot and the members are very talented. It was an honest contender for best KPop song of the year to me, and I had no prior investment in the group whatsoever. Their vocal line has potential to become one of my new favorites. No Goeun and Swan are hella impressive, Dosie stands out as a strong performer already, and Chaein is adorable. I also appreciate that they’re older than most girl groups at debut, maybe that’s why it feels like they have much more experience than the rookies they are. And their discography is almost scarily good so far too. Their 2nd EP, “Hide & Seek” was just as impressive as their debut. “Zombie” is a great title track, much more fun and upbeat than “Ponzona”, but somehow still very much what I expected and wanted out of this group, and the B-sides don’t feel like filler. “Cast Pearls before Swine” is especially noteworthy, but both EPs aren’t lacking in songs to pick a favorite from. It’s almost too good to be true. Which is why it had to be made up for elsewhere with complete trash fire releases. And oh boy, there were so many train wrecks and bewildering songs, enough to justify having an entire “hall of shame” segment for the year: OnlyOneOf’s “Libido” inspired me to write a ten-page essay on sexualization in KPop (which I never got around to edit), and it still makes me uncomfortable. This is here solely for the MV though, the song is fine, almost insultingly so, considering the provocative video. “Asurabalbalta” by T1419. Nothing to add, it’s just an ugly song all around. A special shout out to “My Turn” by CRAVITY for the most hilarious chorus of the year. Considering that the verses and MV are not framed as a parody, I’m sadly forced to believe that someone wrote the lyrics “vroom vroom vroom vroom vroom vroom skrt” and intended for the song to be cool. I also think I should give Aespa’s “Savage” at least a mention, but it’s unremarkable in its awfulness after a year of much more bewildering releases by this label. There’re salvageable parts in this song, a recognizable structure, and an almost functional instrumental track, even some good vocals. Which are wasted on the lyrics and song, but at least there’s something, which can’t be said about SM’s unholy trinity: Aespa’s “Next Level” sounds like 5 songs stitched together without rhyme or reason, and none of them have much merit on their own to begin with. The lyrics are terribly cringey too, the slang SM made up for them doesn’t help, and it can’t get much better than “beat drop”, followed by…distinctly not a beat drop. SM also SMed all over NCT Dream’s “Hot Sauce”, which features a vocal sample that is trying very hard to be more annoying than the “I want you” looped over EXO’s “Obsession”. I honestly think that this song is worse than “Next Level”, at least that one was an interesting train wreck and somewhat catchy, this is just bewildering. And then SM managed to dig even deeper. NCT 127’s “Sticker” barely qualifies as a song. It has no instrumental track, just a few mismatched and very annoying samples looped over 4 minutes. No structure to speak of, nor does it build towards anything. It has no melody, and the vocals have negative flow. There’s just nothing good to say about this. It’s not trying anything creative, it’s not catchy, it’s not relaxing, it’s not fun, it’s not cool, it’s just a mess I can’t believe was published by a major label. Finally, let’s look at the artists I had expectations for and see if they managed to live up to those: ONEUS has been on my radar since debut, but it wasn’t until last year that I started to have expectations for them. Which they promptly disappointed by doing the opposite of what I wanted. I have no idea who thought that “No Diggity” was a good move for them, but it did nothing for me. They pull off the weird mixture of Block B and 4th gen noise music, but I much prefer their prettier songs, and it felt like a good vocal performance wasted on a song that can’t profit from one. “Black Mirror” was a bit more in line with that, but it worked even less for me somehow. At this point I was ready to accept that they might not be a group for me after all, but “Luna” was a timely reminder of why I was paying attention to them in the first place. They’re really good at this type of song, and while I would generally agree with the praise they got for this, I was getting seriously annoyed by their fandom at this point. They’re not “concept kings”, please stop calling them that. This isn’t a nickname you can just claim for yourself, it’s VIXX’s. You’ll find VIXX by looking up that title, just like you’ll find SHINee when you search for “the princes of KPop”. It’s what not just their fans but also the media calls them, and it’s a title they earned with their unmatched dedication to concepts. Please respect that. Heck, “Luna” even takes inspiration from VIXX’s “Shangri-la” and especially the MBC Gayo performance of it, to the point of homage in some moments, and that’s not a bad thing, we just want it to be acknowledged. TWICE being in this category is something I never expected, yet here we are. Their summer comeback wasn’t exactly the catchy hit I expected though, “Alcohol-Free” is much more subdued than their usual output. It’s not bad, I just never feel the need to listen to it. “Scientist” too, apart from me constantly stumbling over the name because VIXX’s “Scentist” ruined that word forever, didn’t leave much of an impression. The lyrics are also a bit awkward, which hasn’t been a problem for them in a while. But to make their inclusion on my “good list” even weirder, what saved them from the “underwhelming but popular” category was an English single. “The Feels” is the first English release that doesn’t feel like the group watered down their identity to appeal to a western market. This is very much a TWICE song, and proud of it. The lyrics are perfectly fine, and the production gets the most out of every member. I wasn’t able to get behind their popularity in their early days, but there is something fascinating about senior group TWICE, and I hope they renew their contracts next year. Their labelmates Stray Kids didn’t quite manage to live up to their 2020 output either, but that’s understandable considering “InLife” was stupidly good, and they’ve been MIA until August, with the exception of “Up All Night”, which was a fun unit song that feels very relatable. Their first official comeback “Thunderous” meanwhile is exactly what I wanted, at least on paper. Gloriously overproduced KPop, and a music video that is overflowing with creative effects and editing. Highlights include a transition from animation to Changbin’s face and Felix turning into a sketch of himself, in a magazine that Hyunjin is just putting down. The color-grading is great too, it’s a dark MV but every color pops. It’s just that I’m not too big on the song this time. It’s okay, but I’d rather listen to “God’s Menu” again. They released a few more MVs for other songs on the album, out of which “Red Lights” received the most attention. Unsurprisingly, considering it’s essentially VIXX’s “Chained Up” turned homoerotic. I can’t say that I understood the freak-out over it, but I do like the song. I also found “Cheese” to be worth revisiting once in a while, even though the song is headache inducing. They also released hands down the best Christmas MV this year with “Christmas EveL”. The group likes to add a lovely parody angle to the overproduced KPop scene they’re very much a part of, and it’s the most obvious in this release. The lyrics are on point and the jokes consistently land. In general, I get the impression that enjoying Stray Kids’ content is often dependent on if you share their sense of humor. Dreamcatcher did just well enough not to disappoint as well. It’s good to see the full team together again, especially since they’re the only group I care about with a complete line-up. “Odd Eye” was pretty cool, but I liked the B-side “Poison Love” more, and I don’t listen to it often. What I did listen to though is their 2nd comeback “BEcause”. Right of the bat, this is the more interesting song to me. I loved the understated chorus from the second I heard it, and this song feels like they addressed all the problems I had with “Piri”. The breakdown doesn’t clash with the light vocals, it just fits here. The transitions are on point, their vocal line is still one of my favorites in KPop (Yoohyeon and Siyeon are just unfair), and I find myself increasingly impressed with Gahyeon. The entire group has a strong stage presence but watching her starting to claim more center time and chorus lines, all while completely owning her space on stage, is like watching VIXX’s Hyuk grow up all over again. “Your face turns blue, it’s like an ocean view” is also in contest for one of my favorite lines to come out of KPop this year. It’s just delightfully creepy. “Delightful” is also what I’d call ONF in general. They feel like a breath of fresh air, and it’s hard to pinpoint why. Almost every KPop group releases a fun song at some point in their career, but I’ve never seen it fit a group as naturally as it does ONF. Their music is also distinctly quirky, oozing with creative energy. “Beautiful Beautiful”, while not quite as interesting to me as “Sukhumvit Swimming”, is just as much fun and always puts a smile on my face. It’s catchy and happy without ever being annoying for it, which makes it almost impossible to not get caught up in its energy. And it’s also a song I can’t imagine being released by anyone but ONF. This group is a true gem, and this is one of their best songs to date. “Ugly Dance” is more aligned with the current trends but retains just enough of the fun vibes and quirky energy I like about this group to work. I prefer their other stuff, but they seem to enjoy performing this song a lot, which is one of their biggest strengths as a group in general. Their music and MVs are quirky and weird, always energetic, and it works because the members always seem have the time of their lives with it. Which is why I was looking forward to a summer comeback, and “Popping” did not disappoint. I have no idea what this song is going for, and the MV is all over the place, but it works. Just don’t try to dissect why it does because it honestly makes no sense. Finally, after dropping quite surprising enlistment news on us, they made one last comeback in December with “Goosebumps”, which is much darker than their other releases this year. That doesn’t mean that it’s lacking in creative energy though, not in the slightest. The song changes the top line for each chorus, and it hardly even registers because somehow it’s still incredibly catchy. I’m sad to see them enlist, but it’s nice to know that we’ll get them back in less than two years. They had a great run, and I sincerely hope that they can continue where they left off in 2023. WOODZ is another artist I discovered last year, but despite him almost making my top 5 songs with “Love Me Harder” I still underestimated him. I wasn’t sold on his merit as a vocalist, being much more interested in him as a songwriter. It’s not that he’s a bad singer, quite the contrary, I just don’t particularly like the tone of his voice. Which might sound absurd, because I very much enjoy his music and have been impressed by his performances repeatedly. His first single of the year, “FEEL LIKE”, is simple and groovy and scores with another great instrumental track, which just barely put him into the “did not disappoint”-camp, since I didn’t listen to this song much despite its qualities. But I immediately fell in love with the title track of his EP released in October. “Waiting” stands out to me as a perfect production, and I’m going to make this paragraph even weirder now, because I love the vocals on the track. This song is just perfect for his voice, and it’s a great performance all around. If WOODZ wins me over with his songs, then Taemin is on the opposite side of the spectrum. Most of what I love about his solos is purely on his insane skills as a performer, and I complained a lot about Taemin being better than the songs he’s been given over the years. Which sadly is the case for “Advice” as well. I don’t hate the song, but Taemin’s performance is the only thing I actively like about it. It just isn’t an interesting release and the entire EP felt extremely save to me. Which is a shame for his last release before enlistment, especially coming off the “Never Gonna Dance Again” albums where he’d been given more room to experiment. Minho meanwhile deserves a proper solo debut, and not just because SHINee needs to complete the plagiarism joke. “Heartbreak” was a pleasant surprise at the end of the year. It might be nothing revolutionary, but just the right type of pleasant and relaxing to feel worthwhile nonetheless. Or maybe it just felt like SHINee was competing among themselves on what my favorite song of the year would be at least since June, and I had given up on fighting it at this point. So. SHINee. I’ve rewritten this part more times than I can count, and I doubt I’ll ever be happy with it. But I can’t continue to be flippant about them anymore, and there’s just too much to untangle with this group to keep it short. I spent 3 years pretending that I had no interest in them beyond some of their music, that they weren’t the group I turned to if I wanted a dose of happiness, that I didn’t love their shows and interviews for being endlessly entertaining, and that I didn’t avoid them because acknowledging that they were important to me hurt. I ignored their shows, the albums beyond the title tracks, and didn’t even listen to Key’s and Onew’s solos. But this year, keeping a distance just wasn’t possible anymore. It’s been a long time since I felt like a group was as on top of their game as SHINee was in 2021. They came back from the military with the same experienced confidence and disregard for rules and expectations I’ve been missing since they and VIXX went on hiatus in 2018, and everything they did this year felt like a triumph. It took months to figure out how I feel about “Don’t Call Me” though. It’s very 4th gen, and I liked that SHINee always stuck to a bit of 2nd gen whimsy before. Onew is entirely too nice for the song too and is given hardly anything to work with. But then again, they pull it off. It’s more of a grower than their usual title tracks, but it’s a rock-solid production. It was also nice to hear a SHINee title track that felt built around Key for once. Maybe their 2021 releases felt as triumphant to me as they did because being Key biased this year was a constant invitation to scream “told you so” at everyone who ever doubted his abilities. Still, this song ultimately isn’t what I want from SHINee. Lucky for me then that their 2nd title track “Atlantis” is exactly the type of classic, upbeat, vocal driven pop song they excel at. When they talked about songs that got taken off the “Don’t Call Me” album, “Atlantis” comes up in a moment of miscommunication, and they immediately insist that this song is theirs, that it’s a song that only they can do, so there’s no way SM would hand it to anyone else, and I’m inclined to agree. It’s a SHINee song to its core. The album is good too. I have issues with it, like how “Heart Attack” and “I Really Want You” are essentially the same song, even though I like both. Some tracks feel a bit like filler too, and I don’t like “Days and Years” at all. Overall, I’d love to cut out a quarter of the songs, but then SM wouldn’t be able to do their full-album-into-repackage spiel anymore. A more experimental and darker B-side would’ve been nice to have too, something like “Nightmare” or “Trigger”, because I always loved those and “Don’t Call Me” doesn’t fit the tone of the album at all, even after the repackage fixes the terrible sequencing. At least they kept up with the SHINee tradition of having one song entirely focused on chill-inducingly perfect vocals on each album. “Area” immediately became a contender for song of the year for me. I’m in love with their voices in general, but Onew on this song in particular gives me chills. I also love the eerie quality of this song, and even without knowing for sure if that was Minho’s intention when writing the lyrics or not, it’s hard to shake off the impression that this song is addressed to Jonghyun. Whether intentional of not, “I can’t fill your empty spot” is the most cutting line I heard in KPop in a while. And in a complete 180 mood-wise, the final group release before we lost them to the military again is classic SHINee-style JPop, the kind of song I like a lot but can’t actually defend when asked about it. “SUPERSTAR” is nothing unique or fancy, but SHINee carries the song on pure charisma, and it never failed to put a smile on my face. I think you can tell from the length of this paragraph that I was fully prepared to hand song, album, and artist of the year to SHINee, and it really wasn’t even close…but then they got competition from inside their own ranks. There aren’t many productions in KPop as interesting and perfectly executed as Key’s “Bad Love” EP. This was the first time in ages that I wanted an album before knowing anything about the music, simply because the packaging is so damn awesome. The level of creativity and attention to detail that went into the presentation of this comeback is something I’m used to by VIXX and them only. And it’s not like any of that was necessary to sell me on the album, because the songs are genuinely amazing. The title track has more harmonies, concurring melodies, high-notes, and adlips than most group releases do, and it never sounds messy for it. “Bad Love” is an extremely clean and impressive production, and I’ve been obsessed with it since it came out. There’s not a single song on the EP I didn’t like either and none of them sound like filler. I’m in love with how much energy he put into “Yellow Tape”, how amazing his harmony with Taeyeon sounds in “Hate That…”, his voice in “Helium” period but especially during the bridge, the entire mood of “Saturday Night”, and the “end of my world” line in “Eighteen”. And that’s another thing, this EP is filled with good songs, but it’s Key who sells them. I always liked his voice, and I’ve seen enough vocal coaches gush over SHINee to know he’s a technically clean singer, but nothing prepared me for just how great he sounds when he’s given songs that are tailored to his weird tone, and when he’s allowed to make his own choices. The entire album has “Key” written all over it, and never to its detriment. I just can’t imagine this EP in the hands of anyone else, and it has quickly become my favorite solo release in KPop period. I’m so glad it paid of commercially, and I sincerely hope that SM finally realizes that SHINee does best when they’re allowed to make their own decisions. Because if this is what Key’s preferences look and sound like, then I absolutely want more of it in the future.

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iamacolor · 3 years

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fashion queen! which nct era has the best fashun in ur opinion?? and if u were a designer which neos would u pick as ur models?

I was so excited to answer this that I wrote several pages and it basically turned into a style analysis for each unit so I sure hope you have some time on your hands to read everything I’ve just written! (I did not reread so sorry for any typing mistake)

NCT is known to be experimental in their music and that’s also the case in their styling so there’s a lot for me to get into even though sometimes it’s a miss. One thing I will say though is that when it comes to the styling in mv/teasers, what’s around the clothes is super important because if you have a very specific styling concept, your set design or graphic design needs to complement that and give the audience more clues on how to read all these elements together (the cherry bomb era is a great example of that with all the added graphic elements and the predominance of the colour pink) and recently I’ve found that the creative team has not really gone further than just putting nct in an outfit in front of a basic background so it makes for a pretty underwhelming result

But let’s move on to my favourite styling eras. I’m going to do this per unit (I’ll finish with NCT U) and define an era by its teaser pictures and the mv (and not go through all the performance looks during the promotion period)

I’m putting this under a read more because it’s reaaally long (I put pictures so that it’s not just one big chunk of text)

NCT 127

Easily the most experimental unit when it comes to fashion, especially in their first years where they would wear mix of sportswear, grunge references, avant-garde fashion and a lot of layers. When it comes to their debut “Firetruck”, I think it fitted the song really well but that it didn’t fit all the members equally (especially the younger ones, for me Taeyong and Taeil pulled it off the best – it’s expected of Taeyong but I also think that Taeil always stand out when they go for edgy/unconventional look, I think it really suits him).

Anyway, just to say that they were off to a very strong start and then I’m just going to kindly ignore the Limitless styling and move on to Cherry Bomb!

One thing nicely done for CB is how when you look at a group picture they’re clearly all following the same concept but they’re not necessarily matching or giving off the same vibes if you take them individually. I love the use of the colour pink which brings a) a great visual impact (you don’t ever see that much pink at once – especially on men) and b) an harmony despite the shapes and styles of their outfits being so vastly different, you’ve got ties, tousled, shirts, little frilled collars, stripes and all-over prints, sportswear and formal wear… (ex: taeyong’s short jacket is reminiscent of something a little luxurious, even maybe historical/noble with the little added embroidery-like details, it reminds me of these boleros jackets worn by toreros that are often red/gold VS doyoung’s overalls is an outfit that has a much more recent origin as it was first worn by factories workers, it’s usually blue or grey and is meant to be practical rather than pleasing to the eye -> here it fits very well with the general setting of the mv in what looks like an empty industrial storage space)

This second look is more of a game on how to deconstruct formal wear (there are less prints and no bold colours, their hair is less messy…) but they don’t just add sportswear like the bomber jacket, you can find rock or more “modern” elements with the leather jackets or the jean jackets. All in black and white so great contrast with the previous looks, although that mix and match concept is still there. My favourite elements are the checkered ones (worn by taeyong, taeil and haechan) as it reminds me of the strategy element of the chess game which fits pretty well with all the weapons and other arms visible in the mv (a bit like a nod to the game battleship)

This one I love that they developed their own print, especially since it’s another graphic element used elsewhere (see their album cover), because it’s a great way to really introduce their identity as a group, through the different visual elements they put out in a comeback, it’s like a logo but as a print. And all the teasers and the mv did a great job at mixing 2D/3D contents so that’s another nice way to be cohesive. It’s not my fave look out of the 3 (especially because I do not approve of that belt-suspenders-bag they gave Johnny, it’s like everything you don’t want to put a dancer in and it’s ugly as well) but I still like the fact that’s it’s another nod to the battle/strategy aspect of this comeback, like they’re on a mission to hit the stage and conquer it

Then fast forward to my other favourite one, Simon Says! (No teaser pictures here because they don’t show anything or they show not enough lol)

First of all THE MASKS

Oh how I wish they could’ve been shown more (imagine teasers with the members wearing them!!! I would’ve loved individual teasers based on each of the masks concepts) Once again, a great to have group concept without making everyone wear the same thing. They’re all super different and full of details. Haechan’s is the only one from what I could who’s mask is actually a mask and not a fully covering hood. The materials and techniques used on these are either evocative of “fragile” things like glass and flowers but theses elements have their own hidden strength. Some others are covered in lace, pearls, fringes or fur…all these things are usually considered to be precious or even luxurious but it covers their faces and their identity and they throw it away in rebellion (and I think it’s also super interesting how Taeyong who takes off his mask first has the least ornamented one)

Then the outfits themselves. Simon Says in an interesting MV because unlike most others they wear one outfit for most of the MV (the second one appears quite late in the mv and is lit and staged in a way that makes it less visible). It’s a mostly grey/white set of outfits which is usually a colour combo for office wear or maybe factory workers, it’s not something that can seem very exciting or edgy. The styling in these outfits reminds me of the works of Japanese designers who came to Paris in the 80’s and kind of shook the whole high fashion system by bringing a different type of shapes, aesthetic and purpose to fashion (Rei Kawakubo, Yohji Yamamoto…). These designers went on to become super successful and inspired another wave of “avant-garde” designers nicknamed “the 6 of Anvers” (Anvers is a city in Belgium), this group includes Martin Margiella, Dries Van Noten…And to me the outfits in Simon Says really fit into this aesthetic. Unconventional fits, various layers, it’s not so much mix and match than a work on contrast between structure and fluidity (Yuta’s half skirt with un-trimed edges, Haechan’s long shirt with the long bow and the fitted jacket, Mark’s top with the various see-through layers of different lengths…).

An other interesting details (which to me calls back to the mask and that tension in the song/concept of letting go/being free of expectations), is the way they all have thick strings tied on their feet/ankles. Not holding them back because their feet aren’t tied together but there’s still this clear restriction of the garment itself, a reminder that there are tied to something and not completely free (also an interesting choice when dressing dancers who would need to have no added weight or discomfort in their outfit to dance but visually something is holding their ankles)

Honorable mentions:

Kick It– they managed to create very memorable outfits while taking inspirations from already well known elements (both for the fighting/training outfits and the bomber jackets). The black and white outfits especially are very original as performance outfits/dancing clothes since the og garment they’re inspired by has already such a strong identity outside of the performing arts and I don’t think I’ve ever seen it be used as a stage outfit? Or concept? It’s a nice exemple of how you can take inspiration for something designed to be useful and to be efficient (in fighting) and turn it into an aesthetic.

Truthfully, martial art training outfit was already an “aesthetic” on its own but they made it a performance costume and now I do feel like it’s one of these looks that everyone will remember (like if there was a “most memorable kpop outfits” list it could easily have kick it’s black/white fits). The rest of the outfits for that concept weren’t as memorable/original to me although I feel like it showed a new approach to the styling of nct 127 as a group since they all had very similar outfits this time (especially when wearing the jackets).

Also, interestingly, that shot of Jaehyun that had everyone go “wow” ? Well it’s impactful because it’s him and he looks like that and it’s shot in a very specific way, but it’s also even more impactful because he’s the only one who gets to wear that kind of outfit in the mv. Everyone else has 3 sets of outfits (black and white, shiny black, red jacket and black pants) but he has 4 and that suit is only used in that shot which makes for a greater impact!

And I feel like Kick It in terms of styling opened a new era for NCT 127 has it kind of broke their usual mix and match/edgy concept. This time they were clearly referencing something already well known (either martial arts, the 90s…), and the members were all matching and they kept on doing that with the military jackets in punch, the other 90s concept in nct 2020…

Touch – for the way the outfits match the sets (in all their individual sets their outfits have a detail in a matching colour), the focus on colours !!! You can see that this whole concept was designed with this colour game/colour progression between the outfits and the set in mind. It’s just very pleasing to the eyes and a great contrast to their usual stuffs (also I wrote my graduation paper on colours so I am really into creative use of colours like this)

OK now moving on to Dream!!

The interesting thing about Dream compared to NCT 127 is that from the beginning although their outfits had to match the song an the concept of the comeback it also had to match their age. Dream’s a group that had to look young when debuting (to the point where they wore outfits that made them look even younger than they were which is rarely done for boy groups) and then they had to transition into adulthood, and all of that had to be made visible. In that aspect, I really like the styling for We Young and Boom (especially when you look at them at the same time).

For We Young, the styling is meant to be reminiscent of school/boy scout uniforms but with a marine vibe. It makes for playful outfits that aren’t too childish but that also aren’t grown up. I prefer the “seaside” outfits as I don’t really like school uniforms as a concept for styling and I think it’s really a choice that suited them and the song so well, it really fitted their energy. It’s playful but it also has a vintage touch to it as these outfits with their stripes and their squared flap at the back date back to the XIXth century (I just found out that it all started with the queen Victoria dressing up her kid in an outfit inspired by the royal navy uniforms for a painting after a cruise ).

Boom on the other side is their first proper “grown-up” concept. We go up was already more grown up but still very “teenager-ish” and although they were mostly teenagers when they did Boom it was clear that this was supposed to be their first entry into “adulthood” as a group at least. And although they did wear a sportswear/casual outfits which is something that isn’t related to age (and I really like the black and white “skeleton” set which already feels more grown-up and more “stylish” than the other casual outfit) , they wore two other “grown-up” elements: suits and all-jean outfits.

And yeah teenagers, and kids wear jeans too but a full jean-on-jean outfit is more of a “grown-up” fashion choice and it makes them look like young men rather than boys. As for the suits, I just really love when stylists play with the codes of that garment (length of the jacket, tightness of the pants, the way the shirt is tucked in…).

Notice how Renjun has a really short jacket, Chenle’s pants are wide, Jeno has a tail…Once again, a really interesting aspect of Kpop is the variations of the same concept based on the members. In the mv, there is a tension between their more grown up selves (the one in suits, the one with a craft/a path) and their young selves (the one running around in the field, the one laying down in the flowers and eating a cake). And there is also in these outfits and the contrast between them this tension, this contrast…which path should they go? The jeans are the more laide back, innocent outfits, whereas the suits come with responsibilities and status (and you’ll notice that in the scene where jisung is left alone to blow his candle it’s when he’s wearing jeans not when he’s in the suits).

Now on to WayV!!

WayV are different from the two in the sense than when they debuted they couldn’t have an “age” concept or an edgy concept because 127 and dream had already taken those and I feel like for that reason they’re still looking for what makes them stand out visually from the others (and in my opinion it’s not in whatever they were wearing for turn back time!). WayV’s concept is space and time travel, it’s building a new life, a new worl, going beyond anything! In my mind, they’re either supposed to feel a bit “otherworldly” (either spectacular or literally like they’re from another world/another universe, a little bit futuristic maybe?) or to look like explorers/travellers (they have a lot of travel/transportation “gears” references in their outfits). Their MVs also have a very different production than the other nct mvs (the scale and the way it’s filmed, the sets…it’s a different approach and it’s usually much more “grand” for their title tracks). The great thing about WayvV styling is usually that they match the outfits well with the world that the mv is set in (like in Moonwalk for example you get a sense of the world they’re in and the fact that it’s not ours or at least not as we know it now through the way they dress – you can’t really say oh it’s inspired by this era or by this or that because -at least- to me it immediately gives me a vibe of something that could be worn in a sci-fi movie, almost like a costume) or that they allude to travel in their styling.

When they debuted with Regular they went for a very sleek and high fashion look which worked really well for them! Even their more “casual” looks were a bit striking and I think that’s very “wayv-like” to me.

Same goes for Take Off where they mix the individual styles (and I don’t like ten’s leopard fur sleeveless jacket at all) and the group concepts – the “flying” outfits and the “racing” outfits (that last one is my favourite! I love the silhouette it creates with the tight pants and the larger tops with an emphasis on the waist).

There’s something a bit extra to WayV - which is why some of their outfits remind me of costumes more than fashion while at the same time they’re the most “high fashion” unit– like the “flying” outfit in Take Off are recognizable as “flying gear” but you can’t really tell what they’re flying, it feels once again like something that they could wear in like star wars or a similar kind of story.

Imagine a movie about 7 men on another planet trying to come together to overcome the dark forces or whatever’s bad on their planet in a futuristic society with a mix of “traditional” and “trendy” outfits? That’s WayV. The movie the 5th Sense? That’s WayV but on steroids. They’re also the only group with actual characters in their mvs, they’re all supposed to have a backstory or an individual setting and find a way to get together in their mvs.

Anyway all that to say that it’s hard for me to pick an era for them because they’ve only had a few and they still feel like they’re looking to solidify their concept, and since moonwalk and turn back time really set the styling in different worlds than ours, you have to look at how they fit in that world rather than ours and I think Moonwalk does it best since it’s the most cohesive one visually. But then I think Regular had the best individual styling!

Okay this is super long but we’re finally getting to NCT U!!!!

Number one favourite:

The Year Party outfits!!!! I’ve already talked about this but I love when they say we’ll put them in suits and then since they have to make a different one for each of them they cut bits an dpieces of the suits here and there, play with lengths. It’s not a revolutionary concept but in terms of searching for a shape, searching for variations of an already so famous, so well-known garment (everyone has seen a suit, and so many designers have already deconstructed it and then put it back together and so on) it’s so nice, it’s almost like a full collection given how many members there are and it’s just a good tailoring work.It almost feel like an exercise of how many variations of an outfit can you think of? And it looks fun to do! It’s all about the details and the way the layers are set together.

The accessories add to the “formal attire” aspect of it. It almost has a ceremonial look to it. A bit of royalty with the futuristic vibe usually associated with WayV. The dark blue suits were pretty classic, the most interesting details (for me at least) were on the light blue ones. Especially since it’s a rare colour to find in formal wear or in ceremonial wear. In general, I feel like it’s a pretty rare colour in fashion outside of like shirts and baby clothes? I think it was a great styling choice for a content like the year party although I do wish they (either NCT or WayV who’ve touched upon this kind of outfit a bit already) would do a full comeback with this kind of styling (like the lighter version of the black and green outfits in SuperM’s One). It’s not revolutionary but it was something new for NCT and I really hope they use that elegant/futuristic concept once again.

Also in these outfits, the jewelry is super important and adds to the “grand” aspect of these outfits. The concept is that these aren’t ordinary outfits for ordinary men, we’re witnessing something “special” and so they aren’t wearing their usual jewels either (of course the big chains are still there but differently look at that necklace jaehyun is wearing)

Honorable mention:

Boss & Baby Don’t Stop (they’re different but they go together in my mind lol). Look at them in their uniforms! And also they had doyoung wearing these sunglasses

Ok I think I’m done, if you’ve made it this far thank you so much and I hope it was a nice read!!

As for who would I chose as my models…it really depends on what I’d make them wear tbh for menswear the things I’d like to design would either be something like formal wear or knitwear – I’d pick Lucas, Taeyong and Doyoung (I think they’re the most model-like members and could pull off pretty much anything even my non-edgy concept because I can’t do that lol and they pose very well) and then depending on the concept I’d pick between Winwin, Jaehyun, Kun, Jungwoo, Taeil, Haechan and Shotaro (the way I struggled to remember all the members at once…there are too many really)

#this is soooo long omg I didn't know I had that much to say wow #I hope you've managed to read it all and that it was somewhat coherent and clear #now it's time to eat #nct #nct 127 #nct dream #wayv #nct 2020 #fashion #leemarx #I've got mail #vinformation

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sole-cuore-amore-e-droga · 3 years

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Bulgaria brings a mentally reassuring anthem to Rotterdam 2021

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I’ve said so that VICTORIA herself sort of agreed to have done “Tears Getting Sober” if she was allowed to, but for one I have to thank that EBU said that the artists can’t have their 2020 songs back? You’ll see why when I get to the review after two boring paragraphs of text with technical info, for the country that is Bulgaria!

ARTIST & ENTRY INFO

Victoria Georgieva (or VICTORIA, but I can’t be arsed to continuously capitalize her name so I’ll just say Victoria from now on) was born a singer, for she started to sing at the age 11, went to a specific school of angel voices (no really that’s what it was called), and tried to go to the X Factor while a liiiiiittle too young until realizing that she needed to wait for a few years, and wait a few years she did, and went on to the X Factor again.

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She didn’t win, but she still got to sign a contract and sing some stuff in Bulgarian before she decided to rebrand, started singing in English, and completely decided that ballads is her style. She cannot really do upbeat most of the time. So you can’t really have a bop from her in the future. (Well except that there’s a couple of songs in her discography that I personally classify as “bops” but they’re more like... idek sad bops?? but they can be danced to, but I get her, she doesn’t do anything that’s more loud and upbeat and clubby and summery kind of - in short, nothing you can go “YAAASSSS QUEEEEEN” over to.)

The entry she ended up singing, “Growing Up Is Getting Old”, is what I can describe to be about overcoming the emotional twists and turns inside of you as you grow older, because as it turns out, it ain’t what you thought it would be - but if you push just a little further, you realize that if you’re growing up, maybe the life isn’t so bad, afterall - you are able to get up. Somehow. It was written as part of Boris-Milanov-led songwriting camp held during summer, and a lot of people seemed to be a part of it because multiple different folk have songwriting credits on the potential Bulgarian entries this year.

REVIEW

Let’s get this out of the way immediately. I prefer “Growing Up Is Getting Old” to “Tears Getting Sober”. The former sounds a lot less irritatingly underwhelming and a lot more positively overwhelming you with warm emotions and sunglow. “Tears Getting Sober” was a song I could never really connect with - maaaaybe the last chorus is much better on there, but it doesn’t do much for me either, I guess.

Their 2021 forray however is a much different kind of thing - once again, going for lyrical non-cliches, Victoria tells a tale about her inner turmoils and continuing in life, in a way that’s personal to her and also kind of relatable to all of us. We all have these moments of fear and anxiety and nervous systems aching. If only there was someone who’d tell us that we’re worth saving... thanks a lot Victoria, you’re the MVP. Filling in the void that Netherlands from last year had brought us but not anymore - another personal song about getting old and having those kind of feelings inside - and doing a great job at taking the baton in the right way (even with featuring the word “grow” in both of the titles, neat coincidence).

Not only the lyrics feel like a hug, the song just emulates ray of sunshine and golden glitter coming down from the sky, Molly Sanden style. The violins in the G major key playing so precisely, building up momentum throughout the entire song, slowly but surely - starting with the ticking clock in the first verse that may have subtle violin in there; and the first chorus is just so simple piano, and then the second chorus has a tinge of electronic something, and the last chorus goes full in with the backing vocals boosting the song, after Victoria performs the quite magnificent bridge... now I don’t have synesthesia but I associate music keys with colors, and to me G major would always come across as something yellow or orange - “Growing Up Is Getting Old” is a perfect example of why’s that for me. And obviously, Victoria’s love for harmony-humming (even if there’s just one instance of it after she sings “star crossed soul”) complements the song to a T.

And it turned out to be a much better choice than last year’s. Maybe finally a female ballad I am getting behind.

Now I wanna know why the bookies don’t appreciate THIS entry as much as last year?

Granted, now it’s 2021 and the environment is so much different, and the songs have changed, and the dynamics have changed, and now there’s suddenly more competition at stake. And for Bulgaria it fares quite much more underwhelmingly - well, at this moment they’re like 6th, which isn’t bad, but there’s a lack of sung praises coming its way, not quite a feat that “Tears Getting Sober” actually achieved, being the bookies fave right before the cancellation of last year. In general the year has been pretty dry for the previous winner picks like Iceland, Lithuania and this, but I can’t say that the previous winner bets from 2020 are all that dead either? Though I gotta say that Bulgaria wasn’t gonna win 2020 anyway, so it’s a lose-lose in this case.

Also I just can’t at that music video being a little dramatic at the beginning, with the cancellation of Eurovision being presented as if it were a worldwide disaster during which we all shall lock ourselves into bunkers and wait until the better days, eventhough the panini is not war and war supplies kit is not just enough to survive it. But it seems like that the world is quite literally falling apart, as evidenced by Victoria going through all kinds of pathways away from her living room, meeting a (presumably) mini version of her somewhere in between, and literally surrounded by the shaking environment by the last moments of the song

before we realize it was just reality recursing from the TV’s point of view that Victoria was watching all along, and then she leaves the living room again, but in her world, everything is normal and she could just go wherever she wants by car. Even I can’t come up with a storyline ending that’s somewhat intertwined and all plot-twisty and more confusing than that. But props to her team I guess

Approval factor: Let’s say I somewhat approve this message. Follow-up factor: For the sake of argument let me just say that Bulgaria is moving on a great path, eventhough the former entry leaves me cold, at least the current entry keeps me warm at all times, like a cup of cocoa and a good blanket. Please Bulgaria, never run out of sponsors. Qualification factor: I’ve seen one or two people throw around the “surprise NQ” tag for this song and I don’t get why??? There’s no way that the tense atmosphere of semifinal 2 would sure-fire-ly kill Bulgaria, even if they have a lot less chances to win this year than they had the last one. There can be some shock NQs indeed though, and if there are, I am paging... uhhhhh Finland? Idk why but you might see what I mean if I ever get around to reviewing “Dark Side”. Bulgaria? Never. It may not win the semi but it will cradle around the top 7 somehow.

INTERNAL NF CORNER

That’s right, Bulgaria managed to do both.

At the time when one other of Bulgaria’s songs got released, within the *Special* Eurovision September 1st-onwards range, people naturally succumbed to their primal instinct of asking whether that’s her Eurovision song... only for Vic to probably announce this early on that no, it’s just *one* of potential ESC entries she’s harbouring. And the remaining potential ones were all on her debut EP. Who actually got a more well-orchestrated schedule for everyone to follow, and yet, people were much more keen to cling on the first EP song out of the gate, “Imaginary Friend”. Now I get that the fans of that song were super upset at the revelation that IF is not going, but it is a technically strong song for the sake of being a technically strong song, and I don’t want to think that Victoria is only forced to choose the songs that can win for her, so she’s such a sweetheart for gravitating towards a song she could dearly care about. So props to her team saving the initial winner for last to be revealed, lol.

Though wasn’t her personal favourite a Billie-Eilish-lite-upbeat-kinda-track Phantom Pain?

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Which was also my personal favourite?

Look, I know that favouring the only non-ballad in the whole lineup (well “Ugly Cry” is also not quite a ballad but its beat is kinda so-so, so I tend to ignore it) is kinda sus, also, y’all are sick to death to Billie Eilish comparisons, but I do believe that Billie would never be able to do an “Imaginary Friend” while Victoria could do a “Lovely”. This makes me remember the cover art of Billie’s debut album where she sits on her bed, dressed in white, and so is Victoria on this very MV, with strange shit going on behind her in the mirror. To the mirror, her reflection acts creepy, back again.

The other 2 I don’t feel like caring about enough, sure they got their cred, sure there’s one entry properly crediting Milanov (who seems to not have an actual entry this year that’s purely attributed to *him*, as opposed to 3 last year, 2 of which were performed by acts that returned this year????), sure there’s the funny thing about having a funeral song where out of this and Finland only Austria managed to send a quote unquote “funeral” song, but I think the funeral song would’ve sounded better if the pre-section of it on the “Phantom Pain” video was THE “funeral” song itself, and not whatever was that other funeral song.

In between there was a public sort of survey where people could submit feedback and positive words to Vic’s choices to help her decide - I didn’t get to vote but I feel fine with the winner eitherway, and that counts for something! And the end result was revealed at the very end of Victoria’s very own rooftop concert.

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The colors on the circle thingy of this, they were meant to symbolize all Bulgarian entries up to Victoria’s 2nd one, in pictograms that kind of reminded me of Coldplay attributing every song on ‘Mylo Xyloto’ its own little symbol.

The concert was not only full of music and also adverts for the inaugural sponsor iCard (that also included some element of foreshadow in between the suspense, you’ll see why), but also the Bulgarian folk talking before each song, saying all the positive nice words they can for Vic; that she’s talented, and that they were so excited that Bulgaria was doing well in the odds last year prior to cancellation, bla bla bla... also some people were proud of voting for Bulgaria outside Bulgaia, and they made puns about the forthcoming songs on the concert that they were introducing, and so on, and there was also someone called Dara, whom I really want to be sent by Bulgaria one day to show off that they’re not afraid of doing trashy-esque bops that don’t necessarily win

Also they reminded me that Lucy from No Angels (aka the sole reason Bulgaria 12′d Germany in 2008) still exists.

Also Azis.

There was also an intermission where Eurovision 2021 acts could say all the nice words to Victoria on their own part. And several artists chose to... how shall I put it... use up their several seconds rather interestingly. Like how The Roop would say something real quick only to delve into more of their usual “let’s dance, let’s discoteque! *hand scissors* ;P” self-promo, and Senhit carelessly being allowed to say whatever she wants in Italian without subtitles <3 Sorry sis, they’re only given to people from another white-green-red flag-color country.

About the iCard foreshadow... so there’s their advert about Victoria waiting in the line to get something in the Soft Vocals Store, and people ahead of her giving her money the standard oldfashioned way, and the old lady at the counter is... slow, to say the least. After a good amount of time spent waffling around, Victoria finally pulls out the iCard application and pays for the imaginary items she wants, then narrates some stuff about said application, and a Eurovision entry of hers plays when the old lady is at home, spending time in front of TV enjoying the music. Before the concert, the song that played was “Tears Getting Sober”. The advert played once more before Victoria’s big entry decision and entry MV reveal, and in place of the 2020 entry, “Growing Up Is Getting Old” was the one that sounded out loud... Now you may think that there were attempts at some sort of spoilage here, but after that ad before the concert EP NF result, there was this other advert starring Victoria that played “Imaginary Friend” at the end, a last-ditch effort to trick viewers into going “see? just because that ad played the chosen song doesn’t mean it’s the chosen song!! this song could as well be a chosen song as well!!” yeah no shut up GUIGO IS the chosen song kthxbyebye.

ANY LAST WORDS?

Having said all that praise, I actually have “Growing Up Is Getting Old” fairly low on my ranking. It’s just because the year is so damn good and I have a lot more songs to care about more than this, but I appreciate the gesture that this singer is sending very much. Good luck on your road to conquer Europe, Victory-ia, I’m sure you get the best of the experience and all, because you would deserve it.

#eurovision #eurovision 2021 #rotterdam 2021 reviews #bulgaria #victoria georgieva #victoria #growing up is getting old #i was planning to publish this review on the same day as borisbubbles dropped his review of bulgaria #but my timing is lazier than his i gotta admit #so yeah #gif

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shanethvarosa · 3 years

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Music Review: 2020

My blog has been a lot of things over the years, but it did originate as something I used to publicly review music; especially in the Visual Kei scene. Since I began the blog so many years ago, I had actually been hired to review Visual Kei and J-Rock music for an actual website: VKH-Press.com, work I am very, very proud of to this day. However, with not much news to comment on or work to critique, I haven’t been as active. Plus, personal issues always seem to stand in my way. However, I always take the time to discuss my passions at the end of the year. There were so many incredible releases, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, and so I wanted to take the time time to discuss my favorite releases and, maybe, the not-so-favorites as well. Quick shout out to Bastille’s Goosebumps EP and Megan Thee Stallion’s Good News LP as I did not get to listen to them before I wrote up my lists, but were still excellent releases. See my thoughts below!

Overall, there were about 75 albums or groupings of albums I listened to this year and split them between various tiers. Starting with the bad tier, there were actually only ten albums listed here and mostly just because they were seemingly unnecessary collection albums. For example, another Satsuki collection? Rides in ReVellion releasing two greatest hits LPs after only five years of work? Beyonce releasing The Lion King: The Gift again? None of those felt like necessary releases. There weren’t many albums that really screamed bad to me this year, but I really could not stand Vanessa Carlton’s “Love is an Art” or Justin Bieber’s “Changes.” The only other albums on this tier were just underwhelming compared to what I know the artist is capable of, but the “best bad tier album,” in my view, was The 1975′s “Notes on a Conditional Form.”

The mid-tier albums had all sorts of reasons for being only mid-tier. They weren’t quite bad or outright unnecessary, but are mostly by artists who put out work that was nowhere near the caliber of their usual work or were re-releases or other collection albums. For example, Tove Lo’s “Sunshine Kitty: Pawprint Edition” or Man With A Mission’s remixes/b-sides/covers albums. Nice to have with good quality music, but I wish we’d just have had brand new EPs or LPs.

The good-tier albums were all really excellent releases, but didn’t hit home the way anything on the “God-Tier” list did. Here, I’d like to share a quick top ten:

10. Taeyeon’s “Purpose: Repackage” & Japanese EP, “#GirlsSpkOut” 9. Charli XCX’s “How I’m Feeling Now” 8. Miyavi’s “Holy Nights” & “Holy Nights: 2020 Lockdown” 7. TK’s “Sainou” 6. PVRIS’s “Use Me” 5. Buck-Tick’s “Abracadabra” 4. Katy Perry’s “Smile” 3. Alicia Keys’ “Alicia” 2. Dua Lipa’s “Future Nostalgia” & “Club Future Nostalgia” 1. Ava Max’s “Heaven & Hell

Without furhter ado, though, the God Tier Top 25:

25. Acme’s We Are Visual Kei: Essentially a collection album of several songs that were b-sides that never made a full-blown album. This LP was loaded with some of Acme’s best work and shows that they are going to be here for a long time, despite Div not quite working out. Recommended tracks: Mononoke Requiem, Gekiyama Celluloid, Houkago no Shiiku

24. Alanis Morisette’s Such Pretty Forks in the Road: Admittedly, a huge fan in the 90′s and loved her cover of Seal’s Crazy. However, before this album I didn’t really listen to much of her body of work and I can see why today’s youth might not listen to this album. It is very “adult” insofar as it deals with her struggles in marriage, parenting, religion, etc. Her vocal performance is exceptional and her song writing remains some of the best in the business. Recommended tracks: Smiling, Nemesis, Reasons I Drink.

23. Niall Horan’s Heartbreak Weather: Not my usual cup of tea, but for some reason Niall’s music makes me feel softer than normal. He’s very cute and charming and his words are always so romantic. It feels more genuine than the music made by other members of One Direction and kind-of reminds me of earlier Taylor Swift writing, but from a male perspective. Recommended Tracks: Put A Little Love On Me, Arms of a Stranger, Still.

22. K/DA’s All Out: I don’t even really understand what this is, but I love it. There’s something to do with League of Legends? Cartoons? International pop stars? Whatever it is, I’m totally obsessed. These songs just completely slap. Recommended Tracks: The Baddest, More, Drum Go Dum.

21. Darrell’s Brilliant Death: This might even “officially” be a single, but there’s enough content to market it as an album. Darrell is a band formed from the ashes of Deathgaze and Ai’s solo project. Who knows why Ai didn’t just continue after his solo album, Confusion, but he decided to go back to the band-format with confusingly-named Darrell. This album is then, incidentally, mostly Deathgaze covers. It brings the production into the new era and gives you a lot of nostalgic love for old hits. Recommended Tracks: Brilliant Death, Evoke the World, Abyss.

20. Alice Nine’s Fuyajou Eden & Kuro to Wonderland: Neither album was particularly long, in fact these were glorified EPs that could’ve been merged to one two-sided LP, but in either case... Both albums had something really special to offer and felt like a true comeback after years of name changes and finally going back to their original, kanji-styled name. Recommended Tracks: Kakumei Kaika -Revolutionary Blooming-, Testament, Replica, Glow.

19. Mucc’s Aku: This album felt very long in the making after a series of weird singles that didn’t feel like they were going anywhere. Ultimately, a lot of those singles did not make the album including my favorite one: Taboo. The resulting album, though, did feel very cohesive and thematic and even featured one of this year’s heavy hitters: Hazuki. Recommended Tracks: Aku -Justice-, Memai, Ameria.

18. Miley Cyrus’s Plastic Hearts: This person is absolutely one of my favorite people in music. I’m pretty sure they have comeout as genderfluid/non-binary, so I want to stick with safe pronouns, just in case. However, they’ve always been a favorite and as they’ve come out as such a champion for the LGBT, I love them even more. The album though gave me a lot of hype for something very 80′s rock, but didn’t quite give me what I expected. All in all, the music was fantastic, just a little off-beat from expectations. Recommended Tracks: Gimme What I Want, Angels Like You, WTF Do I Know.

17. Rina Sawayama’s Sawayama: I didn’t expect to fall in love with this girl the way I did. My boyfriend recommended “STFU” to me as kind of a joke because the song discusses a lot of Asian racism that I’m always criticizing people in my life for falling into, but then the song was so bad ass I checked out the album. There were so many different types of music on it and she really did a good job with all of them. Then, with the deluxe edition coming out and the hardcore club banger “Lucid” being involved... Just really brought it all home. Recommended Tracks: Tokyo Love Hotel, Lucid, Fuck This World.

16. Amber Liu’s X: This was just an EP, but every song on it was great. Amber Liu was from f(x), a K-Pop Icon Group, but she always seemed like the odd one out. She was such a tomboy, so silly and funny all the time, and didn’t really behave like other Korean idols. I mean, really, she isn’t actually even Korean. I believe she’s Chinese American. In either case, the EP really noted some of her own personal strugles in the business and also remaining pretty fun at parts too. I saw her live in Philly before COVID-19 and she was truly excellent. Recommended Tracks: Numb, Stay Calm, Other People.

15. Blackpink’s The Album: Not much of an album at only 8 tracks, but that’s K-Pop for you. I bet next year I’ll be putting “Blackpink’s The Album: Repackage” on my top 25 list. The quality of the music was pretty dope though, all things considered. It was a very solid debut effort with all of their previous songs being somewhere in the same lane as this one. I still kind of believe they are a reminder of what 2NE1 could have been, but they’re doing well enough on their own. Recommended Tracks: Ice Cream, Lovesick Girls, Pretty Savage.

14. Hazuki’s Year Over All: Kind of a weird way to word it, but Hazuki basically released two albums this year in different formats. His work with his band, Lynch., was pretty magnificent. I’m not one to usually dwell on a Lynch. album. Their singles or featured tracks are what I usually get into, but the actual album (Ultima) really did a good job of showing how versatile Hazuki can be. His solo album, Souen -Funeral-, was an entirely stripped down, gothic orchestral album of Lynch. covers and other J-Hard Rock artists. Hearing it done like this was almost transcendental. Recommended Tracks: Xero, Idol, Ray, D.A.R.K.

13. Sam Smith’s Love Goes: They had me scared that their album wasn’t coming this year once they pushed it back, back in May. Then again, at the time, an album called “To Die For” was probably super tone deaf. In any case, literally every single released for this album had me in love. So, when they all got included in the final version, I was thrilled. Sam gave us a bonus song after the album as well, but I can see why that one didn’t get on. In any case, this is a huge step up from “The Thrill of it All,” which I didn’t really care for. Recommended Tracks: Another One, Dance (’Til You Love Someone Else), Forgive Myself.

12. Troye Sivan’s In A Dream: I love this kid. He’s so gay and so not shy about it and it really makes me smile. The EP comes after his last LP, Bloom, where the title track basically talks about bottoming for the first time and this new EP deals with a few other queer issues over weirdly produced beats that just... make sense. Recommended tracks: Stud, In A Dream, Easy.

11. Matenrou Opera’s Chronos: Unfortunately, this band just lost their guitarist again. Their original, Anzi, was basically the most consummate guitarist in the visual kei scene that wasn’t Hizaki and he left them. Their sound wasn’t quite right since and they seemed to just get it back with Chronos when Jay left them. I guess we’ll see what they do next, but I think Chronos could be their last great release. Recommended Tracks: Chronos, Silence, Reminiscence.

10. BoA’s Better: A very recent release that hasn’t had much time for me to digest. This is strange for me to put it so high on my list for that reason, but BoA is one of my all time favorites. She never disappoints me. This album was no different. It wasn’t exactly up to par with “Woman” or “Watashi Kono Mama de Ii no Kana,” but it definitely gave us some new and very iconic Queen BoA bangers. Recommended Tracks: Cut Me Off, Start Over, Temptations.

9. Kesha’s High Road: A semi-step down from Rainbow, only because a lot of the same melodic elements and, sometimes, even beats were used on this album too. However, her vocal performance was outstanding and she even gave us a new dirty-pop song with some interesting indie-pop tracks to go with it. Plus, who doesn’t love a Big Freedia feature? Recommended Tracks: Resentment, Raising Hell, Tonight.

8. Lady Gaga’s Chromatica: Anyone who knows me knows I don’t really love Gaga anymore. After all the drama with Madonna and her experimentation with “Joanne” I didn’t think I’d ever like her music again. However, she definitely won back big points for me on Chromatica. It was finally fun, weird, dancey, and then simultaneously emotional and I was really able to get back into it. She’s always had the voice, but on this one it also showed us that she still has what made us love her. Recommended Tracks: Rain On Me, Plastic Doll, Enigma.

7. Koda Kumi’s My Name Is... Angel + Monster: She is, very likely, my Japanese Pop Queen. She always makes these absolutely outlandish bangers of dance tracks that have such a great attitude and beat and when she released re(CORD)... last year? 2018? Who can remember... I thought she could never outdo herself. Then she released “Lucky Star” and I was floored. I was a bit disappointed when they were only to promote a “My Name Is...” collection album, but then, to my surprise, a full set of new tracks came out just after that just blew me entirely away. Guess the last 6 albums must be pretty great, huh? Recommended tracks: Killer Monster, Work It!, Alarm.

6. Grimes’ Miss Anthropocene: I’ve never been a big fan of Grimes, but when Violence came out I was really looking forward to whatever album this was going to end up promoting. The song is actual fire, but then the LP ended up being some kind of experimental Gothic Pop with Asian Pop influences I never expected. I doubt I’ll ever find something she does this good ever again, but it was really a musical light in the darkness of this year. Recommended tracks: Darkseid, Delete Forever, Violence.

5. Kylie Minogue’s Disco: Admittedly, my draw to Kylie has always been that she is like some kind of Australian Madonna. Madonna being one of my all time favorite artists... In fact, number 2 for all women I listen to, Kylie has some big shoes to fill with her sometimes generic pop that she puts out. However, I haven’t really truly loved a Kylie song since “Get Outta My Way” and then this album comes out filled with tracks to love for the rest of time. Recommended Tracks: Miss A Thing, Till You Love Somebody, Magic.

4. Chanmina’s Notebook/Angel: I don’t have really any way of knowing how popular Chanmina is in Japan or if she is as popular in the Japanese Queer Scene as she should be, but god damn does she know what she’s doing. Her music is raunchy, bitchy, and condescending at it’s highest and deeply personal at it’s most mellow. There is no “lowest.” “Notebook” was a two-sided album and “Angel” a strong follow up EP, but all the recommended tracks are from “Notebook.” If you have not listened to “Picky”.... go do it now, I’ll wait. Recommended tracks: Picky, Baby, Lucy.

3. The Weeknd’s After Hours: Incidentally, I got into The Weeknd after someone said something shitty about him here on Tumblr! I took their likely-valid criticism and went to check him out for myself and I gotta say, I love his work. The beats are literally always on point and his voice is like silk. This album provided more than a few iconic songs and I always can’t wait to see what he does next. Recommended Tracks: Alone Again, Heartless, Blinding Lights.

2. Halsey’s Manic: The singles and features she did between Hopeless Fountain Kingdom and Manic gave me such insanely high hopes and I was not disappointed. HFK was a strong album of course, but this was near perfection for me. I think the production of this alt-pop album was the star of the show because it wasn’t all one way, there were heavy-bass songs, interesting piano riffs, striaght up punk rock, all of it. She really made an album quite like it’s namesake. Recommended Tracks: Ashley, Killing Boys, Still Learning.

1. Dexcore’s Metempsychosis: A newcomer to the visual kei and death metal scene, they’ve been putting out single after single for years in preparation for their extemeley long and multidaceted debut album. With a total of about 33 songs, the entire second disc was rerecorded singles from their early days and some even got new lyrical treatment. The main series of songs were, of course, also totally flooring and all of the recommended tracks are the new ones. If you haven’t checked them out by now, you have to! Recommended tracks: Cibus, Scribble, Period.

#personal #music #2020 #visual kei #k-pop #dexcore #halsey #the weeknd #chanmina #kylie minogue #grimes #koda kumi #lady gaga #kesha #BoA

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vamp-geekz · 3 years

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Benny x Ethan Idol AU

it was sometime in the afternoon I was in a hotel one of the 5 star ones that have a pool on the balcony. i was chilling out just kind of laying on the ground next to the pool listening to a podcast a old paranormal case some were in Mexico. my love for the paranormal never went away even after my song blew up back when I was 13. the day i left my grandma back in New York to travel with my agent was the day i left my true self. and now I'm some kind of teenage heart-throb. Benny the biggest music artist since Harry Styles.

“Boss?” i looked over to see Erica holding a clip bored and some papers. “How many times must i say this. Call me Benny or Ben.” she looked flustered “Ah yes sorry si- Benny.” she looked like she was fumbling with her phone “what’s up? is it another Fan meet and greet?” she scrolled on her phone for a second before answering:

“something like that.. See a old friend of mine from another side of state reached out to me about a artist she knows. the artist goes by ‘Morgan’ and they are a realistic abstract artist. They are apparently a fan of your music and she was asking me if you had a plan for your next album cover.” i looked at Erica as if i was unsure of what to think. “well can i see this artists work???” She searched through her phone once again pulling up a painting of a boy with blond hair. the painting was huge and had a abstract feel as it was covered in bright colors almost splattered all over the canvas. “I- i love it i would love to meet this artist!”

Erica beamed “oh thank god you said yes because if you didn't i would have to have brought up the fact that there was a lot of different paranormal experiences in the town they live in.” i looked at her with a spark in my eye. “WAIT DO THEY LIVE IN WHITE CHAPLE!?!?!” Erica smiled “yes they do” i felt the smile grow on my face.

the town of White Chapple is a huge paranormal hot spot that only a few paranormal investigators dare to go. there are mentions of werewolves, undead animals, odd sicknesses, grave robbers, living dolls made of plastic, and the thing that the town is truly known for Vampires. i almost couldn't contain my excitement. “you will have to stay in the only hotel there unless your willing to stay with my friend and me.” i looked at Erica and gave her a smile “that's ok! do you have the artists number? “I can ask Sarah if she has there number.”

a few hours after I talked to Erica about the artist i got a text attached to a number. with the message attached to said “this is Morgan's number they know who you are and apparently they promised Sarah they wouldn't completely freak out.” I smiled at the text and added the number to my contacts before heading to bed.

i rolled out of the huge bed. it was way to big for just me. it actually kind of made me feel alone. i stood up rubbing my eyes as i looked at my phone. a text from “Morgan” i looked at my phone.

Morgan: So is this the real thing or is Sarah trying troll me to make me cry again?

Benny: No this is the real thing Haha.. how often dose she do that?

i replied like a hour later and i kind of felt bad but i got text back actually really fast as if They were just looking at there phone this whole time. Erica did say that they were a fan.

Morgan: Way to often.

Benny: Well yes it is really me! and i absolutely love your artwork its absolutely stunning.

Morgan: gdjkskbgjdsg THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!

I don't know why this reaction made me so happy it was just adorable... i found myself really wanting to get to know this person. maybe i just haven't found very many real people in my life or maybe there was just something pulling me toward this one person.

days went by and we were talking non stop over text. they have a little sister that is a big inspiration to the different flowers present in there art work. other then my music they listen to a lot of punk rock and some softer music. they were real and i felt like i had known them for ever.

i let myself smile and walk onto stage for my last show in this city. I've done this show over 100 times at this point but this one seemed so incredibly long and when i finally got of the stage the first thing i wanted to do was call Morgan. this was our first time on a face time call infact this was my first time seeing there face. for a split second i thought of what they might look like. i didn't settle on anything as to not get my hopes up. and as soon as i walked into my hotel room i wiped out my phone and texted them.

Benny: ok i can call right now i just got out of my show.

Morgan: oh yeah ok give me a second!

i gave it a few mins and then i saw my phone ring. my heart skipped a beat as i saw the face time call show up on my phone screen i almost felt like a little kid who just got a new game for no reason at all. and when i answered the phone i was greeted with soft brown eyes and a extremely handsome smile. “its you its really you!” his voice was soft and sounded almost loving. “Yeah I'm the real thing silly”

he seemed stunned to be talking to me and Honestly there have been a lot of times that i forgot i was some kind of star myself. we talked all night and made a plan about when i come to stay. it was gonna be a bit of a vacation for me and he was gonna let me stay in his apartment with his sister so i wouldn't have to stay in the shit hotel. he told me his full name was Ethan Morgan and uses his last name as his artist name. he told me about his plans for his life and a big dream that he has always had.

we shared interests in the paranormal and he happed to know his fair share of vampire facts. we are both huge dorks at heart and it was a instant connection that we had. and the days leading up to meeting him felt like years.

when the day came that we jumped on the road Erica seemed so much happier then normal. “Thank you so much Ben! its been so long since I've seen her” Erica smiled all big at me in a dorky kind of way and i smiled back Ethan taking over my thoughts. I wasn’t even thinking about how hungry I was or how long the drive will be. After about a hour on the road we stopped at a truck stop. i of cores could not leave the car for the god forsaken fam that had been place apon my head like a crown years ago.

i feel asleep in the car and woke up to Erica shaking me awake. we had just entered the town of white chapel. it was underwhelming as Ethan said it would be. But i tell you what it was cute unlike a lot of the big city's that i had been in before.

we went to meet Ethan and Sahara at the small coffee shop that i think just happened to be the only one in the town. We sat down and i was shaking i think Erica could tell because she taped my shoulder when the small boy walked in. this was no fan meet and great, he made me way to happy.

i stood up and darted across the room to take the smaller boy into my arms. my heart pounding out of my chest when the small painter wrapped his arms around me. at that moment i felt somethin.. it was a feeling of being complete even if it was just for a second i could tell that it was warm and it felt safe... i felt safe with him in my arms.

i pulled away from the hug i truly never wanted it to end. his hand rested on my hips and my arms rested on his shoulders. Time truly did stop at that moment. I looked into his eyes and I saw my happiness. I saw the other half that I have been missing for my entire life.

And I think he saw the same thing. Because the soon soon as I pulled away from that hug I naturally started to lean in. It was not expected to me and I don’t think it was expected to him. But for a moment we shared a kiss one that truly completed me. And I don’t understand why.

💕This is an authors note because I’ve been working on this for way too long I’m posting this tonight because I’m not sure if I want to continue if you guys can let me know if you want to continuation I’m posting a book on Wattpad with all ive my Benny x Ethan story’s💕

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haveyouseenthis · 3 years

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August in Kpop

Pre-Debut Songs//January//February//March//April//May//June//July//August//September//October//November//December

August 4

Maka’Maka - “Burning Power”

Tek - It just makes you wanna get up and dance doesn’t it?

Kas - What Tek said. Honestly, I don’t know why I like it so much. Normally I wouldn't like a sound like this unless there was a hidden edge, but this song just makes me smile. I’ll listen to their comeback.

*Rankings (by K): Burning Power - (5)

August 7

TREASURE - “The First Step: Chapter One”

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Tek - okay this is so colored by the songs I know come next, but I’m just not a fan. In my opinion they started strong than where they are now. It’s just not my cup of tea. That b-side isn’t half bad though.

Kas - WOoOoAh yEahhHI like Treasure. For some reason. From “BOY” -> “Mmm” I feel like the quality has gone down a bit (it all started with the bridge in “Saranghae” -_-)But we’ll save all my thoughts on that for a later day. Exlcuding all my thoughts about them now, I think this was a good debut. “BOY” is a bop and “COME TO ME” compliments it really well in my opinion, taking on a little more of a stripped back take in comparison to the title track. There’s good build to the chorus.

*Rankings (by K): BOY - (5); COME TO ME - (4)

August 9

Kim Kook Heon - “Dry Flower”

Tek - oh look, another ballad. Look it’s August and I’m just tired, okay? Does he sound amazing? yes! I really do like listening to this song, but I’m just so sick of ballads.

Kas - Aww. I really like it.

*Rankings (by K): Dry Flower - (5)

August 10

Han Seung Woo - Fame

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Kas - I think he’s going to be another comfort soloist for me heh. His songs are all gorgeous, there wasn’t anything I didn’t like about them. Maybe they’re a little underwhelming when your competition is Taemin, but they all did what they came to do and i really enjoy them. *Rankings (by K): Fever - (5); Sacrifice - (5); Reply - (5); I Just want love - (5); forest - (5); Child - (5)

Tek - very nice!

August 11

Floria - “Chitty Chitty”

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Tek - that’s more like it (their arms look like twigs)

Kas - Yeah. It’s fine.

*Rankings (by K): Chitty Chitty - (3); Yami Yami - (3)

August 14

ON AIR - “You&I”

Tek - yet another pretty song. I don’t mean that in a bad way. It’s really a very pretty song, and I can see myself listening to it a lot.

Kas - Aww I really like it. It’s sweet and simple. I admire how they matched the cover art pretty well the to feel of the song. I like all their voices. I think I’ll try and keep up with them. Lastly I’ll say the music reminds of Stray Kids’ “Ex”.

*Rankings (by K): You&I - (5)

August 15

Super Five - “Hello”

Kas - It’s so fun! It’s different and I like it. I can picture myself having a dance party to this while I do chores. Singing along silly-ly with Tek. *Rankings (by K): Hello - (5)

Tek - a more cute boy group concept. I don’t know if I’ve actually heard that (too much) out of these debuts yet. I don’t see myself listening to this much more than having it cycle through a playlist occasionally, but it’s fun and it’s nice to hear something a little different as I go through this year-long list.

August 17

DUSTIN-ON - 0:YOUNG

Tek - so this is definitely a case of me liking the sub-group better than the main group

Kas - I really like this. Subgroup of Dustin you say? I’m with Tek.

*Rankings (by K): 0:Young - (5)

August 21

AREAL - “Wake Me Up”

Tek - there are sections of this song I really enjoy, but just as it starts to pull me in it loses me. The MV was fun and bright which adds to the enjoyment of the song. The music in the pre-chorus drowns out the girls

Kas - It’s a fun song with a cute music video. I’m not sold on them.

*Rankings (by K): Wake Me Up - (3)

August 23

Byulzzi - “BBIBBO BBIBBO”

Tek - YES!

Kas - I’M UP. I’M DANCING. I’M BOPPING. TROT PRINCESSES!

*Rankings (by K): BBIBBO BBIBBO - (5)

Tier 4 - “Bang Bang”

Tek - like the song, love the story

Kas - I love that it’s a soul project. I’m glad they got together and had fun. Son girls look much more interested than others. The rapper saves this song as far as I’m concerned. Their dancing is very minimal, which wouldn’t be a problem except for the fact that it doesn’t look energetic. Something you’d assume a project like this would have - energy - it is sorely lacking in with the exception of one girl. Maybe I’m being too harsh...

*Rankings (by K): Bang Bang - (2.8)

August 25

Kim Yo Han - “No More”

Kas - Bro. BRO. Tek please tell me you love this. PLEASE. It’s so great. I’m in love. *okay thank god she likes it or else there would be blood.*Rankings (by K): No More - (5)

Tek - adorable, love it!

August 26

BOTOPASS - “Flamingo”

Tek - I didn’t think a song called ‘flamingo’ could be good

Kas - (G)I-DLE x Everglow? I like them, though I wish it was a mini-album release so I could get a better feel for them.

*Rankings - (4)

August 31

Even of Day - The Book of Us: Gluon - Nothing Can Tear Us Apart

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Tek - yay!!!

Kas - DAY6 (Even of Day) aka “The Ones That Aren't Riddled With Anxiety Right Now”. Of Course I loved it. What was I going to do? Hate it? It’s DAY6, I can’t hate any of their songs, they're great. (And here we see that soft spot for band-groups coming out…) THE OUTRO OMG. K, I’m done, I promise.

*Rankings (by K): Landing -Intro- - (5); Landed - (5); Ocean -Interlude- - (5); Where the sea sleeps - (5); Forest -Interlude 2- - (5); Thanks to - (5); To be continued -Outro- - (5)

Lee Eun Sang - “Beautiful Scar”

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Tek - This caught me off guard. I was not expecting to stop what I was doing and listen. Seriously, my fingers stopped typing.

Kas - “Beautiful Scar” is beautiful, though I was anticipating more of a choke in the chorus. “Mirage” is just lovely, oh my goodness. “I Just Wanna Sing” is gorgeous.

*Rankings (by K): Beautiful Scar - (5); Mirage - (5); I Just Wanna Sing - (5)

CASH OR PASS

Maka’Maka//TREASURE//Kim Kook Heon//Han Seung Woo//Floria//ON AIR//Super Five//DUSTIN-ON//AREAL//Byulzzi//Tier 4//Kim Yo Han//BOTOPASS//Even of Day//Lee Eun Sung

*Rankings Guide:

5 Point Scale

1 - hated it (...what?)

2 - didn’t like it (doesn’t do it for me)

3 - neutral/it was okay (it’s fine. No complaints, no compliments)

4 - really liked it (Might add it to a specific playlist, but chances are I’m not tracking them down)

5 - loved it (adding it to my playlist)

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howaminotinthestrokesyet · 3 years

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Behind The Album: Sticky Fingers

In April 1971, the Rolling Stones released their 12th studio album, Sticky Fingers. The recording of this album would mark new territory for the band in a lot of ways. Sticky Fingers would be the first album that had absolutely no participation from the late Brian Jones. This would be the first album released on their new label, Rolling Stones Records. The record would be the first major effort from new guitarist,Mick Taylor. He had participated on the previous album, but on a limited basis. The timing of the album was important as well because it would be the first major work from the band since the disaster at Altamont Speedway. Many things had changed in music since the new decade began.

An important factor that played a large part in the recording of the album was the fact that the band had tremendous tax issues at the time. They had learned that their manager Allen Klein had not been paying their taxes, even though he told them he was doing so. This meant that each member of the band owed quite a bit of money in back taxes to the government. Mick Jagger would later say, “I just didn’t think about taxes and no manager I ever had thought about it, even though they said they were going to make sure my taxes were paid. So after working for seven years I discovered nothing had been paid and I owed a fortune.” One of the first steps came in the band firing Allen Klein. Yet, this did little to minimize their money issues because unbeknownst to the band they had signed over copyrights in America to all their 1960’s material. Klein’s company Abkco Records now held ownership and received all royalties for their music. This financial catastrophe meant that they needed to release new music in order to make any money from the recordings. For this reason, Rolling Stones records was created to begin the process of getting the band out of debt. They needed to retain ownership of their music in order to maximize any kind of profit. After detaching themselves from Allen Klein, Prince Rupert Loewenstein was hired as the group's new financial manager. Looking back now, they finally found someone that would not rob them blind. Atlantic Records was hired to license all of their music, while Marshall Chess of Chess Records would handle the business side of the label. They seemed to trust his background as the president of a hardworking blues label more than anything else. There was a lot riding on this album financially for the band because if it did not sell, then things would go from bad to worse for each member personally.

The recording of Sticky Fingers actually began during their tour of the United States in 1969. They made a visit two muscle Shoals in Alabama because some of their favorite music was recorded there. During this time, the band recorded three songs, “Brown Sugar,” “Wild Horses,” and “You Gotta Move.” Keith Richards with later talk about those sessions in an interview. “The session] one of the easiest and rockingest sessions we’d ever done. I don’t think we’ve been quite so prolific… ever. Those sessions were as vital to me as any I’ve ever done. I mean, all the other stuff we did – ‘Beggars Banquet’, ‘Gimme Shelter’, ‘Street Fighting Man’, ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’ – I’ve always wondered that if we had cut them at Muscle Shoals, if they might have been a little bit funkier.” Yet, the recording of the album would take more than a year. The band did not reconvene for more tracks until March 1970 at Mick Jagger‘s estate, Stargroves. He did not have a studio in his house, but instead they used a mobile recording unit. They would use the same thing on the next album, which essentially carried around in a van all the equipment in the sound booth at a recording studio. This unit also allowed the band to record any musicians that just stopped by for a visit. One reason the album took so long was because the material they made during this period was so outstanding. If a song did not end up on Sticky Fingers, then they decided to use it for Exile on Main Street.

Unlike their other releases, this album embodied straight rock and roll. They did not experiment with country, gospel, or anything else for this record. Looking at it in hindsight, this is precisely why people love this album, while critics had mixed reactions about it. The one thing the band did introduce with this album was their new guitarist Mick Taylor. He became a revelation musically because Taylor stood out as the most technically skilled guitarist in the band's history. Keith Richards even said in an interview that the guitar part on “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” could not be played by him. The guitarist also brought a much more melodic guitar as opposed to Brian Jones previously. This would not be the Rolling Stones, if they did not have any issues at all in the recording of the album. During this time, Keith Richards began to gradually descend into complete and utter heroin addiction. At times, he was so intoxicated during recording they had to abandon completely certain takes. The delay of the album probably had much more to do with his heroin addiction, rather than the amount of material they were producing. Richards would later comment on why he began using the drug. “It was] the periods with nothing to do that got me into heroin. It was more of an adrenaline imbalance. You have to be an athlete out there, but when the tour stops, suddenly your body don’t know there ain’t a show the next night. The body is saying, ‘What am I gonna do, leap out in the street?’ It was a very hard readjustment. And I found smack made it much easier for me to slow down very smoothly and gradually.” At one point during the recording, things got so bad that Mick Jagger filled in for him on the song “Moonlight Mile.” At no point previously would that have even been imagined. This would become quite the conundrum for the band considering the fact that they had just fired Brian Jones for this exact reason. Another interesting aspect of Sticky Fingers was the fact that Gram Parsons did a country version of “Wild Horses” one year before the album was even released for his band. There exist differing accounts on how it all transpired. Jagger and Richards were totally fine with the release of the song. Before his death, Parsons would say in interviews that the song was a gift to him for helping them with country rock songs like “Country Honk” on Sticky Fingers and Let It Bleed. The track is very different from the one the band released, and some critics even argue that the Parsons version is better.

One of the things about Sticky Fingers is that the art associated with the album became just as important as the music. Andy Warhol designed the cover of the album, which was a pair of pants with a working zipper. The first albums had the zipper pull all the way down to reveal white underwear. These albums are collectors items today because they eventually had to switch to a plain photograph. The metal from the zippers was damaging the records when they were stacked in trucks to be delivered. Unfortunately, nobody really knows for sure who the model is on the cover of the album. Some have suspected that it is Joe Johnson, the brother of Warhol's lover at the time. The other iconic piece of art released with this album came in the introduction of the Rolling Stones signature tongue. This has become the most recognizable image for their brand. You probably cannot live in this country without having seen it at least once. The inspiration for it came to Jagger via calendar he owned about Indian culture. “I was looking for a logo when we started Rolling Stones Records. I had this calendar on my wall, it was an Indian calendar, which you’ll see in Indian grocery stores, and it’s the goddess Kali, which is the very serious goddess of carnage and so forth. And she has, apart from her body, this tongue that sticks out. So I took that to John Pasche and he ‘modernized’ it somewhat.”

Upon its release, critics had very mixed reactions towards the album. The main flaw that some found it possessing came in the fact that it underwhelmed. This issue represented what these critics have come to love about the band's more recent efforts. On Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed, the Stones had experimented quite a bit with their sound venturing off into new areas. Yet, Sticky Fingers did not go in those places, but instead stayed fairly close to basic rock and roll. This emerges as an age old story with a lot of bands. You must do something different in order to impress the critics because they will often say I have already listened to that. The album became the band's most popular one to date as it went number one in both England and America. That fact should actually be the true testament on how good the band's album is overall.

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interesting-blog-name · 4 years

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FKA twigs MEGAREVIEW (LP1/M3LL155X/MAGDALENE

FKA twigs is a British R&B and art pop singer who came up as a backup dancer for various artists’ music videos, and decided to start her music career, releasing her first official EP, EP1, in 2012. I am not familiar with anything she’s done except for her feature in A$AP Rocky’s Fukk Sleep, so I don’t know what to expect, even though I’ve heard good things. I’ll be listening to her two studio albums and an EP she released between the two, chronologically.

LP1

I love it.

Although twigs isn’t fond of being categorized as an R&B artist, specifically alternative R&B, as she has stated in an interview with The Guardian, there really isn’t much else to be used to describe her music, and the term is pretty convenient to embody most of the sounds in LP1, so I’ll most likely be using it. The album is a mixture of strong, dark electronic production and twigs’ beautiful falsetto singing, taking form as either the sexually charged, euphoric vocals you hear in the chorus of Two Weeks, or the hymnic elements her voice has in Closer and the intro Preface. These two key elements constantly clash and form something way more impactful than what they’d be individually, and give the whole LP a soothing and simultaneously dark and dizzying atmosphere.

The highpoints in the album are when the two combine into grand moments such as the ending of Lights On, where the production amounts into a huge chunk of pure bliss, sounding like there are tens of different sounds all in sync with one another, or the processed, multi-layered chorus in the next track, Two Weeks. Another great quality to the production style in the album is that it gets to be adventurous when it wants, how it wants, whether by pulling back completely and minimalizing its role to let FKA twigs’ voice shine on Hours, or on my favorite track Pendulum, where the whole song is built around this unstable knocking and simple yet effective manipulated keyboards, completely fading out at times leaving the high-pitched vocals to themselves.

The lyrical themes are all built around love and passion, with varying levels of aggression to romanticism (Lights On, Two Weeks vs. Hours, Give Up) or regret, such as in Numbers, which showcases how far into the electronic side the production can go, with erratic drums and beeping at the start, progressing into some gorgeous synths under some of twigs’ most heartfelt singing in the project. The exception is Video Girl, the most personal track here, where she sings about her time as a backup dancer and the struggles that came with her intent on achieving fame. The lyrics hit hard and it serves as a really nice intimate moment in the album.

For the tracks I don’t like as much I have the two closers: Kicks and One Time, the latter being only available in the deluxe version, which is not on streaming platforms. Kicks, from what I could tell, is all about being enough for yourself, specifically sexually. Without the grand ambitious production from the rest of the album, this outro is left with okay vocals and an odd theme that doesn’t go anywhere, backed by some slightly annoying production decisions, and a nice chorus which is definitely the best part of the song. One Time, on the other hand, is just really bland compared to the craziness of the rest of the album, as it is the most stagnant and uneventful of the tracks.

The sound of LP1 is definitely intriguing, and I consider it a nice introduction to an artist I have high expectations for.

FAVORITE TRACKS: Pendulum, Video Girl, Two Days, Lights On

LEAST FAVORITE TRACK: Kicks

8.25/10

“You’re younger than I am broken. I dance feelings like they’re spoken, so my conversation’s not enough.”

M3LL155X

Read as “Mellissa”, this EP was released in August of 2015, and features 18 minutes of music spanned into 5 tracks, and I love to say there’s not one track here I don’t like

What surprised me about M3LL155X is how “explosive” twigs seems to be compared to LP1, where most of her tracks were sung in a comfortable, soothing falsetto tone, in here she isn’t afraid to let her voice carry out a lot more, which brings some much appreciated strong emotions and power to the songs here, great examples being her fast delivery on the hook of In Time, and her enchanting finish to Mothercreep.

The EP starts with Figure 8, which places the listener dead center in the chaotic instrumentals the project has to offer, with a banging bass right at the beginning. The track slowly progresses from its slightly angelic cadence into the weird, choppy vocal effects in the latter half, giving the track a nice finish. What I find a little underwhelming are the lyrics, sometimes they come off slightly meaningless, at least at first glance, but I feel they could have been used better, maybe to convey meaning other than love and relationships, which is done in the last two tracks, but not in such an effective way in my opinion, specifically on Mothercreep, a track supposed to be a mature hindsight to twigs’ mom’s decisions to her daughter’s life, which doesn’t come off as super personal in a way it could have. Like I said, however, the ending to this song is gorgeous, and I love how the song waits to bring in that climax, it really ends the EP on a huge high note.

To me the best the EP has to offer is In Time and Glass & Patron, the first being this infectious, addictive, ever-evolving fat banger, I just cannot get enough of it at all; and the latter being the weirdest, most electronic-influenced song here (I mention the umbrella electronic genre very carefully because I know fuck-all about it), with the oddest but most interesting progression here. That isn’t to undermine twigs’ vocals, as they are as good as ever, I just wish in tracks like this and I’m Your Doll, where she reaches some great vocal inflections, she’d make more use of them, but to me they feel like the vocals are somewhat teasing themselves to the listener, when they could’ve been used to a much greater extent.

I love this EP, I love its aggressiveness and how it surprised me, but I know, even as good as it is, that all the potential here could have been used a bit better.

RANKED TRACKS: In Time, Glass & Patron, Mothercreep, Figure 8, I’m Your Doll

8.15/10

“Paper cut it, I feel the slightest rip is a river that’s overflowing me”

MAGDALENE

Bruh.

I don’t even know what to say honestly, I’m completely blown away. This is heaven.

From the start, I thought this album was gonna be alright, but immediately after home with you I knew this shit was something else. This is by far her most cohesive, beautiful, emotional, greatest album overall. I seriously don’t even know what to say, I’m writing this immediately after my second listen, and I love almost every aspect of it.

I guess I’ll start by the things I liked the least, which were probably the tracks sad day and holy terrain, even though these tracks are at least great. The melodies in sad day are so unique and entrancing, really the only thing I didn’t like as much was the production, which felt like it could have gone a bit further. For holy terrain, I have mixed feelings towards it. While a part of me feels like it was a little weird, a bigger part is amazed at how well these two worlds merged with each other to form a track as beautiful as this; again, it doesn’t stand out as much as some others, and I think twigs sounds a bit like Ariana Grande at the beginning of the hook, but fuck me some moments in this song are insane.

I was a little indifferent towards thousand eyes at first, but I’ve come to appreciate a slow, ascending intro to this mindfuck of an album, and the track right after that, home with you, is pretty much perfect, I have nothing bad to say about it. I love the alternating between processed and raw vocals, and it just ends so beautifully, it’s seriously otherworldly.

“Otherworldly” is actually a great word to describe almost anything here. mary magdalene is a gorgeous look into the ethereal feminine theme this album is solidified over, and sounds like something you’d hear as you ascended into heaven after dying; fallen alien is aggressive like something out of M3LL155X, but even more polished and fits perfect into the context of the album, and after it starts a nearly flawless outro of three tracks: mirrored heart, daybed and cellophane. This is pure emotion, I cannot describe what I felt while listening to these three. The first is probably one of the best songs I’ve ever heard, or at least that’s what I feel right now. I have to be extremely careful not to listen to this too much, so it doesn’t lose its magic on me.

daybed is much simpler instrumentally, with an ambient undertone to the track that just really fits my personal tastes. The lyrics in this track are raw feels, in fact the lyrics in MAGDALENE in general sound much more mature and fleshed out, and I absolutely love it, it’s heartbreak, bittersweet beauty in every direction, all connected by this weird theme of something greater than humanity; if twigs’ intent was to make herself look extraterrestrial with her art, but at the same time undeniably human, then I think she succeeds, because, to me, it feels like she is the music, it feels like she pulls these songs straight from her soul, and that’s why it’s so alien, because it is incredibly human.

For the closer, cellophane absolutely wrecks your heart with a gorgeous piano ballad, and I’m very happy I never heard this song, considering it is the lead single to the album, because it just added so much emotion to the outro of one of the best albums I’ve heard. I seriously cannot get enough of it, and I think I’ll go sleep for a while now just to clear my mind a little bit. I’m sorry if these three “reviews” haven’t gone super in depth with the albums, but I feel like if I talk about them any longer they’ll lose some of their beauty to me, plus I’m not doing this to be perfectly objective, just to share my super biased, super inexperienced thoughts on what I listen to. So I guess just listen to them. They’re awesome. Peace.

FAVORITE TRACKS: home with you, mirrored heart, cellophane, daybed, mary magdalene

LEAST FAVORITE TRACK: none

9.45/10

“Aching is my laughter, busy is my pastime, telling is my silence, blurring my horizon, smothered is my distance, careful are my footsteps, possessive is my daybed.”

#fka twigs #r&b #art pop #pop #album #album review #review #electronic #this is ecstasy #magdalene #lp1 #m3ll155x #EP Review #EP

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tillidontneedfantasy · 5 years

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No. 6 Collaborations Project - Ed Sheeran: I’m not like a regular musician, I’m an Uncool™ musician.

When Ed Sheeran emerged onto the American pop scene in 2011 - 2012 as an understated solo act, he famously utilized the loop pedal in his live shows, creating the sound of a full production with just his voice and one little guitar. This is just one of the elements that made Ed Sheeran such a compelling rising star; one singer-songwriter could cast a very large shadow.

Sheeran’s dominance over the pop scene since then and throughout the last decade is undeniable, and he really wants you to know it and acknowledge it on No. 6, as he (rightfully, but not so moderately) celebrates his musical achievements and endeavors over the years on tracks such as “Take Me Back to London” featuring Stormzy and “Remember the Name” featuring Eminem & 50 Cent. But he also doesn’t want you to forget that still, despite all of his success, *Amy Poehler from Mean Girls voice* he’s not like a regular musician, he’s an uncool musician. Travis Scott opens “Antisocial,” a well-produced but underwhelming song about Sheeran’s introversion and anxiety, by stating, “All you cool people, you better leave now,” which sounds silly coming from an artist as "in” right now as Travis Scott. This is a message Sheeran attempts to drive home even more so on the opening track “Beautiful People” featuring Khalid, where Sheeran explains how he does not quite fit in with the lifestyle of his industry. For someone who is so adamant that he remains uncool, he sure scored a heap of very cool artists to collaborate with him on this new record, even including a DJ, loop pedal be damned.

Funny enough, the song including DJ and producer Skrillex, titled “Way To Break My Heart” is one of the few that is reminiscent of Sheeran’s roots, both sonically and lyrically. While Sheeran’s singer-songwriter chops have not particularly diminished with success, they feel repetitive and at a stalemate on No. 6. Sheeran still holds his own on the strongest tracks, but the voices featured on this project are what hold them up the most.

BEST TRACK: “I Don’t Want Your Money” featuring H.E.R.

No. 6 is thematically heavy on Sheeran’s relationships with fame and with his wife, Cherry. Sheeran is generally most triumphant when he focuses on the latter, a love song master as displayed by the overwhelming success of the overly cliched “Thinking Out Loud” and “Perfect” (from x and ÷ respectively), but is most effective on this album when he integrates it with the former. On “I Don’t Want Your Money,” Sheeran outlines the strains that celebrity life put on a relationship in a way that is universally relatable, whether you’re a pop mega-superstar or an average Joe from Chicago who’s had one viral tweet. In the 2nd verse, he sings:

“Baby I’m doing it for us, so why you taking that tone like I’m the bad guy? / I thought it would have made me better in your dad’s eyes / I’m busy stacking up the paper for the bad times / ‘cause baby, you never know / I’m popping right now, but there will come a day when I won’t.”

No matter the lifestyle or job, anyone who has ever been a working individual in a relationship knows the struggle of a work-life balance, and the pressure when things are going well to do all you can to maintain that lucrativeness in case it all falls apart in the future; it’s a sacrifice for the sake of security. Sheeran’s awareness that his height of fame for any musician is not built to last forever is also a refreshing note of modesty. H.E.R. graciously lends her magically soothing vocals as the voice of Sheeran’s wife, assuring him that his time is much more valuable to her than his money, beautifully supported by a very sweet guitar riff. There’s a lot of horns in this song as well, which don’t necessarily fit with the theme or vibe but somehow work anyway, because horn instruments can improve almost any pop song exponentially.

WEAKEST TRACK: “1000 Nights” featuring Meek Mill & A Boogie Wit da Hoodie

Directly following the relatability of “I Don’t Want Your Money,” Sheeran reminds us that, despite the trick he might have just played on us, we, in fact, cannot relate. Sheeran chronicles his “faded” tour ventures as he casually hops through continents on “1000 nights.” Following a recent trend of artists dismissing any criticism or opinions that are not glowing, Sheeran proclaims in the 2nd verse, “I don’t need to read reviews if you can’t do the things I do.” Although Ed Sheeran will most definitely not need to read this blog post, I hope he and his peers remember that ubiquitous success does not make anyone impervious to imperfection, and that consumers are allowed to and should continue to think critically about art. Maybe that sentiment will mean more coming from me once I tour multiple continents.

THE IN-BETWEENS

One of the strongest tracks, “Best Part of Me” featuring YEBBA, showcases Sheeran’s longstanding ability to churn out a heartfelt ballad, musically stripped back with the simplicity of his earlier work and his staple romantic prose. “Feels” featuring Young Thug and J Hus is short, sweet, and catchy, yet feels easily lost in the fray. A bit too often, Sheeran sounds out of place on his own album. On “South of the Border,” a fun track that feels slightly derivative of the mega-smash lead single “Shape of You” from ÷, Camila Cabello and Cardi B steal the show. And on the jarring yet intriguing closer, “BLOW” featuring Chris Stapleton and Bruno Mars, Sheeran’s first verse is quickly dulled by Mars’s shine. Kudos to Sheeran for gathering such talent, but when it works best, Sheeran’s in the passenger’s seat while his contemporaries are driving, making you forget who even owns the car.

BEST PROSPECTIVE SINGLE: “Put It All On Me” featuring Ella Mai.

Ella Mai is the true star of “Put It All On Me,” and the slight growl in her voice when she sings the line, “grab my waist,” is a pure knock-out. Riding off the magical spell she cast on us all with “Boo’d Up,” she can help Sheeran keep the momentum of his Cool Uncool Guy image. It’s got the perfect tempo for the radio and has “make me into a club remix” wisely written all over its DNA.

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As Sheeran has released his past 3 solo major studio albums, + (2011), x (2014), and ÷ (2017) (seemingly having a thing for math), he has evolved yet always stuck to his strengths. All artists should experiment, bend genre boundaries, collaborate, and step out of their comfort zones. But No. 6 mostly makes the listener feel like Sheeran is trying to prove that hip-hop is his comfort zone and strength, as he laments “I wanna try new things, they just want me to sing / Because nobody thinks I write rhymes” on “Take Me Back to London,” apparently backtracking from the x deluxe track “Take It Back” opening assertion, “I’m not a rapper / I’m a singer with a flow.” Well, it turns out 2014 Ed was correct. Ed sounds great when he sings with a quick “flow” and sticks to what he knows. The most effective way for any artist to successively evolve is by utilizing their strengths to create something different. In the few moments on No. 6 when Sheeran does so, his spark glimmers through and we’re reminded of why all these artists jumped at the chance to work with him, though he should feel just as (if not even more) lucky. Hopefully, his next release will leave behind the numbers by subtracting a bit and return to the basic equations. Grade: 2/5

DISCLAIMER - REVIEWER’S BIAS: I have been an Ed Sheeran fan since his debut release in 2011; I remember watching a video livestream for the American release of + that only 12 other people joined. I love all of +, a majority of x (which hold, in my opinion, his 2 best songs, “I’m A Mess” and “Nina”), and very little of ÷. I was very disappointed by ÷, but still consider myself a fan. I really wanted to love No. 6 and went in with an open mind and heart, but it just felt like a conglomerate of failed crossover attempts that just didn’t do it for me. I truly believe Ed is talented and has the potential to make an album in the future that I can proudly call myself a fan of, but No. 6 doesn’t quite qualify.

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