Song Review:: Lovelyz: November

-

  • Release date: 2024 November 12
  • Album tracklist: November
  • Album runtime: 3 minutes

 This is apparently the month for returning acts who haven't been active in years, in this case four. Hello, Lovelyz. It's nice to meet you, and happy almost anniversary. 

It's funny. Despite the similarities with the bright, airy tone favored by many of the groups to debut after their last release, there's something rather solid about the instrumentals here. They are weighted down and grounded, obviously relying on the percussion, but the piano too provides a great counterbalance as the notes it plays are at least an octave, maybe two, beneath the main melody. Other than the chiming that is an infrequent participant to the instrumentals and rarely alongside the lyrics, most of what we get supporting the members' voices are in the mid- to mid-low range. 

We got vibrato and soaring ad-libs in this lovely (pun partially intended) anniversary song, alongside breath-supported voices, and I'm surprisingly unworried for their potential ability to sing live. While I would assume my unconcern is due to the fact that this is their tenth anniversary this year and they should be able to sing this style live after ten years, I think it's more related to Kwon Eunbi. Her collaboration with Hui for Waterbomb back in August remains one of my favorite releases of the year so far, and if the recordings are any indication, she can sing live with this vocal style. Same company, Lovelyz should have the same standard of training. And it sounds like the song is comfortably within their vocal ranges, so that helps.

This is a cute, animated lyric video. I wish my Korean was better.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Song Review:: Rose (BLACKPINK) x Bruno Mars: APT.

-
Image
Release date: 2024 October 18 Album tracklist:  APT. Album runtime: 3 minutes  If this ends up being on the tracklist for the album (congrats to her on that, by the way!), then I'll edit and fix the information part directly above this paragraph. Without the tracklist, I can't be sure because there could be information I've missed. It's entirely possible because I do pay attention to Moon Jong Up and B.A.P, and I still  missed the information on the pre-release. But it's fine. Fixing this post won't be that hard.  I said it on Jennie's single , and didn't mention it on Lisa's  because I had no way of knowing that would be a significant thing to say, but I find it interesting that three of the four members of BLACKPINK have now dropped singles in the last month, where the singles are English focused tracks. This one has the most Korean so far, so now I'm looking at Jisoo to see if she's going to follow suit with the others.  80s' petty roc
Read more

Song Review:: Jin (BTS): Happy- I'll Be There {Pre-Release}

-
Image
Release date: 2024 November 15 Album tracklist:  Running Wild , I'll Be There , Another Level, Until I Reach You, Heart on the Window, In Longing Album runtime: 17 minutes  Despite not being an ARMY, I've been curious about this project of his since he was discharged from the military. Ironically, as I write this, my playlist just started playing Seven , so Spotify knows what's up. It'll have to chill a moment because Jungkook is not the BTS vocalist I want to focus on right now; instead, it's the oldest of the goofballs.  Ah, rock! Okay. I'd love to say I'm surprised given the (very) limited amount that I know of his other music, but he reminds me a lot of Changsub from BTOB, whose favorite music genre is in fact rock. (As a side note, I know that Jin is a year younger, but can there please be content with him, Key, and Changsub doing literally anything? Somehow? Someway? That combination of personalities would result in absolute, sheer, utter chaos and I w
Read more

Song Review:: aespa: Whiplash- Whiplash

-
Image
  Release date: 2024 October 21 Album tracklist: Whiplash ;  Kill It; Flights, Not Feelings; Pink Hoodie;  Flowers; Just Another Girl Album runtime: 18 minutes I've rewritten this first paragraph about four times trying to figure out how to put into words what I'm thinking without outright saying it. So, I'm just going to say it. SM is a problem. I know there are some people who are upset enough about what's going on with RIIZE that they're boycotting all SM groups because it's the only way to make SM listen. And that's fair. There are also people who don't think that the other SM groups deserve to be boycotted because it's not fair to those members and that whole RIIZE thing has nothing to do with the other groups. And that's also fair. Do I have my own (strong) opinion? Yes. But regardless of what I think, aespa has still released an album, and I am still going to review it, which is obvious since I've spent time writing this and you've
Read more

Halloween Spookening: 2024 Edition

-
Image
 I love Halloween. It's been my favorite holiday for literally my entire life. I have loved Halloween longer than Sangyeon of The Boyz has been alive, barely because my first Halloween was a couple of days before he was born, but according to my mother, even at the age of not-quite one years old, I have loved it. She dressed me up as a San Francisco 49ers cheerleader. I have pictures.  One of the most important things, then, is finding music that matches the Month of Spookening and horror. I love spooky movies. I love spooky books. I love spooky video games (even though I am a wuss of the nth degree and prefer to watch other people play them). And I love spooky music. THUS, this post is simply going to be a compilation of some of the songs I've added to my Halloween K-Pop playlist. If I were to add all of the songs in there, this post would be ages  long. So I'm only going to add as many as I feel like it. I don't know how long this is going to be. But there will be vib
Read more

Song Review::ITZY: Gold- Imaginary Friend

-
Image
Release date: 2024 October 15 Album tracklist:  GOLD , Imaginary Friend , Bad Girls R Us, Supernatural, Five, Vay (Feat. Changbin of Stray Kids), Born to Be (Final Ver.), Untouchable (Final Ver.), Mr. Vampire (Final Ver.), Dynamite (Final Ver.), Escalator (Final Ver.) Album runtime: 34 minutes  I was actually looking forward to this music video dropping, because as much as I love the title track, I was always surprised by how much I like this song every time it plays. Is there a genre of rock for haunted rock? Because if there is, this is it. If there isn't, well, there is now. It's eerie in a comforting, energetic sort of way. The tone of whatever is going on with the instrumentals is established at the very beginning, and it is carried through to the end of the song, even though more present instruments help to ground the song, but the drums in particular aren't always where I'd expect.  Their singing is absolutely gorgeous. The melody is beautiful. Their harmonies ar
Read more

Song Review:: Vanner: BURN- Automatic

-
Image
Release date: 2024 September 30 Album tracklist: Revolver, Automatic , New Heights, Blossom, Xcellerate, Be Together Album runtime: 18 minutes   One of the things I like least about K-Pop is finding out how tragic the stories of some of these groups are. As much as I like other aspects, those tragedies remind me of why I decided not to stick it out as a sociology major in college.  Such is the case with Vanner, an idol group that had to work normal jobs to be able to afford to be an idol group with a CEO who also had to work a normal job to be able to afford doing anything with said idol group. And then they barely had time to be an idol group. The pandemic hit them hard. But they didn't give up. Oof. Anyway. Automatic starts off reminding me of an old radio broadcast. I know that technically that would be part of the vocals, but I'm putting it here because that wouldn't necessarily be something that would have to be performed if performed live. That could be part of a bac
Read more

Song Review:: A.C.E.: Just Better

-
Image
Release date: 2024 September 28 Album tracklist: Just Better , Just Better (Inst.) Album runtime: 6 minutes  We got two singles this month! I put off doing this review because the last time I did one, I got the Jeonghan news. I'm aware that I was subconsciously trying to avoid the risk of more bad news because I absolutely am superstitious, but I attribute at least part of that to the fact that I've been an athlete since I was five and almost every athlete I've ever known has been weirdly superstitious. Except Jack. He didn't have any weird, little rituals. But, this is A.C.E. They have incredible voices and they deserve so much more recognition than they have. So here I am. And this is an English track! Not only is this an English track, but it reminds me of Avril Lavigne, specifically of Girlfriend  and Sk8er Boi . Just Better is a less aggressive version of that. I'm also hearing strong shades of Teenage Dirtbag  and I'm Just a Kid  in the instrumentals, so i
Read more

Song Review:: Seventeen: Spill the Feels- Eyes on You

-
Image
Release date: 2024 October 14 Album tracklist: Eyes on You,  Love, Fame, Money (feat. DJ Khalid) , 1 to 13, Candy, Rain, Water Album runtime: 18 minutes As excited as I am to see them in about two weeks, I really wish their schedule wasn't as packed as it currently is so they could give some time to their second promoted track. Well, and so they could properly promote their first  title track, but I think I've accepted that part of the unfortunate circumstance. Hopefully they get a little bit of a break at the start of the year. I don't remember if I said this on LFM's review, but I had to round out to get to the 18 minutes. Some of these songs are worryingly short. I'd really like Woozi and Bumzu to not be following that  specific trend. There's a specific b-side from NU'EST that honestly was the first thing I thought of when I first heard this song when it came out, because while this is very  reminiscent of early NU'EST,  it's actually BLACK  fro
Read more

Song Review:: Purple Kiss: HEADWAY- ON MY BIKE

-
Image
Release date: 2024 October 22 Album tracklist: Intro: Concrete Jungle, ON MY BIKE , Sweet Nightmare, Encore, Light the way Album runtime: 13 minutes  They were, I think, the first K-Pop group to actually come and hold a concert in my city. Obviously, I went. The Rose came about a year ago, but they're a band, so it's not exactly the same thing. Regardless, I had to laugh because when I saw them, that made the first three groups I saw in person all have March debuts. It's a thing with me. Fun fact: they have the same debut anniversary as NU'EST, just nine years apart.  Oof, that is a short runtime. But it's fine. I barely count that intro as a song. Oh, the chorus sounds so much like Kang Daniels's Paranoia , which means it instantly has my attention. So, essentially, there are three different sections of instrumentals for this song. First, the haunted doll aesthetic with the music-box mimicking piano (likely a keyboard made to sound like a harpsichord) and its a
Read more

Song Review:: Kep1er: TIPI-TAP- TIPI-TAP

-
Image
Release date: 2024 November 01 Album tracklist: sync-love, TIPI-TAP , Drip, Bitter Taste, Heart Surf Album runtime: 14 minutes  Kep1er and their fans have had to deal with a bit this last year regarding the contract negotiations and whether or not there would be a group afterwards. It's always a stressful time, though doubly so for a project group that isn't designated a permanent one. But, although there has been a line-up change, happily the group has survived. And there isn't a single song on the album over 3 minutes. This song sounds a lot like fromis_9's most recent title track, Supersonic , which I liked, though I wish the members had been give more to work with. The same is more or less true for TIPI-TAP , although the parts of Supersonic's  instrumentals that I really liked are missing and that leaves the entire thing flat and nearly lifeless. At least it's got a low bass to ground it. I appreciate that. None of this is to say that the song doesn't s
Read more