Song Review:: xikers: House of Tricky: Watch Out- Sandcastle

-

  • Release date: 2024 September 06
  • Album tracklist: Watch Out, Witch, BACK OFF, Bittersweet, Sandcastle, Hang Around

  • Album runtime: 17 minutes

 Did my favorite track from the album get a video? Yes, indeed it did, which means it qualifies for a review. Also, I apparently decided on this one as my favorite right at the moment of writing this, so yay, me? But mostly yay, roadys!

In the world of xikers's discography, a mellow instrumental track is a rare thing, which makes it all the more precious. The thumping of the drums is notable during the chorus and the refrain especially, because of their prominence. Even though there is percussion in other sections, the drums here go hard and there's very little else happening in the instrumentals to take away from that sound, as well as their voices. It's a xikers song so it can't be completely mellow (at least not yet, I'm waiting for a ballad), but it's mellow enough that this is their hug song.

In light of the fact that Junghoon has now been on his medical hiatus for (checks calendar) 1 year 7 months give or take a few days, the line "When we stick together, nothing can break our bond we made" hits all the more strongly. I miss that kid, and I wasn't even around for the month he got to be an idol. I'm glad KQ isn't bringing him back early to risk reinjury though, and I'm also glad that he hasn't been forgotten (refer to the MV for the title track, there are ten lights representing the ten members), but I really want more frequent updates on him. Speaking of the lyrics, the little I understand of the Korean is really pretty, and if the English translation is accurate, then wow, this is a gorgeously written song, and filled with so much emotion. Lyrical songs are my favorite, especially the ones that tell a story, with longer verses and shorter choruses. And the story this song tells. One of my favorite parts is that our industrious leader, Minjae, actually sings instead of spending all his time rapping. The first time I heard him sing was on a live this summer, and I believe I threw a pillow and started yelling about how good his voice is and how much I want him to sing in more songs. Same with Sumin. Absolutely gorgeous voice. I'm glad they like rapping, but please give us more singing. I want a xikers ballad in an album. Just one. Songs like this one just fuel that desire.

THEY LEFT A SPOT FOR JUNGHOON. AND IT'S THE THUMBNAIL. 😭 I know emojis are horribly unprofessional, but I really don't think I care at this moment. I really love that they reserve the bright song for a special video for the fans. They started it with their second mini album, How to Play and Sunny Side. They continued it with Trial and Error and Break a Leg. And now we've got Sandcastle to join those ranks. Have a hug, friends.



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:: Jennie (BLACKPINK): Mantra

-
Image
Release date: 2024 October 10 Album tracklist:  Mantra Album runtime: 2 minutes  So that's both Lisa and Jennie who have released singles this month within two weeks of each other. Pretty cool. And apparently Ros é also got herself an OST, so that's also pretty cool  But this is barely a song in length. It's just over two minutes.  This is a classic BLACKPINK sound. I'm not super familiar with BLACKPINK, though I do have songs that I recognize as BLACKPINK songs if I hear them that I like. But that was my first thought while listening to this song. The trumpet is an interesting instrument that I'm hearing, being a pretty uncommon addition to the the instrumentals of most K-Pop songs. I think I may also hear the wooden blocks, or a cowbell. I know those two instruments are very much not the same thing, but without having them isolated, I can't quite tell. Either way, what we have is another interesting sound to the mix. Jennie, like her groupmate Lisa, went with
Read more

Song Review:: ITZY: GOLD- Gold

-
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  Okay! ITZY. I get them and TWICE mixed up a lot. TWICE is the older group, and ITZY is the younger group, yes? Still, right now, I'm glad this is a JYP group so I can focus on that  company for a minute instead of another one that I'm a little angry at right now. So! ITZY! Let's get to it! And look at that! Hey, there, Changbin! Glad to see you again! Also, can someone help me out with what "final version" is supposed to mean? They take up half the tracklist, but I'm not sure what they're supposed to be. Oh, I like this introduction. I like it very, very  much. We've got power chords! Their voices are glitching! And then the abrupt switch to what I can only descr
Read more

Song Review:: Seventeen: SPILL THE FEELS- LOVE, FAME, MONEY (Feat. DJ Khaled)

-
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  Did I watch the concert so I've already seen this performed? Yes. Have I watched the music video trailer? No, which is a surprise. Normally I'm all over them like fur on a cat, but with my conflicted feelings over the title track collaboration, my reticence is unsurprising. The concert helped. Woozi was very clear that he  is the songwriter for the group, and I trust him. Also, I had to round up to hit that 18 minutes for the run time, which means the average length of song is less than 3 minutes. Which does not please me, and I'm a little disappointed in Woozi and Bumzu for that. At least the title track is over three minutes. There is a very Latin pop feel to the instrumentals, which I'm not sure we've seen a lot from Seventeen. It's been a familiar sound over at KQ and with Stray Kids as well, but we haven&#
Read more

Music Show Wins: Week of 10/2 - 10/8

-
Image
Assuming this works, I'm going to start including the music show wins in a weekly post. Mondays are apparently the break day for the music shows. But I'm including the weekly performance on After School Club, which can be watched live on YouTube each week at 13:00 KST and is focused on international audiences, so the primary language is English with live Korean translations and subtitles. You can also watch them after the fact. Current hosts of After School Club are Aron of NU'EST, and Allen and Taeyoung of Cravity. I'm sure it's fairly obvious why I'm including After School Club (hereafter referred to as ASC).  And here are the various performances! Show Champion: Kang Daniel "Electric Shock" MCountdown: Yeonjun "GGUM" (note: This is from the 20240926 episode of MCountdown; if I can find a performance, I'll update) Music Bank: NCT Wish "Steady" Show! Music Core: Key "Pleasure Shop" (note: I can't tell you how hap
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

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:: Jin (BTS): Super Tuna

-
Image
Release date: 2024 October 11 Album tracklist:  Super Tuna Album runtime: 2 minutes  When I got into Korea last year, I never would have thought I'd be sitting here a fan of what is, as far as I can tell, the Korean version of bluegrass or possibly "golden oldies" style. I absolutely love trot music. We can thank God of Light Music  by Seventeen for serving as my introduction, but that also intersects with my love of strangeness and parodies. I have since discovered more that instantly go into regular listening playlists. Super Tuna  and God of Light Music  go hand in hand, which means I'm basically required to love it. I don't like the very short run time that rounds up to two minutes at all. But given that this song was the product of Jin wanting to go fishing with Bumzu and this was the excuse given (please correct me if I'm wrong), I wouldn't have expected a song written on a boat during a fishing trip to actually be a proper length. But less than two
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

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