table of contents
torches - foster the people
a few days ago i was going on a nostalgia trip on youtube watching old music videos and i stumbled upon the mv for houdini from this album. i cannot even say the many times i've watched that mv when i was 16. LIKE constantly on repeat. and i loved the song so much as well. upon relistening to it, i really have no clue why i ever stopped listening to it. i also found out that the directors of that music video is in fact the daniels...... oh you know the directors of one of the movies to ever exist???? i jumped when i found this out. after finding this out i was like OF COURSE, of course they did this music video. who else was going to do a mv where foster the people die and they are used as meat puppets by the industry LOL... but anyway idk i felt like listening to this album on a whim bc of that nostalgia trip
houdini's mv embed
ANYWAY about the album... i enjoyed it!!! a whole lot actually. i didnt think i was going to like it so much, but i did. i dont really have a lot to say about this either but this is a solid thumbs up from me
OH WAIT before i go i need to say that the intro of helena beat IS SO FUCKING GOODDDDDDD i forgot how good that intro is. wow. just scratches my brain y'know?
highlights: houdini, helena beat, i would do anything for you, dont stop (color on the walls), pumped up kicks
rating:
listened on 30.may.23
sherlock - shinee
saw it was shinee's anniversary yesterday so i decided to listen to another of their releases. im on my journey to listen to their entire discography, so i thought this would be perfect for the occasion. i really didnt know which release to put on since im not listening to them in chronological order (which i think i should be doing.... but oh well). i've mostly choosing them from their album covers and how cool it looks to me SO i picked sherlock, their 4th ep.
from the start this one is kinda crazy. the first 3 songs are just an incredible back to back experience. first off we have sherlock, an incredible mash up of clue and note. and can i just say that this is such a well made mashup. some kpop mashups are so........ like the way they put some together with whatever cohesion and call it a day is just so lazy. but the way they did sherlock is just really good. i did it really helps as well that both clue and note are bangers and well made full songs on their own. these 3 songs are phenomenal on their own but for me the one who really takes the cake is note. i mean. are you listening to this? this is just fucking insane. i love so much that marching band drum in the intro bc it fits so well with how this song feels overall. so like... grand! its so in your face and the chorus is so catchy as well i just wanna scream this song every time i listen to it HELPPP i had actually listened to this song before listening to this ep. its truly one of my favs from them.
give it up give it up for SHINEEEEEEEEE
the rest of this ep is pretty alright! i dont really care for ballads in kpop tbh but shinee gets a pass bc they are great singers so they might as well. i think from the rest my favs were alarm clock, stranger, and the reason. shoutout to stranger cus that's such an electropop jam so fuzzy. and alarm clock is really cool as well with the strings and piano while also having that electropop sound. super cool stuff my least fav song in here is probably honesty... i just really dont fuck with ballads but, again, they can sing so its okay.
overall i really enjoyed this ep of theirs!!!!!! the highs were very fucking high. i did find it kinda funny how ep has such energetic electropop songs while also having ballads that make me go honk shooo mi mi mi mi in the track list. i know kpop in general doesnt really gaf about cohesiveness when it comes to their releases but in here its particularly funnier. THANK YOU SHINEE!
highlights: note, alarm clock, stranger
rating:
listened on 25.may.23
blue - otomo yoshihide
very nice soundtrack :3 i wrote more of my thoughts on it in this page
highlights: the sky, the sea, blue 2
rating:
listened on 24.may.23
dark blood - enhypen
you know what? my bad. my bad for having high expectations for this after listening to the highlight medley prior to listening to the EP. yeah that highlight medley was so good. the bait with the clips they picked was CRAZYY. fate sounded so good i was so excited for fate THINKING that it wouldn't be an intro BECAUSE enhypen intro's USUALLY get a small mv at the start of promotions SO I THOUGHT ok. no intro mv which means fate is an actual song YAY
BUT NO. HOW FOOLISH OF ME to think that.
my horrible experience with fate might have tainted this entire EP for me bc i was also looking forward to sacrifice, chaconne, and bills the most but at the end of the day nothing in this ep really clicked with me and i find that so crazy bc i thought i was absolutely going to love this from the highlights preview.
alright. lets start with fate, i loved fate the SONG portion of fate is genuinely one of the best things ive heard from this group and its EVERYTHING i want from them. i just cant wrap my head around WHY why do they always choose these songs for their spoken intros??? pisses me off.
sacrifice (eat me up) was pretty alright tbh. i might listen to this one more. its like a fever 2.0 and thats ok! actually not even ok thats great! please make more songs like fever that would be such a good thing at this point.
chaconne and bills really did nothing to me despite how good they sounded in the previews. like they are just OK... ESPECIALLY bills?!?!? that intro with the dreamy guitars sounded so promising. so MEEEEE but i felt like the entire was just a bunch of nothing. idk what it was. but it just didnt get to me.
and actually thats literally how i feel abt this entire EP. i thought i would really like the songs i thought sounded cool from the preview but nothing here made me excited or got to me at the end of the day. it honestly just made me sad at the lost potential that some of these songs have.
i do think that bite me is the worst one for me here... and surprisingly i kinda thought karma was fun??? which is crazy bc when i heard it on the highlights preview i literally rolled my eyes. still dont like it that Much but theres that. the guitar was fun
idk what else to say. i think i need to stop holding onto them bc clearly they are past their peak for me.
i loved border : carnival and dimension : dilemma. A LOT!!!!! i ended up buying those 2 albums shortly after their release 2nd hand cus i just wanted the CDs because, sure, despite having their flaws here and there, i really enjoyed them as a whole and made me so excited for their future releases. i dont really "stan" this group but they were one of my fav kpop groups in terms of music. that quickly changed in 2022 with blessed cursed and again with manifesto : day 1. they flopped real HARD for me. so incredibly hard. as someone who had enjoyed everything they had put out so far.
so when i heard the previews i really thought this meant i could enjoy their music again because it sounded so up my alley but i feel like its missing so much?
and fuck whoever is in that studio making sure all the spoken intros have impeccable instrumentals / song bits, I HATE YOU!!!!!!! DIEEE!!!!!!
highlights: fate (the part where its not spoken), sacrifice (eat me up)
rating:
listened on 22.may.23
free somebody - luna
been meaning to listen to this EP for a whileeee since i love free somebody so muchhh. i have a kpop house playlist and i am constantly jamming to this song whenever it plays on that. well i did listen to it! and let me tell you there's some solid dancepop and house-y tracks in here!!! i love how groovy it is and despite being from 2016 it has aged very well!!! i find that some kpop releases from those years that use very punchy electronic sounds just sound very dated at times. but the production in this really nailed it.
besides free somebody, i really really liked 예쁜 소녀 (I Wish). i love dreamy electronic songs like that. it's something that would fit loona's odd eye circle so well. i think if anything sounds a bit like its from 2016 its def galaxy with its heavy electropop sound but even that song slaps as well since its got a very fun instrumental.
i listen to my fair share of f(x) songs, so i had heard of luna's singing outside of this EP. but wow she really has a very soothing voice as well. and i know that because i really enjoy the ballads as well. my medicine is super pretty
overall this was a great listen!!! i was honestly just curious to hear the ep that free somebody came out of. and it absolutely did not disappoint. very happy with this!!!
highlights: free somebody, 예쁜 소녀 (I Wish), galaxy
rating:
listened on 19.may.23
salad days - iiso
holy shit. i think this is my fav song of hers. so niceee
rating:
listened on 19.may.23
AESTHETIC - +(KR)ystal Eyes
i had listened to this on release day and honestly? i think it was nice. relistening to it right now. i still think its very nice :] im not very into tripleS bc i know their whole thing is about.... nfts....... ugh.... (modhaus die) but man. i really do like the production team behind them. some solid bangers from them. deja vu is so dreamyyyyyy oh my
highlights: dimension (KRE ver.), deja vu, touch
rating:
listened on 4.may.23... and again 16.may.23
はじめての (Hajimeteno) - yoasobi
i did like it!!!!
edit: okay i noticed the first track sounded very similar to 2 other yoasobi tracks (in its structure) and that made me giggle. like i do like them. but ayase.. my dude. he has a very serious problem with relying on formulas WAYYY too much. love their stuff. but almost every song is like a copy of another and thats just ? bruh
highlights: ミスター, セブンティーン
rating:
listened on 11.may.23
sulky baby - yeule
holy shit............ im so excited for this new album LET'S GOOOOOOOOOO
rating:
listened on 10.may.23
deadlock - xdinary heroes
dont have much to say abt this one either but another just Okay for me. freakin' bad was very enjoyable and good enough is very nice. love the strings. tbh i would have never seen a song like that coming from them. reminds me a lot of lucy
highlights: freakin' bad, good enough
rating:
listened on 9.may.23
pygmalion - oneus
dont got much to say about this one but it wasnt that bad tbh? i think erase me can grow on me
highlights: echo
rating:
listened on 8.may.23
an assortment of singles by plastic girl in closet
new album soon?????????????????? i hope??? cus all of these are pretty solid!! love the baseline in lovers a lot. def my fav one from these singles
highlights: lovers, troublemaker
listened on 06.may.23
celeste - lena raine
as i've mentioned before on my website, i've been playing celeste recently! i've been having so much fun and the ost is super good. i decided to listen to it while doing some stuff on my computer and just wow. we NEED to talk about this soundtrack
im gonna be real, while i was playing the game i was not paying that much attention to the soundtrack since. you know (im bad at video games) i was hyper focused on trying to proceed to the next level. but there were times where i just had to stop what i was doing (dying way too many times) and just take in the absolute amazing music that lena rained composed. i remember doing this specifically in golden and in the mirror
and BOY! let me tell you about in the mirror. the goosebumps and haunting feeling that i got when i heard whispers while playing the game was just so genuinely scary i just wanted to get out of that place as soon as possible. the whispers, the rewinded notes, the heavy drums, i absolutely felt what madeline was going through. her worries, her fears, her anxiety and depression. it's so unsettling. and i love it
another song i want to highlight (this one is much nicer!) is quiet and falling. before playing celeste i liked listening to this one A LOT when going to sleep. it is so calming and soothing
and while i was listening to the soundtrack on my puter and Actually paying attention to each song... it's just fascinating. there's so much love in it and you can really tell. what an amazing soundtrack for such a great game
highlights: in the mirror, golden, resurrections, scattered and lost, confronting myself
rating:
listened on 4.may.23
unforgiven - le sserafim
okay. okay. listen i knew i was going into this just for that amazing intro with that dnb beat and that guitar like UGHHHH when i first heard it i got goosebumps. and. again. why do they (@ kpop production teams) keep using these awesome intrumentals for spoken intros ?!?!?!? its getting kinda sickening! like every time i hear a jaw dropping intro in a mediocre kpop release i just wanna cry. but maybe thats just me. BUT ANYWAY (sorry for the mini rant le sserafim) what im trying to say is that i didn't expect much from this release. but WOW. this was a bit... messy... *scratching my head*
like i get the whole 2023 version of their debut ep songs (since garam is in those and she's not here anymore) but why put songs from their previous ep in this too when nothing about them has changed? its just a bit confusing but honestly i dont really mind bc those songs are pretty nice on their own.
and now we finally get to the actual new songs in the album (finally!)
burn the bridge. thats it that's the whole sentence this is my favorite song out of the new ones and its just the intro i don't really have anything nice to say about the rest of the release. OH WAIT SHIT I ALMOST FORGOT eve, psyche, & the bluebeard's wife (what a title btw) is so good wow this is what im talking about!!!!! we need more of this in kpop for sure
highlights: burn the bridge, 이브, 프시케 그리고 푸른 수염의 아내 (eve, psyche, & the bluebeard's wife)
rating:
listened on 01.may.23