K-Pop Suggestions PART TWO

Hello everyone! I promised I'd get this one written and out before too long, so even though lately I've been on a Doom Metal kick, here I am reviewing some K-Pop again! It's K-Pop Suggestions Part Two!

Wonder Girls - Why So Lonely

It still surprises me how much I like the new Wonder Girls. I keep wanting to ask myself "How?" as in "How did they get so good??". I covered that in my Reboot review though (the whole actual instruments and letting them write thing), but I just have to keep reminding myself.

So I obviously like this song too. Let's dissect a bit.

Reggae? In my K-Pop? It's more likely than you think. Out-dated meme's aside, Reggae influence on pop music has been a thing for a decades, but the last handful of years have seen the rise and popularity of a particular type of Reggae/Pop crossover genre in the American charts. Look no further than Rihanna as an example of this.
Anyway, of course with this trend in American Pop music, it makes sense that Korea would get around to it as well, like ya do.

What I love about K-Pop taking influence from various different places is that instead of just copying the style wholesale, or doing the American Pop thing and taking the interesting idea and smooshing it into the already established Pop, they put their own uniquely Korean spin on it. Example, Wonder Girl's Reboot as late 1980's dance music (I will never shut up about that album), or Secret's Shy Boy as Bubblegum Pop. Very much of its genre, yet with a very K-Poppy element to it as well.

Why So Lonely is that, but Reggae. Very groovy, very chill. The music video seems to take place in a the pastels of a cheap motel in Miami in the early 90's. Super reggae. And yet, the vocals, the particulars of the instrumentation, the subject matter, and again that music video are all very Korean in style.

Long story short, the song is rad and I'm super excited to see what comes next. Reboot was phenomenal, and if whatever album Why So Lonely is half as unified in theme and execution, it too will be a good pick. Maybe I'm showing bias, but it's easy to give this a 5/5.

Primary - Don't Be Shy

And check it out, more K-Reggae-Pop! Neat!

So, basically everything I liked about Why So Lonely is here as well. I think WSL was a bit more poppy, and Don't Be Shy here is more chill. I dig it. I think the inclusion of a male voice for a verse works well. It's kind of a standard in Pop music across the board, but it's done for a reason. It provides a different sound to compare and contrast with the female leads, with the intent that your brain tends to respond positively to the different input, and mine did.

I gotta be honest though, I have no idea what is going on in this video though. Weird occult magic? Tearing up barbie dolls? Pokemon cards?? I could try to come up with an interpretation, but I feel like I'd just embarrass myself.

Overall a pretty good song. Makes me want to listen to more Primary, if just to see what else he's got going on. 4/5.
Oh wait what? He's? Yeah, apparently Primary is the dude who sings that brief verse. The main female vocalist is Choa from the group AOA, and I believe the other two girls in the video are also from that group, as they sung background vocals. Yeah, what a trip. Primary is primarily a producer, and often has other vocalists as leads on his songs. Threw me for a loop when I looked all this up.  I honestly didn't plan this, but this is a neat segue for what's coming next.

UV - I Want To Live With Her

I SAID NO BOY BANDS COURTNEY. No seriously though, despite these being dudes this is not the type of boy-band I was talking about. Interesting though, the connection with Primary being a dude and a producer, and now here UV being two dudes (and often a guest artist) that make comedy music.

This video is just hilarious. Great parody of melodramatic K-Dramas.

I have to thank "patturn" on Youtube for putting this so succinctly when he commented "it seems like a joke. but musically it is actually good."

What else can be said? Hilarious, actually kind of catchy. Again, remembering that review scores are both personal opinions and ideally a rating of how well the thing achieved what it was trying to achieve, I think I have to give this a 5/5, right? It hits all the right notes, its on point with the humor and the level of parody, I mean having Yoon Do-hyun play a vacuum cleaner? Come on. It's perfect.

UV - Itaewon Freedom

Okay, I think the comedy here probably doesn't translate as well as I Want To Live With Her does. Or maybe that's just me thinking this is less funny? I dunno. Either way, its still good, but less so.

Astute listeners who have read my previous reviews and listened to the songs, who don't already know who JYP is, will note that the JYP who says "JYP" here at the beginning of the song is indeed the same JYP who says "JYP" at the beginning of the Wonder Girls's incredible I Feel You. He's the CEO of JYP Entertainment, the record label that the Wonder Girls are on, and a musician/performer in his own right. I honestly don't particularly like any of the songs of his that I've heard, but he's responsible for the modern Wonder Girls existing, so he can't be all bad.

Anyway, woo, got off topic there. The song itself is alright. Overall 3/5.


So that'll do it for K-Pop Suggestions PART TWO. If anyone wants to suggest any more K-Pop for me to review, leave a comment or hit me up on Twitter or Facebook.

As for my next review, well, that's going to have to be a secret for now, mostly because I haven't started working on another one that I want to post yet.

Imperium (2016) - A Movie Review

I meant to post this review yesterday or the day before but work got in my way. Now that the United States has shown that it actually does support racism at the highest level by electing a president that is a racist and was endorsed by the KKK, I feel like I'm both too late, and that we need this now more than ever. Don't let hate win.
Anyway, here's the review:

Funny story, I was browsing the shelves at my local largest-retailer-in-the-world store looking for the 1995 live-action film of the lovable friendly ghost, Casper. I couldn't find it, so instead I bought a movie about an FBI agent who goes undercover to discover a potential white supremacist plot to blow up a dirty bomb in/near Washington DC.

Oh yeah, Daniel Radcliffe is in it. I love Daniel Radcliffe.

Boy oh boy, what a movie. Let's start off with the trailer.

If that didn't get you interested I don't know what will. Infiltration. Revolutionary activity. Riots. Nazis.

So let's jump in.

Daniel Radcliffe is a treasure. The Harry Potter movies often devolve into hot garbage but they'll always be worth something because they gave us Radcliffe and Radcliffe himself is always just so good. He doesn't let me down here. He's equally at home at the start of the movie, playing the somewhat nerdy feels-barely-qualified FBI agent, and as his undercover persona as a white power supremacist. He's got chops.

The rest of the cast is good as well, with a few well-known actors and a few "where have I seen him before?"s. To point, in the trailer that big scary Nazi dude with the beard is Chris Sullivan who plays Benny Hammond in Stranger Things, and if you don't know who that is or why that is such a shift of character, then GO WATCH STRANGER THINGS. Anyway. Good cast, mostly all do a good job (more on this later).

The other big thing about Imperium that I want to mention is just how terrifying it is. These sorts of people actually exist. White supremacist terrorism doesn't really get brought up in those terms a lot, but that's what a lot of this is. Racism is so counter-productive, and so counter to reality, and yet these people are so entrenched in their beliefs that they'd die, or worse kill, for them. Its frightening.

If there was one word that I would use to describe Imperium that word would be "tension". There are multiple scenes where the tension is so thick. My room-mate said he was constantly wringing his hands as we watched. There were so many close calls, so many chances to be discovered, so much craziness going on. If nothing else, this shows that we were invested in the outcome of the film, which is the sign of a good movie.

Quick note to say that I also thought the cinematography was good. It was mostly functional, but there were a number of scenes where the movie was elevated because of good camera work.

Overall good movie.

And yet, this movie was not perfect. Daniel Radcliffe, as mentioned, was phenomenal (no surprise), but not everyone else was. Occasionally performances dipped into noticeably not as good. I don't know if I want to blame the actors or director or even editor for this, but somewhere something went wrong. I also want to specify that I don't expect everyone to give an award-worthy performance, but sometimes the lack of performance was distracting. Only slightly so, and maybe I'm being overly critical, but regardless it was noticeable.

On a similar note, there were a few predictable moments, and a few moments that felt like they skirted a bit too close to cliche. For example, tension between our protagonist and the people on his side that really only existed because you have to have that moment of "failure" before the real win. Just some simple but obvious story-telling devices that seemed over-obvious.

Do flaws like this ruin a good movie? What is most important in telling your story? What is most important in making a movie worthwhile or even excellent?

For Imperium, these minor imperfections didn't take away from the moments of the movie that were most important. Those moments of tension. Seeing Radcliffe's character maneuver amongst these dangerous people. The emotions brought on by these things were strong, and minor imperfections didn't take away from that. The movie was powerful, regardless of it not being perfect.

Overall, definitely worth watching. Imperfect, but it still achieved what it meant to achieve.
Judging only on technical film-making I'd say it lands somewhere around 7/10, but for emotional investment and storytelling, easy 9/10. Ratings are garbage anyway, don't trust them.

Final quick note for content, the movie is rated R for language, and that is not an exaggeration, but its mostly language to serve a purpose. It's mostly people having frank conversations, and a lot of those people are terrible racists, so they do often use terrible language. If you don't want to hear that, don't see the movie, but get over it and see the movie anyway.

K-Pop Suggestions PART ONE

This post is somewhat of a sequel to my post "a review of Wonder Girls - Reboot." You can click those words to be taken to it if you haven't already read it. Please do!

So anyway, as mentioned in that review, I somehow didn't know that the Wonder Girls got good for a whole year after that album came out.  I've been simultaneously kicking myself for somehow missing it, and yet I must put the blame on others for not telling me.
I mean, not really, but come on Courtney, how could you not be evangelizing this album? You knew it was that good and you kept it from me?

I'm joking here, obviously.  Mostly.

The part that isn't a joke is the fact that since apparently I'm able to completely miss what was the best album last year, maybe it would do to take suggestions on what to listen to from people who pay more attention to the K-Pop scene than I have.

So I asked aforementioned-Courtney for suggestions of other A+ 10/10 KPop that I might have missed. I also said no boy bands because I just cannot get into boy bands. I'll explore this more in the future, I'm sure.

So without further ado, here's those suggestions and my thoughts on them.

Fei - Fantasy

We begin by listening to Fei's Fantasy, embedded here for your listening and viewing pleasure.

Let's ignore the video for a second and focus on the song itself first.

Those who follow the K-Pops know Fei from the group "Miss A". Fantasy here is her solo debut, and I gotta say, what a great debut.
The low, almost droning synth in the background creates dreamlike quality that permeates the song. Fei's vocals only strengthen that mood. She proves here that you don't have to stretch your abilities to create something fantastic.
The whole thing could be described as simple, but each piece works together in a way that creates something magical. Its simple, its catchy without being overbearing, and despite the dreaminess it still makes you want to move. My only complaint is that it just sort of... ends. It almost just cuts off, there's no real closing or anything. Its a minor thing but let's be fair, it could be improved slightly by a more satisfying or complete end.

Now, the video. Wew lad, where to begin. This video has received a lot of flak from the Korean audience for being "too sexual". It is a very provocative song, no one is denying that. I just find it strange that a fan-base and culture that embraces sexuality as much as Korea would balk at this. Take a look at Brown Eyed Girls' Abracadabra. That video is loved and is at pretty much the same level here (side note, here I go with the BEG ref's again). I just, I dunno. It's weird. I think people who have a problem with it should get over themselves. If you don't like it that's fine, there's just no reason to hate on it so much.

I dunno, I've re-written that portion of the review like three times now and I'm still not sure if I've said what I want to say properly, but whatever.
Setting the whole sexual debate aside, I like the video. I'm a huge fan of computer art, so pretty much the whole aesthetic of the virtual reality bits is totally something I dig.

I'd give Fei's Fantasy a hearty recommendation. If we're going with a five star rating system which allows for people to realize that 5/5 doesn't necessarily mean that its a perfect thing and nothing could be better, just that it represents the best within the medium and genre, and really in the end I'm just rating it based on how I felt about it personally and there is no real way to be 100% objective in a review, I'd give it the full 5/5. Phew.

Brave Girls - 변했어

Next up let's take a look at Brave Girls with their song 변했어.

It's fine, I guess.
I find the song kind of forgettable. There's nothing here that really catches my interest or attention in any way. The vocals are all fine, the music just bores me I guess.
Also, the whole video kind of confuses me. The outfits and choreography are all way too "street" for what this song is. It comes across kind of disconnected to me.

If you're into this then that's cool. There is nothing here to hate, I just don't find a anything to love either. Arbitrary star rating 1/5, which doesn't mean I think its terrible, just that I don't find anything here particularly enjoyable.

Ladies Code - Galaxy

Next up is Ladies Code with their song Galaxy.

I dig it.
I know I just complained that that Brave Girls song had nothing going on, and this song could be accused of being quite simple as well, but make no mistake. As mentioned above, simple does not equal boring, or bad. This isn't a song I'm going to be listening to when I'm trying to get stuff done, but its a perfect song for just relaxing and letting yourself float away with it.

The video is good too. Three-way chess, hah!

All in all 3/5, only because I tend to prefer more "dance-y" or "pop-y" tracks, stuff with more energy (Also, I gotta keep with the three thing).

Dalshabet - B.B.B.

I just realized that there isn't really a point in me having these sub-headings and then immediately writing a sentence that gives you basically the exact same information. So I wont this time. Here's the MV though.

I gotta say, I kinda dig this song. The 80's style synth at the start feels a little too on the nose (intentionally referencing Eurythmics's Sweet Dreams, I'm sure), but the song that follows is actually pretty good. Aside from that opening synth this song feels a lot less late 80's pop than, say, I Feel You, even with those fake orchestra hits and the Mortal Kombat-esque doot doot doot percussion hits. What are those called? I have no idea.

Anyway, its a more standard K-Pop song but that's not a bad thing. It works. 3/5.

Dalshabet - Someone Like U

Hey! It's the same group! And ya know what? I like this one more, actually. This song and BBB are similar in a lot of ways. Similar lyrical themes, similar 80's throwback style, but everything in this one feels more complete. The sound is more unified and works better as a whole, and the lyrics and video have a much more complete, and satisfying, story to work with here. It almost feels like BBB was a proof-of-concept and Someone Like U is them actually hammering it out and making something excellent. Of course, BBB came out January 2014 and Someone Like U came out in January of 2016, so they had time to hone their craft.

This is a solid effort, and between these two songs there's enough good going on that I'm going to keep my eyes on Dalshabet. Also, that name makes me want some sherbert. Google is telling me I'm spelling that wrong but I refuse to accept that sherbet is pronounced the same and means the same thing. Anyway, 4.5/5. Is that cheating? Can I just give something a half point? Yes.

ALRIGHT, so this is getting long and I have I think five more songs to review, so those will be coming at a later date. Sorry this one took so long to get out, I had a busy October. I will get K-Pop Suggestions Part Two out sooner than it took to get this one out.

Anyway, thanks for reading.