Music Highlights: 4.22.2024

At work I was thinking about how sad I was that I haven’t done these music posts in a while. And even when I tried it was only one and then I just left. I really liked doing them, but to be fair I was doing them when I was layed off and had more time to just mindlessly listen to a bunch of music. But I want to change that so maybe we can find a way to do these and work lol. Below is mostly stuff that has released fairly recently, but I will throw in some older things that I want to touch on.

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+The Poles - Stargazing

A long-time fave The Poles came out with their EP Anomalies in the oddity space. The whole album is good, but I particularly loved Stargazing.

+ Solji - Western Sky

My girl. My fave. My ult bias. One of the best singers in kpop Solji came out with a new single Western Sky. During the MBC duet festival Solji sang this with Du Jinsu and now has a studio version.

+Band Maid - Bestie

Band Maid can do no wrong in my eyes.

+eaJ - Mad

eaJ has a lot of music coming out soon (like Friendly Fire!!) and we have to wait for it, but Mad has been on repeat for the past month getting me through it.

+Seungmin - Phobia (I'm the Queen in This Life OST)

This is such a great rock ballad for Seungmin. I’d love to hear more of this from him.

+Gyuna - Lava (Hide OST)

I found this on a random TikTok (she’s the sister of one of the New Jeans girls), and instantly fell in love. I’m not watching the drama but it’s now making me want to.

+VINCIT - KO

VINCIT releases such little music that it makes things a torturous wait. The wait is over with KO

+ONEWE - Beautiful Ashes

ONEWE is finally back full-member from the military and are really aiming to take away DAY6’s hold on me. It’s a good try. A great try even. Beautiful Ashes is the title which I love, but I think my favorite on the album is Shoot It Out. Still deciding.

+Chansung - Into the Fire

Chansung has a jdrama out, a kdrama out, and he released Into the Fire single with AK-69 and Changmin. All for me.

+Jun. K - Command C+Me

And Jun. K decided he would also join by releasing the Korean version of Command C+Me

+Jun Doohee - Sway

Jun Doohee’s Bad Flower is one of my top songs of 2020, and he quickly became a new favorite. His new single is Sway and everyone should be listening to it.

+Rolling Quartz - Stand Up

Rolling Quartz also came out with new music with Stand Up.

+DAY6 - Welcome to the Show

I’m in a weird conflicted place where I absolutely loved the DAY6 comeback but am also devastated that I don’t get to hear Jae’s voice with them. This is what I get for making them the only thing that got me through my deep depressive spot during COVID. I will get through it - hopefully, but now I’m just…kinda sad and happy to see them around at the same time. Grief and emotions are weird. Sad Ending was my favorite from the album, but the title is also great.

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Music Highlights 8.23.21

This post is filled with returning favorites, including a lot of my favorite 2nd gen women. Music has been good.

Releases and Finds ▹▹▹

-We Are the Night came out with a new single, ‘Summer Fiction’.

-Fei has a very special place in my heart. She’s my bias in Miss A, one of the first girl groups I really fell hard for. It’s been a while since she’s released music and I’m very glad she has. My only complaint for ‘Stalker’ is that the background beats are too loud. I haven’t been able to get ahold of the song outside of YouTube, though, so there is a chance it’s not that present in the recording. Despite that, I really love the song and the MV.

-Hyolyn and Dasom did what they do best, and put out a great summer bop. Watching them do the dance on TikTok with the other members has been fun.

I really don’t need to add TXT to my too long music list, but as this is now the second release I’ve liked I might be losing that battle.

-I really liked Jenyer’s last release and was excited to hear more. And then she announced she was going to be featuring her former 4Minute member, Gayoon, on the single. I don’t know what happened in the universe that made it so we got Miss A, SISTAR, and 4Minute former member comebacks all in a span of two weeks, but I’m not complaining.

-I think this might be my favorite Lucy title track.

-I really like the lead singer’s voice, and I think it lends really well to the water/summer feeling of the songs, almost like waves. Adding the group to my every growing list to look more into.

-You really can’t go wrong with Standing Egg.

-Another group who can do no wrong for me, Yorushika. I think at this point if you haven’t listened to them yet just means we can’t be friends.

-Seori and eaJ (Jae from DAY6) came out with another collab. It’s the perfect song to throw on during a drive..

-Summer isn’t really my favorite season, but I still can’t seem to stop myself from adding all the summer songs.

Upcoming ▹▹▹

CL single, ‘Spicy’ (24th)
Ben&Ben album, Pebble House Vol 1 (29th)
The Black Skirts Japanese album, Team Baby (29th)
NELL album, Moments In Between (2nd)

Artist Spotlight ▹▹▹
Since the indie rock singer The Black Skirts will be releasing his first full Japanese album the end of this week, it seems fitting to focus a bit of attention on him. I’ve posted about him before, and I know the relatively he’s a bit more popular than a lot of the other indie artists I focus on, but if you haven’t listened to his work, specifically the 2017 Team Baby, you are really missing out on some solid music. The title track, ‘Everything’ was one of the first indie songs I listened to and still one of my favorites.

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Music Highlights 7.12.21

I was a little bit busier than normal last week because of the KPSN Podcast Festival, and with 2PM and Even of Day’s comebacks I’ve not had as much time to keep up with new music so this week is going to be a little less diverse with newer groups since I pretty much zeroed in on prioritizing faves.

Releases and Finds ▹▹▹

-Let’s get the main ones out of the way, starting off with 2PM’s ‘Make It’. I, of course, loved every second.

-Do I wish it was full group? Yes. But Even of Day has just the slightest difference in sound that I am really into. If I find the time, I might be able to do an album review soon.

-THE ORAL CIGARETTES came out with a new song that is being used in an anime. I hadn’t been keeping up with any Japanese music news, so it was a pleasant surprise.

-Have I heard of LUAMEL before I listened to this? I don’t think so, but they’ve been added to my ever-growing list of groups I need to listen to their discography. Hasn’t happened yet, but it will.

-I loved Boyz II Men. LOVED them. They are currently promoting in Korea and we’re getting collabs with artists and I just want to tell 12 year old Jessie that this is happening.

-Say hello to my favorite TWICE song.

-Again, surprise music. And surprise SEKAI NO OWARI is the best kind of surprise…

-…which was then followed up by surprise NELL! It’s like the universe was like “Hey, Jessie. Heard you are preoccupied by 2PM and DAY6. Let me do this to you”.

-I liked Royal Pirates, but I was never into them when they were truly a group, so I didn’t focus on them a lot because I knew that I wasn’t going to get new music. And then, they followed on the surprise train and reformed as LIVIN.

-I know that I talked about ONEWE last post, but the put out a mv with my favorite song off of the album, and I have to share.

-Not a surprise, cause I saw them promote this for a while before it came out, but new TRICOT is always welcomed in this house.

OST ▹▹▹

-I feel like this is my third Voice 4 OST song that I’ve talked about, but it’s really starting to become a favorite.

Upcoming ▹▹▹

Currently I don’t really have anything scheduled for the next few weeks. Which is good since DREAMCATCHER DECIDED TO ANNOUNCE A COMEBACK AT THE END OF THE MONTH.

Album Spotlight ▹▹▹

Band Nah is a fun indie rock group that has grown a lot on me this past year. They are a relatively newer group, but they do have a good discography, and their music videos are a lot of fun. They just released their single, ‘Summer Days’ last week. You should check out their music.

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Music Highlights 6.28.21

Releases and Finds ▹▹▹

I love Hyolyn all the time, but I’m very partial to her slower songs that show off her voice. Happiness has such a good beat.

Another voice I always love to hear, iri.

ONEWE is consistently putting out great songs. I think they go more into rock ballads than a lot of the other kbands do, and I appreciate that.

I really wasn’t expecting any new EGOIST and when this showed up it was a surprise.

I just love Dreamcatcher and their covers.

Is Pink Fantasy’s inspiration Dreamcatcher? Yes. But what I really like about this song in particular is how much it’s a jpop song on top of a metal backtrack. I think it’s their best comeback.

I’ve already talked about Cotoba when the EP released, but they just put out a couple of their music videos up and had to plug them again. Check out ‘Goodbye Lilith’ here.

This is so beautiful.

OST ▹▹▹

I am SO into this song from Voice 4. So perfectly creepy for the scenes it was used in.

The added bonus of Hospital Playlist back on is all the great songs we get.

I’m not watching Montly Magazine but this song is so perfectly one of those kdrama songs that you’d get stuck in your head the entire time watching it. And it’s Hui!

Again, another drama I’m not watching but coming out with great music.

Upcoming ▹▹▹

2PM album, MUST (28th)
Epik High single, ‘Rain Song’ (29th)
AleXa ep, ReviveR (1st)
LIVIN first single release (2nd)
Even of Day (DAY6) ep, Right Through Me (5th)

Artist Spotlight ▹▹▹

Wetter is fairly well known if we are talking about Korean indie groups, but they still need some love and attention from the rest of the music world. They’ve been a group since 2016 and though I like their recent release ‘Love is All Around’, their ep We’ve Lost, What Now? is a favorite. Give them a listen and let me know what you think about them in the comments.

Check out the last music highlights post here.

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