As I have been mentioning over the past 2 weeks, I reflect over the 1st half of 2019 through two posts. The first post is the recap of the Number 1 songs from the Weekly KPOP Charts for the period between July 2018 to June 2019 and this was published last week. The second post is my pick for most favourite songs from the first half of the year. This is irrespective of the charts (or any charts for that matter) and reviews, as sometimes my favourite songs don’t reach the top. I have listed 10 songs below, in no particular order, which I believe represent the best of the best that 2019 has offered to us so far.
Boogie Up – WJSN (Cosmic Girls)
Q&A – Cherry Bullet
Woowa – DIA
Side Effects – Stray Kids
The Fifth Season (SSFWL) – Oh My Girl
Zimzalabim – Red Velvet
Valkirye – ONEUS
No – CLC
Sunrise – GFriend
L.O.V.E – Park Ji Hoon
I wanted to add a few more but think limiting myself to 10 would probably be best, otherwise, I’d be copying and pasting majority of 2019’s releases onto this page.
Do you agree with my picks? What about your favourite tracks of 2019 so far? Comment down below!
It is another weekend full of album reviews. We started with ONEWE yesterday to wrap up my two days of band focus. And today, I thought we return to look at their brother group’s latest album. For those who don’t know, ONEUS and ONEWE are newly debuted boy groups from RBW Entertainment and they are referred to as brother groups (which seems the case for some of the members split across the two groups, as I have recently found out). ONEUS recently returned back in May with Raise Us, their second mini-album, which features the title track, Twilight.
Raise Us Album Cover
1. Time (Intro Track) – Starting off the album is Time. While I don’t usually listen to intro track for the purpose of an album review, this one is one of the few occasions where vocals are included, so I placed it onto the review list anyway. While this doesn’t kick the song off in an upbeat or energetic manner, the almost 2-minutes introductory track had a very elegant sound and smooth tone to it. I like the focus on the vocals, which were superb here. My favourite part has to be Leedo’s vocals. His rough voice shined the brightest in this song, contrasting well with whoever was singing alongside him at the time. (8/10)
3. English Girl – To me, English Girl is ONEUS’ answer to a Summer track. All the elements just scream the hot season and the track is a refreshing reply to that scream. The song is for international fans, where the guys admit that their English skills aren’t that great but there are always other ways to communicate and express feelings. While I find that to be very considerate of the group (i.e. to consider their international fans), I am going to be straight forward with another aspect of the track. The use of English has exponentially grown over the years. So to hear poor pronunciation is a little disappointing from an international fan’s standpoint. I don’t think it is necessarily a major issue to actually impact the score but I think given how far KPOP has come, the proper pronunciation would have been an expectation. (8/10)
4. BingBing (개와 늑대의 시간) – Personally, I find BingBing to have very memorable instrumental. That is thanks to the whistling (or flute instrument) that starts off the song and features in the post-chorus instrumental breaks. The rest of the track falls into a mainstream category, which doesn’t sound like it that impressive overall. However, I did like the track a fair bit. I really liked the melody of the track, especially during the chorus. The vocals and rapping were also superb in this track. While it is a dance track, I don’t find it heavy or loaded, which is a nice change. There is a level of intensity to the track but it maintains a level of lightness throughout as well. (8.5/10)
5. White Night (백야 (白夜)) – White Night is the closest thing to a ballad on the album. It has a very nice R&B ballad instrumental, which is a major appeal factor for me. The piano that features throughout the song has this impactful feel to it, like how an emotional ballad would use a piano to invoke emotion or leave you haunted by it. And while I see this ballad-like, I can imagine some choreography to accompany it, similar to what BTOB has done with their ballad comebacks. But the thing that I am most impressed with within this track is their vocals. They were so soothing, captivating and wonderful. Each member shined in this track, confirming their vocal capabilities. (10/10)
6. Now – Ending the album is a return to an upbeat track. And it is a damn good track. The chorus is explosive and has major club vibes. I personally would put this music on if I wanted to dance because the chorus gets you into the mood just to do that. My pick for the highlight of the track has to be delayed drop before the first chorus. It was a very suspenseful and unexpected slowdown just before the actual drop, which made the drop so much more dynamite. The vocals and rapping were on point. The track ends the album on a good note and definitely leaves me to think about what is to come next from ONEUS! (10/10)
Apologies for the lack of reviews once again. I have been very busy and I am making some time today to squeeze in two reviews to just not fall way behind on the new releases. Returning today is ONEUS, a new male group who made their debut earlier in the year with Valkirye. Hence, this is ONEUS’ first comeback ever since their debut and their new title track is named Twilight. In related news, ONEUS’s band counterpart, ONEWE made their debut a few weeks back with Reminisce About All.
I personally find Twilight to be a nice continuation from the group’s debut track. I just find that it lacks some energy when it comes to the verses, which result in them not being not as memorable as the other parts of the track. I did find the guitar-based instrumentation in the verses to be interesting to an extent. They do set a moody tone to the track, which I think is the element that keeps Twilight in line with Valkirye. The choruses incorporate a more upbeat and trap-like instrumental. I found this to be, obviously, the more dynamic section of the track. But it wasn’t the most memorable section of the track. That is awarded to the pre-chorus, that the song opens up with. The combination of the thumping in the background and the tiny bit of raspiness goes a long way. I also like how one of the vocalists and the rapper combine their voices together towards the end of the pre-chorus to create an ultra rough and impactful section of the song. That really stood out for me. The rest of the vocals and raps were quite good, as well.
I really like the building they shot the video in. While I am not always a fan of these classy styled buildings, the way the director shot this video really made the castle-like building stand out. It is absolutely a well-appreciated changeup, especially since they were in a box for their debut music video. I am personally not sure if there is a story embedded in the video for not. It seems like that is the case with how serious and how they interact with various components in the video. I see that they played the backflip card in the video and I thought it was a little cliche, especially how many male groups have a member (or two) capable of doing the exact same thing.
But the backflip did showcase some fierceness in the music video. And I feel like that fierceness was brought along to the choreography as well. I think the fast-paced section of the chorus is definitely a decent example of the fierceness. I also like that slow spin move that did during the bridge of the performance. That was quite cool.
Song – 8/10 Music Video – 8/10 Performance – 9/10 Overall Rating – 8.2/10
Apologies that this album review is 2 days late. I had some unexpected things to take care of on Sunday (when this was originally intended to be published) and this caused things to become a little out of place on Monday. But despite that, there will be two album reviews (this one and the ‘past album review’) coming out today. ONEUS’ is RBW Entertainment’s latest boy group, who made their debut last week with Valkirye. Given their amazing title track, I decided to check them out, which resulted in this album review.
Light Us Album Cover
1..LIGHT US (Intro Track) – I usually don’t review the introductory track. Simply because it is usually an instrumental piece. But LIGHT US contains vocals, so there is that to at least to comment on. I like the classy feel the track has. Adding the pretty cool vocals and that rough texturized voice from the rapper, it is a very nice track to start off with. (7/10)
2. ZigZag (삐뚤빼뚤) – This, along with the title track, pretty much got me wanting to write an album review. This one is so damn good. Opening the song is the main hook of the song (just in a completely different edited and electronic filtered voice). But it, along with it in normal vocals, is super addictive. The chorus is equally as catchy. Within just a few listens, I was already humming along. I liked how crisp the vocals were and those raps were just right! Overall, an absolute favourite for me. (9/10)
4. Red Thread (붉은 실) – The song started off as a ballad. There was a sense of stillness from the instrumental, quite slow moving. You do expect the song to gradually build up but the chorus was rather unexpecting. I personally find it capable of fitting some nice choreography and it felt like it contained some dance influences. But while I do think that, the song does allow the members to focus on their vocals and raps. The delivery and all was just magnificent. (9/10)
5. EYE CONTACT – EYE CONTACT is probably the song that is closest to a trend at the moment. It is quite bright and vibrant if I were to use words to describe the song. It features an EDM-based instrumental that I quite like. The song has nice vocals and the rapping gave the song a hip-hop influence, which once again was quite likeable. I did have a slight thought that the song was borderline on the repetitive side as the same drop was used throughout the song and there weren’t really any new additions to give the song a ‘changeup’. (7/10)
6. HERO – Like EYE CONTACT, HERO is an EDM-based song. But the words I would use to describe it isn’t similar to the previous song. Instead, I would pick words such as serious (due to the lack of vibrancy as compared to the previous song) and weighed down (the instrumental felt heavier in this song). For the most part, I thought the song was rather passable as I didn’t really connect with the song, no matter how many times I go back to it. What I did like was the rapping during the bridge and the vocal ad-libs during the final chorus. But apart from those elements, I am not too crazy about this song. (8/10)
7. Crazy & Crazy (ㅁㅊㄷㅁㅊㅇ) – And that last line leads perfectly into this song. The Hangul, which you can see next to the English title of the song, is just the consonants of the word ‘Crazy’ in Korean. That is rather unique and drew my attention to the song. The song has this darkness to it, which I think was well done. The hip-hop influences were also quite dominant, creating an enjoyable and engaging atmosphere. I just wished the instrumental could have been a little wilder to really give the song a hype or lit feeling. But other than that, I did like this song very much. (8.5/10)
It is always exciting to look at new debuts and see what they have to offer. While it isn’t technically the first debut of 2019 (A review is coming soon!), ONEUS’ debut is still one of the first of the year. ONEUS is a 6-member male group under RBW Entertainment (which also houses Mamamoo and VROMANCE). The group is made up of Ravn, Seoho, Leedo, Keonhee, Hwanwoong, and Xion. We have previously seen the group with their collaboration with ONEWE, an upcoming band under the same company.
Their debut title track is titled as Valkyrie and there are two meanings to the title, which are both referenced in the lyrics of the song (taken from SOOMPI). The first is in regards to the mythological creature Valkyrie (more on this in the music video section). The second is in regards to the way Valkyrie is pronounced in South Korea, which is similar to the Korean equivalent of ‘Light It Up’, where the member describes their lover as a beacon of light. But I think the elements in the song were more interesting. The instrumental features this cool guitar rhythm, which I think makes the song sound so elegant and very addictive. But the song is two-faced, with an electronic changeup for the chorus which gives the song some edge and definitely adds onto that addictive nature. And we can’t wrap up this section without reference to the amazing vocals and rapping. The rappers, in particular, caught my attention as they gave the song that extra roughness which definitely goes perfectly with the edgy sound they were aiming for.
The meaning with the mythological creature (mentioned above) is seen more profoundly in the music video. The Valkyrie is represented by the light in the music video (which goes hand-in-hand with the other meaning), awakening the members to travel to Valhalla (the afterlife). Throughout the video, you see the members being rather bored with their lives on Earth and I think are hoping that they will be picked to go to Valhalla in order to seek the Valkyrie, which may also be their lover. At least, that is my take on the video. I really like the dark side of the video and the very unique sets that they have. The spikes looked really cool and that back-ending scene really stole the show for me.
And that back-bending move is also seen in the choreography. Just the member doing the complicated move (sorry, I don’t know their names yet) is supported by other members. But still looks cool. I also liked the footwork they did during the lone guitar moments in the song and they made the chorus look quite explosive.
Song – 9/10 Music Video – 10/10 Performance – 10/10 Overall Rating- 9.5/10
We return to ROOKIE WEEK today with a release from ONEUS and ONEWE, whom are debuting as two different groups under RBW Entertainment. ONEUS is a 6-member group made up of Ravn, Seoho, Leedo, Keonhee, Hwanwoong and Xion. ONEWE is a 5-member boy band made up of Yonghoon, Harin, Kanghyun, Dongmyeong and Cya. Some of the members may look familiar as some of them partipcated in Produce 101 Season 2, The Unit and MIXNINE. A few days ago, they dropped a single together (the first release of their debut project), titled as Last Song, which I am sure will not be their last song.
I like this song for its simplicity and pleasantness. Last Song leans towards what I think we could expect from ONEWE but it could go either way as a band track or a dance track. I think the best way of describing this song is that it eases you into their sound, rather than going all out with a power dance or band track, which is a great way to give us an opportunity to learn about them and their sound. While the song is nice, it does lack some things. I would like to have heard some more powerful vocals and raps that could have given us a little taster to what is to come but what we got here goes back to that pleasant feeling. When they sing together (or at least some of the members), it showcased union and I thought was rather nice. I feel like the song could have been a little more memorable, as this is a critical factor in newly debut groups. But overall, I wouldn’t mind putting this song on every now and then and listening to it.
The music video shows that the song could have been a dance or band track. There is a small snippet of choreography, as seen through their ‘practising’ on the stage. The rest of the video shows the members road to their debut. Through busking activities and ‘flash mobs’, the group is given multiple opportunities to get their name out there and I hope it pays off. There are also some solo shots of each of the members outside, shot almost like a photoshoot and it looks like they are looking forward to the future, which fits in with their debut project. Not technically a video that I would go back to but it was fitting for the song.
Song – 7.5/10 Music Video – 7/10 Overall Rating – 7.3/10
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