So this came out a while ago, and I meant to make a review of it, but things got out of hand and I was suddenly required to be in NYC... I didn't completely forget about it though, because it's an absolutely incredible release. One benefit to being more than a bit late on the doling out of commentary is that someone's already made a fantastic analysis of the track and it's impressive MV. As you may known, Seoulbeats has a few writers that I steadfastly disagree with, but in regards to this epic release I fully agree with the analysis presented HERE. Aesthetically, the sets and stylings are gorgeous and the over-all vibe of the track suits the HipHop elegance-with-attitude notion of 4 Minute's Crazy without being so close so as to cause confusion. It makes the perfect addition to a clubhit hiphop playlist. The Choreo is sexy smooth and it seems like it'll be a TON of fun to learn and cover.
           In addition to being ripe with awesomeness and attitude, the track is well balanced, hella catchy, and delightfully energetic. It moves over the beat with vibrancy and it evolves well over time. It's perfectly spatialized to make the duo's declaration of omnipotence include a sense of omnipresence. It's easily one of my favorite rap-based releases from so far this season! With the focus being on personal prowess, individual determination, and generalized self-confidence, it takes gender out of the equation is the best way. At the same time, the verses beautifully detail the intimate personal struggles of both N.Flying and AOA to make names for themselves in the wild world that is modern music in Korea. I'm a huge fan of how this stands as a departure from Jimin's usual work with AOA and I'm terribly hyped up for N.Flying's upcoming Debut!

           BoA's English is beautiful and it meshes fabulously with her Korean voice, many people speak the two languages with very different vocal qualities and it's often a struggle to get them to slide smoothely together. I'm not a huge fan of the washed-out colors but still, it's an artsy spring release by a sweetheart Kpop queen filmed on sunny days out of doors, so I don't have much choice in the matter. The track is light and sweet with BoA's smooth vocals on full display and a kickin' cool energy that effectively highlights the summer-time playfulness. The over all MV is adorable and sweet, and the track is doubly so. There's nothing ground-breaking in it, but I can't help but to feel the butterflies of shy delight portrayed. I honestly have nothing negative or critical to say, though it's certainly not something I have endless words of praise for. Over all, it's cute, catchy, and beautifully care-free.

          Big Bang is my ultimate Bias Group. They're also the basically undisputed Kings of Kpop. That said... I've had a long-time struggle with the fact that I only really love about half of their music, and maybe a third of their MVs. 'Loser' is a pretty great track. GD's skill with creating a punchy energy that vibes neatly with a low-key slide of understatement is top-notch and it's displayed here fabulously. The track moves well and evolves over the course of the piece, with elements jumping both in and out. The spatialization is spot-on, swirling beautifully around the listener in a perfectly thematic mess that mirrors the distress and chaos inside the characters' heads. I really like the track, though I'm not putting it in any party playlists. It accomplishes it's goal of inspiring true angst that connects with the deepest fears of all its listeners.
           The MV on the other hand is... not bad. It's not even half as awesome as Fantastic Baby, but in all honestly that's an impossibly high bar to set. And since I'm whining about how awesome the Fantastic Baby era was, I should admit that I wasn't thrilled about Blue or Bad Boy, either, and I was downright disappointed with Monster... So basically the less-than-impressed reaction I've had after two years of waiting is mostly due to unrealistic expectations. Loser's storylines are fairly well developed and they're actually quite interesting. They've been interpreted by a ton of people already (I'm sooo late with this review, blame the fact that I just had a graduation ceremony for the completion of the entirety of my school years), and one of the best explanations is HERE. The MV's Styling is gorgeous, and Big Bang's typical "suave but like waaaaay out there" sort of quirkiness. And, as a few MVs have been doing as of late, the washed-out look of the de-saturated images actually suits the aesthetic very well and, even though the look is not my favorite, I have to admit that it does very well here.
           Over all... I don't really like it. I love the track, but I am less than happy with the release over all, especially since I was SO looking forward to Bae Bae which... well read that review HERE.

          Considering the fact that Big Bang is literally the most important musical group in the world to me... I don't find myself blindly adoring their musical releases. And Bae Bae... is NOT one for the acclaimed annals of history. I was SO hyped for it. Bae Bae looked like it had the potential to be incredible. And with Papa YG himself stating that the 19+ rating was meant to open up story-telling possibilities.... I was hoping that it would be able to take fans on a ride that makes every other dramatic Kpop release in the past few years look like comic-flip-books in comparison.... And what I got was a drugged-up Sex-fiend fantasy with no real impact and no over-arching political statement or dramatized viewpoint declaration. Not only is this a rather pathetic attempt to tell a story, I feel personally betrayed because the press releases had specifically stated that “It wasn’t a 19+ video just because we wanted to be sensationalist or sexual." Which is a blatant lie, because sensationalist & sexual are the only two words that accurately encapsulate the MV at all. There's a bit of a futuristic cant to it, I'll admit, but only in the fact that there's hookers on the moon (a moon set that looks exceptionally fake and rather awkward to be perfectly honest). The MV is honestly a bit disgustingly sexual with references so obtusely blatant that the subtle references get ignored in the face of your brain shutting itself down. Even Koreaboo made a list of sexual references and it barely covers the half of them! Honestly, it seems like the MV was vulgar for vulgarity's sake and it gives nothing to a broader theme or storyline. Honestly, TOP's face-shot is repulsive, and all the spray references and the literal skirt-chasing just make me feel uncomfortable... It's the single-most disappointing music video that Big Bang has released since I first became a Kpop fan. 
            The styling is mostly awkward, though the members are all so fantastically attractive that it hardly matters and their charisma shines through even the most ridiculous of outfits. The track is okay. It's awkwardly imbalanced and dramatically un-catchy, which is something I never thought I would ever say about a Big Bang track. It's spatialized well, and there is a uniquely entrancing vibe that permeates the mix of smooth acoustic and jarringly above-the-mix rap aspects... but over all it's only okay. The two main genres are mixed together quite impressively, but they don't mesh well and they feel quite incompatible as a whole. It's quirky and unique and certainly a song to reference in terms of ambitious musical experiments, but not one to be included in the 'Successful Experiments' category. Over all, I dislike the song, but I will admit that it has aspects that are impressive. The MV on the other hand is deplorable. The ONLY thing it had going for it is that it's not actively assaulting the idea of female sexuality or being too obscenely antagonistic to women as human beings. To say that the only thing going for you is that you DON'T proliferate Rape Culture is not really the kind of complement you want when your previous releases have been game-changingly incredible and deeply profound declarations of political and social platforms. Fantastic Baby might not have been everyone's favorite track, and it might have begun to grate on the ears in the two years of waiting we've had since it's release, but hell. I'd have waited longer for something even half as awesome.
           Loser was okay. But with Bae Bae being what it is... I can only hope that the other singles that Big Bang is planning on releasing this summer for MADE have some dribbles of the majesty and creativity that should have gone into the first pair on the release schedule... I just can't accept that THIS is what we get after 2 long years.

          Bangtan Boys always makes great music and they always look absolutely killer in their MVs, but from Boy In Luv to Danger I've had a few... qualms about the light in which aggression is shown in relation to sexuality. This time though, I have no such issues and I'm delighted to say that this one is a slam dunk of awesome. Aesthetically speaking, the washed out, unsaturated look suits the mood of the MV and therefore I like it (even though you know it's the first thing I harp on in most cases). The story line is a bit chaotically depicted, but it does give a generalized narration of guys getting over their doomed love affairs and rekindling this platonic relationships as they struggle to come to terms with the end of their romantic ones. The burning flowers look like lilies to me, symbolic of a rather torturous purification of the soul, you know cleansing via fire in a very phoenix-like manner. Throughout the video there are shots with imagery specific to symbols of growing up and moving on that go beyond the burning flowers of lost innocence: throwing away the lollipop (I'm assuming Rap Monster's not littering), burning pictures, getting rid of pills, etc. Hell, even the shots where they stop to get gas is a maturity-image, since their only modes of transit before were bikes and school buses. Over all the video's good but not amazing; it's visually attractive, but not ground breaking. And Honestly... I'd have liked to see at least SOME of the choreo...

           The under-rhythms are energetic and fantastically light, the minimalist backing track keeps the focus neatly on the strength of Lim Kim's fluid and powerful voice. Her half-singing rap-like vocals in the verses is gorgeous and it keys in on the vocal qualities that help her stand out from the crowd. The melody is thin, making it hard to call catchy, but there's certainly enough in it to keep you humming. With the lack of a notable vamp, the chorus falls a bit flat after the intensity of the verses. However while the vocals keep a pretty even line, the backing track changes enough to keep the interest going, and the track evolves over all through the different verses. It's quite well done.
            In terms of the MV, my favorite part is the fact that the guys are from all sorts of different backgrounds; it's not just Korean dude that can be skanky assholes. And I love how innocently effortless it is for her to spurn their attentions and to punish them for being f***boys in the same move. She could be the most brilliant akido master ever, or she could be a defenseless little girl that gets real lucky real often... it plays beautifully into the concept of the love game. Lim Kim is the undefeated champion and no one will ever take away her title.
            The styling is gorgeous, the choreography is playful and fun, and the colorful set aesthetics are lovely. The track is delightful and over-all I'm quite enamored. Such sass. I love it!

          One of my favorite uses of the celebrity-status-commentary in Kpop. Usually, most of what you hear is about how awful it is to be a celeb, especially an Idol. There's no privacy, you're away from friends and family, you're always being judged and 2-steps away from career-ruining scandal... But you also have an entire team of people devoted to making sure that you're absolutely gorgeous, which is a pretty big plus side. This video takes a cute, bright-side approach while the song's lyrics take the more angsty, dramatic approach, which gives the release an even more realized demonstration of how celebrities need to have a stage-persona that's not necessarily in sync with their BTS personalities. There's a story here, it's not hugely detailed and it doesn't resolve, but it's here.
           The styling and the set-aesthetics are all gorgeous. I love how the line between cast and crew is blurred a bit particularly at the end, because the makings of a star is never just the star. The choreography is fabulous, perfectly suited to the track and fantastically fun to perform. It's just simple enough to be playful and just complicated enough to look carefully designed. The video editing does wonders by playing off the choreo, creating beautifully dynamic transitions that give the over all video a smooth and flawless finish. The song is catchy and energized with a fantastic zing. Over all, I love it!

           Pocket Girls aren't exactly an idol group to take seriously, at least not yet. Like the girls of Nine Muses, these four started out in the modeling industry, only unlike Nine Muses, they still work there. It makes sense for them to perform at Motor Shows, because that's where they're known, but because they are known presences there, it feels more like the Motor Shows upgraded their modeling contracts rather than the ex-models graduated into Idol-ship.
          This release has a real MV, but I personally think it's rather dull and lifeless, particularly for having an EDM-based track as the ground-work behind it. In the real MV the choreography looks haphazard and rather sloppy, not to mention it fails to show how perfectly the choreo works with all four members. The one advantage of the real MV is that it manages to disguise the appearance of the world's least charismatic rapper... but for the entirety of the time aside from the ten seconds or so when the rapper is supposed to be the main focus, the choreo vid is far more interesting that the real MV. The track is fabulous bounce of EDM energy, that while not the best EDM-based kpop track I've ever heard, is definitely not the worst. It's quite catchy, almost annoyingly so (It got stuck in my head a few days after I first heard it and it wouldn't go away until I found the track again). So it's on point there.
          Over all, I do really enjoy this release, particularly the choero, which is both gorgeously sexy and fabulously fun to perform (and seriously impressive considering those heels).