Infinite H - Pretty

My musical tastes are known to vary and widen, and I usually have a long list of artists that I'm excited about. But every once and awhile, one of those artists leapfrogs over everyone else and becomes more of an obsession. That's the way it was with The Ark, and now that's the way it is with Infinite. I've written about Infinite many times, and even before they were my favorite band, I considered them to have the strongest singles run of any K-Pop group. In fact, I've thought about doing a "ten best singles by..." feature on them, but like my other untouchable artists (The Ark, Janet Jackson, etc), I fear that I'd have much too hard a time ranking their songs. One thing that I love about K-Pop, though, is that their groups often form units -- an offshoot of the group's main sound that in no way threatens the existence of the band. Singers can go solo without leaving the group, and this allows for interesting detours in an artist's sound. Infinite H is a hip-hop unit consisting of rappers Hoya and Dongwoo. This being Korea, the guys can of course also sing and dance spectacularly, so their brand of hip-hop carries a strong pop influence. That said, songs like Pretty are a complete u-turn from Infinite's dense, dramatic dance sound. The new mini-album is great, but I think my favorite thing about the whole project is the fun, quirky video. There's a fresh, easygoing aura around their music that becomes more addictive the more you listen to it.



(Music posted for evaluation purposes only. Buy the album here. Follow me on twitter and facebook.

Tina & Rene - Mi Amore

"You gave me what no one had given before"

The Eurovision pre-selections are starting to kick off, and as always, Abba's shadow looms big over everything. Denmark's Melodi Grand Prix is in a couple of weeks. They're one of the countries that releases the songs prior to the actual competition, and as I perused this year's entries, I was instantly smitten with Tina and Rene's enormous Mi Amore. It is a 100% schlager belter, with a chorus that sounds quite a lot like the aforementioned Abba. It's the kind of music that really only comes from this region of the world, just like K-Pop is tied only to Korea. I love that, even when this genre has gone out of fashion, we can always count on songs like this being produced for contests like Eurovision. It's cheesy to the max, but I wish it luck!



(Music posted for evaluation purposes only. Buy the album here. Follow me on twitter and facebook.

Tooji - Money

"I need an upgrade"

Truth be told, I've always wanted to like Tooji's music more than I do. I'm all for experimental, glamorous Scandinavian pop stars. I mean, who isn't? But the songs that I'd heard seemed to be too generic for what seems like an unusual artist. Then I heard Money, and everything made sense. If Tooji can keep up with this genre-defying, aggressively produced pop, he'll definitely have my full attention. This song certainly won't be to everyone's taste, and we'll see how much staying power it has, but there's no denying that he's gone out on a limb. And in a world with copy/paste DJs being used by every pop singer out there, a little experimentalism goes a long way.



(Music posted for evaluation purposes only. Buy the single here. Follow me on twitter and facebook.

B1A4 - White Miracle

This is for all those in the Northeast that are getting hammered with snow. I figured it might be nice to watch a music video where the snowscapes are gorgeous rather than apocalyptic. Plus, it seems like we're not getting any snow (again) in the Northwest, so I admit I'm a little jealous. Taking weather out of the picture, I was going to post this track anyway because B1A4 are one of my absolute favorite bands these days. I am obsessed with leader Jinyoung's unique vocal tone, and the fact that he composes most of the group's music is incredibly admirable. White Miracle is a Japanese single. More often than not, these feel more uneventful and unexciting than their Korean counterparts. That's true here as well. The song is more "pleasant" and "pretty" than "impactful" or "essential," but sometimes that's okay. The melody is beautiful and builds fantastically. Very soothing, for these short winter days.



(Music posted for evaluation purposes only. Buy the single here. Follow me on twitter and facebook.