DAY6 - Congratulations

When I first heard Congratulations, I brushed it off as a pleasant-enough piece of pop/rock, if slightly middle-of-the-road. In fact, I thought the band sounded kind of like the Korean equivalent of 5 Seconds Of Summer (with the addition of a rapper). A few days later, I kept returning to the track. The melody and vocals had thoroughly hooked me. Better yet, I discovered that the accompanying EP was sonically diverse, incorporating elements of rock, pop, hip hop and synth. I'm not sure if Congratulations is my favorite track by the group, but it definitely stands out as the obvious single. Lyrically, we're not talking about a happy "congratulations" situation here. This is a total, bitter break-up song -- though luckily it's much more anthemic than depressing.



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iKON - My Type

I never really understood the label of "pre-release" or "warm-up" single. As far as I can tell, it's usually tacked on to a subtle, pleasant song that's released before the inevitably impressive, take-no-prisoners awesome comeback. This begs the question: why bother with the less-memorable track at all when you could just skip right to the awesome one? My guess is that sometimes a pre-release single is actually designed to lower expectations. I know this sounds counter-intuitive, but sometimes massive anticipation and excitement only leads to scrutiny and disappointment. This is true in particular with debut groups. In my mind, My Type is this kind of pre-release. It's nice and pleasant and actually growing on me more and more, but it certainly doesn't leave you with much. It's not the incredibly memorable debut track we know that a group as hyped as iKON is capable of, but it kind of opens my mind and puts me in the mood to hear more. Excitement may be slightly lowered, but curiosity is piqued. Luckily, we don't have long to wait, as their proper "debut" is scheduled for next week.



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The Kolors - Everytime

This track reminds me so much of something I would've jumped all over when this blog first started almost a decade ago. My music taste has changed a lot since then, but I'll always be open to a bit of electro-tinged pop/rock. The Kolors are an Italian synth-rock group that has released two albums to date. Without resorting to stereotypes, I'm not sure what Italian music sounds like in general, but something about their sound actually seems very British to me. Everytime is the lead single to the recently released second album, and seems to be their biggest hit to date. It's the kind of bouncy, lightweight radio pop that goes down real easy. From listening to previews, it sounds like there are songs on the album that'll appeal more to me (ie: more synth-focused), but this feels like a great entry point to their sound.