What albums did you listen to today?...continued

Oh My Girl - Remember Me: With a group name like that, I really wanted to like them. Seeing them at an airport “OH MY GOD IT’S OH MY GIRL!” Angelic sweet vocals over rather generic though melodic electropop. Very typical modern Kpop, as I learned.

Gugudan – Act.4 Cait Sith: This sounds exactly like Oh My Girl, right down to the same sweetie-pie vocals. They could play each other’s gigs and no one would notice.

Lovelyz – Fall in Lovelyz: There’s a bit of sophistication in a strange way, like marshmellow 70’s soft hits sent through a dancy-Kpop grinder. Same angelic harmonizing vocals. Maybe it’s all just one girl via multiple tracks for all of these groups. She must be rich.

Mamamoo – Red Moon: This is different. They sound like sassy women who can really sing, and there’s a rapper girl who’s pretty entertaining. Sounds like decent tropical music for beach resorts. Maybe I’ll keep this, since I can’t always be blasting Magma at poolside cookouts.

Loona 1/3 – Love & Evil: Now we’re talking, symphonic Kpop! The first two songs are actually really well composed with good musicianship. In wasn’t expecting this. It settles into generic mode for a bit but gets jazzy later on. Good lord I actually think this has potential.

Loona Odd Eye Circle – Max & Match: Some junk, but some mega earworms too. Then there’s “Loonatic”. Best song I’ve heard so far, very atmospheric and spacey, almost shoegazy. These Loona clans are interesting.

Loona YYXY – Beauty & the Beat: The first song was written and produced by Grimes, but the last song is where it’s at. Highly unusual chord sequences for pop music.

Loona – [++]: Strange album name. This must be the Loona mothership since there’s a slew of young women on the cover instead of just 3 or 4. Oddly enough, this is probably less intersting and more generic than the smaller clans.

Fromis 9 – To.Day: Kpop is treated by many of its fans like a sport, obssessing over one group while hating all similar groups like they’re rivals. To be that stupid in life...

Anyways, this group has a bit of a disadvantage with that group name. Try saying Fromis 9 out loud and not sound dumb.

Elris – Summer Dream: Not to be outdone by Fromis 9 in the crap name department, there’s this girl gang. Still, there’s potential for great moments:

     Me: “Screw this noise, I wanna listen to some Elris!”

     Old-timer Friend: “Yep, good classic...hey wait, what the F#%K did you just say?!”

Too bad it’s more generic Oh My Girl worship, same with Fromis 9.

Red Velvet – Summer Magic: If I was forced to be an idiot and choose one Kpop group to “stan”, I’d probably settle for this team, since the music here is a bit off-kilter and weird but insanely catchy and inventive. Like Willy-Wonka’s factory in music form. The girls are a little more brassy than the usual innocent angels thing.

WJSN – WJ Please?: At this point, with so many names taken, why bother with words...just throw some letters together! The difference between “WouJahSuN” and Oh My Girl is that this group has a serious rapper girl popping up all the time. Like a little sister, bratty and annoying.

Dreamcatcher – Alone in the City: This was interesting, as there’s some serious rock in a couple of these songs, and more attitude (they don’t sound like virgin fairies). I stopped here since this was pretty good and why not end on something decent...