favourite = I wanted to listen to it, I enjoyed having it stuck in my head, and I thought about it enough to have something to say about it.
Listed roughly in descending order from “good but kind of embarrassing” (12) to “mind-blowing” (1), though the placement is by no means definitive - I’m not a digital chart.
12. U-KISS, “0330”. For a song that is ostensibly the tragic story of the breaking of U-KISS’s collective heart, it sure sounds like a wedding march. In fact, I forgot that 70% of this song is in fact rapped (and has lyrics like “Don’t deny our r-squared pi”) because I was so taken by the choruses, all striding string pulls and vocals pleading to stay aloft over them.
11. Sistar19, “Ma Boy”. Sistar is often a Disney Channel version of 2NE1, so it’s nice to hear some laid-back R&B instead from their two most prominent members (the lead singer and the rapper). Brave Brothers, who have produced most of Sistar’s singles, wisely strip back their usual hyperactive, sample-happy production; there’s no special effects here besides the gaps in Bora’s flow, and nothing flashy besides Hyorin’s voice left to its own devices. (Compare this to the full group’s glittery comeback single “So Cool”, also produced by Brave Brothers.)
10. F1RST, “Ma Ma My”. I really didn’t think this song was going to hold up very well, so I spent all my words about it early. But I realized that (spoiler!) I couldn’t praise “Trouble Maker” without also praising “Ma Ma My”, because most of the things make the former work make the latter work as well: the guys sing, the girls rap, the lyrics are snappy and equate flirting with danger, and the beat pushes right along all the while. F1RST’s disadvantage is the lack of innovation in the beat, but if they have to make a song we’ve heard before, at least they have the execution down pat.
9. Big Bang, “Tonight”. This song makes Big Bang sound like the biggest band in the world. It could be the stadium-size production, the RedOne-isms, the fact that G-Dragon is out of touch with immediate trends just enough to find clichés cool (the guitar smashing, the Autotune) but not so much that he forgets how to make a song people will sing along to; or I could just have been fooled by the fucking sample of an audience cheering in the background (which is some Aronofsky-level hubris). Nothing game-changing, but when you’re the biggest band in the world, who cares?
8. Trouble Maker, “Trouble Maker”. The other great Hyuna single of the year, though she’s really just a guest rapper here for Jang Hyunseung of BEAST. This one is more slinky and adult, as befits the upgrade in censor-baiting from liberal butt-shaking to approaching third base. Luckily, unlike the choreography, the song is fun without being too goofy and sexy without being too serious about it.
7. Infinite, “내꺼하자” (Be Mine). I get the most out of this song when I think of it as a boy band analogue to KARA’s “Step”: minor chords leading to major chords, earwormy chorus, dance break leading to incongruous and gendered bridge (“Step”: soft and shimmery; “Be Mine”: hard rock guitars) leading to key change, and surprisingly serious rapping. This, in fact, is the other great Infinite single of the year, the first being “BTD”, but I like the melody of “Be Mine” better, preferring sweet to anguished.
1:00 pm • 27 December 2011
#year end #2011 #k-pop #u-kiss #sistar19 #f1rst #big bang #trouble maker #hyuna #infinite #music
