NewJeans – Supernatural & Right Now. Last single of the year for NewJeans, and potentially forever depending on how their dispute with ADOR plays out. Being a Japanese release, the Right Now video features Takashi Murakami motifs in addition to as a return to their Powerpuff Girls avatars. Meanwhile Supernatural goes for vaporwave styling, a really kinetic dance routine and a sufficient number of stabs. Pitch perfect.
Epik High – ANTIHERO. Epik High are new to us in spite of having been around since 2001 and having spent a period of their career as part of the YG Family. The Pump mixtape sees them returning to hiphop fundamentals, and all of those years at the pit face really shine here. Best line: “dressed like a sociopath; dancing like a psychopath!”
Red Velvet – Cosmic. Red Velvet claim to K-pop royalty is affirmed by the sumptuous, intoxicating arrangement and production on their album of the year, Cosmic. There’s a folk horror flavour to the video this time, and for once they don’t seem to be murdering any unwitting young men here, or each other that matter.
LISA – ROCKSTAR. First BLACKPINK solo release of the year, and fucking hell does this kick ass! Her first output since leaving YG Entertainment, and it shows an unshakable confidence in her trajectory, but this is not even her final form: huger material was still to come.
aespa – Live My Life. Yeah, this is closer to last year’s My World vibe, and while it’s near impossible not to imagine the chorus being used as a sanitary towel ad in the 90s, this is somehow just really good. A bit of a bratty rock out, with the girls slumming it on the video, some anthemic stuff and just a soupçon of quirkiness. What’s not to like?
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