Youngtak, the ‘Desert Icefish’ with humor - Personality of the Year [Jeon Hyo-jin‘s Selfish Pick]
- The arrangement is in order of release date based on albums released from January 1st to December 13th-
♦ (G)I-dle Yuqi 1st Mini Album [YUQ1] : Drink It Up (Feat. pH-1), On Clap (Feat. Lexie Liu)
- Hip plus hip is Yuqi. The key was to find tracks that would bring out Yuqi‘s deep tone, and in that respect, Yuqi’s solo debut is successful. We recommend ‘Drink It Up’, which harmonizes with pH-1‘s melodic rap, and ‘On Clap’, which minimizes the beat and repeats the 4-bar bass loop to get your heart racing.
♦ DKB 8th Mini Album [Urban Ride] : TAEKWONDO
- The humor of those who induce laughter. DKB, who puts one unique track in every album, came back with ‘Taekwondo’ this time. The background music that seems to be inside a console game screen induced ‘snickers’ laughter, and the powerful energy of taekwondo intuitively and funnily conveyed the group’s energy.
- An artist with humor. Young Tak has a wide range of genres that he can handle as a singer-songwriter, and he knows how to humorously express topics. ‘Ice Fish in the Desert’ is a track that condenses Young Tak‘s unique charm. The refreshing rhythm provides comfort to the eardrums, and the sensually descriptive lyrics make you smile.
♦ Onew 3rd Mini Album [FLOW]: Maestro
- Become a fish that sways. He sings about the swimming of a fish that longs for freedom with moist vocals. This track is refreshing with its unique imagination that overlaps the movements of the fins and the gestures of the maestro, and Onew’s unfamiliar tone.
- This is how the worldview is completed. It is a very conceptual ‘Encore’. The witches‘ ecstatic party is completed with the 808 bass, the curious music box sound, and the vocal spectrum that goes back and forth between low and high notes. When you listen, the image of witches boiling soup with a potion comes to mind.
♦ Baby Monster 1st Full Album [DRIP] : BILLIONAIRE, Love In My Heart
- This is how you could do it! Baby Monster proved the DNA of their agency ‘YG’. They seem to be descendants of singer Lexy, and they reinterpreted the Y2K pop R&B sound with ‘BILLIONAIRE’, bragging that ‘Money can’t measure my worth’, and then they sing about the lively freedom that makes people sing along with them with the pop dance song ‘Love In My Heart’. This is their first full-length album that fully conveys the charms of the members who can both vocalize and rap.
Jeon Hyo-jin, Donga.com Reporter jhj@donga.com
