The Best New Music: July 2024
A ranking and review of July’s best K-pop, J-pop, and C-pop releases!
#20: Ayumu Imazu, “Where Do We Go!”
“Where Do We Go!” addresses an existential crisis in the most fun way possible! Ayumu Imazu sings about how it seems “like everybody’s got it all figured out,” while he is “barely getting through every hour.” But with repeated lyrics including “Where do we go?,” “What do we know?,” and “Still standing with our heads up high” (emphases added), he reminds listeners that feeling adrift is more common than they think. By reiterating the fact he feels just as directionless as them, his advice about trusting that grit pays off (“tears mixed in with… sweat… taking us higher and higher”) rings authentic. With a catchy, upbeat tune and “We’re all in this together” sentiment, Ayumu Imazu humbly and humorously conveys relatable confusion.
#19: Vicky Chen & W.M.L, “But You Give It Up”
While Vicky Chen sings about heartbreak and devastation in the choruses, wondering why and when a lover stopped meeting her halfway, W.M.L focuses on anger. He raps with authentic agitation about the unfairness of no longer being equally emotionally invested in a relationship. By focusing on different emotions, Vicky Chen’s and W.M.L’s contrasting voices complete the story in a compelling way when combined. Further bolstering the emotional impact of “But You Give It Up” is its music video, which is not quite accurately described as plot-based or appearance-based; the story is told through the settings themselves. Glowing and celestial phenomena, storms, periods of suspended time… the action comes from settings more than characters, a perfect way to represent a relationship in which at least one person has stopped investing energy. “But You Give It Up” excels at depicting the intense yearning for a return to a love story maintained through reciprocal effort.
#18: Monkey Majik, CIRCLES
CIRCLES maintains a light and laid-back atmosphere, but it does so through a bunch of different flavors! The songs stay suitable for a happy summer day’s soundtrack, but the liveliness keeps changing forms. Retro, synth-focused jams include “Imposter,” “Fashion,” and (albeit to a lesser extent) “be with you.” Guitar-focused jams include “HYLMN,” “Borderline,” and “RESCUE.” A brass band and joyful piano-playing define “The Good Life,” while “Scramble” delivers joy in a more subdued manner. Then there is the crowd-pleaser that is “O.G. Summer” and the wild card that is “Unknown”! All in all, CIRCLES keeps the good vibes coming!
#17: NiziU, “RISE UP”
Everything about “RISE UP” screams “commanding presence,” from the bold beat to the surreal music video. In the video, while they talk the talk, declaring they will never give up and will only get stronger from tough times, NiziU also walk the walk. The ways they do so are symbolic (like going from having a caterpillar to a butterfly as company), cinematic (like breaking through glass screens as if breaking into new dimensions), and often unnerving (like having voodoo-doll-style control over settings)! Other strange and high-stakes scenes include running up the side of a building, creating gaps in the road through punching it or pulling a giant zipper down the middle of it, and riding a bike high into the sky! The bottom line is that when NiziU say they are unstoppable, they mean it! Being underestimated only bolsters their strength and persistence! This “Don’t you dare doubt us!” message is conveyed in peculiar ways, and the memorableness extends to the B-side, “BELIEVE.” “BELIEVE” is a solid reiteration of “RISE UP,” especially thanks to this line: “We will keep fighting / As long as we’re alive.”
#16: KAVE, Flight of Ideas
At long last, KAVE’s Flight of Ideas has landed! It does not disappoint and shows a very different Gaho than the soloist people are used to seeing and hearing. He dives headfirst into a new alternative/electronic rock image, switching up his vocal tone and rocking a platinum blonde makeover. “KAVE” stands for “Knights Always have Veiled Egos,” but given the fact all of these songs are self-composed, the members deserve to lift that veil! Each song on Flight of Ideas proves to have been worth the wait, but the best ones for fully witnessing Gaho’s inner rockstar unleashed are “Legend” (the most lyrically interesting track) and “Hurricane” (the track with the most interesting overall arrangement and best high notes).
#15: MIYAVI, Eat Eat Eat
In addition to invigorating instrumentals, this trio of songs excels because of MIYAVI’s voice acting! He fully immerses himself in the role of a remorseless, taunting villain in “Eat Eat Eat.” The instrumental on its own also has personality; it’s an electrifying industrial one topped off with epic guitar-shredding. “Broken Fantasy” goes for a more pop-rock feel, with MIYAVI sounding less like a hardened villain and more like a rambunctious sidekick! More epic guitar-playing kicks off the chameleonic “Tragedy Of Us,” whose second verse is noticeably faster than the first one. This emphasizes the “us” part of the story; MIYAVI portrays himself as listeners’ equal, facing an escalating whirlwind alongside them. While rocking out uninterrupted, listeners get to hear MIYAVI go from a villain to a sidekick and then an equally convincing main character!
#14: ExWHYZ, Sweet & Sour
This short and sweet EP is anything but sour! The best songs are the club-ready ones with a funky digital distortion done to ExWHYZ’s voices, “NIGHT COASTER” and “I won’t tell.” “present - ExWHYZ Ver.” delivers all the glitchy goodness that dance and pop music enthusiasts crave, and its spatial qualities make it a winner for those who admire the subtle art of great surround-sound arrangements. The well-paced addition of sounds in “Drama” and the imagery-provoking lyrics of “Sweet & Sour” are other highlights. Sweet & Sour is a quick but memorable energy boost for casual listeners and those with an ear for detail alike.
#13: DUSTCELL, HIKARI
HIKARI is a fun and fast-paced frenzy. The instruments rotate amongst each other, some retreating into the background while others get their turns in the spotlight. There are ample uses of zany sound effects, and the patterns that pitch and pace changes follow remain hard to place. The enjoyment of these songs comes not just from their feigned sense of spontaneity, but also their sense of completeness. It is impressive for songs to be brisk but not too brief, and HIKARI strikes that balance. Whether an old or a new song, each tracklist addition teaches a different lesson about how to make a song engaging, from accelerating or decelerating a beat mid-song to maintaining remarkable momentum.
#12: ONE OK ROCK, “Delusion:All”
“Delusion:All” is a galvanizing anthem. As ONE OK ROCK lament feeling like youths’ concerns are unheard, their naturally growing frustration is matched by a quickening instrumental and lyrics that grow closer to the core of the problem: being “exhausted” and feeling “delusional” for responding to a chaotic world with ignored outrage. After all, it is normal to feel “crazy” if the popular response to a tumultuous world is a shrug! The group refuses to let nonchalance be normalized and expresses determination to be the change they want to see. This message comes through loud and clear with lyrics about the need for solidarity (“They’ll conquer us if we divide”) and anticipating challenges ahead (“In order to be free, you gotta let go / But know that once you do / That’s when they take hold”). The instrumental choices compound the sense of unreliability and disarray that they sing about, with an intensity that ebbs and flows while the conviction conveyed vocally never does. The group’s “There’s not a moment to waste” mentality clashes with the pace of social change, a tension also exemplified through the post-chorus glitching and final guitar wails. “Delusion:All” is a soundtrack for the process of turning frustration into fuel for a collective fire.
#11: THE BOYZ, Gibberish
Gibberish is the best kind of sonic whirlwind! The title track literally howls, “Shout it out” offers a welcome blast of EDM, and “SKIN” surprises by pairing a sultry tone with bouncy synths. The other songs show off a wide instrumental range and an array of vocal strong suits, often in unexpected ways (for example, whispering the chorus of “Criss Cross”). Gibberish proves that THE BOYZ have the dexterity to flex new sides to their musicality on a dime, and they do so nonstop. Further keeping the audience on their toes is the “Gibberish” music video. The group dances in and out of scenes rapidly and repeatedly, going everywhere from the eye of a storm to the side of a skyscraper! Their matching outfits that say both “REAL” and “UNREAL” and topsy-turvy camerawork compound viewers’ feeling of being messed with by an uncontrollable force. Everything is a blur in the video and the album, and that brings home the message that what people are feeling is indecipherable - in other words, gibberish!
#10: (G)I-DLE, I SWAY
The overall message of this (G)I-DLE era: “We turn heads and are happy to do so!” The members unapologetically bask in attention, which picks up their story right where it left off. Past eras have been about their insistence that “The public can watch us, as long as they do so on our terms,” and I SWAY shows what those terms are! In the “Klaxon” video, (G)I-DLE put on a show whenever they feel like it, dancing amid a traffic jam and gushing over the social media buzz they generate. They keep other video characters in supporting roles only, including a super-fan in an I SWAY teaser video who gets so hyped to catch a glimpse of the group that he crashes his car into their practice space! Another super-fan is in the highlight medley video and giddily rocks out to (G)I-DLE’s music while in a recording studio.
While the narrative control stays in (G)I-DLE’s hands, I SWAY’s B-sides confess to their more insecure sides. For example, they reflect on how taxing on their spirits fame has been in “Last Forever,” and they indicate a reliance on someone else to make them feel confident in “Bloom.” The theme of controlling their public-facing image implies control over what traits stay reserved for their private selves, too, making the exposure of their insecurities in no way hypocritical. With commendable openness, (G)I-DLE sometimes act larger-than-life, at times grow insecure, and sing about both ends of the spectrum.
#9: Misako Uno, I wish
I wish offers a mix of chances to dance and to cry, and sometimes both seem appropriate! Back-to-back ballads, “love myself” and “Sorrow,” solemnly contend with how fleeting time is and how “cruel” the world seems. But the “crying because it’s over” sentiment is replaced with a “smile because it happened” one elsewhere on the EP. In the final ballad, “I wish,” Misako Uno reflects on the strength she can derive from positive past experiences; a past filled with love fills up her repository of emotional strength. The other two songs revel in the “Just enjoy this moment” feeling, as opposed to the “... while it lasts” part. She lets loose with the danceable, “lalala”-filled “Yell” and the sassy standout “Ti Ti.” Misako Uno spends part of this EP distressed about the cold and cruel world and part of the time accepting it and refusing to let it stop her from having a good time! It’s a fitting soundtrack for universally understood emotions, and its main message is a moving one about making something beautiful out of the world’s broken pieces.
#8: TWICE, DIVE
DIVE is both a sparkly spectacle and surprisingly serious. The “DIVE” music video is set in an eye-popping aquatic paradise. TWICE look dreamy and dazzling while donning pearls and pastels, and they make gestures that cause their surroundings to ripple like waves, keeping the mermaid inspiration top of mind.
Visuals aside, DIVE is admirable for its emotional depth. Songs like “Beyond the Horizon” reassure people that “Sometimes anxiety hits,” and that is normal and valid; they relate to feeling overwhelmed by love’s pull in songs like “LOVE WARNING;” and they admit to burying some secrets very deep in “Ocean Deep.” After the confessional focus of the first third of the album comes roughly a third of it that focuses on improving their low self-esteem. They express a desire to show “a more real side of [themselves]” in “Here I am;” they celebrate the true beauty that “isn’t always visible” in “Inside of me;” and they use an insightful magnifying glass analogy in “Echoes of heart,” suggesting that one can actually look too closely at oneself to see beauty clearly. The last third of the album is much lighter and speaks to the freeness one feels after learning to love oneself. The only song that does not neatly fit into one of these categories is “Peach Soda,” but it earns its place on the tracklist too, thanks to unique analogies (comparing summers with versus without love to “flat” versus “sweet” sodas, then describing words like “I love you” floating away like ocean waves). This TWICE release is delightful both aesthetically and when “diving” deeper into its substance!
#7: Dreamcatcher, [VirtuouS]
[VirtuouS] is a Goldilocks album; the amount of each characteristic is just right! The pacing of each song is great, with no component rushing too quickly or too slowly into the next one. There is lyrical variety but also through-lines, with many lyrics about destiny and perseverance that bring to mind past Dreamcatcher song topics without being derivative. The album as a whole has neither too much anger nor too much timidity, with piano-led bookends before and after alt-rock and pop-punk jams (“Fireflies” shows a particularly welcome new warmth to Dreamcatcher’s harmonies). The “JUSTICE” music video has neither too many Easter eggs nor too few to be satisfying, and the song itself has both surprising (with choruses focused on a stellar electronic breakdown) and unsurprising strong suits (like the time given for many different voices to shine). Overall, [VirtuouS] delivers for long-time fans through smart stylistic choices, some familiar and some new.
#6: STAYC, Metamorphic
What makes Metamorphic meaningful is not just its self-love message, but its openness towards the process of self-discovery staying incomplete. STAYC’s music goes beyond confidence-boosting to empower listeners’ future selves; the songs express both contentment in their current identities and excitement at meeting who they will become! Some songs (like “Twenty,” “Cheeky Icy Thang,” and “Trouble Maker”) focus on self-hype, while others are about brushing off bruised egos and refusing to let past relationships dim their inner stars (like “Give It 2 Me” and “Nada”). STAYC refuse to let their “prime time slip away,” as they put it in “1 Thing,” which is why they make quite a scene as they dance and strut through the “Cheeky Icy Thang” music video!
Metamorphic gives a clearer picture than ever of who STAYC really are, but again, they also find joy in continuing to learn about themselves. They enjoy staying “a secret” and “curious,” as they say in “Let Me Know.” They express indecisiveness about their futures in “Find” (“Which way should I choose?”). They say hi to their reflections and ask “What is the real me?” in “Beauty Bomb.” One more example: “A beautifully spreading rainbow… Keep watching the new me,” they advise in “Gummy Bear.” Metamorphic accurately represents STAYC’s transformation into more self-assured individuals and offers a way for fans to follow their lead.
#5: Jimin, MUSE
Put simply, MUSE is a time machine. It celebrates the Jimin of the past with “Closer Than This,” a sweet song he made with his fans in mind. It pays homage to artists who came before Jimin, through the “Smeraldo Garden Marching Band” music video, which is loosely inspired by The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. It moves into the present day with “Slow Dance,” a saxophone-driven R&B song that speaks to Jimin’s newfound maturity, and “Be Mine,” a song that speaks to his new comfort level with genre-blending (the song is Latin- and Afrobeats-inspired and is topped off with R&B synths). Lastly, “Who” puts one foot in the past and one in the present, pairing Jimin’s early-aughts musical influences with lyrics about what is currently on his mind.
While MUSE is a solid listening experience on its own, it is doubly satisfying when listening to it back-to-back with FACE. FACE’s theme is introspection, while MUSE borrows some ingredients from FACE and applies them to external things in Jimin’s life. FACE sounds like Jimin’s diary, while MUSE sounds like his published biography; the former is no-holds-barred, while the latter focuses on what story Jimin overtly wants to tell the public. Together, FACE and MUSE give listeners a firm sense of who Jimin has been, is, and will become.
#4: NCT 127, WALK
As usual, this group fearlessly mashes together seemingly opposite styles and concepts. Promotion-wise, they have opted for a chill, unscripted approach in some ways (like with a series of “podcast episodes”) and a high-concept one in other ways (like with the “Intro: Wall to Wall” video, which alludes to their ongoing, supernatural music video world). Sound-wise, they stay true to their pop and hip-hop roots while dabbling in other genres, like jazz. Tonally, they sing in a cocky manner at times and a sweet, sincere one at others. They are also all over the map outfit-wise, with both formal and casual attire in this era’s concept images and videos. Tying all of these disparate elements together is the album title and main topic: walking. The “WALKING CLUB 127” video offers the members’ personal definitions of the seemingly straightforward topic. “Walking” is described in the context of perseverance (“Constantly putting one foot in front of the other”), a united front (“We believe that we can go further when we walk together”), and new horizons (“We were walking our own paths, and we met as if by destiny”).
NCT 127 continue to shine when exposing wide ranges of possibilities where they previously went unseen; they have once again found untapped thematic and musical potential in the most seemingly banal places!
#3: OFFICIAL HIGE DANDISM, Rejoice
This album indeed offers many reasons to Rejoice, from clever ways with words to explosive soundscapes! This band uses a plethora of unconventional analogies. “MIXED NUTS” is about learning to “digest” life despite “chewed-up” emotions that stay “stuck in [their] teeth”! Life is compared to a chess match in “Chessboard,” something with roles that change “between the checkered pattern of happiness and sadness.” Leaving a mark on someone is compared to getting a “TATTOO.” Lastly, “Subtitle” is about feeling intractably bound to something else, like how a subtitle is always going to be associated with a title. The distinguishable lyricism extends beyond analogies: “Subtitle” also includes interesting comments like “I want kindness more than correctness.” If still not convinced to check out this album, consider its sonic range: mid-tempo rock (“Get Back To Jinsei”), turbo-charged energy-boosters (“Urami Tsurami Kiwami”), mellower good vibes (“SOULSOUP”), eclectic balls of noise (“MIXED NUTS,” “Anarchy - Rejoice ver.”), slow songs (“B-Side Blues”), and so much more. Plus, the pacing remains unpredictable, with songs like “Catch Ball” seeming to change tempos as they go alone, as if made through improvisation (“White Noise” has a similarly interesting pattern of escalations and retreats).
#2: ENHYPEN, ROMANCE : UNTOLD
While ROMANCE : UNTOLD is sonically far from ENHYPEN’s most ambitious project, it is literally and figuratively another story when it comes to their videos! The group takes their already-sprawling fictional narrative in even more directions through a set of mini-movies: a gritty and action-packed short film titled “UNTOLD,” a mysterious love story told through the “XO (Only If You Say Yes)” music video, and a comedic horror story told through the “Brought The Heat Back” video. Easter eggs abound in all three, and some details even harken back to the very beginning of ENHYPEN’s audiovisual story (more on these details in future write-ups and podcast episodes!). Keeping ROMANCE : UNTOLD officially part of the canon are the many lyrical allusions to the members’ “Paranormal” identities. In this era, playing it relatively safe sonically is more than made up for by ENHYPEN’s curious and quirky-as-ever video hijinks!
#1: Stray Kids, ATE
Stay tuned for a separate write-up about this excellent album, coming soon!
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