The Austral-Romanian Empire

[koganbot]

Something amazing has happened this year with Orange Caramel's singing, though I can't put my finger specifically on what. All I've got is adjectives. Last year Orange Caramel had two terrific songs ("Bangkok City" and "Shanghai Romance"), each dragged down a little by vocals that I'd describe as "adequate": going for cuteness but sounding blah,

Comments

[azacab]

I love Orange Caramel, but can't stand After School. Orange Caramel are quite funny and fun, whereas After School is too serious and wannabe sexy for me. I think that OC are knowingly cute and coy in a way that seems to subvert the usual kawaii kind of pandering. To me it seems like they're having a hell of a time playing with K-pop tropes and stereotypes and making kind of a joke of them; there's that trot influence and the campiness of "Bangkok City" and "Shanghai Romance" or the unabashed "asianness" of "A~ing" and "Magic Girl". It's something in K-pop that I feel like only T-ara before them have seemed to approximate in their music.

I think that's why the saxobeat/americano-styled beat on "Lipstick" works well with them. It's goofy, a little exotic, and corny. Whether that's just because the beat seems to recall those hits is perhaps a question worth raising, but regardless it's a totally slippery and wild arrangement that lets them cram in all their weird vocal ticks and hooks. Kind of feels like the aural equivalent of them making little heart symbols with their hands or winking in schoolgirl outfits and stuff.

It's too bad the whole album couldn't be like the singles (or have "My Sweet Devil" and "Funny Hunny" on it) because that's clearly the niche Orange Caramel works best in. The ballads and R&B love songs seem to be the total antithesis of their whole shtick, and I have no idea why K-pop labels always shoehorn that kind of stuff onto an album. Maybe that's what's popular in Korea and my view of Orange Caramel is skewed because I'm not a native, but I just think there's a dissonance between their ballads and singles that's more than just "dance song" and "love song".

[koganbot]

Despite my liking After School a whole lot, I love your comment. I'm definitely feeling the "too serious and wannabe sexy," which could describe 75% of the world's pop music right now. See what I said to Dave the other week about Dawn Richard, hard-style r&b toughies, and their grimly "sexual" dancing.

I would argue that by now After School's music has pretty much escaped whatever their concept was once supposed to be. I'm not sure what "the Korean Pussycat Dolls" even was meant to mean anyway (nor the actual Pussycat Dolls, for that matter*). The concept of "Bang!" - to me - was basically just plain bang! Never knew if it came out right before or right after 2NE1's "Try To Follow Me," but in my mind it managed to scale 2NE1's mountain and leap above it from there, "Top this!," braggadocio brought in from the days of the mid-'80s Roxannes. (And of course "I Am The Best" did top it.)

"Eyeline" has actual pang, "Rambling Girls" is touching for its desire to bury itself in stomp, "Flashback" is light and lighthearted in its genuinely sexy siren call, more so than any American equivalent I can think of. But only since the middle of last year, with the Red and Blue flipsides, have After School been reaching me with any consistency.

Agree that when the ballads appear the Orange Caramel album goes to the doldrums, even if tedious ballads are a pop music tradition. T-ara are the only group whose ballads seem of a piece with their dance-pop, are slower and achier but are still a dance rather than a slog. Similar to how T-ara's raps follow up the rhythm and repetition of their nonraps rather than being an announcement of cred.

*Though their "Halo" beats Beyoncé's; their one emotional moment, don't know where it came from.

[koganbot]

it's a totally slippery and wild arrangement that lets them cram in all their weird vocal ticks and hooks. Kind of feels like the aural equivalent of them making little heart symbols with their hands or winking in schoolgirl outfits and stuff.

This is a tremendous description; "Lipstick" really does feel unfettered and even a little unhinged, yet with no strain. Has somersaulted right into my top ten.