Country & Eastern, Part 2
Posted these on Rolling Country:
POST ONE:
Jiyoon and Gayoon of the great K-pop girl group 4minute are billing themselves as 2YOON and have just released a country-dance-pop (or something) EP called Harvest Moon [EDIT: But see below]. I'll report back when I hear it. In the meantime, there's the single, "24/7," which subdee calls a mess - certainly has more of a mashup sensibility than a country sensibility. The first vocals you hear are a rap. My thumb is wavering but in the up direction. Jiyoon's climbing-and-falling wail in the prechorus is the best part (shows up first at 0:28 thru 0:33), though I'd more likely envision Robert Plant singing it than Miranda Lambert. There's a teaser with a very problematic cultural stereotype that unfortunately I find funny (and sounds more like Steppenwolf than Hank Williams). I'm sure 2YOON dance better than any of their country or rock counterparts.
I would like the EP to be great, so that on next year's ballot I can list Shinsadong Tiger, Kim Da Hoon, and Lee Sang Ho as Country Music's Three Best Songwriters Of 2013 [EDIT: But once again, see below].
(xhuxk, you've got a Shinsadong Tiger song on your 2012 P&J ballot.)
POST TWO:
Having now listened to Harvest Moon, and done some searching for writer and producer credits, I discover that (1) no songs other than "24/7" even remotely pretend to be country, (2) I actually couldn't find any producer credits, but if Shinsadong Tiger and Kim Da Hoon had anything to do with the thing (as some Hallyu website claimed), it would be as producers, since they're not in the writers credits that someone posted on Omonatheydidnt. Not that I necessarily trust such information, but my ears certainly don't hear anything of the quality of "Lovey-Dovey" or "Trouble Maker" or "TTL." There is a pretty good lite metal power ballad, "Why Not," written by Thomas Troelsen and Remee, a couple of Danes who've done good work with SHINee and SNSD and Corbin Bleu and f(x), and also by Robbie Nevil who as a singer did music that I've utterly forgotten but that other people like and as a writer had a hand in many of the worst of the High School Musical tracks, all of this being neither here nor there for Rolling Country. Also, while I'm still being somewhere but not here or there, Lars Aass and Ole Henrik Antonsena, a couple of Norwegians, are on the credits of "Black Swan," the third of the three good songs (out of five) on here, and they once helped M2M write "Everything You Do." And one of the two M's - Marit Larsen - went on to have occasional countryish moments including my country track of the year in 2006, not that that's relevant to 2YOON.
Which leaves us with "24/7," which is rolling in country signifiers and instrumentation while still doing a fine job of feeling K-pop and not country. It stomps along, it wails, it grins. It is resolutely and deliberately silly, but with a serious theme, and I quote (though I'm not sure whom I'm quoting): "The title track of the mini album, '24/7,' is about pulling ourselves out of the monotonous routines that we go through 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in order to seek a free, exciting life. It is a song that has an exciting intro and fun atmosphere. It combines the liveliness of country-pop with Gayoon's high notes and Jiyoon's powerful singing into a wonderful harmony." The video has a hen, a chicken, a pig, a mechanical bull [actually, a mechanical sheep], and a boombox. So, funny hunny as usual in the land down south of the 38th parallel. The track doesn't have the how-did-he-pull-that-all-together amazingness that Lee Sang Ho seemed to be going for, in imitation I'm guessing of his colleague Shinsadong Tiger. But my thumb is veering up to match my gullible smile, about a 6 or a 7.
POST ONE:
Jiyoon and Gayoon of the great K-pop girl group 4minute are billing themselves as 2YOON and have just released a country-dance-pop (or something) EP called Harvest Moon [EDIT: But see below]. I'll report back when I hear it. In the meantime, there's the single, "24/7," which subdee calls a mess - certainly has more of a mashup sensibility than a country sensibility. The first vocals you hear are a rap. My thumb is wavering but in the up direction. Jiyoon's climbing-and-falling wail in the prechorus is the best part (shows up first at 0:28 thru 0:33), though I'd more likely envision Robert Plant singing it than Miranda Lambert. There's a teaser with a very problematic cultural stereotype that unfortunately I find funny (and sounds more like Steppenwolf than Hank Williams). I'm sure 2YOON dance better than any of their country or rock counterparts.
Click to viewI would like the EP to be great, so that on next year's ballot I can list Shinsadong Tiger, Kim Da Hoon, and Lee Sang Ho as Country Music's Three Best Songwriters Of 2013 [EDIT: But once again, see below].
(xhuxk, you've got a Shinsadong Tiger song on your 2012 P&J ballot.)
POST TWO:
Having now listened to Harvest Moon, and done some searching for writer and producer credits, I discover that (1) no songs other than "24/7" even remotely pretend to be country, (2) I actually couldn't find any producer credits, but if Shinsadong Tiger and Kim Da Hoon had anything to do with the thing (as some Hallyu website claimed), it would be as producers, since they're not in the writers credits that someone posted on Omonatheydidnt. Not that I necessarily trust such information, but my ears certainly don't hear anything of the quality of "Lovey-Dovey" or "Trouble Maker" or "TTL." There is a pretty good lite metal power ballad, "Why Not," written by Thomas Troelsen and Remee, a couple of Danes who've done good work with SHINee and SNSD and Corbin Bleu and f(x), and also by Robbie Nevil who as a singer did music that I've utterly forgotten but that other people like and as a writer had a hand in many of the worst of the High School Musical tracks, all of this being neither here nor there for Rolling Country. Also, while I'm still being somewhere but not here or there, Lars Aass and Ole Henrik Antonsena, a couple of Norwegians, are on the credits of "Black Swan," the third of the three good songs (out of five) on here, and they once helped M2M write "Everything You Do." And one of the two M's - Marit Larsen - went on to have occasional countryish moments including my country track of the year in 2006, not that that's relevant to 2YOON.
Which leaves us with "24/7," which is rolling in country signifiers and instrumentation while still doing a fine job of feeling K-pop and not country. It stomps along, it wails, it grins. It is resolutely and deliberately silly, but with a serious theme, and I quote (though I'm not sure whom I'm quoting): "The title track of the mini album, '24/7,' is about pulling ourselves out of the monotonous routines that we go through 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in order to seek a free, exciting life. It is a song that has an exciting intro and fun atmosphere. It combines the liveliness of country-pop with Gayoon's high notes and Jiyoon's powerful singing into a wonderful harmony." The video has a hen, a chicken, a pig, a mechanical bull [actually, a mechanical sheep], and a boombox. So, funny hunny as usual in the land down south of the 38th parallel. The track doesn't have the how-did-he-pull-that-all-together amazingness that Lee Sang Ho seemed to be going for, in imitation I'm guessing of his colleague Shinsadong Tiger. But my thumb is veering up to match my gullible smile, about a 6 or a 7.