Loossemble – TTYL. The most successful of Loossemble’s three mini-albums in a little over a year, before they split with their label CTDENM. More on this and other post-LOONA related news this year in a separate forthcoming review.
naevis – Done. Bit of an unusual one from the SM Entertainment project team. naevis was originally a virtual idol who interacted with and assisted the girl group aespa in several videos. A whole set of teasers laying out her origin story preceded the first track. An interesting milestone (although Hitchhiker’s Alone, also on SM, played with some of these techniques a few years back) but considering the resources that the corporation has to hand, the deployment of vocaloid technology here isn’t really that groundbreaking.
HWASA – NA. Third MAMAMOO solo release this year. HWASA is always spicy as hell, and this anthem to self-love shows her this time being spicy as hell in Paris. A real force of nature.
YUQI – Radio (Dum-Dum). Officially this was released as a “special clip”. Not sure how that differs from a full-on video and single, because that’s what this is. YUQI’s solo material earlier in the year was very promising, and this earworm of earworms is the proof of the pudding. Rivals some of this year’s bangers from her group (G)-IDLE, and that’s one helluva high benchmark.
Luli Lee – Flight Log. Always interested to hear what Luli Lee is up to, and unfortunately it hasn’t been much lately. These are the problems with being K-indie; you don’t have the backup that the big acts do. Anyway, her 80s-inflected bass-driven style is strong as ever. Which is very strong indeed.
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