An Album a Day

• updates on where, and how, she has been since taking a 9-month hiatus
• messages from friends in the industry
• ALIVE! Podcast Network press release
  
• Genius Korea [OFF-RADAR] introduction, and more

An Album a Day is my exploration into the Korean music scene. This podcast will cover mainstream, indie and some underground artists within the scene and provide both factual and opinionated commentary. The biggest benefit to sharing my thoughts this way is that it will hopefully expose you to more great music and exploration of your own.

It’s the middle of winter in North America and the covid-19 pandemic experience is almost a year old in the United States. Through your support of the show -- both through reviews, listenership, and in some cases, financial contributions -- the pandemic bumped A3Day around a bit but didn’t end. Thank you! Being the host of this podcast is a true joy for me and a true energy drainer while juggling responsibilities away from this microphone. Therefore, there will be a long break between this season and the next.

During this time, I will be participating in guest spots on other shows, mentoring, supporting the development of a brand ambassadorship program within the podcast community, researching and developing episodes for Season 6, and preparing details for the potential return of the podcast festival my team hosted in 2020. Most importantly, I’ll be resting. It might not sound like it, based on what I just shared, but know that I’ll be basking in rest.

We aren’t finished yet, k-pop fans. First, our final idol group of Season 5, the men of AlphaBat, right after the drop.

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Hey y’all, in 2012 two young men were set to debut as AlphaBAT under an agency called YUB Entertainment. By the time the group made its debut in 2013, one fully departed the scene while the other, Shin Selin, changed his stage name to Iota -- the ninth letter in the Greek alphabet -- and was joined by eight other young men, all named after letters in the Greek alphabet. You would think that he would be the leader since he was an original member, but that belonged to the member who went by Beta. “Alpha” was reserved for their fandom.

Allow me to break down the name of AlphaBAT’s members, past and present:

• Ji Ha Yong, aka Beta
• Yoo Yeong Jin aka Epsilon, the older brother of Ricky of boy group Teen Top
• Lee Yeon Woo aka Lambda
• Lee Yong Hun aka Kappa
• Kim Jun Su aka Gamma
• Kim Sang Hun aka Code, whose name isn’t in the Greek alphabet and who almost made his debut with EXO
• Choi Yeon Soo aka Delta, who almost made his debut with boy group BOYFRIEND
• Lee San Ha aka Fie (Pi)
• Seol Jun aka Heta, another almost-EXO-member
• Shin Se Lin aka Iota
• Kim Su Yeob aka Jeta (Zeta), and
• Cho Gyu Min, who went by his first name and left the alphabet alone

This was during the time when double-digit groups were the way to play, trying to compete with the behemoth that is... was? ... the original EXO lineup, numerically brought to us by the efforts of Super Junior. We’ll learn more about these groups later down the line.

After leaving YUB Entertainment, AlphaBAT made their home at Simtong Entertainment and technically made their debut on November 12, 2013, with a performance of “AB City” for Arirang: Simply K-pop. I say “technically” because their label at the time selected November 14, 2013, as their official debut date. This is also the day that they performed on M! Countdown for the first time and just what was the reason for rejecting the Arirang moment? Is it because that’s South Korea’s premier English-language television network? Who knows, but things went well, apparently. The positive reception sent them into the release of their first studio album, “Attention,” released February 25, 2014.

I remember the debut single’s video. I was tickled by the refrain of the English alphabet and overwhelmed by the size of the group. I found them somehow by way of another large boy group called Topp Dogg, but that’s a story for another time. What tickles me now is the fact that “Attention” is a studio album but has only four new songs and one instrumental on it. The rest of the album is made of adding their pre-album singles to round it out. If you look at this information solely from good ol’ Wikipedia, you’re bound to be confused. I had a moment before listening where I said to myself, “Every time I believe we’ve definitively sorted out the difference between an EP and a studio album, something like this comes along and destroys my understanding of it all.”

Nevertheless, the album is a product of its time, staying true to the percussive choices and in-your-face audio aggressiveness that was popular during that time in K-pop. You were either R&B heavy or one 8-count away from potentially getting into a shoving match, reasons be damned. I particularly enjoyed their song “Always,” as it was a mellow transition from the energy of the other songs on the album. The production is smooth ...

An Album a Day is my exploration into the Korean music scene. This podcast will cover mainstream, indie and some underground artists within the scene and provide both factual and opinionated commentary. The biggest benefit to sharing my thoughts this way is that it will hopefully expose you to more great music and exploration of your own.

Today marks the end of our time with Akdong Musician and I’m sad to see them go. Final Thoughts are rarely scripted but there was no need to extend myself for what has clearly been an enjoyable collection of songs. You likely know what the overall discography ranking is by now. Albums Summer Episode, Sailing and Happening, right after the drop.

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Hey y’all, February is Black History Month and I’m participating in activities the remainder of this month with Black Into K-pop! Black Into K-pop (BKC) is a coalition, cohort, and community of Black K-pop podcasts coming together during the month of February, to collaborate with each other in a variety of ways. You can visit https://blackintokpop.tumblr.com/ to learn more about the members and view our calendar. One upcoming event that you can definitely participate in regardless of ethnicity is the Goodpods app takeover on February 10, 2021.

Goodpod’s mission is simple -- making it easy for people to find great podcasts by following their friends to see what they’re listening to and for podcasters to grow their audiences through word of mouth recommendations. It’s a social media platform exclusively for podcast content. How cool is that? Download the app, follow my profile, Multifacetedacg, and check out some of my favorite podcasts outside of the Hallyu Wave.

Last thing before we get started. BKC wanted to let you know about an awesome giveaway we're doing right now to uplift Black podcasters in the K-Pop fanbase. We're giving a one hundred dollar Amazon gift card to one lucky listener. All you have to do to enter to win is to head to Podchaser and leave a review for any BKC podcast (or an episode of their podcast) in the month of February. We've made it really easy for you with a list of all the BKC podcasts. Just go to podchaser.com/bkc and start leaving reviews to enter. Again that's podchaser.com/bkc and you could win!

Onto the music, onto the music!

In 2017, AKMU released two songs to add to your road trip playlist with their July 20th release, Summer Episode. The two songs, “Dinosaur” and “My Darling” are upbeat and feel like the energy of summer, but I remember “Dinosaur” promotions the most from that year. And for what it’s worth, it was lovely of them to have given their fans and general listeners three seasons of music to enjoy, as hiatus was inevitable. Lee Chan-hyuk after all had mandatory military enlistment that began that September. While he served the South Korean Marines, Lee Su-hyun had solo schedules in radio and television.

When it was time to come back together, the duo released the eclectic “Sailing” on September 25, 2019. This album sounds nothing like their past albums, all the while staying true to their unique sound and colors. The 35 minutes of playtime skips to-and-fro between pop, folk, Americana, and rock genres. By the time I reached the third track on the 10-track album, I found myself excited about what the next song could possibly sound like. It was hard to set an expectation, but the course could be trusted, much like the experience of sailing. You step onto your boat, feeling it adjust itself to the waves, and set sail into whatever may come.

And if November 16, 2020, was any clue, their latest release, “Happening,” is a sign of something to come along the lines of “Sailing.” The single album is edgy and a potential prelude to a dynamic comeback. I can only hope for another live album, too! If you have time today, listen to the Sailing Tour live album and sing along to what you’ve learned through their discography exploration with a smile. “This is reality! Reality - ality - oh!”

K-pop fans on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being essential listening and 1 not worth mentioning, the A3Day rating for these albums and the complete discography for Akdong Musician is a 10. An absolute, unmatched 5 for the first time in A3Day history -- my usual rankings wouldn’t do. What they bring to the music scene is an understanding of each other’s musical strengths, their capabilities together, and longevity that will surely stand the test of time. They are a phenomenal group and my heart’s happy to have experienced their works with you, listeners!

One more thing! The A3Day giveaway is still rounding up entries. I’l...

An Album a Day is my exploration into the Korean music scene. This podcast will cover mainstream, indie and some underground artists within the scene and provide both factual and opinionated commentary. The biggest benefit to sharing my thoughts this way is that it will hopefully expose you to more great music and exploration of your own.

One random day in 2012, likely in November when I was consuming more Korean entertainment than any point in my life, I clicked on a thumbnail of a girl group in black fringed attire. The video began with a door sliding open to reveal eight confident women. Moments later, they were stomping in heels across an empty space and I was hollering with excitement. “You better walk, ladies!” could be heard over the house as I had my formal introduction to After School. The song was “Flashback” and today, we’re getting into the single album, right after the drop.

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Hey y’all, I can admit that I did not become a big fan of After School despite my enthusiasm, but they genuinely walked into my area of awareness with the boldness of “Flashback.” The June 20, 2012 single album was sexy, bold, and could not have been released at a better time. For one, the sound was futuristic pop, which was heavy on the scene in 2012. Futuristic elements rest on synths, machinery-inspired sounds, and other experimental accents. Robot voices, gears grinding, all that good stuff? You can throw that in with futuristic pop, too. Second, the album is organized well. Five tracks -- the Korean version of “Rip Off,” title track “Flashback,” Nana’s solo “Eyeline,” group ballad “Wristwatch,” and Jungah and Raina’s duet “Timeless” -- are placed in an order that makes the 17-minutes-or-so mini album experience extremely cohesive.

The group is still reserved about showing different colors vocally. However, as I said in Season 4 Episode 12 (EDIT: Episode 11), “‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,’ is the standing motif for this group.” While I enjoy great vocals on display, including interesting harmonies and other arrangements, After School stays committed to the power of one voice, per se. If the song calls for chanting, we’re chanting. If the song calls for a soloist here, we’ll put a soloist here. Whatever the music calls for, they accommodate in a “one band, one sound” vocal Drumline.

Random side note but I can’t get my mind off of it. Some time ago, who even knows which episode or live stream it was, I said that the human voice is a string instrument. The voice can be acknowledged as an instrument for what it can produce but it isn’t one in the technical sense -- you can’t go about moving a voice around or have someone else take and play your unique voice-- and it isn’t stringed. It burns me to admit it! It would have to fall within aerophone or wind instruments. I’m vexed! We have to use air to create sounds with the voice and this has so little to do with this group and mini album but I just couldn’t go on living a lie. The nerd in me couldn’t have you believe something so wrong for so long!

Okay, back to the album. Its intro, “Rip Off,” is unexpected and sounds nothing like what they’ve produced on any album before this. Although a bit redundant with its key sound effect, there is a magic moment towards its end where the music opens up and puts the group’s vocals in a shining spotlight. It’s not an overtly dynamic song but it’s refreshing. “Flashback” is dancy and works in a nightclub or aerobics class all the same. The other tracks are within the same vein as past albums, not lackluster but not heavily engaging. I do favor the track “Timeless” as a decent up-tempo closing track, but again, there is not much to differentiate it from the formula of After School’s past works.

For this album most of the music production came from a foreign team. I dug around for information on producers Pitchline and TEXU who created songs for this album, but had a hard time. And with me broadcasting from the United States instead of South Korea right now, I kept pulling up things associated with the state of Texas. I want to share information about the works of production teams more often as it is a part of the success of a K-pop group, but there’s still some aspects of the Korean entertainment industry that prefer to keep individual success private. I get it -- the whole creates the impact -- but there’d be no music to sing without the production teams.

Let’s rank this, yes? K-pop fans on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being essential listening and 1 not worth mentioning, the A3Day rating on this is a 5. They continue to deliver on this high ranking despite not blowing my socks off, but the mini album “Flashback” has come closest to doing so. The #A3Day Highlights Playlist on Spotify is updated and features a few tracks from this album, and things are almost ready over on Apple and Google. As soon as all available pla...

An Album a Day is my exploration into the Korean music scene. This podcast will cover mainstream, indie and some underground artists within the scene and provide both factual and opinionated commentary. The biggest benefit to sharing my thoughts this way is that it will hopefully expose you to more great music and exploration of your own.

The sixth maxi single, “First Love” was announced almost a year before it was actually released. Though the reasons remain unknown for the delays, I’m willing to guess that the intensive preparation for one of the most physically demanding comebacks yet had something to do with it. Little did they know it then, but this was the beginning of the end. More insight, right after the drop.

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Hey y’all, following today’s episode, we will have final thoughts on After School’s Korean discography. But before we get into my 100% unscripted rambling, I must acknowledge that this album, “First Love,” was the last Korean album before an indefinite hiatus clutched the After School name. “첫사랑” (romanized as Cheotsarang) was released June 13, 2013 and South Korean audiences never heard from the as a group again. Take note of how I said that it was the last Korean album -- they still had a receptive audience in Japan until 2015, but the hiatus reached all angles of After School and sat them down. It’s a bit ironic, as the title track from this album did indeed sit some band members down, literally.

But first, the music. Clocking in at 20 minutes, the album delivers dance tracks and R&B flavor in the style we’ve come to anticipate from After School. Brave Brothers, who we haven’t heard from on their album in a while, hold down the first and second track, “8 Hot Girl” and “First Love” respectively. The first track lets the listener know that the ladies are back after a long wait and bringing something sexy to the scene, then properly falls into the title track. Brave Brothers took complete reign on the title track, actually, what with writing the lyrics and producing the music. He said he’s collecting nothing but wins and I don’t blame him. (Yes, for those unfamiliar, Brave Brothers is one man by the name of Kang Dong Chul and his sound is more familiar to you than you know. We’ll talk about him in depth someday.) Oh yes, “8 Hot Girl” can be chalked up to a Konglish language moment since it’s missing an -s, but this could also be semi-intentional. Remember, I’ve said that After School is “one band, one sound.” Who knows?

Production-wise, the album has a darker tone, especially stand-out track “Dressing Room.” The production team for this, the third track of the album, jumps to-and-fro from Europop and futuristic influences, settling somewhere between rock and R&B. It’s the best sounding song on the album because of its unexpected presence. It’s also the most memorable song with ad libs and attempts at vocal riffs. Track four, “Time’s Up,” has a faster tempo and incorporates live and MIDI stringed instruments, and features more singing in higher registers for the chorus. The rap breakdown has a refrain that’s not bad either. At this point in the album, they’ve delivered two ballads but this one doesn’t feel like their usual formula. Fifth track “Love Beat” brings us back to the pep rally/aerobics class/nightclub pulse that’s fun but missing something. The song constantly feels like you’re waiting for a musical drop -- an extra accent on the 808? An increase in percussion? Something’s missing, seriously! A handclap, something?! Songs that hold you at a standstill are so unkind, as your awareness of how music should work is challenged each minute the song is on. It’s an unfulfilled experience that is relieved by the closing track, “Makeup & Tears.” Live instruments and clear transitions that move the song along, Jungah and Raina sing out about crying over memories while putting on their makeup. The lyrics are directed at someone who rejected the protagonist but it can be loosely interpreted as the entertainment industry rejecting After School. A bit of a reach? Perhaps, but let’s consider some of the things that happened to the group during this time in their history.

First, this album was delayed for unknown reasons. There is no specific news about why the 2012-intended album moved to 2013, but it did happen.

Second, “First Love” genuinely puts them in pain. Both Lizzy and Nana were physically injured while performing this act, one before the choreography was ever performed live and the other after a terrible fall following a performance, and brought the group down to six for promotions.

Third, means of promoting the album had pushback. One music program’s parent company was in conflict with Pledis Entertainment, After School’s label, and after Nana’s horrifying fall, the group never appeared on Show Champion again. There wasn’t a statement that said her accident was the c...