Musing While Cruising the Hallyu Highway
Color me so amused when the A.C.E babes don their school uniforms and then to proceed to dance to the likes of Savage or some other tantalizing song with aggressive and (at times) suggestive choreography. The duality of it all! For today’s Busking Files offering, we travel back in time to January 2020, the boys fresh off of their incredible Under Cover tour and back out on the streets of Hongdae doing what they do best.
On November 15, 2020, SHINee’s tall, lean Marine machine, Minho, was discharged from the military. He was the third member of the group to complete his mandatory service that year; so, in my simple mind that equated to one very important thing: a potential SHINee comeback. Admittedly, as a baby Shawol, this is what I have been eagerly anticipating. The only question, when would it happen? Well, with Minho just barely out of requisite camouflage, the group pulled it off in a matter of three months. And not only that, they managed to release a full album, their seventh. On February 22nd, Don⁷t Call Me dropped with the explosive title track of the same name. Were any of us really ready?
After a rough week of just too much snow, Arctic temperatures and a should-have-been preventable back injury, I just wanted something light and feel good for this Playlist Roulette offering. When the Strictly Korean playlist digs deep, it digs deep. This week it shuffled out B-side, Universe, from Black6ix’s debut single album, Please, released way back in April 2017; and, it is every bit the refreshing uplifting balm needed to start a new (and hopefully better) week.
Letting Victon marinate in all of their underrated talent and finesse was bound to result in an explosive comeback worth waiting for. Releasing their first full length album, Voice: The future is now a mere eleven days into the new year was, in my opinion, strategic and smart. Even though their adoring Alice (the fandom) were expecting a comeback this past December, I think it far better they ushered in a fresh new year with fresh new music, and lots of it. And forget about starting slow and easy. Nope, not with Victon. The title track, What I Said, is a powder keg of sound complete with silky vocals, rapid fire rap (is Hanse even human?), and a whole lot of swag.
The Fangirl Lane 