Weekly Song Recs By AC Chilling – July 3rd 2024

Summer has blessed us with a bunch of new comebacks and releases, especially for K-Pop and rap! Expect a lot more reviews on new albums coming soon.

This week we have some some very big names coming back onto the scene, I will be covering 4 new K-Pop singles (one slot will be a tie between two) that really caught my attention (that aren’t tied to full-on comeback albums) and Eminem’s new single with Big Sean and BabyTron.

Without further ado, let’s get started.

Number 5. Tobey (feat. Big Sean and Baby Tron) – Eminem

The flow on this song is quite nice and balanced. Like probably many people, this was my first exposure to Babytron who raps the chorus and does his verse well. The idea of this song, at least to me is how these three rappers are all supposed to connect to each other like the different Spider-Men from different generations of movies (hence why it’s named after Tobey Maguire).

While the beat isn’t anything crazy, it does have its moments. The whole song also gives me Homicide vibes (the Logic song), except replace Logic with Big Sean and Babytron. It also isn’t extremely intense and in your face, it focuses more on lyrical flow than a ‘hard’ song (which is what most modern Eminem songs aim to do). I do think the transitions between rappers is a bit abrupt, however, I feel that’s probably intentional.

This is an example of modern Eminem done correctly. It gives me hope that his upcoming album will be half of this sort of style and then half of Houdini’s style, which I think is a good balance. Many people are glad that this song is not like Houdini, since Eminem is showing who is now instead of trying to be what he used to be, which is understandable. Personally, I think that’s a good take and I am definitely glad he put this out. I do wonder if there will be a music video, I doubt it though.
7.5/10

I decided to put these two together since they are on the same EP and both worth talking about.

I do think Right Now captures more of NewJeans’ identity and overall is a better song than Supernatural. But I do like how the latter sounds like the little sibling of Attention released during their early days.

Right Now is very fast paced using an instrumental similar to most ‘Get Up’ songs, while Supernatural is slow-paced and more like their debut EP. Overall, both are great and I would to hear in the comments what song you think is better. I will even make a poll on my Instagram @ac.chilling.official.
Supernatural: 7/10
Right Now: 8/10

Hot Mess is the title track on Aespa’s first Japanese single album of the same title.

While the song is screams typical Aespa song, I doubt it will become a staple Aespa song that goes down with their other hits, which is the unfortunate part about most K-Japanese singles (also doesn’t help that most Japanese singles can’t be performed outside of Japan due to agency copyright reasons).

Don’t get me wrong, I do like the song and would play it on Aespa listening sprees, but not something I would choose over their other singles. I would definitely be happy to see fans who do put this song up with other singles, let me know in the comments or on my social medias!
7/10

Some of you may already know that IVE is my Ult K-Pop group, but I’m going to try and be as unbiased as possible here.

This new single is the second collaboration song with Pepsi, and they seemed to have went a lot harder into being clear with that than in their previous single ‘I WANT’ from last year. This is evident in the fact the chorus literally says to “drink your heart out” which if you’re not trying to advertise a drink, sounds like you want to go over the top at a party.

I notice they definitely experimented with different vocal ranges for the girls, Yujin and Leeseo especially project different vocal ranges here. Overall, the song is quite catchy with instrumentals that perfectly describe modern summer songs, but I wouldn’t put it above ‘I WANT’ due to it feeling more forced to promote drinking Pepsi compared to just having fun and having Pepsi on the side (how I interpret ‘I WANT’). In conclusion though, it slaps and now I want a Pepsi (I don’t drink soda).
8/10

The song many people have been waiting to hear about, LISA’s new comeback single under her new label. Make sure you watch the music video and listen to the extended version, just because in my opinion the original on Spotify is way too short.

The music video also elevates the song and opens up its enjoyment to brand-new levels with how mesmerizing LISA is. Even when it is extended, however, the track feels quite short. It seems like a taste of something more, maybe a solo debut album (most likely hopefully) or more singles to come.

Rockstar takes an interesting approach of starting with the chorus, then pre-chorus into chorus again and then only having one verse in the whole song. The abrupt beat change brought by the post-chorus feels unnecessary when played at the beginning after the second chorus. I also feel like the post-chorus and outro is rushed overall, especially if it’s intended to slow the song down. Regardless, the song is very energetic and a fun starting song to any event or car ride.

While it may be too early to rank this song among LISA’s other solos which are absolute hits, I feel like it was a good taste of how we should expect LISA to be as a solo artist under a new company. With her distinct flow and great articulation, she continues to show why her and all the other BLACKPINK girls remain on top of the K-Pop world.

Due to my sentiment of the song feeling too short and like a pre-cursor to what she holds for the future, however, the song feels hard to rate as of now, but the rating below is just what I’m feeling at this moment in time.
7.8/10