yestoday

Yerin Baek - "Pisces"
Let's start with Yerin: as you may or may not know, I'm not that inclined to the gentle indie scene of music. It's not that I dislike that genre, it just doesn't appeal to me nine times out of ten—to put it harshly, I find a great amount of them boring, no matter how tender the lyrics are. But clearly, that didn't apply this time! What I said on Twitter, with minor edits to expand:

oh, god. as soon as it began, it evoked a direct and distinct sense of nostalgia i haven't felt in a long time from music. it's spellbindingly simple and heartfelt. i'm not one who particularly fancies gentle songs like this, but i have to certify my love on first listen for it.

actually… i think those statements apply to this whole single album. yerin's airy voice mixed with her signature lo-fi style of instrumental and fuzzy mixing effectively puts you in a trance. the songs seemed to go by in an achromatic phosphorescent haze, but it leaves you in a peaceful headspace. perhaps, she's the blueprint of study-music…?

Kang Daniel - "The Story"
I also heavily enjoyed Daniel's album. His music has its fair, but grant, share of gems alongside the more middling pieces. (Actually, I think it's 55% hits to 45% misses according to my personal taste.) My initial review of the title track Upside Down was as follows:

just from the beginning, i thought this was going to be a snoozer, but the chorus was a pleasant save. this style of tide-like synth is usually a hit-or-miss for me, depending on the mood it's overlayed with. this just happened to be a hit!

this song is kind of hard to rate, because there were sections i really enjoyed, while the remainder of the song is unmemorable completely. overall, it has a satisfying atmosphere, so i'll look at it optimistically. i would like to hear how it fits into the album later.

…of which I still agree with for the most part! I think the beginning of the choreography is innovative and cute, though. I can imagine the crew remixing that intro and doing something slightly different to play with Daniel each time during music show promotions; that'll be fun. After listening to the entire album, Upside Down did indeed seem to nest more in place. I inevitably decided that it was a good ass album. Causally, a track ranking manifested a few hours later:

1. parade i need to know what this is about… i was getting 'welcome to the black parade'. reporting back when i take a gander at the lyrics; stay tuned.
2. the story same statement as for parade. both of those hurt my heart so much for some reason, and i don't even know the meaning. though, i might be able to guess the gist for the story.
3. don't tell (feat. jessi) jessi singing!
4. upside down see! it's placed quite high! no, but i seriously love the chorus so much.
5. mad (feat. chancellor)
6. how we live (feat. sokodomo) wannable side of my brain said kangaroo, which was something that took a while to grow on me, initially. but the minor modulation at the bridge blew my mind.
7. ride 4 u
8. 1000x
9. moment
10. loser (feat. dbo)