...🎶 My week in 5 songs~

Hello SpaceHeys~ 

This is my first blog post about my interests so, hi! Welcome! I go by Candy and I like to talk about music and games. My original idea was to talk about one album each week but there were lots of releases that have been playing on repeat on my headphones these past few days, so I'll talk a little bit about five songs I've been enjoying.

• "Sugar Water Cyanide" by Rebecca Black

The girl infamous for the meme song "Friday" has grown! If you haven't been keeping up with Rebecca, her voice has improved drastically and she has found a home in the hyperpop sphere with interesting releases - for example, the song "Destroy Me" from her 2023 album "Let Her Burn", which is a delicious drum'n'bass with heavy lyrics, was one of my favorites from that year.

She recently released an album called "Salvation" full of electronic music goodness, but the song "Sugar Water Cyanide" is perhaps the most infectious of the bunch. The chorus feels like a cheer-leading squad on the dancefloor at 4am. It seems random, but I swear it makes sense!

• "Magic Clock" by f5ve

J-pop produced by A.G. Cook and BloodPop, the group f5ve is gearing for their first album release with another song that is unfortunately too short for my taste. I've been following them for a while and they've been scratching my itch for new electro-pop from Japan even more so than XG.

If you've got a few minutes to spare I recommend watching the music video for this song. Although the set is simple, I found the concept of showing their younger and older versions extremely cute!

• "Eko" by Yeule

Yeule is an artist I really want to get into. Their music is always fresh and complex, I just hope my brain allows me to listen to their full discography while focusing on the available lyrics because they paint a nice mental picture to go along with the music - one that I must emotionally connect to for better enjoyment.

They have recently announced an album as well and the single cover for "Skullcrusher" and "Eko" indicates that the concept will be visually great! Speaking of "Eko", it showcases their accent with hypnotizing vocals over an airy instrumental that made me feel nostalgic for the early 2000s. 

• "I Do Me" by KiiiKiii

The new k-pop girl groups debuting this year feel really promising so far: Hearts2Hearts had an amazing R&B single album, Source Music is also planning on debuting a new group, and there's KiiiKiii... I have to say that I didn't like the song the first time I listened to it - it felt dated, very 2010s indie somehow. That would've been the end of story for me since I don't tend to force myself to enjoy any and all k-pop releases, until I saw their concept pictures and music video.

The girls really deliver in terms of visuals with a fresh and youthful concept that filled the gap left by NewJeans for me personally. The term "kiki" is an LGBT+ slang used to refer to a gathering of friends among other things, and though I'm sure the name for the group was chosen just because it sounded cute, the trend of debuting groups that feel like friends with their light and authentic interactions on stage really fits their vibe! After a few spins of the single I was able to see the vision and am looking forward to their first full release.

• "Zen" by Jennie

I've been looking forward to Jennie's first full solo album for a while now. Since the Blackpink girls decided that YG Entertainment would only manage them as a group, they've all taken their solo ventures elsewhere, with Jennie opening her Odd Atelier label and agency. At first I thought she would be mainly focusing on fashion since she has been one of the it-girls of South Korea for a while, but was pleasantly surprised when she started talking about her future music.

Her album "Ruby" has recently been released worldwide after a couple of singles were given music videos. Out of them, "Zen" felt the most random to me. When the video was released I found the lyrics to be lackluster, not gonna lie, but I've recently watched a video of a buddhist monk analyzing the symbolism of the music video and felt enlightened! A track that would have been the odd one out to me has taken a deeper meaning and I truly appreciate its references to the complex mental state we all hope to achieve when we think of zen: unmoved, serene, confident.

Thanks for reading!