Video & Audio: Scenes before Jeans

Duh-RUM? Da-ARE-um?

StayC: “Bubble”

I’m going to be voting NewJeans in every category of my year-end poll (unless I add Best Live Performer, though I’d have to think about how to administer that), but at this point it’s refreshing to hear a song that sounds like K-pop did when the newest Jeans were in kindergarten, complete with a title (accompanied by pseudo-mouth sounds) that’s reminiscent of the genre’s original breakthrough to Singles Jukebox readers, Hyuna’s “Bubble Pop”. No popping here: the bubbles keep blowing forever, like Ben Selvin in purgatory.

Cydnee with a C: “Jealous”

With end-of-year projects (blog and non-blog) near due, this column borrows more heavily than usual from Dave Moore, who’s calling this breakbeats-with-cooing “dRum&B”, which I don’t think is going to catch on because you have to say it “duh-RUM and bee”, but now that it’s gone from micro-genre to mini-genre, it needs a name (PostPantheress?) Moreso than PP, Cydnee’s willing to meet the listener three-quarters of the way with her vocals, and if the songwriting is basic, it’s sound, and the duh-RUMs provide all the complexity that’s necessary.

Tyla: “Water”

Those of us who’ve been awaiting amapiano’s Western breakthrough for years might be shocked that in the end, it did not result from a three-hour Kabza/Maphorisa mixtape. Joburg’s Tyla sounds like any number of American R&B singers, though she and Afrobeats-with-a-s producer Sammy SoSo ensure you can hear all the words of the simple chorus. The donk is contained but implicitly threatens to go supercritical.

K. Michelle: “I Cheat”

Even as her interest in R&B singing per se wanes and she’s increasingly relying on Auto-Tune, Kimberley’s still good for one song per album that cuts to the heart of modern hetero relationships. She cheats because she’s cheated on, and there’s no element of tragedy (at least for her): it’s just something that is, to be experienced, to be lived.

Xiangyu: “道端にネキ”

If we’re christening genres: Japamapiano! The title translates as “green onions on the roadside”, and you bet we like a good literal music video.

TeeZandos: “Artist”

Sneaking up best-rapper-alive ladders, an artist she is (with words, not with the gun as far as I know): the kind happy to spit over microtonal samples and video game novelty noises alike. Also one who seems in no hurry to make an album.

Debby Friday ft. Uñas: “I Got It”

For a track from a Polaris Prize-winning MFA grad on Sub Pop, this is pretty danceable. The ornery bass synth does most of the work, while Friday’s and Uñas’s vocals keep at least the possibility of drawing blood alive. Inspirational verse: “Don’t try so hard, it don’t impress, it don’t affect me.”

Kenya Grace: “Strangers”

Another South African-born singer suddenly scaling international charts, this one without an amapiano influence, instead sounding like… I mean there are two choices, and it’s not NewJeans. Keeping things likable and straightforward means she has a UK number one and PinkPantheress doesn’t, and if the “sad acoustic version” reveals there’s not that much there (and that the kids aren’t sure what “acoustic” means), you don’t have to listen to that one.

CSR: “Loveticon”

In my search for Girl-Pop That Doesn’t Sound Like Those Two, I’ve gone back to songs I missed in 2022. This is a good old-fashioned hook-and-melody bomb, with cheerleader counting and a crucial bit of the chorus pinched from Pitbull’s “Feel This Moment”.

Flo Milli: “BGC”

With her career in neutral, Ms. Milli goes to an obvious to us old people sample (via CoCo Lee in my case, whatever), but unlike so many others pulling this trick, she engages with it. Bad mama jamas can get pleasure out of throwback funk too.

Michael Spyres: “Tu m’involasti un regno”

Having conquered the tenor canon, alleged baritone Spyres goes back to his previous hobby of reviving 18th century arias that jump well into the countertenor. The three-octave descent at 5:30 is absolutely showing off for the sake of showing off, and why wouldn’t you?