Sometimes, because of all of the teasing and hinting and delays, Kpop serves as a serious lesson in patience. I barely watch previews for movies but here I am dissecting 15-second clips showing a splash of bright color and the briefest notion of a possible song hook like Sherlock…looking for clues that the next comeback is going to be something worth drooling over. And let’s be honest, half of the time the teaser is in no way representative of what the comeback is all about..at all. I should know better. I do know better…and yet…
The biggest lesson in patience that I’ve gone through to this point, aside from the oft-delayed and spread out Big Bang comebacks, has been LOONA. In October 2016, Blockberry Creative started the drawn-out process of introducing the twelve members and three subunits of the group they intended on debuting in 2018. That was a full 18 months of individual singles, EPs, and promotions BEFORE THE GROUP DEBUTED. Seeing all of those beautiful albums lined up in the Kpop store is something to behold. LizC and I are both insanely tempted by them. I wouldn’t be surprised if KpopontheDL has secretly started collecting them all.
The vast majority of their catalog to this point has been fantastic. I’ve seriously enjoyed almost every release…or pre-release…what do we call them? But the time has come for the actual culmination of this project. We have FINALLY been given the opportunity to see all twelve together at last.
The first single, favOriTe, is delightful. Sure, they’re styled like school girls in the MV, but let’s be honest, some of them are school girls and frankly, I had favorites and wanted to smooch them when I was a schoolgirl. I’m not stoked by the sexualization of young girls, but for some reason, this one feels a bit more ‘from her perspective’ rather than a bunch of creepy older men crafting the perfect young plaything. The actual music is fun, upbeat, but not excessively cheerful. It is not girl group squeaky. There are fun lyrics and tongue rolls and growls.
The EP for the whole group was released on August 20 along with the second single, Hi High. I’m less enthralled with that one than I have been with favOriTe, but I’m not complaining. I don’t like EVERYTHING that ANYONE does…except maybe Dean, I love everything he does.
Anyway, as all of Twitter is saying, #stanloona. Seriously, so, so, so worth it.
I could write a whole post on the #stanloona phenomenon…and maybe I will at some point, but just know that it’s a thing we should be paying attention to and that this group is definitely something you should be paying attention to if you aren’t already.
favOriTe, LOONA
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