Welcome to my new series, k-dreamers! I’ve been looking for an excuse to check out kpop b-sides and find some hidden gems, but I never knew where to start. This is as much a new journey for me as it is for you. “Bad Habits” by SHAUN and “Home” by Seventeen were some of my favourite songs released in 2019. So I thought I would start my quest with An-nyeong and You Made My Dawn, respectively. I even listed my personal year-end ranking beside each song. Shall we begin?
SHAUN – An-nyeong
Released: 2019
Standout Single: “Bad Habits” (#3)
An-nyeong felt like a journey from morning to night. There’s “Traveler” with it’s ear candy hook beckoning us to go an adventure, “Bad Habits” as the perfect song to play on a long commute, and the moody “Terminal” as the closer. I felt like both “Traveler” and “Bad Habits” had catchy lyrics to them. I especially enjoyed hearing the vocal distortion in “Traveler.” “Terminal,” on the other hand, felt a little basic in terms of the melody.
Seventeen – You Made My Dawn
Released: 2019
Standout Single: “Home” (#19)
According to Joshua, You Made My Dawn is meant to be a journey from night to day. For the most part I would agree. We start off hyped up with “Good To Me” as the opener, then we slow things down with “Home” and “Hug,” then “Chilli” is our alarm clock to welcome a brand new day. We then transition from “Chilli” to “Shhh” and close out the EP with an absolute banger, “Getting Closer.” I’m not sure what time of day “Shhh” was representing, but all of the samples used in the track were pretty cool if a little jarring. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to add “Hug” to my sleep playlist.
Check out “Traveler”:
Check out “Getting Closer”: