Idol Watch #22: Best of the Boys 2024
Checking out the year's best boy group singles so far from PSYCHIC FEVER, Number_i and more
Hi! Welcome to Idol Watch, a bi-monthly companion newsletter to This Side of Japan that’s all about Japanese idols! You can also check out previous months here: January & February / March & April
How has 2024 been for the boys? The acts under the major companies have not let their momentum gone to waste following one productive run last year. The EXILE Tribe had an early start with singles by PSYCHIC FEVER and (my personal favorite) WOLF HOWL HARMONY. But the group that made the biggest headline so far is Number_i, thanks to their appearance at Coachella. Even without their spot at the festival, though, the former STARTO idols already made enough buzz in the press cycle as returning acts but also with the actual music whose chaotic production some would describe as pure noise.
Not much has caught my ear yet from the groups that proposes an alternative from the dominant idol-pop landscape informed by hip hop, disco and R&B. There are the works in the new EP by Genin Wa Jibun Ni Aru, curiously shortened now as GNJB, who recruited Vocaloid producers Jin and Narutan Seijin in their latest If you were EP. Naniwa Danshi, meanwhile, continue to steal my heart in their traditionally idol-like “for my one and only” singalongs despite their best efforts to offer an alternative. But so far, I need to do more work in digging to find more songs deep-fried in synths or those adjacent to visual-kei, either in sound or via the members’ looks.
Maybe it’s right, then, that my top favorite of the year so far double downs on hip hop, both in sound and image. Last year yielded something similar in vibe from one of the great STARTO twins of SixTones, whose turn to the more sentimental has been what I enjoyed most from them. The company presents yet another nod to hip hop now from King & Prince, and the duo sound like they’re having a blast as they don the gear but also the beats and flows of the ‘90s. As you see, I’m easy to please if you strike the intersection of my two loves of idol and hip hop.
Here are some of my favorite idol songs of the year from the boy groups. Here is a list of my favorite idol songs of the year so far, from both the girls and boys.
“I don’t care” by WATWING [Toy’s Factory]
After spending much time indulging in the highs of love permeating in the group’s previous album, Where, WATWING opens “I don’t care” with a farewell. “I won’t forget your everything,” the idols sing over a lone acoustic-guitar riff that plucks like a ticking clock. “When I imagine tomorrow, what I’m missing is you.” But as it swells with tears, heading a course not unlike a goodbye ballad, the song bursts open with a whooshing electro-pop production that fires off sizzling synths as if in short circuit. WATWING make promises to forever cherish what they had together, and the music explodes like the final fireworks before the story fades to black.
Listen to it on Spotify.
“Just Like Dat” by PSYCHIC FEVER ft. JP THE WAVY [LDH]
There is a rap cypher in the 99.9 Psychic Radio EP. But even without hearing PSYCHIC FEVER trade bars with one another, their ambitions to lean more into rap should’ve been made obvious in their singles done with the help of JP THE WAVY, including this one. The verses in this hydraulic R&B best showcase the result to come from this meeting of minds, displaying both the rapper’s technical athleticism and the singers’ melodic suave, all without sacrificing their idol charisma. The group rap like how they serenade, and they serenade like how they rap, unlocking the sweet center point of their style.
99.9 Psychic Radio is out now. Listen to it on Spotify.
“Frozen Butterfly” by WOLF HOWL HARMONY [Avex Trax]
Like many pop songs nowadays, “Frozen Butterfly” evoke the early 2000s in a TRL-ruled America, though it’s been a personal thought exercise to figure out just exactly what about it beyond vibes that pins its style to the Y2K decade. I suspect it’s the mix of jingling boom-bap carried on from Max Martin-branded New Jack Swing and the sampled strings that, had this been actually released in 2001, predicts the rise of Scott Storch. But like Backstreet Boys before them, WOLF HOWL HARMONY injects this clanging funk with sweet melodies that call back to classic ‘60s R&B groups—it’s what, I think, gets me playing early SHINee as much as B2K after hearing this. “Let’s run away from this ice blue world,” the boys sing in the chorus, the gothic strings dramatizing it to a degree of life-or-death. Whatever era they choose to depict, the yearning to run off with their one and only, it seems, runs eternal.
Frozen Butterfly is out now. Listen to it on Spotify.
“Aqua” by JO1 [LAPONE]
“Aqua” landed too quiet as a streaming release leading up to what would eventually be the HITCHHIKER EP when it deserved attention in the level of JO1’s actual singles. Perhaps it’s the fate of a decidedly low-key track that resembles more of that fashion-forward B-side from a usually loud, flashy group. That, um, aqueous deep-house beat especially recalls many of my favorite K-pop album cuts from the years a bit after f(x)’s “4 Walls” and SHINee’s “View” made waves—“Replay (PM 01:27),” anyone? Against such sleek yet shadowy production, the group explores a sultry side not often heard in their main-event records.
HITCHHIKER EP is out now. Listen to it on Spotify.
“GOAT” by Number_i [TOBE]
Sho Hirano, Yuta Kishi and Yuta Jinguji hinted at their eventual nosedive into hip hop as Number_i during one of their last runs as part of King & Prince. Though, as in-your-face as “Ichiban” got, it did not prepare anyone in and outside the fandom for how the trio would decide to stuff “GOAT” with, well, everything. Their verses whiz by, offering no moment to catch a breath, and some would argue the buzzing production consists of more noise than sounds. I, for one, am thrilled to see them be this daring to return with such a bombastic song that screeches like a computer blowing a fuse—I need something to roughen up a pop landscape full of glazed disco. They claim to be to nothing other than the G.O.A.T. in the chorus after all. The music needs to sound as audacious.
GOAT EP is out now. Listen to it on Spotify.
“Blue Shower” by M!LK [Victor]
M!LK can indulge in the cool, sexy concepts like their disco flip on “Kiss Plan” last year all they like. But at the end of the day, what I really want from them is something like “Blue Shower,” a wholesome serenade made out to their “only one.” Backed by a soaring string arrangement that could also potentially sync to an anime opening roll, the Stardust group channel the exuberance from the track to give us the most and let us shine as the stars they see through their eyes. It’s classic boy-band magic perhaps designed for the already-initiated—you either swoon from them sing, “you’re the star of this story!” or you don’t—but the power put into that firework of a chorus at least convinces me to believe in their love every time.
Blue Shower is out now. Listen to it on Spotify.
“moooove!!” by King & Prince [Universal Music]
I’m a sucker for when idols adopt boom-bap-era hip-hop in both imagery and sound. So Kaito Takahashi and Ren Nagase laying down rappity raps over a simple drum break wearing bucket hats and baggy track jackets was always going to be a home run for me. But where other idols might pick up on the skull-snapping beats of hip hop to layer on some toughness to their personae, King & Prince focus on the suave and smooth: “moooove!!” isn’t too far from it being New Jack Swing had Takahashi stuck it more sweet and not as a kind of rapper foil to the chill Nagase. As they figure out how they fit in this throwback hip-hop vibe, the duo stake out a middle ground of rap and R&B that seems more wholly their own.
halfmoon / mooove!! is out now. Listen to it on Spotify.
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