"K-Pop Double-Take" is a periodic column highlighting recent tracks we feel didn't get enough attention immediately upon being released.
There is a distinct melancholy permeating a majority of 1980s Western pop music, a certain sadness made all the more ironic by the fact that a lot of the songs are trying so hard, at least on the surface, to be upbeat and positive.
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(See songs like George Michael's "Careless Whisper," Tears For Fears's "Head Over Heels" or "Vacation" by the Go-Go's for examples of this).
For those of us who lived through it, perhaps it is partially nostalgia that makes the sounds of the 1980s hit us right in the heart, but there is something else too, something difficult to describe but undeniable.
It is this certain somber-yet-joyous vibe that Lim Kim and Zizo are able to capture on the latter artist's new single "Winter of Haeundae."
Released a little more than a month ago, the track has several ties to the era of acid washed jeans and feathered back hair.
Sure the synth sound and style of the main riff of "Winter of Haeundae" is straight out of the 1980s, but its much more than that. The atmosphere of the song feels like it could be straight from the pre-cellphone era.
Except for the rapping.
That's not to say Zizo's performance is bad. In fact, he both raps and sings with equal grace and confidence, but people didn't rap like that in the 1980s.
Yet, much in the way Kanye West seems to be able to flow over anything, Zizo finds a way to turn a very unlikely candidate for a hip-hop beat into a viable dance track.
But the heart and soul of "Winter of Haeundae" is Lim Kim.
The solo alter ego of Togeworl's Kim Ye Rim, nearly every performance the singer gives free of her bandmate Do Daeyoon (who goes by the stage name Denny Do) is more daring and innovative.
She has a sound that seems to exist out of time, hypnotic but not bland, engaging but danceable.
This reviewer is eagerly awaiting a Lim Kim psychedelic R&B album.
Check out the music video for the Zizo song "Winter of Haeundae," featuring Kim "Lim Kim" Ye Rim of Togeworl
Source : kpopstarz[dot]com
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