MIA Taking On A Whole New Meaning 🙈

You may have noticed that this is not the beginning of May. 

It's not even the middle of May.

Now, I'm well known for being late. It's part of my DNA - I was late being born (coincidentally 24 days, which is exactly how late this post is), I always run late rather than early (sorry, if you have to wait for me), and now this post has taken almost the whole month to get done.

I started with such great intentions too. With a bank holiday kicking off the month, it was the perfect time to get in quickly and update on all the fantastic music I'd been listening to in April. But, somehow, it never happened, and before I knew it we were already at the new series of Doctor Who (which I'm loving, btw) and Eurovision 2024 (about which, the less said the better, I think - but Croatia were robbed - although I liked the winning song too (my top 3 were Croatia (2nd), Switzerland (won) and Norway (came last) - at least they all qualified this year).  

I did toy with the idea of posting then, but got sidetracked (that happens a lot to me as I'm sure you'll have noticed) and suddenly, here we are, rushing headlong towards the end of the month, with yet another playlist bursting at the seams (May really has been crazy for releases), and I still haven't posted about my favourites of April yet.

To be fair, it has been extremely difficult to get my top 3s in order - and I still haven't managed it for Korean EPs as there are at least 5 that need to be in there - Beautiful Shadow (ONF), Realize (The KingDom*), Planet Nine: Isotropy (Onewe), New Quest: Jungle (Lee Jin Hyuk) and I Like the Way (Kim Woojin). You'll see my decision when I finally make it if you check out the various top 3 playlists, which are stuffed full of great tracks.

I have a feeling May's choices will be even harder, with so many amazing artists releasing new music (including 4 members of EXO 😱).

Here are the LastFM figures for April that go with a playlist that ended up being 1,210 songs long. 

There's not really much surprise about my favs, EXO, being the most listened to, as April was their 12th anniversary, which meant that with live fan meetings, there were a lot of memories flooding back, which prompted relistening to all their albums. 

The Lucy song, The knight who can't die and the silk cradle, isn't going anywhere as it's still among my top played songs in May (although releases by Yook Sungjae (BTOB) and D.O. (EXO) have given it a run for its money).  

Here, too, is my Receiptify, which had a few new (to the list, at least) tracks for once.

*My boys Kingdom had a complete rebrand with their new concept - gone are the kings of yore (well, they're suppressed anyway) and in have come a bunch of young idols with no clue about their past (apart from Louis who is immortal, so he must remember). The new concept is exciting and confusing (something to do with parallel universes), so I'm just enjoying the music.

Concerts

The Kaiser Chiefs, my nephew's favourite band, played The Troxy, so we took him to see them for his birthday. They're always lots of fun, and this time was no exception.  

The Kaiser Chiefs

As I mentioned before, EXO did a live stream of their anniversary fan meeting, which I watched (as well as the re-stream of it a couple of weeks later).

Dramas

Last time I posted I had just started re-watching Hwarang, starring Park Seo Joon, Go Ah Ra, Park Hyung Sik and a host of K-pop idols, mainly because the members of a K-drama Discord channel I belong to were watching and talking about it. Having remembered it less fondly than they did, I thought I might have missed something the first time - it was one of the first dramas I watched and didn't know many of the (as it turns out) idol-heavy cast, so I dove back in.

Hwarang (2016)

The drama tells the (supposedly true) story of the Hwarangs (or Flower Knights), who were a military unit of beautiful-looking young noblemen who, back in 6th century Silla and led by the future King, became central to the unification of old Korea's three kingdoms. 

I definitely enjoyed it more this time around. However, whether this was because I recognised the actors, or I was just more willing to run with the silliness as after watching so many hundreds of K-dramas my tolerance for this type of drama has increased, I couldn't say, but it was nowhere near as bad as I remember it being. Even the romantic triangle didn't grate quite so badly - although I still don't think it was needed as there were plenty of other elements to keep the story running on its own - maybe they felt it was too male-orientated and needed a female to lighten the story a bit. The terrible wigs were still absolutely awful (see above photo for evidence), which took me out of it occasionally. But overall it was a fun and easy watch.

The other drama I finished in April was Queen of Divorce, a romantic comedy about high-flying lawyer Kim Sa Ra (Lee Ji Ah) who, after being betrayed by her husband and his family who own the company she worked for, joins forces with mysterious ex-prosecutor Dong Ki Joon (Kang Ki Young) to help people who are suffering through difficult divorces.

Queen of Divorce (2024)

Being honest, I only really watched this because of Kang Ki Young. I like his work as an actor and have been waiting since his appearance in Extraordinary Attorney Woo for him to get a lead role. Thinking back on it some 6 or so weeks after I watched it, I really can't remember very much about the plot. I remember that at the time it aired people were disappointed with the romance aspect, but I didn't watch it for that, so I wasn't bothered that this was lacking. However, my notes tell me I quite enjoyed the story, but that the lead actress wasn't up to the task. I do remember that her character was pretty stupid, especially considering her supposed status. I think the best that can be said about it is that it's not truly offensive so you could watch if you had a few hours to waste, but you're unlikely to finish it thinking it's the best drama you've ever seen. 

I'm going to end here, as having realised that my K-pop CDs have been stacking up for some time and that I literally have no room to store them, the time has come to say farewell to all the horror hardbacks currently doing nothing but gathering dust on my bookshelves to make space for the real love of my life, music. I have read them all in the past and kept them because I enjoyed them and thought I might re-read them, but I think we all know this is unlikely these days, especially with all the new and unread books I also have. Also, I'm not going to crack open a book anyway. I'll be listening to it while I do the washing up, cook dinner or do the laundry, so keeping them is a waste both space-wise and for the poor books themselves, who could be with much better owners. I also have a bathtub to seal as it's sprung a leak. What joy!

Finally, have a SHINee, who are celebrating their 16th anniversary today. The photo on the left is from the concert that was live-streamed this morning, which I watched (of course). It's fantastic to see my beloved Onew back with his members.

SHINee: Onew, Taemin, Minho, Key, Jonghyun

Enjoy the rest of your month.