Old Man Ranks BLACKPINK SOLO, aespa LINGO, IVE EITHER WAY, & ITZY LOUDER | Music Analysis & Ranking

[00:00:03][music] Hey, welcome to the channel or welcome back to the channel, whichever may be the case for you. My name is Matt. I am clearly an old man, as you can now see on the screen, and I do enjoy ranking K-pop discoraphies, and that's what I've been doing for the last oh, half a year, and I really enjoyed it. Uh, we're starting to reformat some videos so that I have more time for reactions and that kinds of things. uh for a while there uh after I did a four group ranking of Blackpink, IV, Espa, and Yy, I uh separated them out to their own lists and started to uh give do separate videos for them. Uh I'm running out of space on my channel in order to be able to give you, you know, just one video a day so you're not overloaded. And so I'm recombining some of my groups. This first group we're going to do all in one video uh again consisting of ESPA, Blackpink, Y, and IV. And they'll be still be ranked on separate lists. Like you can see I still have my Blackpink rankings list up here because we're going to start off with Jenny Solo first this time around. But we're going to do them all in one video. So that way I have some days open to do reactions for other things as well. And that's how we're going to be doing things. I'm also going to do the same thing for the second group that I did in mix Baby Monster Billy and the Saraphim. Uh, and hopefully uh that way uh they'll you won't get any fewer videos, but you'll get more groups per video is basically all I'm trying to do. In the meantime, uh I will go through rankings for these groups individually as we come upon them. And since we have an MV for Jenny, we're going to start with Blackpink. Here are my current Blackpink rankings. I'll just scroll down through the list so that you can see what we've done. I did rank some extra ones between the last time you saw a Blackpink ranking and this one. So, that being the case, if you want to check out those rankings, they are on my Patreon. You can definitely check that out for free. Any ranking posts on my Patreon are always free. In the meantime, let's get into Solo by Jenny.

[00:02:27]Okay, so we've got an MV. I know a lot of Jenny Solo stuff has been people have been having trouble getting them on YouTube without getting blocked. So hopefully this will uh show up. If it does not then it will definitely be on the Patreon. Um go look for it. It will be a free post. Uh let's see. Um I just want to let you know that I'm going to be talking over videos. I will be pausing them. I will be playing into this thing from time to time to figure out what the chords are so I can figure out how much I like the song. That's part of the way that I rank them. And um if that's not for you, totally get it.

[00:03:03]You know, I'm not for everybody. Uh but uh if you're going to leave, then thanks for at least checking it out to this point. Here we go with Jenny Solo.

[00:03:15]It's quiet.

[00:03:17]>> Oh, I heard that starting to come in.

[00:03:24]Nice. I like the pinsicado.

[00:03:28][singing] >> Sounds synthetic pins, but that's all right.

[00:03:44][music] >> Oh, great melody there.

[00:03:51]I put the chords over my head, too.

[00:03:53][music] >> Oo.

[00:04:01]Uh, before we go any further, let's talk about those parts. I guess it would be a verse.

[00:04:10]Okay, so um I guess it it starts out Oh man, inharmonic equivalents. I hate them. Uh, this will either be F# or G flat. You can call it either, but I'm going to call it G flat. A G flat major to D flat major uh to an A flat minor.

[00:04:30]Yeah. To a B. And that's where I get in trouble within harmonic equivalence because it should be C flat. However, I'm not going to call it C flat. I hate the the term C flat. So, I'm going to call it B. They're the same note. Um, so, um, on the chords they would have looked no different than before, but um, then the, uh, I guess this was a precourse, uh, sounded like A flat minor to B flat minor to B.

[00:05:01]Yeah.

[00:05:05]Yeah. Um, and then the second time it goes B flat minor to D flat. Let's see if I can make that B flat minor to D flat major to E flat minor.

[00:05:22]And then it sounded like it was going to stay in E flat minor for the chorus, which is not something I was expecting, but let's see. Um I [clears throat] using a minor key for for a course usually does does make it missionoriented and she just said I'm going solo so that's kind of a mission right [music] >> I'm a shining solo okay solo >> I'm going so low I like that >> synth line.

[00:06:06][music] >> This is very interesting because I thought we were going into I guess that's a post chorus uh instead with I'm going solo and the other part I don't know. I'm having trouble determining the the form of the song. I do like all of the changes. I love that synth line that uh [music] that's nice, especially with the little bins that they put in it. Uh but it sounds like a totally different song from uh just when it started off.

[00:06:45]Although, if she's telling a true story, maybe musically, you know, things were okay at the beginning and now she's on her mission.

[00:06:54]>> [music] >> I'mma do it on my own now. Now that you alone, got you looking for a clone now.

[00:07:00]That's how I'm getting down. [music] >> Who is she mad at?

[00:07:07]>> Now we're back to the precourse. [music] [music] Oh, >> I love that little adlib in the back.

[00:07:20][music] back to the So, I guess this is the chorus. It's just the second verse was all minor instead of major.

[00:07:35]I'm going >> And now we're back to the original form.

[00:07:48]This is different.

[00:07:55]>> [music] >> Okay, so before she goes on any further um G flat uh to A flat minor uh to E flat minor to D flat.

[00:08:13]Now it sounds like we're back to G flat and then going back to the original D flat.

[00:08:22]>> Yeah. A flat minor and nothing. Okay.

[00:08:32]>> And a classic YG change up at the end.

[00:08:35]Right. Yep.

[00:08:41]>> Oh, but she at least she's singing the same thing over the top of it.

[00:08:45][music] >> That's all of it.

[00:08:52]A little less than 3 minutes, huh? Okay.

[00:08:58]So, all of that's 2018.

[00:09:01]They started doing under three minute songs way sooner than I thought. I've been complaining about that for new songs this year. It appears uh it's been going on for a long time.

[00:09:13]I like this song. I like the way that it develops. It's surprising. If you're a player like me, then you look forward to things like that because it makes you more invested in the tune because you have to know what parts are different as each part comes up. So, let's rank it.

[00:09:32]Okay, this may go on a little bit of a journey, but I am going to start at the top. Um, because I like this better than any other uh solo song that I've heard so far from any of the members, and I have heard a few. These aren't always reactions.

[00:09:49]Um, sometimes they're just a ranking of a song that I've heard a billion times even. Not necessarily the case this time, though. Let's see. I like Go Better. I like Stay Better. I like Pink Venom better. I like Shut Down. I like Hope Not better.

[00:10:05]Don't know what to do. Love sick girls.

[00:10:07]How you like that? Pretty savage.

[00:10:13]Oh, I'm in the range right now. Um, I'm going to put it just under Happiest Girl, I think.

[00:10:24]Well done, Jenny.

[00:10:27]I really like that song.

[00:10:31]Okay. Uh, so we have now ranked Blackpink.

[00:10:35]What are we doing next? We're doing ESPA next. Uh, let me go to the top of the list here and show you the current rankings that we have. I've also done uh extra rankings for ESPA this time around. So, uh, just to show them to you up here real close. Uh, I just did a an extra ranking of like eight tunes for them on Patreon. Again, that's a free post if you want to check it out. Link is in the description.

[00:11:04]Yeah, we've got 33 songs so far ranked for ESPA now. And uh, this time we're doing Lingo. So, let's check it out.

[00:11:17]I always put the link for the video that you will see plus the link for the uh audio that like a group like ESPA provides on their YouTube channel. Uh be sure to give everybody their proper love. And uh all right, they look young here. Was this This isn't off their first album. It must be off their girls album. Uh let's check it out.

[00:11:42]Oh, phone.

[00:11:43]>> Hey girls. Hey. I think they want to talk to us. Should we let them join?

[00:11:48]Nah, they don't understand our seems a little exclusive.

[00:11:58][music] was expecting. [music] [music] It's a lingo. Yeah, [music] >> I love that lower harmony.

[00:12:32][music] >> [music] >> This is our lingo.

[00:12:56]I love that harmony. That's That's great. That lower one is just fantastic.

[00:13:00]So far, we've got one chord. G, but it's it's a fun chord. I like all the sound design around everything. Of course, Espa and SM are kind of known for that, right? [music] It's like a G7 chord. Okay.

[00:13:32][music] I love how the drums got heavier there.

[00:13:39]At least the bass drum did.

[00:13:44]>> Or at least it's more in the mix, [music] >> man.

[00:13:54][music] >> [music] >> G minor.

[00:14:07][music] [music] >> Nice. [music] One of the things that makes it so cool is the groove itself. Um cuz there's like this percussion thing happening uh that's happening off the beat is like one.

[00:14:48]I love that sound. Uh that's really cool.

[00:14:53]Not much in the way of chord variants, but a fun groove. I love this part. Nice bridge.

[00:15:07][music] Right on, >> Karina.

[00:15:14][music] [music] >> Nice.

[00:15:27]I enjoyed that song. Uh, it would be hard to stay super invested in it except for the that the parts are are pretty specific, you know. Um, there actually isn't a whole lot of for a keyboard player to do in that song, unless they're playing the key bass part, which is possible, but I would imagine if they did this live, they would probably just have a uh an actual bass player playing with them or the backing track.

[00:15:55]So, either way, uh, still not much for a keyboard player to do. The bridge was nice. The bridge was a nice switch up.

[00:16:02]Uh, a lot of K-pop does what we call modal interchange, whereas some parts of the song are major and then all of a sudden some of the parts are minor. And that's exactly what happened here. Your three chords that were involved in the whole piece were G major or G7, I guess, uh, which would have an F in it instead of an F sharp. And then, uh, a G minor, which would have a B flat instead of a B natural, and an E flat chord. I will have put them over my head. Let's rank this thing.

[00:16:36]I'm still trying to figure out if this song is inclusive or not. If they're inviting us because we know their lingo uh to to be with them or if they're excluding us because we don't know their lingo.

[00:16:49]Uh lyrically speaking, I should have paid more attention, I guess. Uh but I was so into the groove it was hard for me to. At any rate, I know I'm starting at supernova and I'm working my way down from here. Um, because I know that I like supernova better.

[00:17:05]Live my life I like better.

[00:17:13]I'm going to go just under savage with this one.

[00:17:18]That's where this one is going for me.

[00:17:21]Uh, next time, what will we do next time?

[00:17:24]So, next week we will do ICU.

[00:17:29]Uh, and if you're just here for Esper rankings, then I will see you next Saturday, hopefully. All right. Uh, what do we have next?

[00:17:42]Uh, who is this? IV. Okay. Uh I will again scroll through so that you can see the rankings, the current rankings that we have for IV slowly. Uh I did rank a couple of extra IV songs as well recently on the Patreon. So you'll notice the numbers jumped up a little bit from the last time you saw it.

[00:18:08]Uh let's see. Either way is the one we're doing this time around. Let's get to it.

[00:18:15]Either way. Either way. How do you all say that? I I I know that some different regions say it differently. I guess where I'm from, we used to say either, which is probably, you know, other regions probably look at that with a frown. I don't know. We look at people who say either as being snoody. So, we're weird, I guess. All right. Either way, as I said it again, uh let's see what you got. Five.

[00:18:46][music] Ooh.

[00:18:54][music] >> [music] >> Nothing has changed. I'll tell you the chords in a second. They've been over my head.

[00:19:17]I >> do like the vocals though.

[00:19:21]There's pain in that. That's pain.

[00:19:23][music] Is there an MV for this? Because I feel like I've seen something with them in an MV form with this. I'll check that and if that's the case, we'll put it at the end just to watch it. Um, okay. So, we're in the key of B.

[00:19:54]Yeah. So, the first chord is a B.

[00:19:57]to an E flat 7 or D sharp 7.

[00:20:01]Again, those inharmonic equivalents uh to an A flat minor or G sharp minor uh to an E. I think I'd prefer to call them the the sharp ones this time around. So, D#sharp 7 and G sharp minor.

[00:20:21]Uh but it's been that way the whole time. Let's see if anything changes.

[00:20:25]>> [music] >> Oh, the melodies are beautiful though.

[00:20:28]And there's a lot of >> pain in the performance.

[00:20:35][music] [music] >> They went to this really sloppy snap.

[00:20:47]That's cool.

[00:20:48]I I that sound it. Well, I guess it's not really a snap, but I love how loose it is. It It feels like a whole bunch of things are hitting, but none of them at the same time. Uh that helps create its own kind of pocket. It also generates its own kind of emotional feeling. Uh where things are just not quite together.

[00:21:09]Um and this song seems to reflect that from what I can tell from the lyrics.

[00:21:16]All >> [music] >> right, Rayther.

[00:21:31][music] All right, golf sounds great. [music] Liz is killing it.

[00:21:45]Either way, you're good.

[00:21:51][music] >> Oh, I thought I heard that kind of in the background before. [music] >> I love that.

[00:22:07][music] Get [music] oh either way you're [music] cool.

[00:22:39]>> [music] [music] >> I know I've seen an MV do this. I know that I have. I must have, right? Um, I'll tell you what. I'm not gonna just because I don't like playing something twice on a video. Uh I'll put it up on my Patreon for free if there is one. I will I will look around and I will check that out. Uh so uh thanks for your patience on that and it'll be a free post. So uh just check the link in the description below.

[00:23:20]Um the performances are so good and I love the way that synth has that in it. Um, it makes it feel like you're kind of underwater in a way and and and it feels also like in this song they're all drowning in a certain kind of feeling.

[00:23:40]So, I thought I thought the symbolism of the sound design was very good. The chord progression is quite melancholy.

[00:23:49]Uh, which seems to fit the lyrics as well.

[00:23:54]I know there's got to be an MV for this.

[00:23:56]Um, so once again, it'll be on the Patreon if you want to check that out.

[00:24:01]All right, let's rank this thing.

[00:24:06]Okay, so I was scrolling up to see whether I was going to start at the top or not, and I saw Strawberry Moon and I said, "Okay, let's just start here and work our way up because I don't think it's going to make my top 10, but I do know that I like it better than Strawberry Moon." Uh, which is also an extra ranking post that you can catch on the Patreon.

[00:24:26]I like it better than Crush. I like it better than Hypnosis. I do not like it better than Heroin. So, that's where it goes for me. And uh let me know if it's got an MV in the comments. Although uh if you check out the Patreon, I'll probably have already found it on my own and will have uh put it up there. So, uh that is what we got next time. What will we be doing off the record? Okay, that's next time. And uh we've got YY to do here.

[00:24:59]So uh let me go to the top of the list here and give you a full look at what we've ranked. This is the only group that I have not done any extra rankings on. At least I don't recall doing any extra rankings on.

[00:25:17]So far we've got 24 tunes. And this time we're doing Louder, which is off the Not Shy Mini.

[00:25:25]That the first two songs of the Not Shy, if you noticed, um, let's see. Not Shy is at number six.

[00:25:36]Um, Don't Give a What is at number three. So, two, the first two songs off of that uh off of that mini have made it into the top 10. So, I'm kind of excited to see where this louder will go. Let's check it out.

[00:25:54]All right. Louder. What you got for me today, it?

[00:26:00]>> YEAH.

[00:26:01][music] >> OH, we're back to the sting face arrangements. OKAY. [music] E flat.

[00:26:28][music] >> I, you know, normally when they do the whole when JYPp does the whole sound thing, uh, I'm not as much into it. But as I've said with the first two songs uh off of this mini uh it feels like the production's taken a a step up to me and uh and I think it really shows cuz I'm not nearly as assaulted by this one as uh sometimes I get by JP stink face stuff.

[00:27:07]>> [music] >> Oh, nice.

[00:27:10]Great rhythm there from Yi.

[00:27:18]>> Wow. So, we're in this key and uh you know is doing this kind of harmony.

[00:27:28]So you would think normally you would hear either this or this.

[00:27:36]But Unice Harmony does a suspension which kind of implies all kinds of crazy thing.

[00:27:43]I mean it could be a suspended seventh.

[00:27:45]It could be just a suspended chord. It could actually be an A flat over E flat.

[00:27:51]Um might be kind of hard to identify what chord was intended there. Not that it would matter to a chord player because there's really no chords going on, but it's fun to figure out what the har what kind of chords the harmonies are also implying sometimes. Right on, you sounded great. [music] >> [music] [music] >> I love that. Um, a B to D flat uh to a B flat minor uh to an E flat minor and then I think they actually went to a G flat also.

[00:28:47]and then back to the B flat uh down to an A flat minor.

[00:28:53]And then I don't know where it went after that cuz I don't think we got that far.

[00:29:01]>> A flat minor to B flat minor. [music] >> So we're definitely an E flat minor then.

[00:29:10]>> Didn't know until now. [music] Sounds like a toy winding up cuz the pitch gets a little higher the second time.

[00:29:37][music] >> Oh, I like that change. I wish it had been like this the whole time. [music] >> I love that baseline.

[00:29:55]Uhuh.

[00:29:59]There it is. Yeah, man. That's great.

[00:30:04]Uh E flat down to E flat up to A flat to up to B and down uh down to B flat.

[00:30:15]B flat B flat minor E flat minor to G flat B.

[00:30:26]>> Oh, there's a quick change in there. So, what I didn't catch the first time around was there's a a B flat or a B to a B flat minor to an E flat minor and then to the G sharp or A flat minor and then to the B flat.

[00:30:45]Cool.

[00:30:47]Nice. That's that's lots of changes to fit in. Uh and it's a nice little organish kind of sound. Uh, which means I would get to play that part. So, I'm happy.

[00:31:04]>> Almost a partisa organ. I used to call them fartas all the time on the roads.

[00:31:11][music] [music] >> They're going to be time for a bridge.

[00:31:21][music] More again [music] more.

[00:31:42]Okay, hang on just a second there, Leah, because I love that rather than just staying in the E flat minor, uh, they switched between the E flat minor and the B, which explains why the sounds feel like they're higher the second time on that because they're actually emphasizing the B chord. They've been doing that the whole time. They just haven't been supplying the chords in there. And now that they finally supplied the chords, this particular sound design makes much more sense to me. I like that a lot.

[00:32:16]Okay. Uh I interrupted Leah, who is about to do something that we hadn't heard before from what I can tell.

[00:32:26]B flat minor to E flat.

[00:32:39][screaming] [music] >> I love that. So, they did give us a little bit of a bridge. Uh B to B flat to E flat. Um, again, something that we'd already heard, but very cool.

[00:33:05][music] >> Now they're taking the B base out of it again.

[00:33:11][music] >> Yeah, there it is.

[00:33:15][music] Those are some very interesting decisions about when to supply harmonic reference and when not to.

[00:33:28]Kind of interesting. Kind of fun that way, actually.

[00:33:33]Um, you'd have to be really zoned in to know when you were supposed to do those parts.

[00:33:40]Uh, which is fun. That's that's good for me. Let's rank this thing.

[00:33:47]Okay, I'm going to start at not shy because I know I like it better and I'm going to work my way down. However, uh I got to say this mini feels like a leap forward for production for either JP or for its decisions and choices and songs because I'm really digging this album a lot more than I have anything else that I've heard so far from them. And I like all their songs. I mean, there's no bad songs. Uh, but I'm liking these even more for the most part.

[00:34:19]I'm going above. Yeah, I'm going above It Summer with this one. Another top 10.

[00:34:25]Three off of this album now in the top 10. And next time we will be doing ID.

[00:34:33]So, thanks for joining me this time around. Uh, hopefully you found your group okay uh using the time codes below. Don't forget that I do have a Patreon where I have lots of extra content for all of these groups and uh I really enjoy doing that. Uh most of the posts are actually free. Uh you can join a paid tier if you want. Nobody's going to shun you for that. Nobody's going to shun you if you want to hit like or if you want to subscribe to the channel right here on YouTube. And uh you know, come be part of our community over there if you want. uh because I I love having more opinions and definitely put your opinions about my personal rankings for these songs uh in the comments here and uh I know that we kind of jump around in the discoraphy a lot especially for Blackpink. That's because again a lot of the solo things it's hard to figure out what's going to be uh keep from getting blocked on YouTube basically. So uh I'm trying to work all of that out. Uh be patient with me. Next time with Blackpink, we'll be doing Yeah. Yeah.

[00:35:37]Yeah. I think, which is I know way further down the discoraphy than than Jenny Solo was. Uh it's weird, I know.

[00:35:45]Uh but thanks so much for joining me this time around and we'll see you next time uh for another edition of these four groups together, but being ranked on separate lists, my new format uh so that I can get even more groups in here on the channel for you. Take care.