I find V's voice so beautiful. His style is way too breathy in most of what they record, but his voice tone when he really sings is so ... creamy is what I want to say, which sounds strange, but.

You might also check out Hyukoh's new EP (24: How to find true love and happiness) out today. I have only heard the title track (Love Ya) so far and don't love it but I think you liked Tomboy, right?

I did! Wasn't as thrilled with their back catalogue, but I do like Oh Hyuk's voice. Aside from Tomboy, I have two duets featuring him - MOMOM with Cifika and Can't Love You Anymore with IU.

I shall check out this new EP of which you speak. Oh! I found another song featuring V's vocal talents, namely Stigma. Nicely overwrought, I think Intro would have benefitted from a bit of the same kick. Actually the song that Intro reminds me of is IU's Sleepless Rainy Night (her cover version - I think it's from the same album as Last Night Story).

Stigma is mostly in V's falsetto range, though! Which is a waste of a great baritone, IMO.

The other Hyukoh song I really love is Wi ing Wi ing. I also love this cover of it: [link]

I like that, I like the way they manage the intensity. The cover version really illuminates a different side to the song. What was the context for it? YouTube conjures up a whole slew of what look like other covers to go with it; is this from a game show or something?

There are two other examples of K-pop cover versions that pull my attention. The first one is a cover of what I regard as the Kramer of K-pop. I can pretty much feel my brain dribbling out of my ears when I listen to it, yet I can't look away: Dumb Dumb by Red Velvet. [link] But then there's this cover version by a few artists, that just about makes it sound cool: [link] Really it's quite an achievement.

(Incidentally, when I did the search for Dumb Dumb, YouTube came up with my city's public transport public service announcement: [link] It beats Dumb Dumb by over 60 million views, which is just weird.)

The other one is IU's Last Night Story, which I came across courtesy of either you or Hec. (For completeness: [link] Anyway. Last night (sic) I checked out the original of the song, which I present here and invite you to compare to, for example, the choreography of your typical BTS effort: [link]

I sent you to Last Night Story! Eve loves it and it was on her top 10 of 2017 list. The original is ... interesting. The group's name means Firetruck!

I would honestly not have even recognized Dumb Dumb from that cover.

The Wi ing Wi ing cover is from King of Masked Singer - yes, basically a game show, where there's competition but basically the point is to guess who the singers are. Kang Seungyoon (whom I adore) is sort of a dead giveaway - he has a very distinctive voice! Here's what it looked like airing: [link]

King of Masked Singer! That's the one that had Ryan Reynolds on it a little while ago, yes?

Yeah. It has all kinds of singers - some idols, but lots of non-idol singers as well.

If you like Kang Seungyoon's voice, he's in a group called Winner, but the majority of their songs don't really make the best use of his voice. This one does, We Were from their recent album: [link] Winner also covered an old rock ballad recently on Sugarman 2 that Eve and I both love: [link] Seungyoon initally got famous for this ballad cover when he was 17: [link]

He does have an excellent voice. I'll give those a listen when I get home.

Last summer the album I enjoyed most was Shawn Mendes' Illumination, particularly "There's Nothing Holding Me Back." There wasn't much I was fond of though, as a whole the summer had nothing on the previous year when Pink, Calvin Harris & Rhianna, Sia, and Adele all had songs I liked a lot.

Shawn Mendes has a new album out this week! I mentioned him to my coworker the other day, and he was like, "Who's that?" and I said, "He's sort of like Justin Bieber, but not sleazy. Yet. And tall."

ION, I am really stunned by this - Angelique Kidjo's version of Talking Heads' album Remain in Light: [link]