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]

I'll add that Mendes recognizes (so far) that his talents lay in pop, and (unlike Bieber) he isn't trying to be a serious R&B singer.

My French cousin has requested classic American roadtrip music for our next cross-country odyssey. So I want to put together a playlist that is at least a couple of hours. Preferably from stuff I have or can easily get from the library. Ideas for specific songs that fit that bill?