Sweetune Gets it Right Again with Boyfriend’s “I Yah”

After a string of basic releases, Boyfriend finally dropped a great song last November with the questionably titled “Janus”. They’re back again with a repackaged version of that album and a new single, “I Yah”, which raises the bar even higher than “Janus” did to become the band’s best single to date.

“I Yah” is a continuation of both the darker, eighties synthpop sound of “Janus” and the song’s more masculine concept. In other words, it’s another INFINITE leftover that Sweetune felt wasn’t quite right for his star boy band at this point, so it was handed over to Boyfriend instead — which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. INFINITE’s music is nothing short of flawless, but since they’re probably preparing to evolve their sound now following the success of hits like “Paradise” and “The Chaser”, it’s good to see that their songs can find a safe home in Boyfriend — even if it does mean that Boyfriend will probably forever remain the less interesting version of the Hoya and Co.

“I Yah” is actually superior to a lot of INFINITE’s pre “Be Mine” singles. The hook is a total doozy of glittery eighties perfection that becomes utterly irresistible once seen with Boyfriend’s sexually suggestive choreography. I wouldn’t even be upset if INFINITE used this for their comeback single, even though it would essentially just be a less good version of “The Chaser”.

By the way, is it just me, or would’ve this made a really hot Pandora repackage single for KARA? The very thought of Hara and Gyuri touching themselves to this makes me weak at the knees.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 10th, 2013 at 5:26 pm and is filed under New Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • Louis!

    Impressed! Sweetune’s artistic touch never seems to disappoint me anyway but this time around they actually came up with an awesome piece for Boyfriend who did great ditching Brave Brothers.
    The melody sounds so good I knew I’d love it after the first ten seconds.
    Can’t wait to here that live!

  • UncleFan

    I never cared about these guys, but now I’m stanning them based on the album photo alone. Those skinny ties are the shit, man!

  • twinkle9

    i really like this group.

  • http://twitter.com/Myrmicinae Brendicienta

    Honestly the voices are interchangeable, I would mistake them for Infinite easily. But Sweetune are awesome and so distinguishable, they are what Yasutaka Nakata is to all his j-projects.

  • KingBeaArthur

    “even though it would essentially just be a less good version of “The Chaser”.” – I would say a less good version of “Before The Dawn” instead of “The Chaser”.

    I’m torn with BF’s changeover. I get that they couldn’t keep doing pastels and sweet love songs but that’s what drew me to them in the first place. The fact that this & “Janus” (a song I love, don’t get me wrong) sound exactly like songs that were withheld from Infi is what’s starting to become an issue for me. I’d rather BF form their own identity instead of being stuck as “that other group that sound kind of like Infinite”.

    I also feel like “Standing With U” (the other repackage song) was a stronger choice for their comeback single, but that’s just me.

  • JL

    The live performance is here and it’s good:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpWHqVPiuyU

  • theprophetblog

    Yeah I agree, even though I think I like “I Yah” more than “Before the Dawn”. Maybe. i’ll see how I feel once the initial love wears off.

    I agree with what you say about Boyfriend, I just don’t care that much because the group isn’t interesting to me, so I’d rather them do songs I enjoy than ones I don’t. But from someone like you who is a fan of them, I totally agree,

  • KingBeaArthur

    My issue is less with the song (which is another Sweetune earworm I’m not denying that) and more so with the direction & overall sound of the group. I adored “Janus” & I like “I Yah” but the fact that fans & non fans are like “this sounds like an Infi song” etc. is what I mean. At least with “Don’t Touch My Girl” & even “Love Style” the Sweetune touch was evident but they were ‘BF songs’ and not Infinite b-sides.

  • http://www.twitter.com/tonybrabander Tony Brabander

    I need a dance version… the cutaways to those 12 year old school girls is irritating the fuck out of me!

  • BozzPop

    omg, this slays! :) )

  • http://www.facebook.com/lucaswoodstock Lucas Oliveira Dantas

    i see your point and i agree with you even if i’m with the proph about boyfriend.

    i agree that it’s mainly a starship problem with the direction they’re giving to BF, just like you said, but i’d go further to say that it is also a sweetune issue. i mean, certain collabs between some k-pop producers and groups are starting to get repetitive and maybe it’s time for agencies to look for new sounds that can also be truthful the a group’s image – or demand better and different from usual producers.

    e.g i found interesting the change of sound brave brothers gave to sistar with “alone”, but when teen top released “to you”, even if the song’s amazing, many said it could be considered as a male version of sistar’s song [including the proph, i remember].

    so is it maybe that sweetune’s stuck in a creative rut when it comes to the boy bands it’s producing?

  • KingBeaArthur

    I agree 100%! I think it’s fine to have a signature sound like Sweetune, Teddy Park, or Brave but sometimes people get stuck – Brave have become good about rotating sounds every 3 to 4 months though.

    I’d actually go even further & place some of the blame on the fans that accept whatever they’re given. But that isn’t just a thing within K-pop. Look at a producers like Stargate, who got away with giving out like 20 versions of “Irreplaceable”!

  • Black_winds

    This song is really great,yes…but i can’t see it as Infinite song at all TBH.