Best of 2009: November #2 & #1

Two amazing songs from opposite sides of the world. Hahah.

#2: Alesha Dixon - To Love Again

For the longest time, To Love Again was my number 1 song for November but by a strange turn of events, it's not. That doesn't mean it's any less of a song though - it's still as gorgeous as it was when I first heard it. I have to say though, if it weren't for Paul, I would've never given this song a chance - when I listened to this I was too concentrated on kpop to even update myself on what was happening on the other side of the world. But I did so yay for me. To Love Again in one word is stunning - it's tied with Britt Nicole's Have Your Way for the most beautiful ballad of the year. I think some of you will agree with me when I say that no one else can sing this like Alesha can because dammit, her voice has so much soul mixed in with the technique. And that middle 8 just blows every other ballad out of the water.

#1: After School - Because Of You

I never really paid attention to After School at the beginning of my kpop addiction because I just didn't like Diva or all their other singles. However with their recent comeback I just got hooked. Because of You is another one of those slow burns - like SNSD's Genie I didn't really like it at the beginning but the more I listened to it and the better the quality got over time, the more I was convinced that this song was pure and utter brilliance. It is, I tell you. If there's one song that explains the current state of kpop this has got to be it - there's rap, there's processing, at one point it has the potential to get a eurocrap loop, it sounds epic and brilliant at extremely high volumes and most of all it's produced by the Brave Brothers, if you remember what I wrote about U-Kiss I said that the Brave Brothers are like the RedOne of Korea. And that string section, THAT FREAKIN' STRING SECTION. I can die happy now. As I'm writing this (it's December 16), the song is already a huge hit around online charts (that's how to gauge popularity in Korea right now) and is on it's way to winning the music shows. May I also add that the video is just stunning - it's one of the reasons why I kept on listening to this.