It feels like Silica Gel’s explosion into the front of audiences happened almost overnight. POWER ANDRE 99 is one of the deepest albums from 2023 and Silica Gel proved that with multiple wins at the 2024 Korean Music Awards. The band has a deep discography and POWER ANDRE 99 is only their second full length.
SILICA GEL was released after one EP and two singles. POWER ANDRE 99 was released seven years later. And with 18 songs and one hour and 14 minutes of music, the band is making a giant impact. Not just in Korean music, but for international audiences. So if people think they appeared out of nowhere, it’s easy to show that they have history and years of effort behind this album.
To me, POWER ANDRE 99 is the best place to start with Silica Gel. It’s a mountain of music, spanning all of their ideas and a variety of music. I do think with 18 songs, there are some misses because of the amount of tracks and the eventual comparison between them.
“Eres Tu” isn’t a main single, but a song shared a lot. “NO PAIN” is from 2022. It’s a song with the most Spotify plays and easily one of Silica Gel’s signature songs now. I wish they also included “I’MMORTAL” because I’m a big sogumm fan and I think she fits the style perfectly. So!YoON!‘s appearance on “Tik Tak Tok” works too and sounds like another natural Silica Gel extension.
In this singles era, POWER ANDRE 99 is at a disadvantage with international audiences. Because they consume streaming music through suggested playlists, it’s difficult to entice someone new to go through this album from “On Black” to “PH-1004.” But it’s worth it.
Silica Gel’s precise and specific rock foundation centers every song they create. The layers they play on each song changes and that’s what maintains the optimal freshness level. POWER ANDRE 99 is a new classic.
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Written by Chris P for Korean Indie.