Just A Little Fangirl Love

Release date: 2026 August 21 Album track list: Two Fools, Stuck, Bad For You, Bloody Paradise , Checkmate , Highlight Album runtime: 15 mi nutes  They've gotten some nice wins with this song. Very nice. I'm genuinely pleased for them. Don't get me wrong about that. But. I need to point out that this song isn't even two-and-a-quarter minutes long. It's barely two minutes long. What is wrong with HYBE? We've got a nice Latin vibe to the song, which I appreciate, and that beat is heavy. There's something deeply unsettling about it as well, which as a concept is not overly surprising for the K-Pop vampires. But the amount of repetition in the instrumental doesn't allow for growth within the song. We do get a little bit, but not enough to actually change the sound of the song at any point. So much of the mumbling and whispering that pretends to be cool but tries too hard to be cool. It's fine. This as a trend in sound will move on eventually as did all th...

Release date: 2026 August 10 Album track list: Ever2Late!, Hey Hi, Pop Off Pop Off , SWEET SOUR, Candy Pink Magic Hole Flip Phone , Blue Hour Album runtime: 15 mi nutes  Well, they didn't get a win with this song, so I'll do a review of it because I'm so wildly behind and this way I have to while also being like "Here's this song! You should listen to it! Don't just take my word for it! Feel free to disagree with me!" I don't know what this sounds like yet. I just assume someone is going to disagree with me and that's fine as long as you can articulate why. They're on Underage Protocol, so I can't listen to it like I normally would, but as time marches on, eventually they'll be off it and I'll actually get to listen to their discography. I'm also late enough that I didn't notice that apparently another song from this album had a music video. I need to know what that song sounds like, so I'll be doing that one probably ne...

Release date: 2026 August 17 Album tracklist: After School , we're not the same anymore, Take My Time Album runtime: 11 minutes  I decided to do this song as one of the extra stages for a Music Show Wins post, so I need to do the review. Which works! It's fine! This is a good way to force me to do reviews I didn't originally get to. I don't think this is his official solo debut and it is an OST, but I'm not entirely positive about what all is going on there. I just know he performed this on Show Champion. I'm trying to decide what kind of song this sounds like. It's a very pleasant instrumental that doesn't have a lot of variation. But. There are some points of rest and little resets, but it's just pleasant and comfortable through most of it. But it's also the kind of song where the instrumental is very much secondary to the vocals by design. At least there's some weight to it, though. It's not a floaty song even with how soft his vocals ...

Release date: 2026 September 30 Album tracklist: Pulse, LOUDER , Lucky Charm, LOVE ME, Seize The Night, Fantasy, Odd One Out Album runtime: 20  minutes  I feel really bad for the groups that debuted either right before or during the Covid shutdown. They've had an uphill battle from the start, even more so than the normal uphill battle every group has. I wish Cravity could get more attention because they turn seven next year. The start of this instrumental immediately reminded of The Avengers (the theme song from the movie), and then it went a little bit harder and grindier than the start of the song implies. It's appropriately titled because this is a loud instrumental and rather metallic in places. This will make a great workout song, but I think it's a bit too much for me right now. The stages of this song are probably great though. We've got an excellent range of the voices in this song. A lot of the singing is quite high, and then there's the much lower, more s...

 This is one of the many groups that debuted in 2012, which is why 2012 was called the year of boy groups. There were a lot that debuted and a lot that did really well. Some of them took longer than others, but generally speaking (and it's not just me with my love of 2012 groups), the 2012 boy groups were a good crop. And they are actually technically no longer on hiatus because they released a song back in June of this year (2026)! Yay! I'm fully aware that I'm projecting with the 2012 groups, but it brings me both relief and joy any time I see any of them doing a comeback. There's actually a cute anecdote about Yongseok seeing his leader at an airport in Japan, realizing it was Shin, and calling out to him. They had a meal together and Yongseok admitted he missed being in a group. Shin came around to the idea after a long letter that Yongseok sent him because he was the last one at the company and was still holding onto Cross Gene. Cross Gene debuted as a six-member ...

Release date: 2026 August 22 Album tracklist: We're Happy , We're Happy (Inst.) Album runtime: 6 minutes   I’d like for this group to get more recognition. They’ve had a couple of decently recognized songs, but I actually kind of like what I’ve heard from them. Which means I need to stay away from them so they don’t have an early disbandment. I know realistically that I’m not actually causing it, but I’m also superstitious enough that I don’t want to risk it. So, this comes with an instrumental-only track and that opened with vocals. That’s a choice.  It does seem like it’s a cappella, so it makes sense to include the vocals in that part just so listeners can get the timing of the song right if they’re wanting to sing the song without the accompanying vocals. This is a very summery track, very upbeat and bubbly, but it’s also very much a late summer song, which fits considering when it was released. I’m a little disappointed that there isn’t a big, key defining moment, but the...