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Song Review:: Onew (SHINee): TOUGH LOVE- TOUGH LOVE

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Release date: 2026 March 09 Album track list: Dot dot dot (...); TOUGH LOVE ; Flex on me; Lie; X, Oh Why? Album runtime: 15 mi nutes  My man Onew! Look! I'm actually doing this when it comes out instead of months later like with what happened last time! Everyone, I love his voice. I really do. It's so gorgeous, and while I've found a few other artists who have a similar vocal tone and quality to him, they're pretty far between. I am however deeply disappointed in the runtime for the title track and the album runtime overall does not hit the three minute average. It rounds up to it. This is a very grindy instrumental while simultaneously being soft and floaty. It's an interesting combination. I'm not sure how well this works though, so this might take me a minute to decide on exactly how I feel about it. It could just be that the song doesn't have the space to be able to finish what those two parts of the song could have been together.  Crucially, even during...

Song Review:: SUCTION: Still Hurts {Debut}

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Release date: 2026 March 05 Album track list: Still Hurts , Still Hurts, (Inst.) Album runtime: 6 mi nutes  This is the most interesting co-ed group to drop in years, arguably one of the most interesting groups full stop in years. There are two notable K-Pop names in here: Narsha from Brown Eyed Girls and MJ from ASTRO. That right there is a duo to raise eyebrows considering they debuted ten years apart, but to join them are all-rounder entertainer Kwon Hyuksoo and comedian Na Hyunyoung.  I'm getting a very strong second gen vibe from this instrumental, which we get because the debut single includes it. Yay. There are shades of 80s techno as well, which is a delightful combination. There's a strong energy to the song that I'm excited to see how it translates vocally, especially with this combination of artists. Honestly, this instrumental would make for a good workout song if you were in the market for one. Why am I getting Orange Caramel vibes off this song? There's no...

Greatest Hits:: Hyuna (Wonder Girls/4Minute): Bubble Pop!

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 As messy as her private life has been in the last decade, I wanted to do this song now because it's a good pairing for the one I just did, and also, the second half of this month is going to be very boy group heavy, so I wanted to counter balance that a little. This was also long before any of her messiness back when she was nineteen and had all of those mistakes yet to make, but I don't want to punish this song for her choices. Now, that being said, if her choice of husband has soured all of her music to you, then thank you for reading this paragraph, and I'll let you keep going with your life. You'll like the next one I do though. No scandals attached to it or the artist. Promise. So, HyunA debuted as part of...a lot of different groups. She originally debuted with Wonder Girls in 2007 as the main rapper, then she debuted in 4Minute in 2009 as the main rapper and main dancer. She debuted as one half of the duo Troublemaker, and one third of TripleH. She also debuted ...

Song Review:: ORORORA (7Princess): On My Way- Hold My Breath

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Release date: 2026 March 05 Album track list: Siren Song, Hold My Breath , Crying Child, Juliet and Romeo, Forever Yours, Save Your Tears Album runtime: 22 mi nutes  So 7Princess was a 2nd gen kid group (debuted in 2004 at the age of nine), so she's got a bit of experience from a young age and she debuted as a soloist last year in 2025. I obviously missed it. But, I'll cover this one so that if you're interested in getting to know her more, you have a starting point here. Also, while every song is over three minutes long, the title track is an unbelievably fantastic five minutes long.  There's a very dreamy floating to this instrumental. It's steady without being loud, soft without being fluffy. I like the balance here, because it keeps the song in the same sphere as an Enya song, but it lets the vocals be ambitious without being ambitious itself. It just is, with no fuss and nothing to get energetic about. That sort of steadiness is so soothing. It's genuinely ...

Song Review:: V01D: 01- ROCKROCK {Pre-Debut}

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Release date: 2026 March 03 Album track list: ROCKROCK , ROCKROCK Instrumental Album runtime: 6 mi nutes  So, as a debuting group, I need to figure out who they are. First of all, this is a band and all of the members are over 180 cm. One of them is a former member of the band 2Z. Three of the members are twenty-four or older, the other two do not have birth years attached to them, but given the age of the others, I'm tentatively inclined to not put them on Underage Protocol. I'm fully willing to later once we get ages, but for now, I won't. And it's an auspicious start to their careers that their pre-debut song is over three minutes. The electric guitar is fully front and center in this instrumental. I'm excited to see how this supports the vocals because while there's quite a lot of steady movement going on with the melody, it doesn't have enough movement to be the main star of the show, AKA the song as a whole. Still, what we have in this part, which I ge...

Song Review:: H1-KEY: LOVECHAPTER- To. My First Love

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Release date: 2026 March 05 Album track list: Be full of Romantic, To. My First Love , Stuck with You, My Wish, Not Like a Movie , To. My First Love (Instrumental), Not Like a Movie (Instrumental) Album runtime: 22 mi nutes  Well, I really liked what turned out to be a pre-release single, so I'm tentatively excited for this one. Although a lot of the time if I love the pre-release I don't like the actual title track as much. Which is fine. I'm not required to love every song. I just hope I do. And it's a good length too, which really makes me hope for this.  More rock. At some point I need to just accept that I'm in a year of plenty and that I'm stockpiling the songs for when the tides change and we go back to styles and trends that I like less. Rather than being something groundbreaking or unusual, the majority of the song does exactly what it should based on the genre. It hits the expected genre story beats in a very satisfying way. And I'm using the word ...

Song Review:: Woodz (UNIQ/X1): Archive. 1- Human Extinction

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Release date: 2026 March 04 Album track list: 00:30, Super Lazy, Dayfly, The Spark, Human Extinction , Stray, Bloodline, Downtown, STOP THAT, NA NA NA, Struggle, BEEP, Plastic, GLASSS, CINEMA , SAMO, To My January Album runtime: 49 mi nutes  Seventeen songs. Seventeen flipping songs. That ends up being a little bit shorter than three minutes for the runtime, but the title track is three and a half minutes, so we are good. I am happy about this. Thank you, Woodz. I also find it a little amusing that the shortest song on here is called "Dayfly". Anyway, back to the title track. That's our focus. That opening is so long. It's almost forty-five seconds of proper rock band intro with the instruments fully showing off before the vocals kick in. This is hitting so well. Seriously, there has been so much rock this year so far that I'm glowing. High energy, high angst. When the vocals kick in is one of the few times in the song when it's quieter, but no less dramatic. ...