Just A Little Fangirl Love

Release date: 2026 May 11 Album tracklist: Crescendo , Heavy Serenade , IDERSERVEIT, Different Girl, Superior, LOUD Album runtime: 16 minutes  Wow, I could have sworn that I'd done this one. Whoops. I've also been forced to go back to writing these on paper first and then typing them up because my brain is struggling with writing anything. For a song called "Heavy Serenade", this instrumental isn't very heavy. It's got moments where the guitar is certainly active and quite grindy, but for the most part, there's a softer, floaty echo quality to the song that reminds me a bit quicksand. It's funny. This reminds me both of A Fleeting Dream from Final Fantasy X and also the sound of the Reapers from Mass Effect . It's not a combination I thought I would be hearing.  They really have such pretty voices. Also, the mix feels a bit off, like the instrumental is really overpowering compared to the vocals, especially at the end. The same sort of floaty qua...

  Hello, hello! Young groups are having their day right now, with a pair of groups getting our wins for this week, one of which is a first win for a song! Very exciting! It's been a lot of BigHit wins the last couple of months or so, but if you noticed, every single week has had at least one Big 4 win since the end of February. For the After School Club re-run, I went with EVERGLOW from 2024 in Ep. 631! There's a lot of discussion about zombies and general horror in the first part of it, which is delightful considering I'm on a horror kick right now and found a new gamer on YouTube who plays almost exclusively horror games. Well, not new. New to me. Anyway, they were cute. And kind of loud in the second part, which I enjoy for a group. For the The Show re-run, I went with BAE173 from back in 2022, and for the extra stage, I went with I.O.I on MCountdown. As always, the links in the spreadsheet go to my reviews and the link down with ASC goes to the full episode.  Show Champ...

Release date: 2026 June 08 Album tracklist: Helicopter , Helicopter (O.C remix) Album runtime: 5 minutes  What in the world? I'm reviewing a new Cross Gene song. They've been quiet for longer than I've been hoping for, but I'm certainly not going to complain about this. Happy anniversary, Cross Gene! I'm not sure how many members you have right now, but I hope everyone is healthy. Now, I'm not super familiar with Cross Gene's previous work. I'm a big fan of Black or White, but I can't say that I know their music well. We've got a bit of a skittering beat here, which, speaking from 2012 debut experience, it's not uncommon for those groups to transition into this sound at some point, but there isn't a lot of variation to the song. The dominate sound of the instrumental is the skittering beat, although there is something going on melody-wise underneath it, but it still spends the majority of the time there, which is a shame. I would expect s...

Release date: 2026 June 08 Album tracklist: 06070, VIRAL , ddok ddok ddok , ADIOS!, Upside Down, DIVE, Forever You, I Wonder Album runtime: 25 minutes  Okay, the pre-release was not my favorite, which is fine. But the title track is an entirely different song, so it's a new dawn, so to speak. There we go. This sounds like BOYNEXTDOOR. I'm good now. We've got quite a few bits of different bits of song going on here, which is fun, but the overall energy is bright and brassy, a little bit slinky, but it's got energy and texture. The electric guitar grinding through the instrumental does a lot for the song to change the dominate biome of the musical landscape, but it isn't there the entire time. In fact, that solo piano there near the end does even more, and I'm a fan of that.  This reminds me a bit of WHO YOU? by G-Dragon, especially at the beginning. It doesn't stay like that, though there are occasional moments where it goes back to that. This is a singing h...

 As I said with the BOUNCY post, I have a friend that I've been helping to introduce her students to K-Pop. BOUNCY was their favorite song for most of the year, close second being VOODOO DOLL. Now, obviously, I can't do VOODOO DOLL again, OKay is too new, and I'd already decided on doing BOUNCY for them. But! I also wanted them to decide on a song. They spent the entire year liking boy groups, and hating the girl groups generally. There were a few exceptions to that, but for the most part, they hated the girl groups. Except for this song. As I predicted, they'd already known this song, but I was not expecting them to be able to sing and dance along. But when I asked my friend to have them pick a song, I was expecting a boy group. JikJin by Treasure, Techno Love by H.O.T, Move by TNX, Gangnam Style by Psy, In Bloom by ZEROBASEONE. Even Chase Me by Dreamcatcher because they actually requested that one a bit. You know, something that they really liked consistently o...

Release date: 2026 May 29 Album tracklist: WDA (Whole Different Animal) (feat. G-Dragon), LEMONADE , SHAKIN', Can't Help Myself, Camouflage, Bite, Switchblade (feat. Ty Dolla $ign), Roll, My Plan, 'Til We Die, LEMONADE (feat. Becky G) Album runtime: 33 minutes  I know he isn't actually at YG anymore, but a YG artist featured on an SM artist's track? Fascinating. It feels a little like a Universal movie monster (like Bela Lugosi's Dracula) showing up in Singin' in the Rain . Not going to lie. Not that I think of G-Dragon as a Universal movie monster, but that's an iconic staple of Universal Studios and Singin' in the Rain is one of MGM's more iconic musicals. Two heavyweights in their respective divisions, so to speak. Underneath that skittering beat is a very grindy sound that turns a bit neon cyberpunk. I know I've been a bit lukewarm about aespa's recent songs, but I honestly like the layering in the instrumental that's going on he...