Just A Little Fangirl Love

Release date: 2026 April 28 Album tracklist: W.T.F, Sign , CAGE, CIRCLES, YESSIR! Album runtime: 12 minutes Okay, we’ve got a new album from this group, and while I haven’t been overly enthused by their recent releases, I’m still looking forward to this because I want songs to love from all the groups. The eternal hope I possess is a little irritating sometimes, but when it pays off, it usually pays off well. And there isn't a single song on here longer than three minutes and two of which are shorter than two-and-a-half minutes. I know that this is being posted when it’s being posted, but this was written immediately after KEYVITUP’s song. And while it’s not nearly as aggressively discordant, the spirit of the song is in the same circle in the Venn Diagram. We’ve got some strings lurking behind the slow drums and synth, and while they’re not a constant addition, they show up to tease instead. But this is the kind of slow-moving roll that I’m curious about what it’s going to look l...

Release date: 2026 April 08 Album tracklist: BEST ONE,  KEYVITUP , LEGENDARY , SHOW ME SOMETHING, POLAROID Album runtime: 14 minutes I was temporarily confused, and horrified, that Jaejoong would have his brand new boy group drop another album so soon after the first while preparing to debut the second one. And then I remembered my joke about how I’ve written the word “KEYVITUP” so many times that it had ceased to have meaning. I’m also currently writing this while I’m on an airplane, so I’m not sure if this is supposed to be on Underage Protocol or not, but I think I may also remember that I made a comment about them being fine and I just needed the second one to follow suit. This is a surprisingly sparse instrumental and it’s bafflingly unlike just about anything that I’ve heard come out of a group recently, especially not one as young as they are. It’s discordant, but there are a lot of pieces working together to make that friction in the instrumental that weirdly work together...

Release date: 2026 April 27 Album tracklist: All the Possibilities; You, You ; Why You So Bad?; Get It Now; Fire Escape; Back To Strangers Album runtime: 17 minutes  Well, the album only has one song longer than three minutes, but the title track isn't hovering around the two-and-a-half minute mark. So progress? I guess? Maybe what's going on at HYBE right now will make them loosen the reigns a bit and let the companies that they run (sorry, "are independent") and let the title tracks be longer than three minutes again. I'm also glad that I've already seen Seungkwan do dance challenges with them, and also a couple of the members of CORTIS. I like the interactions between idols. You know, we've been able to hear a very clear progression of the instrumental sound transitioning from their early debut stuff two years ago to where we're at now. This has been the opposite of a quick change (and once again, is more similar to the career progression of NU'...

Release date: 2026 April 27 Album tracklist: Mmchk , HYPEMAN, Mmchk (English Version) Album runtime: 8 minutes  Okay, this one is unlikely to feature buff men in dresses, but obviously the odds of that happening are not zero apparently. If it happens a third time, I'm going to ask for my nickels. I'm appalled by the run time though. I just noticed it partway through the review (because I haven't written the above information yet), and it's a two-and-a-half minute title track. We've got a very strong beat with this, but we also don't have a skittering beat. It's a little bit more hip-hop than I want to be listening to generally, but there's a lot more variation than I was expecting. That's two sentences in a row with the word "but". There's a fun acceleration at the midway point, but there's something that I want from the song, but is dissatisfying. Looking at the runtime, that might be what the issue is.  We do have the shouting thi...

Release date: 2026 April 27 Album tracklist: CEREMONY , BAD HABIT, BANI BANI, OUR VOYAGE, PIONEER Album runtime: 15 minutes  Ah, I now understand why I tried to call LE SSERAFIM's song "Ceremony" instead of "Celebration". Okay. Let's see if my rock girls give me something I love. If they don't, that's fine too. I'll accept that. Also, I just got some information about my hotel room for the concert I'm going to this weekend and I'm not stressed at all because when we called to tell them we're going to be late because our flight doesn't get it until late, the woman was like "Well, we don't really hold it that late, but check with the front desk." Y'all, we booked the room in January. We followed the instructions to contact you directly that we would be late. So, we'll see. Fingers crossed. This is a very upbeat and chipper instrumental, and I love that we can hear drumstick clicking. It's also got a lot of ...

Release date: 2026 Mar 11 Album tracklist: Catch Catch , Spring Fever (Feat. Din Din, Jung Hyung Don), Sticker (Feat. MRCH), April's Cat, Question Marks (Feat. Paul Kim) Album runtime: 17 minutes  She dropped something new, so I'm going to do this before I look at that one. This song has been glaring at me, because she's been collecting the second gen idols, including one of the members of After School, for this dance challenge. And I love that. I've also heard that this song is one of the most second gen coded songs to come out of a younger K-Pop artist in years, which is impressive because there are a few of the rookie girl groups that I'd argue embody the second gen vibe very well.  This is the level of EDM that I started out listening to K-Pop with. This is a relentless song with what sounds like the beeps you'd get from dialing on a wireless home phone. But it's the kind of relentless that doesn't rely on loudness or aggressiveness to be completely ...