Just A Little Fangirl Love

Release date: 2026 July 08 Album tracklist: On My Knees , Crime (2026 Remastered), Kart Racer (2026 Remastered) Album runtime: 9 minutes  I find it a little amusing and interesting that the last track on here is one I know I've already done when it was originally released. And you know what? I really hope that the maknae gets to work with ATEEZ like he wants. I'm manifesting that for him. Also, I didn't realize until I was typing this up that I didn't pay attention to the song or the single title. I thought it was "On My Way". That's a very different vibe for the song. I actually really like the guitar throughout this ong. This is actually a very fun instrumental. One part soft and affectionate, one part bright and energetic, and one part almost sultry (and before anyone rolls their eyes at my inability to do fractions, I said "one part", not "one half". Trust me, if I say "one half" and it ends up being more than one whole, ...

Release date: 2026 May 28 Album tracklist: ALIVE, SHOW H.O.W, Told U So, TEA, My Vision, Skit.exe, Lost in Proof , ($.$) , Close To Me , One Beat, Dive With Me Album runtime: 28 minutes  This one is almost long enough for me to be fine with the song length. However, as you may remember from the review I did  on their debut song, I noted how much I liked this one. I did that because at the time, I wasn't sure if this was a debuting group that would only be promoting their debut and title track, or if they'd be promoting multiple of the songs (which i the better strategy in my opinion, if the company can afford it, because then you've got more opportunities for people to encounter them and more opportunities for a spark to light the possible fire), and since the group is not on Underage Protocol, I took a listen to perhaps convince someone else to give another song a chance by describing the songs in short. And, also, because I'm really excited every time a group debuts a...

 I've got a doc that I've been adding songs to and removing from for the last couple of weeks of potential songs to cover for the rest of July. Before I tossed that list into a roulette wheel, I took a look at some of the groups I've got in my To Do playlist and added a couple more b-sides for groups in there that I hadn't covered yet. This song was actually one of them, so Teen Top apparently wanted to be covered, and they wanted to be covered now. Which is fine, you know?  Teen Top debuted as a six-member group under TOP Media (which was founded by two members of my second favorite first gen group and also has my kids ODD YOUTH) in 2010 when the maknae was fourteen. I expect better of idols-turned-CEOs. I really do. But apparently the reason why Teen Top wanted to be covered right now is because their sixteenth anniversary is right now, so happy birthday, Teen Top! Their former leader left the group because he didn't feel like he fit the idol standards (I'll f...

Release date: 2026 May 26 Album tracklist:  Starlit Voices , Step, Deja Vu, Too Late, Time Limit - Korean ver., Starlit Voices - inst. Album runtime: 21 minutes  This post has been sitting in my drafts basically since it was released. The fact that they get to use their name again? Their fifteenth anniversary this year? The twins that are besties with Sungjae from BTOB? The concepts this group had? I'm happy about all of this. I'm glad they're still together and making music, and even happier that they got their name back. You know what I'm going to say, right? There's a violin, and that violin is front and center in the instrumental. There's a softness to the instrumental that is supported by how sweeping and cinematic it is. The Cinderella vibes are strong with this instrumental, very fairytale, very pretty. There are several spots where the instrumental follows the vocals, or the vocals follow the instrumental, rather than the two parts doing their own thing...

 Back when I was trying to fully plan out July, foolish creature that I am, I wanted a big name to help balance out what was, at the time, a lot of smaller groups and artists. And, love them or hate them, BIGBANG is one of the biggest names you can do in the world of K-Pop, and they have been for at least fifteen years. But I didn't want to do one of the group songs yet because my instinct tells me that if I'm going to do a BIGBANG song, that's going to be an event. So I planned an event that will be coming up somewhat soon. I also recognize that of the Big 3, SM is definitely overrepresented and I hadn't done anything YG yet (you may remember that I did CL last month, but I decided on her after I'd decided on BIGBANG for the YG representation) (interestingly, I technically had done something YG related much, much earlier, because YG the Dude was part of Seotaiji and Boys, and I have covered a Seotaiji song ). Instead, I asked my friend who has been listening to K-P...

Release date: 2026 July 06 Album tracklist: Mono (feat. Ska water) , Gimme Dat Love , Morning, Crow , Love Is Pain Album runtime: 13 minutes  It took me so long to do this song that the whole album came out. It's fine. It's fine. And you know what? Funnily enough there are so many kpop songs called "Love Is Pain" that I could almost do an entire month of them for the Expanded Offerings. Interesting way to start this song. I would love how the electric guitar is used to provide an interesting grindy and grungy texture to the song, but it's also very repetitious through much of the song. I say that, but I also acknowledge that the song instrumentally has a very hard change of texture halfway through that cleverly uses rests to provide an aural reset so that switch isn't nearly as jarring as it could be. And then we get an organ? And audience participation clapping? And a synth being used like a violin? There are some bold choices being made here. Every time this...