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Music Show Wins:: Week of 05/20 - 05/26

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  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...
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Song Review::Cross Gene: Helicopter

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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...
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Song Review:: BOYNEXTDOOR: HOME- VIRAL

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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...
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Greatest Hits:: FIFTY FIFTY: Cupid

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 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...
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Song Review:: aespa: LEMONADE- WDA (Whole Different Animal) (feat. G-Dragon) {Pre-Release}

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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...
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Song Review:: LE SSERAFIM: PUREFLOW, Pt. 1- BOOMPALA

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Release date: 2026 May 22 Album tracklist: Pureflow, BOOMPALA , CELEBRATION , Creatures, iffy iffy, Need Your Company, Sonder, Saki (feat Aliya's Interlude), Irony, Trust Exercise, Liminal Space Album runtime: 27 minutes  Well, well, well, what do we have here? A HYBE group title track that's almost three minutes long. We haven't seen one of those in a while. Does that mean that we're finally moving back to the era of decently lengthed songs? Can I be tentatively excited? If this isn't an afrobeats song, well then I need to get better acquainted with the genre, though I hesitate to do any genre the disservice of being applied to an instrumental that fades into the background so strongly, it almost might as well not even be there. Almost three minutes of runtime wasted on a song that might as well be the fan I've got going. It's impressive because there is volume at the end and a sonic change of scenery, but it's too little too late. What this song probab...
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Song Review:: AND2BLE: Sequence 01: Curiosity- Curious {Debut}

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Release date: 2026 May 26 Album tracklist: Curious , Aura, Sugar Rush, Bed, Happy & Album runtime: 15 minutes  I'm so close to being able to repair some of my laptop keys so I can properly type again (my s is currently just the rubber bit and I have to keep sticking it back on if I type too aggressively). As bittersweet as this debut is, I am happy that they get to re-debut this quickly. Okay, so these are the four members of ZEROBASEONE who left WAKEONE earlier this as well as a former member of EVNNE late last year. The other former member of EVNNE left YueHua Entertainment as well, which is why he isn't part of this group.  Starting off a cappella. That's interesting. There are a lot of interesting things happening in this instrumental. Honestly, this feels like it's about four or five different songs in a trench coat, and I'm here for it. It's actually really soothing for my brain, and I'm not sure how I'm supposed to feel about that. We've g...
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