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Song Review:: dodree: LILAC {Pre-Release}

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Release date: 2026 June 17 Album tracklist: Lilac Album runtime: 3 minutes  Oh, I'm exited about this song because I adored their debut song.  More traditional Korean music taps into my love for traditional Irish music. I fully recognize that they tap into the same part of my brain, and it's fine. We've got so much melody going on in the instrumental and a range of textures because we've got a range of instrument types. Percussion, stringed, woodwind. And, delightfully, we've also got audience participation snapping. I love it when we get that as part of the instrumental. Gorgeous. They have beautiful voices. Well-supported, a little bit lower, haunting on occasion. Those are some very pretty runs and vocalizations they've got going on, and some of the vocal techniques remind me a bit of yodeling, which just delights me more. The vocal skill and control that's on display with this song is very nice. I like this a lot. I may have gotten distracted by the Cara...

Song Review:: BoA: Ain't No Hard Feelings

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Release date: 2026 May 30 Album tracklist:  Ain't No Hard Feelings Album runtime: 3 minutes  Queen BoA is in he house! I am so behind, but I'm not going to skip, especially not when this is her first release following her establishment of her own company after leaving SM. The majority of the instrumental is taken up by the beat with various instruments, but there are spots where a sort of melody brushes against it. There is a little bit of variation going on with the instruments, not as much as I'd like though. The danceability to this song is quite high though, so I'm expecting the choreography to be strong for this song. For those of you who prefer UK garage as a genre, or at least enjoy it more than I do, you may really like this song, though I'm not sure how good of a representation of that genre this is. I'm learning still. She sounds a lot like Hwasa here, and I know she's both older and senior to Hwasa, but because BoA doesn't always sound like th...

Song Review:: tripleS: LOVE & POP pt. 1- Baby Flavor

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Release date: 2026 June 01 Album tracklist: Sad Girls Schemin', Peer, Baby Flower , Type of Girl, Sleek, I Like That, Me Myself Mode Album runtime: 17  minutes  Congrats on the win! The funny thing about tripleS, and I hope one of them can get the help she needs when she's ready, is that at one point, I actually could have listened to the whole group, but then the new maknae got added. We are very much on Underage Protocol now. I can still listen to some of the subunits, thought, but I have to check each one to make sure I can. I was kind of hoping that this was a subunit, but it's the whole group, so yes, we are on Underage Protocol. Underage Protocol is my small way of protesting when companies debuting minors that are under sixteen, or debuting more than half of a group underage. If a group is on Underage Protocol, I won't listen to them until the entire group is eighteen. I give the songs a single listen each for instrumental and vocals, and then two at most watches...

Song Review:: BABYMONSTER: SUGAR HONEY ICE TEA

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Release date: 2026 June 08 Album tracklist: SUGAR HONEY ICE TEA Album runtime: 3  minutes  I'm pretty sure that this is not a pre-release, but if it is, then I'll make sure to update this accordingly. We are on Underage Protocol until next February, and then I'l actually be able to dig into their discography. I've heard some things about some of their b-sides that make me think I'll really like them, but I can't until Chiquita is eighteen. Unless someone wants to drop their debut song or a b-side or two into The Form . But at least it's three minutes long, or close enough. There is some really interesting synthwork going on in the instrumental, which is a good thing because this kind of instrumental is all too easy to make entirely monotonous by relying only on the various beats in the song to support the vocals, but then not actually doing anything with the instrumental to give it a personality. Again, they didn't do that, so color me surprised but plea...

Song Review:: MAMAMOO: 4WARD- 4 Flowers

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Release date: 2026 June 04 Album tracklist: Blooming (Intro), 4 Flowers ,  4 Flowers (Acoustic Remix),  4 Flowers (Latin Remix),  4 Flowers (Inst.) Album runtime: 14  minutes  I love how all of their album artwork is simple and cohesive. I really do. The albums all match for the most part and that's so satisfying. Wasn't their anniversary soon? I know I'm mixing my tenses here, but I'm not sure if their anniversary is before or after this date, so I'm just covering my bases. I'm pretty sure that this was released around then, but their anniversary is not one of the ones that I have memorized. Also, this is a three-minute song. Thank you, songwriters (including Solar and Moonbyul). Ah, we got just the instrumental. Nice. Thank you, lovelies. This is actually a very quiet song for the instrumental. I was listening to the actual track a couple of ties before I remembered there is an instrumental only track. The piano at the end in particular is lovely and delicate,...

Battle of the B-Sides:: Lim Young Woong: Lovely Touch

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 Hello, everyone! I'm excited for this one because it's a little bit of a departure from our regularly scheduled strictly K-Pop posts, and while I could have done Lee Chanwon given my newfound love for him, I don't need SCoups's picket to get uppity again even though he's currently not hanging on the wall. So, instead, we're going to go with Lim Young Woong, who is apparently going to do some country healing this summer with his dog. Good for him.  Lim Young Woong debuted in 2016, and, after a few variety and survival shows, became the first trot singer to get a win on a music show since Kang Jin, and in 2020 was the second most streamed artist in South Korea. Not bad for Mr. Lim. Not bad at all. Also, he has made it into the Diamond Club on Melon for more than ten billion streams, joining a single idol group with seven members that debuted in 2013 as the only other member of that club. Again, that's not bad. Well done. Lovely Touch comes off of his first a...

Music Show Wins:: Week of 05/27 - 06/02

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 THE SHOW IS BACK, BABY! MY STUBBORNNESS AND HOPE HAS BEEN REWARDED! Anyway, congrats to the artists that got their first wins for the song this week! And we ended up having two Triple Crowns and a first win for a song! It's an exciting time! I'm just delighted.  For the extras, I went with M.O.N.T in 2024 on After School Club on episode 617. I would have sworn the title track for the album was IDGAF , but instead they were promoting Honestly , which I'm not mad about, no matter how much I love IDGAF . Why? Because they showed off their harmonies and playing the instruments. Also, they're adorable and couldn't stop giggling. And because we keep having wins predominately from the Big 4, I'm going to keep adding the extra performances. This week, it was xikers on The Show . As always, the links in the spreadsheet go to my reviews of the songs, and the link down with After School Club goes to the full episode. Enjoy the stages! Show Champion: ZEROBASEONE "TOP ...