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Music Show Wins:: Week of 04/15 - 04/21

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  I had wondered a little what would happen with Inkigayo as that is the wildcard of the music shows. You can get some very interesting wins from there. Congrats on the triple crown! Congrats to the groups that got first wins for the songs! For the After School Club episode, I decided to not just go really far back in the history of the show (Ep. 15), but also with a gentleman who debuted before nearly every idol was born. Pretty much only the first gen groups had members who were alive when Lee Seungchul debuted as a singer. This man is old school and a legend. The amount of fanboying that Hanbyul (LEDApple) does the entire time is adorable, but his vocals are completely insane. (I'm definitely not thinking about doing one of his songs for my GH and BBS posts... Nope...) For The Show, I went with a performance from 2023 and the magnificent Kwon Eunbi. And then for the extra stage, as promised, I went with ALL'N, a new soloist who has a song that uses a violin. I'd be fully...
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Song Review:: Donghae (Super Junior): ALIVE: HAErise

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Release date: 2026 April 20 Album tracklist: ALIVE (SKIT), EAST COAST, Good Day (feat. Jay Park & 1iL) , HAErise , RACE, HELP, ROCKET, Goodbye (feat. Tablo), TOO LATE, FLOWER, TO YOU (SKIT), HBD, BEAUTIFUL Album runtime: 36 minutes  I'm going to stick with the second gen for a minute because I just want to settle before I get back to the younger groups who will have so many struggles and so many successes ahead of them. Congrats on the first album, Donghae! There's an interestingly modern version of traditional music at the beginning there. Actually, you want to know what this instrumental kind of reminds me a little bit of in some very specific spots? PTT by LOONA, though it doesn't get nearly as dramatic as that. It's a pretty steady instrumental with a few soft spots to add a bit of a different texture, but I'm not really feeling a strong climactic moment, which is a shame. The vibes are there, though.  We get a little bit of everything from here, which I lo...
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Song Review:: Apink: 15th Season

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Release date: 2026 April 19 Album tracklist:  15th Season Album runtime: 4 minutes  Happy anniversary, Apink! I'm glad you've made it this long and that you're still doing what you're doing! I like how playful the piano is during this instrumental. I mean, the instrumental in general is just really pretty, but we've got a melody going on with both the guitar and the piano to reinforce and support the melody that the vocals have got going on, rather than simply providing something for the vocals to push off against. This is so pretty, but there's substance and weight to it instead of just being a gossamer fluff piece of a song, which is as expected of a second gen group. Their vocals are gorgeous. Oh, I love how you can hear the maturity there, even when they're hitting the higher notes because it just gives the vocals a richness that you don't get from teenagers or even the recently adult aged singers. We've got vibrato aplenty, and I'm basking i...
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Song Review:: Taeyong (NCT): Rock Solid

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Release date: 2026 April 17 Album tracklist:  Rock Solid (feat. Anderson .Paak) Album runtime: 2 minutes  A two minute song. The disappointment is in my soul. Still, even though I'm drastically behind, I'm going to do his because even though I'm almost positive that this is not going to be a song I like (I'm almost positive that this man is a rapper in NCT and I'm just so picky about the rapping I'll listen to), I don't know. I just feel like I should. So I'm going to. Okay, the majority of the song is in a hip-hop style, and I may not be able to listen to this song as much as I normally do when I write these reviews because of the repetition of "rock solid" in the back track. It's a bit much. The good news is that there are two spots where the repetition goes away and the hip-hop instrumental goes away to let a much softer moment to breathe before it starts back up again. Oh, look. I was right about the rapping. Anderson .Paak has a moment...
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Song Review:: Xdinary Heroes: DEAD AND- Voyager

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Release date: 2026 April 17 Album tracklist: Helium Balloon, Voyager , No Cool Kids Zone, Hurt So Good, Rise High Rise, KTM, X room Album runtime: 22 minutes  I may have to try to do four a day to try to catch up. Because I almost caught up and then a whole lot of songs were released on the 20th and now I'm very behind again. Still, I'm very excited about this album, and I love seeing rock bands get recognition. You know, I just really like rock music, as I'm sure you could have guessed. The drums in this one have some interesting pattern disruptions during the chorus that I didn't notice during the chorus until I was specifically listening to them. They're hanging out on the quarter note but close to the end of the cycle, they have a pair of eighth notes instead, which is subtle, but an excellent addition. The dominance of the guitar through the whole thing is also a big highlight for me, but there are so many spots where everything has a moment to kick up its heel...
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Song Review:: Wheein: adagio- The Symphony of Fxxkboys

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Release date: 2026 April 16 Album tracklist: The Symphony of Fxxkboys , Truth Hurts  Album runtime: 6 minutes  I think she was the last one to release a solo song (I'll get to Solar's, I promise) leading up to their twelfth anniversary, which is so impressive. And I know I don't talk about her quite as much as I do Moonbyul and Hwasa, but I still love her voice and I think she's so pretty. And she's also really funny. Whole package. And the title of this song sends me back to high school, which was the last time I had to deal with any of them. Ooh, she's giving us a bit of a rock song. Having that during the chorus is a good choice because it helps strengthen the vocal build, but then during the build where it's just a piano, then slamming into the rock again changes the mood of the song from just being pissed to more of a declaration. I also love how the rock has an interrupted rhythm because it strengthens the power of the vocal punch. And you have all of ...
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Battle of the B-Sides:: Baekhyun (EXO): Ghost

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 Hello, everyone! I went for a pick from my playlist that I've heard before but haven't decided where I want to slot it, the appropriately name "Maybe" playlist. Threw it on shuffle, and here we are. I'm actually pretty amused that two of the three male soloists I've done for this will not just have been from SM groups, but were also the two soloists who performed in Las Vegas a few months ago. I don't know if this was on the setlist or not. I just think that's really funny. I also find it kind of funny that even though I'm only loosely picking where songs are coming from, we're still ending up with some kind of cohesive flow.  Baekhyun originally debuted under SM Entertainment as part of the boy group EXO in 2012, but later debuted as a soloist in 2019. He's known for his voice, though to be fair, EXO is one of those groups that's renowned for their vocals, and their somewhat persnickety and often amusing opinions when the fans are not...
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