Just A Little Fangirl Love

Release date: 2026 April 07 Album tracklist: Paradise of Rumors ; Spring of Colors; Paid With Bugs; Joy, Sorrow, A Beautiful Heart; Sunshine Bless You; Tent; Young and Married; The Right Person; Graceful Breakfast; Festival of Refugees; Stains Album runtime: 37 minutes  I thought I was done with the April reviews mostly, but they got a music show win! So, here we are! And this is a full album with nine of the eleven songs over three minutes, including a title track that does technically round up to four minutes. I love them. Have I mentioned that I love them? And specifically that I love Chanhyuk because he's the songwriter for giving us these gifts in the world of two-minute title tracks? I wish I was joking, but one of the songs I reviewed in the last few weeks was literally two minutes and three seconds. I take back what I said about Vari's song. Somewhat.  This  is country music. This is 90s country music to be specific. I was a little bit anxious for various reasons,...

Release date: 2026 April 30 Album tracklist: MY DEAREST , YESTERDAY, MY DEAREST Instrumental Album runtime: 13 minutes  Happy debut! I'm still holding out hope for your group! Hope springs eternal! I love him for the runtime alone. I love that we got the instrumental. It reminds me a lot of something that I would have heard when I was young. It also almost feels like country music of the Garth Brooks variety rather than the George Strait variety, which is a very specific reference that I know a lot of people aren't going to get, but it's the higher, pinballing-energy-on-stage kind of country song rather than a man and his guitar on a stool. And the more I listen to it, the more it's starting to settle into my brain and read like country music. It didn't have that immediate recognition in my gut, but between the prominence of the melodic guitar and the violin, there was a specific stretch of time from like 2006-2008 where this instrumental could have fit in well.  Th...

Release date: 2026 May 05 Album tracklist:  WHY Album runtime: 2 minutes  Two-and-a-half minutes. I know I harp about it a lot, but I refuse to not continue to do so because it is ridiculous that I'm grateful for songs over three minutes. I've finally remembered when I see their name that I really like them, which is progress on my end! This is a fun little instrumental. It's not quite fully in celebratory or party mode, but the energy is excellent and bright all the same. It is making me wonder a little if this is one of those songs that sounds really upbeat and cheerful but then you look at the lyrics and you realize the song is depressing. But I am pleased overall with the little touches of variation here. The energy shifts are what I'm looking for. The last little bit of the song, the vocals just kind of pile on each other in the most entertaining way. It's not fully scratching the itch that I have for the bright energy song, but I'm down with this vocally. ...

Release date: 2026 May 04 Album tracklist: TNT , REDRED , ACAI , YOUNGCREATORCREW, Wassup, Blue Lips Album runtime: 16 minutes  So many capital letters from these guys. As a side note, I was deeply amused by James's valid crash out over the new-and-false version of the alphabet song. Fun fact, the ememememoh problem kids can have is easily fixed by instead singing it to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star until they get it, and then switching to the correct version. We didn't need a new version. I don't know what role James takes in the group, not a clue, but I have a feeling that this may take up some of their next album, HYBE permitting. Speaking of HYBE, two-minute title track. Alright. This had better have something big if this is going to be two-minutes long. And, it doesn't. The instrumental goes nowhere. It sounds nice. But it just is there and it fades into the background so fast that I'm wildly disappointed. I didn't even notice that it disappeared ...

Release date: 2026 April 29 Album tracklist: Stolen Album runtime: 3 minutes  Again, we have a group that I’m not sure where we’re at with the Underage Protocol, nor do I actually know anything about them because of the aforementioned productive captivity during the plane ride that I’m on, but this is either their debut song or a pre-debut song. So, we’re going to temporarily put them on Underage Protocol until I can find out if they’re actually supposed to be on there or not. Better safe than sorry. I’ll also update this with more information when I get back. They need to be on Underage Protocol unfortunately because they will have four members under eighteen at debut later this month. Ah! And one of the members is a trainee over at JR's company, Evermore Entertainment. And another one is Keita's younger sister. Nice. Oh, that’s an interesting beat. It sounds like a wooden instrument of some sort, but despite the lightness of that beat, there’s a simultaneous grunginess and we...

It's a testament to my self control regarding these posts because this was the first girl group that I really vibed with and some of their songs (including this one) have found their way not into just my general listening playlists, but also some of the specific playlists, like my pre-work playlist, that I have. I just really like the Pledis groups, y'all, and even though I will be one of the first in line about their management issues (exhibit...basically all of their groups), they generally have a track record of picking very good songs for their groups. This song was one of the first ones I picked for the theme for the month and I slotted it in specifically to be released today, because Happy Mother's Day, everyone! After School debuted in 2009 under Pledis Entertainment as a five member group, formed around and because of leader Kahi, who formed the group alongside HSS, the company CEO. Because of their graduation concept, they've had almost as many line-up changes ...