Just A Little Fangirl Love

Release date: 2024 October 03 Album tracklist:  A World For Us , A World For Us (Inst.) Album runtime: 7 minutes  It was a slow day, so I picked a random October release, and it just happens to be the actor for the cousin on My Demon ! I absolutely love that show. That's currently the only thing I've seen with him in it, though a few more entries on his filmography are on my list to watch. I didn't know he could sing, though I don't know why I'm surprised. My first OST to review! I haven't seen the drama yet, it shouldn't matter overly much. Full disclosure though, I have a special fondness for OSTs because they were how I actually got into K-Pop.  Percussion! Strings! Piano! Three of my favorite instruments, even though any time I hear strings specifically more than any of the other possibility, I am so far into it that I couldn't argue with it even if I wanted to. This thing sounds majestically upbeat, while simultaneously being such comfort song that

Release date: 2024 October 04 Album tracklist: Paper Cuts (feat. New Vaticans), Before We Die, Day That I Died, 44 (Forget Forever) , Never Let Go, Found You, Happy Alone (feat. B.I), Let There Be Light (feat. BOL4) Album runtime: 31 minutes  Woosung is the lead singer and electric guitarist of the band, The Rose. They actually came to my city last year and if I had known , I would have gone to see them because that would have been a good show. It's fine. I'm not deeply annoyed by this at all. The band is amazing. But Woosung is pretty phenomenal on his own. And look at that runtime! This is a proper album! In fact, more than one of the songs on this album are over five minutes long,  including this song! This is a soft edm ballad straight out of the 80s, and for some reason, I'm thinking 1986. So, I sent the song to my mother, who actually lived through the 80s to see if she could explain why I was thinking that very specific year. "It's sounds like something out

  Release date: 2024 October 04 Album tracklist:  Sweet Devil , Checkmate, Your Echo Album runtime: 9 minutes I know very little about ASC2NT.  I think they might be a 23/24 debut and I know they're a boy group. But other than that...It's amazing how many groups I know nothing about, but I suppose that's what happens when there are more than three hundred active groups right now. AH! I do know them! Kind of! This is the group where the older three were on Peak Time and then they redebuted this last May with two more as a five member group! I really liked those three, and I'm still upset about that! I'm happy Vanner won, but that was not cool what happened to these guys.  Anyway, I'm g lad to see them putting out another single. I knew I recognized this name. Hello there, electric guitar. The instrumentals have some very interesting instruments going on with something that sounds kind of like a cow bell, but I'm almost positive isn't. A triangle? It'

Release date: 2024 October 04 Album tracklist:  Moonlit Floor Album runtime: 2 minutes  BLACKINK songs tend to be a little hit/miss for me, and I don't know why that is. Lisa also isn't one of the members whose solo stuff I tend to like better, but music can always surprise me. I've also heard there's some sort of controversy going on? It's not the kind I care to overly pay attention to, but I'm aware that it's there and if it becomes one I want to pay attention to, then I have a starting point for it. There's nothing overly complicated going on in the house instrumentals, which allows the song to be easy listening with a fairly low BPM. There's a shift toward the end that does catch my attention, but otherwise, this song just kind of washes over me, and  it very quickly turned into background music. I don't dislike it. It just doesn't particularly move me, which might be worse. Back when I was an acting major, one of the exercises we had to

Release date: 2024 October 04/October 15 Album tracklist: R.E.M.,  Chemistry, Too Many Alex, Igloo, Get Loud , No One But Us, Back to Me Album runtime: TBA minutes  I really want one of their lightsticks. Have you seen them? Those things are so cool. And I generally like the music that I've heard from them. I also do not support the use of A.I. in this album's artwork/promotions, so I'm going to listen to the song only twice and watch the music video once only for this review. It doesn't matter how much I like it. It's also not being added to my album support playlist. I'm a little stressed over having to say something without my usual listen-on-repeat habit. But, it is what it is. Okay. Here we go. The opening of the song is reminiscent of an underwater organ, not creepy like a Davy Jones organ, but more ethereal, like a friendly and not-terrifying mermaid, especially ones with magnificent, betta fish-like fins. Audience participation snapping is added once the

  Release date: 2024 September 30 Album tracklist: NEMONEMO , Sugar, It was love Album runtime: 9 minutes This was my random-selection-on-the-comeback-schedule for a review. Could I have chosen an October release? Yes. Did I? Obviously not, but I figure I might have other days where they're slow, and I can randomly select from October releases then. She appears to be a soloist.  This is so incredibly J-Pop sounding. I don't realize how much I actually like that style until I hear it again. Obviously stems from my years of watching anime. I didn't watch a lot of different anime, for the record, but I did rewatch a lot of anime. So this sound sends me straight back to middle and high school. Alternatively, this could come straight out of some very specific Japanese video games. We've got a very funky sound with the synths and crashing cymbals. I have yet to spell that correctly on the first try. But there's a very, very specific sequence of beeps at the beginning and

Release date: 2024 October 02 Album tracklist:  Birthday , Royal, Forevermore, Birthday - Instrumental, Royal - Instrumental, Forevermore - Instrumental Album runtime: 22 minutes  So is it just a KQ thing to include the instrumentals on the Japanese releases and not the Korean ones? Because there are some of the Korean songs that I'd absolutely love to have the instrumentals for. Oh, well. I didn't listen to the last Japanese release with BE:FIRST just because the timing was bad, but ATEEZ apparently enjoyed working with them on Hush Hush  because I see that one of their three songs on this single joins forces with them again. Maybe it's because I just watched ONEUS perform Kick It  on Ace of Ace, but this sounds like an NCT 127 song, especially that opening. Although I have to acknowledge that the flute warble in the intro sounds really familiar and it sounds like a movie, and not NCT 127. I'm not sure which movie, because I can't place it, but that is a movie soun

Release date: 2024 August 28 Album tracklist:  Black Out , Hasta La Vista, Ease Up,  Back Again , I'm on your side too, Clover Album runtime: 18 minutes Finally getting around to this review... a month late. It's fine. Okay, that is a short song, clocking in at just over two and a half minutes.  I dig the instrumentals. They're doing a lot over the course of two and a half minutes. And by a lot, I mean I think I hear four different genres. It's an ambitious amount and not what I would have expected, but given the opportunity to flex something, you should flex it. This song features hip hop, airy R&B, rock, and rap. I think that's R&B in that section, anyway. I absolutely could be wrong. Like I said. There's a lot happening. And I like that it's followed by a much mellower song to serve as a palate cleanser. There are at least two different sections of the song that I would love a full song for. The others I feel a lot more ambivalent about, but they&

  Release date: 2024 August 06 Album tracklist: Tsuki (Lunatic) , Cool, Are you serious?, Tsuki (Lunatic) - Instrumental, Cool - Instrumental, Are you serious? - Instrumental Album runtime: 20 minutes Look, I know I said that I was only going to think about doing a review on this song because it's in Japanese and not Korean, and I'm not well-versed enough to know the difference with if this is actually considered K-Pop when it's not in Korean. They are a K-Pop group...I don't know. Whatever. It's xikers, and I do actually love them. They need the attention. Plus, this was the first title track that I didn't immediately feel a little disappointed by! I actually like all three tracks here (unequally), which makes me laugh a little. I'm not head over heels in love, but the fact that it's their Japanese tracks that make me go "Yes, please," is a little ridiculous to my own mind. Much like with TVXQ! for some reason. I like their Japanese releases

Release date: 2024 October 02 Album tracklist: The Long Season , The Long Season (Inst.) Album runtime: 6 minutes I recognize the name as a group, but otherwise know nothing. So, I'll take a gander at them so I know what I'm working with. I'm hyper aware of young groups right now because there's a debut coming up with a maknae who only turned fourteen (14) this year, and I cannot support that. As in, she just turned fourteen. Like, last month. But I already have a plan in place for the review of their debut track.  It seems TIOT is a 2024 debut, and this is their second single, first since debut back in April. They've been busy bees the last year. That's good. The other good news is looking at their ages, only the maknae is a minor, and he had already turned seventeen before they debuted. The maknae is also the only one who was not on Boy's Planet, so that's interesting. I actually liked some of them when I watched the show a couple of months ago. So if

Release date: 2024 October 02 Album tracklist: Macchiato, 33 , Old Town , vain hope, Saturday Night, NEW WAVE, Golden Hour, STAY, Chivalry, BUMPBUMP, #RUN, As Always Album runtime: 42 minutes  At last, Changsub's long awaited first album has released. It's not a debut, but it is his first proper album. Twelve tracks! Look at that runtime! Changsub is back and better than ever after his throat problems at the beginning of the year! I remember him saying once that he likes rock best, and this album reflects that. And he's giving us double title tracks. This is a gift. I just got distracted by his voice. It's fine. I can focus.  My cat, T'Challa, is a huge Changsub fan. I have an actual video of watching BTOB's Killing Voice with him in my lap watching the screen with me. And his ears prick and his eyes dilate every time Changsub sings. Am I listening to this away from him because I am the Worst Cat Mom Ever? Yes. But I'm also willing to bet he'll try to la

Release date: 2023 August 03 Album tracklist: One,  Turn It Off , Like Crazy,  Power up ,  Hurt , Highschool Love Album runtime: 20 minutes  Am I hoping that this renewed activity by NINE.i is an indication that we're getting an album by the end of the year, and that this is to increase their internet footprint and gain some small amount of traction again now that they're back off their legal induced hiatus? Absolutely. Things have been resolved apparently. NINE.i is active again. Life is good. Just because I can and because this is my little review blog and I make the rules, at the bottom of this, I'm also going to add their original comeback stage on The Show, because you know a song is fire when a shoe comes off during the performance. And also, Vahn couldn't perform the choreography before, but he can now!  I've said it more than once, but I really like the fact that this has a member writing and producing the songs. Vahn. Vahn is awesome. You know, I just real

Release date: 2024 October 01 Album tracklist: Love You, Brighter Than Album runtime: 6 minutes  At this point, I think I'm going to be more familiar with EXO's solo work than their work as a group. The very first song I heard from the group was Kai's Rover , and I fell in love a little bit with him from that song. But, generally speaking, I came in at the wrong time. But, that means I get to know EXO piecemeal, and that will probably be easiest, so when they do start releasing as a group again, I already kind of know them. Since neither song has a music video that I can see, I'm going to pretend the one with more streams on YouTube is the title track. It's a guessing game. We have a piano and some synth and that's it for the instrumentals. A lot of songs might let the synth take the center stage since that seems to be the more popular instrument, but not Love You . Instead, the piano occasionally lets the synth share its spotlight, but also stands on its own fo

 The official start of this little music review blog! I'm proud of it. And, again, thank you for everyone who has read even a single post so far, even if you aren't reading this one. I am simply happy and grateful and will endeavor to continue this honesty with love and recognition of the hard work of the artists. And for the one person who seems to be reading every single one, thank you and I love you. You make my morning every day. September of 2024 saw a couple of debuts, a re-debut, and some comebacks I was very much looking forward to, as well as some I would have been looking forward to had I been listening to the group/artist already. The ones I personally was emotionally invested are as follows: Vahn (NINE.i): They were the first group I saw in person, and the reason I watched Boy's Planet, after the fact of course because I didn't get into K-Pop until after ZB1 had already debuted. I love their voices, and I have yet to run into a song I didn't like by them

Release date: 2024 September 28 Album tracklist: Just Better , Just Better (Inst.) Album runtime: 6 minutes  We got two singles this month! I put off doing this review because the last time I did one, I got the Jeonghan news. I'm aware that I was subconsciously trying to avoid the risk of more bad news because I absolutely am superstitious, but I attribute at least part of that to the fact that I've been an athlete since I was five and almost every athlete I've ever known has been weirdly superstitious. Except Jack. He didn't have any weird, little rituals. But, this is A.C.E. They have incredible voices and they deserve so much more recognition than they have. So here I am. And this is an English track! Not only is this an English track, but it reminds me of Avril Lavigne, specifically of Girlfriend  and Sk8er Boi . Just Better is a less aggressive version of that. I'm also hearing strong shades of Teenage Dirtbag  and I'm Just a Kid  in the instrumentals, so i

Release date: 2024 September 30 Album tracklist:  Rush of Joy , Play Album runtime: 6 minutes  The best part of doing this is getting to know a little bit groups that I previously knew only by name. WHIB could have, for all I know, debuted twenty years ago or at the beginning of 2024. I have no idea. I'm pretty sure they're a boy group, but I'm not positive, so this should be interesting. That runtime was also rounded up to the six minutes. Ah, boy group that seems to have debuted last year. Nice. I'm noticing a trend with a lot of the recent debuts, and this may be what sets fifth generation apart from fourth because I was very much struggling to differentiate the two, and other recent releases, that there seems to be a heavy disco influence and the guitar becoming more prevalent. I'm also hearing a lot of happy songs, but the ones who are debuting now, likely became trainees during the pandemic, or were trainees through the pandemic which is different in many ways

Release date: 2024 September 30 Album tracklist: Revolver, Automatic , New Heights, Blossom, Xcellerate, Be Together Album runtime: 18 minutes   One of the things I like least about K-Pop is finding out how tragic the stories of some of these groups are. As much as I like other aspects, those tragedies remind me of why I decided not to stick it out as a sociology major in college.  Such is the case with Vanner, an idol group that had to work normal jobs to be able to afford to be an idol group with a CEO who also had to work a normal job to be able to afford doing anything with said idol group. And then they barely had time to be an idol group. The pandemic hit them hard. But they didn't give up. Oof. Anyway. Automatic starts off reminding me of an old radio broadcast. I know that technically that would be part of the vocals, but I'm putting it here because that wouldn't necessarily be something that would have to be performed if performed live. That could be part of a bac