Just A Little Fangirl Love

Release date: 2024 October 30 Album tracklist: GPT , Meant to Be, GPT - Instrumental, GPT - Acapella Album runtime: 13 minutes  I've heard them perform, and I'm vaguely familiar with them, but otherwise I don't know much about them, so I need to take a minute to look at the group. Ah! Yes! I remember that xikers's Seeun did a challenge or something with STAYC's Seeun. They pass the maknae age test, so we are good to go and golden! Also, can I just say, I really  love that we get both the instrumental version and the acapella version. That satisfies a lot for me.  Five seconds in and I'm in love with the song. I really hope that it continues with the old timey sound. I'll be sad if it doesn't. It does not, which is disappointing, but the instrumentals that continue feel like a natural continuation of the intro. Going from something that sounds like it comes from The Lawrence Welk Show  to something that sounds more disco is well-done and rather clever. Th

Release date: 2024 November 1 Album tracklist: CLIK CLAK; DRIP ; Love Maybe; Really Like You;  BILLIONAIRE; Love in My Heart; Woke Up In Tokyo; FOREVER; BATTER UP (Remix) Album runtime: 28 minutes  Well, well, well. This is awfully ambitious of YGE to have the rookie group drop a full album this soon after debut. Hopefully that becomes a trend and we get more full albums from groups again. However, we also have G-Dragon having contributed to the title track, so that's very, very exciting. Good to see he's still friendly with the company that he worked for for over a decade. And the turn around time between pre-release and album drop is also surprisingly small. Unfortunately, as excited as I am for the album and wish I could support the full album part, I can't, and if you've read any of the similar posts, you can probably guess why. The maknae was fourteen at debut and turned fifteen this year. That's too young. So, I have to wait, which is a shame because the littl

  Release date: 2024 November 06 Album tracklist: Disc 1:  Introduction -Eternal Echoes-,  T.R.H.M,  On My Radar, Party Like Madonna,  Sweet Surrender , Parfum, Fresh, I'm sorry I couldn't express it well, Live Your Life, It's True It's Here, Damn Good, Ark, Dearest Disc 2: UTSUROI, The Reflex, PARALLEL PARALLEL, No Sympathy, Lime & Lemon, Sentimental Mood, Forever Love - ZONE Ver. Album runtime: 70 minutes  TVXQ! is feeding their fans well leading up to this album drop. Of course, when you have a two disc album, you have the room to have two pre-releases and not have to worry about the fans being bored because they've already heard everything. First one was mid-energy, but powerful, so I'm curious about what kind of song this one is. Orchestral and a piano. We're apparently going for the emotions this time. There's definitely percussion of some sort, but I'm not entirely sure that it's necessarily all drums. The way the music swells, then di

 Come one, come all to the latest addition that proves I either hate myself or just want to see myself suffer! As I said in the hub page, K-Pop has a lot of songs out there. So many, in fact, that I think it's worth revisiting some blasts from the past. So without further ado, we're going to go not very far back to 2022 to a debut song from a 4th Gen boy group. And, quite frankly, it's hilarious to me that The Wheel chose a March debut for me, since that is the majority of my first favorite groups and the first three groups I saw in person were all March debuts as well.  It's a thing with me. Group : Tempest Debut Date : 2022 March 02 Company : Yuehua Entertainment Status : Active Album : It's ME, It's WE Song : Bad News Release Date : 2022 March 02 I'm deeply entertained by the fact that I get to take a look at this debut. I love debuts. They really lay out the vibe for where a group is starting from. Obviously, groups change over the years as the members m

Release date: 2024 October 29 Album tracklist: First Love , Love Letter Album runtime: 7 minutes  Solar, the queen you are. The word 감성 in Korean apparently translates to "sensitivity", and I'd be willing to bet that because she has eight of these now, she uses them to release songs she wants to do, instead of ones that match the concept or whatever of the albums. And if the two songs on this one are any indication, she may use them to do her ballads that require no choreography. It doesn't go quite as hard as a Phil Collins song, but this is a full 80s soft rock ballad. This is a slow dance at prom song. This is also an ending credits song for a Disney movie. If this was a Western song, this would be a waving lighter song. You could use the phone flashlight, but realistically, this song vibes with a lighter being used instead. It's the flickering vibe.  Her voice is so unbelievably gorgeous. Even though she keeps the tone of her voice so soft, she doesn't kee

 I was definitely going to wait to start doing this segment. But, I feel like we all need some just comfort vibes.  There have been thousands of K-Pop songs at least, possibly millions. Estimation was the part of math I was the worst at. But if we have 300 active K-Pop groups and that number has likely gone up, and...half of them release a single a year, that's 150 songs a year. If we start the year SME as we know it was founded (1995, even though the first group that could be called a K-Pop group was Seo Taiji and the Boys debuted in 1992 (they're generally regarded as the start from what I understand although obviously there were the Kim Sisters in the 1950s, who were super cool), which is how YG the Dude came onto the scene and  wow , you guys did not come here for a history lesson), that's 29 years of K-Pop. But that's not including mini albums, studio albums, EPs, albums in other languages, singles with more than one song on them, etc., nor is that counting groups

 With Seventeen out of the country, it's nigh impossible for them to film for these episodes of the music shows. And with R os é not exactly being able to promote with Bruno Mars on the music shows, actual performances of that one are few and far between. The struggle is real, my friends. On the bright side, The Show is finally back up again, so I get to include those wins starting now. And I appreciate this one because we got some variety to this week's wins. On the other hand, the SAY MY NAME members are kind of funny. Show Champion!: Seventeen "Love, Money, Fame" (note: Seventeen was out of the country for their tour, and I'm using the MCountdown performance here because they didn't win on MCountdown) MCountdown: Ro s é  x Bruno Mars "APT." (Note: I haven't seen her performing it anywhere. So...have the one from Bruno Mars's YouTube channel) Music Bank: Seventeen "Love, Money, Fame" (Note: They're not in the country, so this

Release date: 2023 August 17 Album tracklist: Hot!, Haze , Magic, So What Album runtime: 15 minutes I thought I'd do another August 2023 release, and saw that Lucy had an EP drop that month! I'm sure it's become fairly obvious by now that I've become a really big fan of theirs. Any excuse to listen to them, I will 100% take. This is ballad rock at its finest. BTOB could have been this. BTOB almost was this. Maybe not with the violin, which is an incredibly important part of Lucy's sound, but Lucy is essentially the actual band version. Healers. I have to hand it to them. They've found their niche and they're sticking to it, as they should. I don't know what it is about the combination of the violin with the standard band arrangement, but,  wow,  does it work. I really like how the song is bookended by the quiet guitar solo with the powerful, emotive instrumentals in the middle. They just really throw everything they have into their singing, don't the

Release date: 2024 October 18 Album tracklist: Used Star, please be greedy , Jealous, Too Late, PRAY Album runtime: 19 minutes  In terms of working behind the scenes with music, she has worked with some very heavyhitters. IU, 2NE1, G-Dragon and TOP, Sandara Park, and IVE are only some of the names she's worked with. Which is really cool. It's always fascinating when artists become producers, that also continue to be artists. This song is a black-and-white film, possibly a musical during the requisite Sad Song, but it definitely feels 1960s. It's simple. It's subtle. It's very cinematic. The instrumentals are so subtle that they're almost not noticeable most of the time, but oh, they're unbelievably gorgeous.  There's a  harp . A harp! This is a masterful song. It also sends me to sleep, but that's a feature, not a bug. She's got an incredible ear, and I know that because her name is there as the sole writer, arranger, composer, and lyricist. This

Release date: 2024 October 28 Album tracklist: Bite Back, TRIGGER , bAd, Slip Away, Re-Wind, They See Me Dream Album runtime: 18 minutes  I've seen them live. That wasn't in my plans, but, well, they were doing a concert the night before KCon and I had nothing else to do, so I went. It's actually a really funny set of circumstances that led me to deciding to go, but that's neither here nor there. I'm just glad I got to see them before the enlistments start up for the group. I will say, though, that Eric and Kevin are hilarious. Eric in particular. He may have lost some of his filtering abilities being on his home turf...in front of his mom. I laughed a lot. There is a lot happening in the instrumentals. They're very dramatic and with much theatrical aplomb with some very surprising elements. Hidden underneath all the electronic dance trappings, there's a brass instrument that I'm trying to identify. My first thought was trumpet, but it's much too low

Release date: 2024 October 15 Album tracklist:  GOLD , Imaginary Friend , Bad Girls R Us, Supernatural, Five, Vay (Feat. Changbin of Stray Kids), Born to Be (Final Ver.), Untouchable (Final Ver.), Mr. Vampire (Final Ver.), Dynamite (Final Ver.), Escalator (Final Ver.) Album runtime: 34 minutes  I was actually looking forward to this music video dropping, because as much as I love the title track, I was always surprised by how much I like this song every time it plays. Is there a genre of rock for haunted rock? Because if there is, this is it. If there isn't, well, there is now. It's eerie in a comforting, energetic sort of way. The tone of whatever is going on with the instrumentals is established at the very beginning, and it is carried through to the end of the song, even though more present instruments help to ground the song, but the drums in particular aren't always where I'd expect.  Their singing is absolutely gorgeous. The melody is beautiful. Their harmonies ar

Release date: 2024 October 24 Album tracklist:  Unconditional Album runtime: 3 minutes  Ahead of his enlistment at the start of next month, Jaehyun did my favorite thing: he released a single. That's a wonderful farewell-for-now present for the fans, and with the various hits the NCTzens have taken the last little bit, a gift like this is even more special and precious.  Serve well, Jaehyun. We'll see you when you get back. Those opening notes sound like a song. I can hum it but unfortunately I cannot place the thing. It feels like it's a Disney song, but that doesn't feel— It sounds like the Meow Mix jingle.  That has been bothering me for three hours. Okay. It's not a huge thing, or a problem to anyone but me, but that was deep in the memory vaults I had to go digging for that. Moving on. The difference between the higher-pitched skittering and the deep thrums from the bass guitar provides a very interesting contrast that I wasn't sure about on the first coupl

Release date: 2024 October 23 Album tracklist: WAVY , remember you Album runtime: 7 minutes  A project group debuted! And one of the members I recognize! Prince from GHOST9! This explains why he's been so quiet on social media the last little bit and why I haven't seen him making random food in the practice room behind his manager's back! But, the problem is that even if I like them a lot, that maknae is only fifteen, and he's significantly.youmger than the rest of the group, who are all in their twenties. Alas. Audience participation snapping!! I don't have a lot to say about the instrumentals. I appreciate the piano and the "island" sound through the chorus, but in general they're pretty unremarkable behind the vocals. This isn't a bad thing, as far as I'm concerned. Yes, I really like to have instrumentals that I want to listen to on their own, but if given the choice between strong instrumentals and strong vocals, I'm going to pick the

Release date: 2024 October 26 Album tracklist: Apocalypse  Album runtime: 4 minutes  So way back in the day, my older brother showed me the episode Blink  of Doctor Who, and failed to tell me I could watch it here in the States. Took me a couple of years and the fiftieth anniversary gifsets and screenshots before I rediscovered it again, and proceeded to watch the entire thing in preparation for the Christmas special that year. Much like that, I discovered Forestella quite by accident via their cover of Bohemian Rhapsody on Instagram, and then couldn't remember anything about them and was forced to forget about them. A couple of years later, because of NU'EST and the algorithm, here I am, half in love with them because oh, good heavens do they have amazing voices. Top tier. And three of the four are married, which is awesome . The maknae and bass is currently in the military, so he isn't here for this. And just as a quick shout-out to another set of amazing voices, they

 I love Halloween. It's been my favorite holiday for literally my entire life. I have loved Halloween longer than Sangyeon of The Boyz has been alive, barely because my first Halloween was a couple of days before he was born, but according to my mother, even at the age of not-quite one years old, I have loved it. She dressed me up as a San Francisco 49ers cheerleader. I have pictures.  One of the most important things, then, is finding music that matches the Month of Spookening and horror. I love spooky movies. I love spooky books. I love spooky video games (even though I am a wuss of the nth degree and prefer to watch other people play them). And I love spooky music. THUS, this post is simply going to be a compilation of some of the songs I've added to my Halloween K-Pop playlist. If I were to add all of the songs in there, this post would be ages  long. So I'm only going to add as many as I feel like it. I don't know how long this is going to be. But there will be vib

Release date: 2024 October 25 Album tracklist:  Somebody Album runtime: 3 minutes  I've never heard of Hello Gloom, so first order of business is some research. Okay, he's a soloist, birth name Na Ungjae. He is the maknae of the group IMFACT, which I have heard of but again, know nothing about them. He seems to be a songwriter and producer, which means that I'm going to be a little harder on this song. He's part of the 98z friend group that includes Seungkwan, Sinb, and Umji. IMFACT is apparently not disbanded; they're just focusing on solo stuff while they do the enlistments. Sang just enlisted a couple of days ago, which means it's just Ungjae that needs to go in now.  Okay. Let's get to it. Weirdly, I think the instrumentals do exactly their job and no more. They set the tone (dreamy in a sort of dissociative way). They stay out of the way of the vocals, while simultaneously supporting them and providing a grounding framework. But that's about it. It&

Release date: 2024 October 25 Album tracklist:  Here Album runtime: 3 minutes  He has been incredibly active this year with the digital singles. I finally looked into them because I had some questions. I didn't get the big one answered ("What is JIN LAB?"), but enough of the others did get answered that I have an idea as to the answer to my big question. I'm glad he's kept busy. And since I need to add more to the March releases, I may do a review of the first one in a little bit. Who knows? Not me. One thing that I really appreciate about this song is the fast-paced, skittering beat doesn't overstay its welcome. It's something that could easily overpower the rest of the instrumentals and even the vocals if the balance wasn't handled carefully, and instead there are stretches where that specific beat steps back to let others take the focus, or leaves entirely. It takes a very deft hand and ear to be this aware, and the fact that JinJin has his hands al

Release date: 2024 November 15 Album tracklist:  Running Wild , I'll Be There , Another Level, Until I Reach You, Heart on the Window , In Longing Album runtime: 17 minutes  Despite not being an ARMY, I've been curious about this project of his since he was discharged from the military. Ironically, as I write this, my playlist just started playing Seven , so Spotify knows what's up. It'll have to chill a moment because Jungkook is not the BTS vocalist I want to focus on right now; instead, it's the oldest of the goofballs.  Ah, rock! Okay. I'd love to say I'm surprised given the (very) limited amount that I know of his other music, but he reminds me a lot of Changsub from BTOB, whose favorite music genre is in fact rock. (As a side note, I know that Jin is a year younger, but can there please be content with him, Key, and Changsub doing literally anything? Somehow? Someway? That combination of personalities would result in absolute, sheer, utter chaos and I

Release date: 2024 October 23 Album tracklist: So Nice Album runtime: 4 minutes  I'm so glad that Falling Flower appeared in one of my recommendations so I could realize how much I love Lucy. That pun was entirely unintentional, but I'm going to own it anyway, because unfortunately for everyone else, I think I'm funny. I have no idea of the context behind this song, but Spotify suggested it for me. I looked at the artist and said "A Lucy song? Yes, please and thank you." GMF apparently stands for Grand Mint Festival, which sounds familiar and my brain has it attached to NU'EST, or one of the members, for some reason. Maybe one of them performed at it last year. Who knows? Regardless, Lucy is quickly becoming an automatic listen band for me, and I need everyone to know that they're amazing. That very start of the opening sounds an awful lot like my favorite of the opening songs for the anime Seven Deadly Sins , which immediately catches my attention and m

Release date: 2024 March 20 Album tracklist: Fuego Album runtime: 3 minutes  Before the rush of the next couple of days, I'm going to do another review to fluff out the March page a little more. So, in honor of Ace of Ace and how upset I am about them leaving the show, I'm going to do this one. Also, because I don't know what's going on with them with the recent enlistment/leaving news, but I hope they're doing okay.  The intro sounds like an old Universal Studios movie, and there's a real sense of drama with the instrumentals, which would make me hopeful for the rest of the song. The chorus is a little frustrating because it's too similar to what's going on with the vocals, instead of taking the opportunity to provide some contrast. I do really like the acceleration of the instrumentals during the bridge. I just wish I liked it better. I've had it on repeat for a few hours trying to figure out how I feel about it, and the conclusion I've come to

Release date: 2024 October 23 Album tracklist: Joyful Green (Korean Version), Joyful Green (Japanese Version) Album runtime: 6 minutes  This song was the group's Japanese debut a few weeks ago. You might then be forgiven for thinking this is a young group, but they debuted six years ago, and are only a couple of weeks younger than ATEEZ, though the average member age of this group is also younger considering DreamNote's leader and ATEEZ's maknae are both 00z. I'd say that their Japanese debut is overdue in this case, but I'm curious to see what the song is like. I've never heard of this group before, and that's the joy of this little blog of mine. As a side note, they have a song called Ghost , and if I like this one, I am 100% checking out that one to see if it'll do well in my Halloween playlist that I'm building.  I'm also squinting at that runtime because I had to round up to it. This under-three-minutes garbage is not my favorite. As expecte

Release date: 2024 October 23 Album tracklist: Visual Virtue, Hit the Floor , Choom, Eclair, Love Soseol, Atmosphere (VV Ver.), 12 Rings, Vision, Bionic Power, Visionary Vision Album runtime: 25 minutes  When you have a group as large as tripleS is, you almost by definition need subunits, and today we have the debut of another one, which makes the ninth one if I'm understanding this correctly. Or possibly the eighth one. I just realized that the only reason I know anything about the whole is the number of members they have, which is twenty-four (24). I was going to listen to the song they put out in the spring, the first one with the whole group, but I don't think I ever did. Oh, so the group is kind of what NCT was envisioned to be. Yes? Am I understanding that correctly? And there's going to be another subunit debuting in November? Am I also understanding that correctly? This group has a lot to keep track of. Hats off to fans of the group. I don't have the energy for

Release date: 2024 October 22 Album tracklist:  He + She = We , Calling You Back, Slide, Whip It, Over the Moon, Fly Album runtime: 17 minutes  I feel like I know which company this group belongs to, but I cannot place it off the top of my head. But I'm also pretty sure that they're a fairly recent debut, so as my standard operating procedure goes, one quick sniff to look at their ages (and to take a look at their company as well as a bonus so that doesn't bother me all day), and I knew  I knew which company they were at! They're at FNC with F.T. Island and SF9! Also they all are eighteen or older as of this year! Excellent! On with the program! The runtime is uncomfy, and there are only two songs which are over three minutes. This does not include the title track. Okay. We're starting off acapella. That's interesting to hear and not typical. Hello there, energetic funk. I have to say, the trumpet was an excellent addition to the instrumentals. Really lends the

Release date: 2024 October 22 Album tracklist: Intro: Concrete Jungle, ON MY BIKE , Sweet Nightmare, Encore, Light the way Album runtime: 13 minutes  They were, I think, the first K-Pop group to actually come and hold a concert in my city. Obviously, I went. The Rose came about a year ago, but they're a band, so it's not exactly the same thing. Regardless, I had to laugh because when I saw them, that made the first three groups I saw in person all have March debuts. It's a thing with me. Fun fact: they have the same debut anniversary as NU'EST, just nine years apart.  Oof, that is a short runtime. But it's fine. I barely count that intro as a song. Oh, the chorus sounds so much like Kang Daniels's Paranoia , which means it instantly has my attention. So, essentially, there are three different sections of instrumentals for this song. First, the haunted doll aesthetic with the music-box mimicking piano (likely a keyboard made to sound like a harpsichord) and its a

  Release date: 2024 October 21 Album tracklist: Whiplash ;  Kill It; Flights, Not Feelings; Pink Hoodie;  Flowers; Just Another Girl Album runtime: 18 minutes I've rewritten this first paragraph about four times trying to figure out how to put into words what I'm thinking without outright saying it. So, I'm just going to say it. SM is a problem. I know there are some people who are upset enough about what's going on with RIIZE that they're boycotting all SM groups because it's the only way to make SM listen. And that's fair. There are also people who don't think that the other SM groups deserve to be boycotted because it's not fair to those members and that whole RIIZE thing has nothing to do with the other groups. And that's also fair. Do I have my own (strong) opinion? Yes. But regardless of what I think, aespa has still released an album, and I am still going to review it, which is obvious since I've spent time writing this and you've

This week is apparently dominated by the soloists, as we have both a member of BLACKPINK as well as a member of aespa taking home wins. Karina's required to me do a review on the song, which is fine. I'm happy to do it.  Show Champion, Inkigayo, and The Show  did not have shows and no winner was announced. Also, Billie was the guest on After School Club this week. The links in the table, by the way, are links to my reviews for each win. I don't know if I ever said that. Show Champion: N/A MCountdown: Jennie "Mantra" Music Bank: The Wind "Hello, My First Love" Show! Music Core: aespa (Karina solo) "Up" (note: I couldn't find a performance for it from this music show, but here is another performance of it.) Inkigayo: N/A ASC Performance: Billie The Show: N/A