October 2024 Wrap Up: Of Course the Music is Musicking

 October is my Spookening month, my favorite month of the year. It also marks the anniversary of my first K-Pop performance that I saw! Thank you for coming, NINE.i! Also, once more, I want to thank you all for reading any of the reviews thus far. You are all lovely and amazing, and I hope you always have a cool side to your pillow. 

I'm also already seeing the personal benefits of doing this, namely how distracted I am from the recent enlistments and the upcoming ones across groups. There is a lot to be doing, and a lot to be paying attention to.

So, let's get to it!

Starting off with my space to be indulgent and a fan, as I sit here sipping from my Seventeen tumbler and wearing a NU'EST shirt, there were some releases that I've been looking forward to for months, one that might qualify as a historic occasion, and some that definitely piqued my interest more than others. Google already thinks I'm obsessed with only G-Dragon. There is only G-Dragon. (I have exactly two of his songs in my 800+ playlist that I'm actively listening to while I write this and one of the two just started playing. IT'S A CONSPIRACY.) So the pre-release he dropped will not help that.

I likely missed some debuts. I feel like I missed some debuts. But the debuts I did catch were Yoo Taeyang (SF9) as a soloist, SAY MY NAME, the tripleS subunit Vision@ry Vision, and the group project izx!.

 So, without further ado, my personal delights:

• Changsub (BTOB): I've been looking forward to this album since he mentioned he would be doing it. Six months later, he finally graces us with his magnificent voice. Ringing in October with Changsub's new album. Yes. I am here for this.
• Seventeen: I'm not emotional over this at all. It's fine. It's all fine.
• Kiss of Life: Two things: the members are adults and I want to support that, and also, I really like the little I've heard of them so far. And also, their lightstick is so cool I want to be a fan of them just because of that. 
• Nomad: One of my rookie groups I picked up this year, they debuted last... February? But they're adults, they're almost an indie group or they actually are an indie group, and they have a hand in almost every aspect in production. These are all things that I am excited to support. They had a rough learning curve at debut, but I've been keeping an eye on them and I'm excited to see what they do next.
• Forestella: Their voices are absolutely glorious. I'm so absolutely here for new music from them.
• POW: Where did I find out about them? I have no idea. But I also keep forgetting that I like them. I must have looked into them at a time when I was busy with actively learning another group.
• Purple Kiss: I've seen this group in person because they actually came to my city. Which I was super excited about, and then I was even more excited to find another girl group I like. 
• Moon Jong Up: My dude. After B.A.P almost had a full comeback last month or the month before that, still waiting on the maknae to get discharged to rejoin them and make the full group again, the delight I had seeing his name on the comeback schedule cannot be described in words.
• G-Dragon: Look. I don't typically listen to him. Taeyang and Daesung are definitely more of the style that I like best. However, he's also G-Dragon, who hasn't been active since I started but I'm very much aware of the impact he has had on the industry as a whole. Would I have liked more than a day's waning? Yes. But I can't say I'm surprised he did.
• BTOB: If I was waiting for months for Changsub, I've actually been waiting longer for a new BTOB song. They were supposed to do something for their twelfth anniversary, but they did not. This is only a single, but it's fine. I'm happy with a single for now.

Top Releases of the Month:

• Changsub's 33- I would have loved the song for the message alone, but the fact that it sounds like 80s rock settled into my soul. And his voice! I want to hear it live so badly!
• Hui's Nameless- Again with the vocals. I'm over the freaking moon and fully in love with what he's showing off. This song just melts my heard, and the two of them sound so good together. Everyone should hear those vocals. 
• Nomad's Call Me Back- I love that they took the chance with this single to show off their vocals this time around. Where they burst with energy for their debut, this was definitely a much softer, gentler version of the group. And they all need hugs because that music video was tragic and I can't believe after all that, he went back to her. 
• Seventeen's Eyes on You- This song makes me miss NU'EST so much. And the music video is so good. It's all just so good.
• ITZY's Imaginary Friend- I'm in the spooky season so everything is going to be spooky filtered. So I read this as spooky. 
• ITZY's GOLD- That "G-O-L-D gold" part is so freaking catchy. Love it. Also, haunted doll aesthetic. 
• Purple Kiss's ON MY BIKE- Y'all. What is this. Wow, it is so good.
• Moon Jong Up's Love Bomber- Oh, this song is so sad! Oh, this song is so good!

Honorable Mentions:

• Shinhwa's Venus- Shinhwa is an impressive group on their own to still be active, technically. And their discography is awesome. This one is an energetic love song that simply makes me happy as a clam. Also, it occurs to me that I've never seen this MV before right now and wow.

• xikers's Witch- Was I kidding about how much I love this song and how much I was going to listen to it this month? No. No, I was not. 

• SHINee's Ring Ding Dong- I had such a bad day at work last week that the only song that kept me sane was Ring Ding Dong on repeat for three hours. Think about how bad that was that I was relying on Ring Ding Dong for sanity. For three hours.

• Seventeen's Monster: "Hit the jackpot, this a trick or treat tour". Is the song actually about Halloween? No. Do I care? No, because it sounds like Halloween and Vernon literally brings up monsters and trick or treat. As far as I care, that counts.

And because I added more things for me to do, here you can find the music show wins for the month, minus whatever won on the first (the answer is no one because The Show didn't broadcast or have a winner, but the ASC performance that day was Vanner with Automatic, and it was legitimately one of the funnier ones I've seen in a while (Gon was in a mood and Taehwan spent half the show in a state of embarrassment because of his members, the voice changing microphones, also the obvious friendliness between the group and Aron brought me joy).

I did get to know a couple of soloists that I'm deeply interested in. sungwoojunga did a collaboration with Onew, and I wish I knew Korean better than I do because the audience reactions are perfect. Bang Yedam and Yoon Seobin were both impressive.