Just A Little Fangirl Love

Release date: 2024 March 16 Album tracklist:  First , Overdrive , Night Off, Love is a Myth, Kind of Love, First - Instrumental Album runtime: 3 minutes  In the quiet times of December, I found a debut from March. They're a band duo, consisting of a guitarist and a keyboardist, and fun fact about the keyboardist maknae, he was the keyboardist for a cover of IU's Love Wins All  performed by Brown-Eyed Girls' member JeA . How cool is that? They both wrote and composed all five songs on this, their debut album. They're both full-fledged adults, which is again something I am completely supportive of. Also, I've apparently had the first four songs of the album in my take-another-gander playlist. The simple fact that they released the instrumental alongside their debut song brings me joy. There's a really beautiful softness to the song that I really like, even when the energy is up, and it reminds me of something DAY6 might release. There's also a beautiful momen...

Release date: 2024 December 27 Album tracklist:  Hoper Album runtime: 3 minutes  Second gen idol dropping a single? Yes, please. The only thing that could make this better is it if the single was multi-track, which is a weird thing that I've accepted is common practice, even though single means one and a multi-track single feels like an oxymoron, but I digress. Although he did do a full album this year, so the single is just supplementary. Also, Jaejoong has done quite a few OSTs, which is cool.  Starting off with a lone, slow piano. Eventually strings get added, but the piano has the role that the percussion (usually drums of some sort) usually takes for the song, which makes sense because it's a hammer striking the wires which produces the sound, classifying the piano both as a percussion instrument and a stringed instrument. It's a gorgeous pairing, as the strings don't stay in the song for long, and instead let the piano open and close with enough space to let the m...

Release date: 2024 December 27 Album tracklist:  Beat that Drum Album runtime: 3 minutes  JinJin has kept himself busy this year, and I didn't know this one was happening until the algorithm dropped it in my lap. I'm just really impressed with everything he's been putting out this year. I will be wholly unsurprised if this also doesn't have a music video, but I don't care. At this point, I'm half temped to go back and do the others, even if I don't have a place for them. And he can do what he wants with these projects. I'll just be here to support it. The majority of the song, which is rounded up to get that three minutes runtime, has a lot of synth. It's very synthy. It's so synthy that the Institute is looking to retrieve their lost property (this is a Fallout 4 joke). The instrumentals here also could have come straight out of Cyberpunk 2077 , which is a high compliment from me as there were a couple of them that ended up in my Spotify Wrappe...

Release date: 2024 December 25 Album tracklist:  And spring Album runtime: 5 minutes  These voices are frankly incredible. They're one of my favorite full singing groups, because even though they only have four members, they utilize those members to their fullest, and the harmonizing is almost always incredible. I was almost sad about the fact that this was just a single, but then I remembered their maknae bass (who is a couple of weeks older than Baekho) is still in the army and won't be discharged until May, so it makes sense that they're limiting the amount of music they release without him.  The three types of instruments that make the most cinematic instrumentals when combined are percussion, piano, and strings. If we get woodwinds in there as well, then it's practically a perfect song as far as I'm concerned. Although the more I listen to this song, the more suspicious I'm getting about if I'm hearing woodwinds in one of the sections of the instrumenta...

Release date: 2024 December 25 Album tracklist:  Sad Loop Album runtime: 4 minutes  I was about to be disappointed that this was a single-track single, but then I realized they've been sparse on the releases since they returned from military service (I'm assuming based on the fact that they're a boy group and there's a four year gap). So two singles in the space of a year is better than nothing. They're busy. They've got things they're doing. At least they're still putting things out as a group so the fans don't completely panic. Also, I just really like that they're a second gen group and still releasing music fourteen later. Those are boy group goals. The instrumentals have some cute little upticks with the synth in places, little whoops that help to ease the poignancy of the piece. But otherwise, we've got a soft rock ballad here overflowing with emotion. It's not something that you could awkwardly slow dance to at a high school dance,...

Release date: 2024 December 26 Album tracklist: 신아브로 (Gradually) , Bye My Only Universe, We Are Forever, Make Me Strong, Dear Little Star Album runtime: 18 minutes  I don't normally include the Korean titles because it's inconvenient for me when I'm on the computer but given that this one has no English lyrics at all, it feels disingenuous to have the English title only. The timing is also hilarious for me given that I just covered both a VIXX song as well as a remake of one of Ken's songs. The alignment of the stars brings me a little bit of joy, and I'm glad for it to have happened. It's cute. I'm patiently waiting to see when VIXX puts out a new album, but in the meantime, I'm happy to see what the members do individually.  I accidentally left the whole album on and wandered away from the device. But I have to say that there are some songs on here where he is flexing a phenomenal voice, and wow . Also, take a look at that runtime. Yes.  There are enou...

Release date: 2024 October 26 Album tracklist:  Hello , Hello (Inst.) Album runtime: 7 minutes  This has been sitting in my drafts for about two months waiting for me to get to it. It's an OST, which makes it lower on my to-do, but also, I need something a little more relaxing after the rush of the season. I know I like his voice, and an OST will simply let me bask in it. This isn't one of the kdramas I've seen, either, so I don't know what kind of song I'm going to be getting here anyway. It doesn't matter though. I'm happy to have something nice and relaxing, as OSTs tend to be, even though I can't look at the title of the song without humming the song by the same name from NU'EST. I really love the fact that so many OSTs come with the instrumental version. This is such a dramatic track that I kind of want to watch the show because of it. Piano and guitar spend a lot of time together, just vibing, which is cool. The synth is also gorgeous, settled ...

 So this lovely group left their company after a little over two years, founded their own company, and are now going by the name Skye as of 2023. So, yes, technically IN2IT is disbanded, but it's more of a B2ST/Highlight situation. I also found out that they did a cover of SHINee's An Encore  a few months ago, which delights me to no end because that's my favorite SHINee song, and they did a great job. This one was also recommended to me, and because I've never heard of this group before, I'm genuinely delighted by the idea that I get to cover a group I haven't heard of. And the only group I've covered in one of these posts, going by some of the numbers, that's smaller is the ill-fated Chocolate, which I also hadn't heard of before I started looking into them.  Some brief background on them. They debuted in 2017 as an 8-member project group from the survival show BOYS24 under what is now WAKEONE and left at the end of their contracts in 2020, which m...

Release date: 2024 December 24 Album tracklist: Everyday X-MAS Album runtime: 3 minutes  My first question is "Does this include Jay?", not because I necessarily only want One Pact with Jay, but because I have no idea what is happening with the B.D.U situation is, and I'm a little concerned. Barring that, let's see what this Christmas offering is. I am very much excited to see what is going on. These are some very smooth instrumentals. I'm very impressed by it. Also, it's either chimes or a xylophone that is gently twinkling up above the rest of the much more noticeable drums, synth, and piano. I'm not sure which specifically it is because I can't tell if it's metal or not. Or it's possible that both are used and my uncertainty is because both are available. Either way, it's a very nice touch to what is a very generic (as in, adhering to the rules of the genre, which is not a bad thing) set of instrumentals, and the only thing that is more ...

Release date: 2024 December 24 Album tracklist: Home Alone, Spring in the Winter Album runtime: 6 minutes  A new addition to the catalogue of solo Hui voices has been released, and I could not be happier. I can't think of a better K-Pop Christmas present than this. If nothing else, he has the kind of voice you could just fall in love with, but also I love how active he has been since most of his other members have left CUBE. This year he released his debut album with Hmmm BOP , which is one of my favorite releases of 2024, at the start, and then in the last four months, he's released three singles. As long as he isn't overworking himself, I'm happy for every opportunity to hear him do what he does best and sing. And also write the songs, which is where the rest of his credits are. The man is multi-talented. As is typical with his ballads, I'm struggling to focus past his voice to the instrumentals, which are piano dominant and strings assisted. I absolutely love it ...

Release date: 2024 March 13 Album tracklist: Lullaby Album runtime: 4 minutes  I was debating a lot about when I would be doing this song. I knew I was going to eventually, but the time never felt right to do it. However. His expected discharge date is Christmas 2025, and this is a good present for me, so I'm doing this for Christmas 2024, when he has one year left. This was his "Goodbye, I'll see you when I'm finished" present to the LOVEs and the Hwangdos. I trust that he's doing well, and that he's doing his job well because I can't see him doing anything without exceptional dedication. Just ask the abalones he was asked to clean back in 2019 during some cooking content they did. I have other reviews I need to be doing, but I need to mark the one year left for him and this is a good excuse considering that.  Okay, I've delayed this enough. This is another one of those songs that I desperately wish I could have just the instrumental for. Between ...

Essentially, if there isn't a show this week, there probably won't be one next week as well. But, for the two that are still airing, I will faithfully record the wins for Stray Kids and G-Dragon. Also, Younite was on ASC, it was festive, and they were precious. I love all the Ace of Ace reunions that keep happening on After School Club. They just keep complimenting each other, and I love it. I also really loved their introductions. They were adorable. And as soon as it was time for the MC Challenge, I knew Aron was going to struggle with it, but even Taeyoung had a little bit of stuggle. Allen had it down very quickly.  Show Champion: N/A MCountdown: N/A Music Bank: Stray Kids "Walkin on Water" Show! Music Core: G-Dragon (BIGBANG) "Home Sweet Home" (note: he still hasn't performed this anywhere but the MAMAs) 12 Inkigayo: N/A ASC Performance: Younite "Taste"  (note: the MC challenge starts at 18:40, which was a lot later than normal) The Show:...

Release date: 2024 December 23 Album tracklist: from Album runtime: 3 minutes Well, here we are at their last song under Pledis. I hope wherever they end up next, they get to do what they want and have the opportunities they want. I wish them all the best. And I'm glad they got a last song. Taking a brief glance at the credits now that I know they have a producing duo in the group, that is a really long list of names in the writing credits. Did all the members have a hand in this? Also, and I wouldn't have noticed this if I hadn't done FLY HIGH as one of my Battle of the B-Sides posts, but that single was called "FROM." and this one is called "from". So that's a pretty cool connection. I was just kind of basking in the sound of the song through the first listen, but my ears perked up at the end upon hearing what sounds like a log drum. I'm likely reading too much into it, but it feels like a promise from the members. It doesn't feel like an ...

Release date: 2024 December 23 Album tracklist: We X Mas , Actor Album runtime: 8 minutes Do I need to do a review of the new Christmas single from ONEWE? No. Do I want to? Yes. I really like the band, and this falls under my principle of trying to focus on smaller groups so that they can get more attention. Plus, they're a band, and I've been vocal about my love for bands. There's nothing particularly Christmassy about the instrumentals, or at least nothing that particularly invokes the season. If I weren't looking directly at the name, I'd suspect this to be a regular single. There is a sense of nostalgia, or at least fondness, but it's not necessarily seasonal based on the instrumentals. The guitar solo however is my favorite part. It's nothing that's grand or groundbreaking, but going up the scale like it does reminds me of rock ballads from the 80s. We get that same thing in miniature a couple of other times during the song, which makes it even bett...

  Release date: 2024 December 23 Album tracklist: Down for you Album runtime: 3 minutes I would just like everyone to know that when I watched Peak Time , I knew immediately  which group they were because the only Prince I know in K-Pop is in this group, and I'm very proud of how they did. Prince's reels also give me life, and I'm absolutely gleeful every time he posts a new one, but they're also the reason why I knew his group. I have since listened to some of their songs, and really, they're quite a good group. I don't know much about them as a group, but the music is generally good. I have a few of them in various playlists. We've got some nice mellow vibes from the group this time, but also featuring science fiction warbling occasionally as well as my favorite addition: the audience participation snapping. I know that OSTs in K-Dramas almost never feature already released music (though they can be found in the show, just not as part of the OST), but you ...

Release date: 2024 December 22 Album tracklist: The Late Regret , The Late Regret - Eng Version Album runtime: 9 minutes  New A.C.E song! I swear, they put out a single at least once a month and sometimes more like every three weeks or so. I'm not currently complaining about it, although I am beginning to be worried for them a little. I hope they're taking care of themselves because this is an unsustainable pace, but at the same time, even with that worry, I'm so excited every time, because I know what kind of voices those lunatics (said with all the love in the world, please refer to their recent attendance on After School Club  so you know what I mean if you're unfamiliar with their personalities) have. And this is almost four and a half minutes of their voices. Full group of potentially main vocalists.  I'm melting over this song. Even if you normally listen to it at the end, go listen first because you absolutely should not be sleeping on this song and I want yo...

Release date: 2024 December 21 Album tracklist:  Say that you're sorry Album runtime: 3 minutes     I picked Ciipher as the group to attach to him because it's the more recent one, and both Ciipher and 1THE9 are about equal in terms of monthly listeners and highest number of streamed songs on Spotify. He has left the group, but I haven't heard of some huge falling out, so I'll give him to Ciipher. If it turns out it was a falling out, then I suppose I will remove it or switch it to 1THE9.  The instrumentals to this song are softly chipper, like a hug. I'm squinting a little at the song title because it seems a little at odds with the loveliness, but generally, there's nothing explosively energetic or mournful or otherwise temperamental about them. I'll have to take a look at the lyrics. There are certainly parts of the song where the instrumentals back off to really let the vocals take center stage, but generally speaking, the instrumentals are the kind that...

 This comes from my submission form, and it's the first one I'm doing from there! Whoo! I was going to put this off a little because I just did a 2012 debut for a Battle of the B-Sides post, but oh, well! I have a feeling that this one isn't like that song either, so I'm less worried about doing too much of the same. Variety, yes, but I can do what I want and the few songs I've already heard of theirs ( Chained Up is in many of my playlists) I've liked already. How much of that is because I know they're in the 2012 debut club, which automatically enters them into my category of groups I look upon favorably, I don't know. But I do know that even without that, what I've heard is very good. I've also heard some interesting and hilarious things about the group, and am curious to know if they're true or not. But! This submission came with the note that the submitter was pretty sure this song was VIXX's first win and that was why it was being ...

Release date: 2024 December 20 Album tracklist: My Christmas Sweet Love , Jazz Bar (Carol ver.), Wonderland (Carol ver.) Album runtime: 11 minutes  My spooky Halloween girl group dropped a Christmas single! Most exciting! I'm even more excited about the fact that it's almost four minutes long. Don't mind me. I'm just happily basking in this. I spent about the first quarter of the song thinking about how pretty and surprisingly subdued the instrumentals were, especially for a Dreamcatcher song, then the energy kicked up and the rock-tinged instrumentals I know and love flared to life. The chorus should normally have an increase in energy, but this epitomizes the notion of the quiet before the storm. The chorus instrumentals automatically appear to be louder just by virtue of the relative quiet immediately preceding and proceeding the chorus. The bells are not as present throughout the song as I would have expected, but instead, during the chorus, we have what might be a ...

Release date: 2024 March 18 Album tracklist:  Welcome to the Show , HAPPY , The Power of Love, Get The Hell Out, Sad Ending, Let Me Love You, didn't know Album runtime: 24 minutes  I figured that since I have a moment and I did a b-side from the album (congrats again on the win for HAPPY! ), I should probably do the actual title track for the album. I actually love the whole album. It ended up on repeat swapped off with JR's he put out in January, and that ended up in my top listens of the year. Fourever missed out on joining it by not a lot. Also, this was their first album post-military if I remember correctly, which is why the album title is what it is. The drumset gets a lot of attention during the song, but most of the time behind it, you can hear the keyboard doing rather delicate chords. That creates a brighter sound than the drumming would normally suggest. They also did a good job of building variation into their instrumentals, so that while there is a bit of repetiti...

Release date: 2004 January 17 Album tracklist: Intro, Heffy End , Nothing, Victim, DM, Live Wire , Robot, Down, October 4th, F.M Business, 0 (Zero), Outro, Watch Out, Intro (For Zero Tour) - '04 Zero [Live], F.M Business  - '04 Zero [Live], Victim  - '04 Zero [Live], Heffy End  - '04 Zero [Live], Robot  - '04 Zero [Live], October 4h  - '04 Zero [Live], Live Wire  - '04 Zero [Live], Zero  - '04 Zero [Live], Outro  - '04 Zero [Live] Album runtime: 71 minutes When the YouTube algorithm let me know he was doing a live for a music video because of my Greatest Hits post for  Christmalo.win , I though he was giving the world a new offering of music. It was not a new offering. Instead, he decided to re-release the music videos for one of his songs and one of the group's songs in 4K. The man he is. But, I did this for NINE.i, so I'm going to do the same for him. I thought about doing GH posts for both songs (although looking at things, I think this ma...

Release date: 2024 December 17 Album tracklist: Sweet Like Album runtime: 2 minutes  Ooh, I like that the members of the group are putting out music ahead of their group comeback. It's a good way to drum up interest and put the group back into the conversation without too much difficulty. Well, no more difficulty than actually preparing music, which is quite difficult. That makes both him and the leader who have released music recently, although to be fair, I may have missed one of the members. I don't know all their names yet. Also, that is a very uncomfy runtime. It's less than two and a half minutes. That is a lot of synth is to be had. It especially reminds me of early to mid 80s EDM at the very beginning before the drums and the beat start kicking in, as though I could find it in Stranger Things . The rest of the song, that connection isn't nearly as strong, but for a few measures at the opening, I could believe it. I find it a little interesting that this is the s...

Release date: 2024 December 11 Album tracklist: Foolproof Album runtime: 3 minutes  Okay, so! Irubin is part of the 95z along with SCoups, Gon, and Minhyun, and he's actually a week younger than the latter. He was on a couple of trainee survival shows the same year NU'EST was on theirs. Almost made the debut team on BOYS24 and was the first boy trainee to be TOP1 on MixNine (where we also had a bunch of future ATEEZ and Treasure members), ended the show as the third ranked so he made the debut team, but that never happened. I actually remember him. Obviously I was focused on ATEEZ when I watched it this summer, but I do remember him. He went by the name Rubin then, and he was really good. He did finally debut with the group 1TEAM, which unfortunately disbanded within two years, and then he became a tattoo artist. Irubin is multi-talented then, and part of me is curious about why he decided to come back to music almost four years later, but I hope he has better luck as a soloist...

 This will be updated throughout the month as I'm going to include as many of the new  holiday or winter songs as are released as I can find. If I missed any, which is likely, please yell at me. I'm also going to include ten "oldies" just for a little bit of variety in age in no particular order. Hope you find one you haven't heard before. (Also, the Country Kko Kko album that song comes from has Feliz Navidad  in Korean on it and when I tell you that I giggled, my dog was worried because I haven't laughed that hard in a while. It's a glorious song and breaks my brain a little.) This is just a bunch of music! Enjoy! The Old HELLO VENUS, ASTRO, Weki Meki All I Want aespa Jingle Bell Rock EXO December, 2014 Country Kko Kko Happy Christmas NINE.i Back to Christmas THE BOYZ White Apink PINK CHRISTMAS 2021 SBS Gayo Daejun All I Want For Christmas Is You Crayon Pop Lonely Christmas TVXQ! Duet -winter ver.- JUST KIDDING! I'm actually including a bonus 11th be...

 I ran into this music video quite by accident, did some mental calculations, and decided this would be a good next choice for this segment. This is also one that I've already recommended to introduce people to K-Pop, so independent of the random selection, I obviously do consider this to be one of Girls' Generation's Greatest Hits. The group itself is also one of The Groups, one of the titans of the second generation, so one can hardly doubt the influence they've had on the industry. And most recently, their debut song has become an anthem, so, again, it's hard to argue against this influence that's stretched for almost twenty years now. In terms of the length of influence, this song barely  qualifies for a Greatest Hits post as it's barely two years old, but it qualifies by that requirement and the title track requirement. Also, excitingly, the album this comes from marked the end of a five year hiatus for the group and was released to celebrate their fift...

Release date: 2024 December 18 Album tracklist: Winter Magic, Christmas With You , Snow, Christmas With You - Unplugged, Winter Magic - Instrumental, Christmas With You - Instrumental, Snow - Instrumental Album runtime: 27 minutes  I'm so excited to listen to this. Obviously I'm very excited since I'm actually posting this on the day it releases, but I'm over the moon (pun not intended...mostly) that they're releasing a Christmas album. I've already fallen in love with the teaser, and I was waiting most impatiently for them to actually drop the thing. I'll need to find something else to look forward to for the rest of the week, but I can do that. In the meantime, I'm just going to bask. And Merry Christmas to me, it comes with the instrumentals and an unplugged version. That piano is gorgeous. The piano is the dominant sound going on in the instrumentals, which does make it sound a little bit like lounge music, but it's so unbelievably soothing that ...