Just A Little Fangirl Love

Release date: 2018 September 04 Album tracklist: ADDICT, Siren , Curve, Black Pearl, Gashina , Heroine , Secret Tape Album runtime: 20 minutes  This, dear reader, was submitted into The Form as a regular review, and I saw it when I went looking for my next GH or BBS post. Thank you very much!! I think I'll add a paragraph at the end of the review to dedicate to the fangirling as this was a submission and whoever the submitter was (thank you!!) was lovingly verbose about it, so I'll return the favor.  Wonder Girls is a second gen girl group active for ten years until they disbanded in 2017. Like several of their generational predecessors, the group had several lineup changes, including when Sunmi left the group to pursue her acting career, though she did rejoin it later and stay through the end of the group's lifespan. Heroine is the second of the singles that ultimately became pre-releases for this album, Warning, released in 2018. Also, my dude Teddy had a hand in the lyr...

 Unless I do The Roulette Wheel, I obviously can pick which of the suggestions I've gotten that I'll write posts for. I also have a spreadsheet where I have my posts organized by generation and boy group, girl group, and co-ed. The co-ed groups definitely need more attention, but I'm taking these last few Specialty posts to focus on the girl groups because they're not my natural inclination, and while the Roulette Wheel is weighted equally, I don't like that it's uneven. So, I ignored my normal addition of the B/G/Co-Ed Wheel spin and just did it for a girl group, and I ended up with LABOUM. I'm not sure I've heard of them, so this will be exciting.  LABOUM is a third gen girl group that are younger sisters to U-KISS and Brown Eyed Girls, which is wildly hilarious considering the last GH post I did was in fact for BEG's song Abracadabra . So, that was unintended. 빛이 되어쥐 , or Be the Light  as I will be calling it through this because while it would be...

Release date: 2025 January 27 Album tracklist: A-yo, UP N DOWN , TRAP, You & I (feat. Kyuhyun), Step by Step, Second Chances, EMPTY - Special Track Album runtime: 21 minutes  The average runtime of this album would have been a lot higher if that first song wasn't only a minute long. Removing that one brings the average up to almost three and a half minutes, which is delightful. I also remember him saying something about this at SM Town a couple weeks ago, though I could be misremembering things. It was very late, and I was very tired. But what I am definitely for sure about is that this is his first proper album, not his solo debut, and it's been a very long time in coming. I thought this was going to be a bit more hiphop judging by that opening and the record scratching, but it's incredibly synthy, though, and funky, which I think makes it new jack swing. I have a post-it note next to my computer where I have a list of the genres that I've been encountering a lot t...

Release date: 2025 January 26 Album tracklist:  Close to You , Close to You (Inst.) Album runtime: 8 minutes  I like OSTs. I do. An OST got me into K-Pop and is also the reason, by chain of events, why I am writing these words that you are currently reading. I also really like Jin's voice. Combining the two? Yes, please. I am all about that. Also, I am intending to watch this kdrama because it looks funny, but haven't yet.  The other thing I just generally enjoy about OSTs is that the single often includes the instrumental, which makes my life easier so I don't have to listen underneath the vocals and risk getting distracted. Beautiful tinkling of the piano to start it out, which does immediately make me think of both a lullaby and the stars. A space science fiction lullaby, if you will. Actually, this entire thing does an incredible job of mimicking the typical space lonely instrumentation. Between the held notes while other instruments wander around and the specific mix...

Release date: 2025 January 27 Album tracklist:  Better Half Album runtime: 4 minutes  Is this considered a solo debut? It's difficult because sometimes a single is considered the debut and sometimes there are a number of pre-debut singles released. And to put another wrench in the works, the Japanese version of this song will be on Omoinotake's upcoming album, Pisces, so I don't think I'm going to classify this as his solo debut for the previous reasons. With that out of the way, I'm so excited for him. Yes, he's been in the military since September 26th, and this was certainly a surprise to have announced, so even though he's not technically available, I'm pleased.  Also, in case there's anyone also like me who has no earthly clue about who they are other than a Japanese group, let me regurgitate some information on Omoinotake like a mother bird. They're a 2012 Japanese rock band that have done quite a few opening themes for anime with their hig...

  This week was a clean sweep for a certain group, so that's very impressive. Well done. Still nothing on the Show Champion or the The Show! front, so we only have the other four and ASC. That was kind of a Seollal special featuring CIX and it was adorable watching them play yutnori and some other traditional Korean games (which was very fun) and have to go up against the MCs in ddakji. Allen was very bad at that, which was funny, but all three of them suffered a little. Taeyoung and Aron struggled a lot with the MC dance challenge. Aron's will to live left his body in real time and Taeyoung had to interrupt the first "with music" practice because he'd gotten lost at the start. Also, at one point, one of them said something alone the lines of "This is as good as we're going to do, I think." Not that I necessarily want them to struggle, but I love seeing a not-perfect product sometimes. Reminds me that they're human. Trained in dance, but human al...

 I really need to get my algorithm back to working like it was so I can get the new releases dropped in my lap so that when I'm not technically a fan (read as: part of the fandom; I really like a lot of groups but there are only a handful of which I'd call myself a proper fan rather than a browser), I'm still aware of the releases. I'm excited for Jennie. I believe she was the one who did Mantra , which I wasn't particularly enthused with when I wrote up the review, but one song is not enough to make me swear off an entire discography unless it is blazingly offensive (which Mantra was not). And I'm glad I'm not that way because this song has some serious potential. Holy wow. The circling of the pressed, legato notes and the sharp staccato notes provides a really intriguing rhythm to keep the listener off guarding. There are a lot of interesting bass layers as well, with more than one with the potential in another song to be the sole grounding instrument, bu...

Release date: 2024 March 24 Album tracklist: Love You With All My Heart , Love You With All My Heart - Inst. Album runtime: 8 minutes  There's a slight lull in the releases right now, so I'm going to pop back to March of 2024 briefly to add in a review to help fluff that page out a little. Other than the OST for Goblin , I'm not sure that I've actually heard a Crush song sung by Crush, even though I've heard quite a few covers, so obviously the songs are beloved. I figure going with an OST is a good place to start in my listening to Crush songs sung by the original artist mission as I already love one. So, I genuinely and deeply love the fact that we get the instrumentals for this. There's something about them that have an underwater vibe to them, a tone or a quality. There's no sense of fierce drama. But there is a bittersweet ache to them of loss. I haven't seen Queen of Tears yet so I know neither when this song is used nor actually what it's abou...

Release date: 2025 January 23 Album tracklist: Bad Moves, THUNDER , Lovers or Enemies, My name is shadow, My Everlasting Sun Album runtime: 16 minutes  Ah, so this group is actually less than a year younger than ATEEZ. And I have been staring at this group's name trying to figure out why I know something about this group, but a brief perusal of the members' profiles (and their names) smacked me about why I know what I know, namely, their main vocalist Seunghun. Fun fact, we both like the band Lucy, but that's not why I know him. He's the one in the Grim Reaper Team on Build Up , the one who rapped during the vocal break of Pray , the blond one .  I included the performance with the reactions because the performance deserves the reactions, and as a reminder in case you are only familiar with the Stray Kids cover from Kingdom, that rap is normally covered by two rappers, and it's not an easy rap with two. Changbin, an incredible rapper, covers it on his own. Seunghun ...

Release date: 2025 January 22 Album tracklist: 넌 언제나 (2025) , 넌 언제나 (2025) (Instrumental) Album runtime: 8 minutes  I genuinely feel like a proud older sister or a proud older cousin every time this band does literally anything. Ridiculous? Probably. The oldest one is a yearling with my cousin who I'm pretty close with, so I'm sure that's part of it. But they've put out two mini albums, a single, and now a digital single in the last almost fifteen months since they debuted. So proud of them. Also, a four minute song? Did I mention I love them? Their fandom name, by the way, is Catcher, which is a little cute considering what the name of the band is. And because the song is fully in Korean, I made sure to keep the Korean title there.  And good news for me, this has the instrumental with it. You, Always  does have just about everything I like. It's got big bursts of sheer drama and a screaming electric guitar. It's got soft spots to sentimentalize that guitar, but...

 I decided to do a roulette wheel so I can let the submissions fill up a little bit more again. Thank you to everyone who has submitted! I will get to them, I promise. In the meantime, I wanted something random, and so I present to you a song that I've heard of, but haven't listened to, though I have heard a couple of songs by the group before.   Brown Eyed Girls debuted in 2006, under Nega Network, firmly marking them as an early second generation group. Sound-G was their third studio album, released mid-2009. It won a Bonsang for Cyworld Digital Music Awards in 2010, another Bonsang went to the group at the Seoul Music Awards in 2009, and several other end-of-year awards for Abracadabra  itself. That's impressive. I'm also deeply entertained that as I was looking through the list of songs the lyricists had written thinking to myself, "Why are these songs so familiar?", I found another song I've written a GH post for, so that's exciting ( VOODOO DOLL ...

Release date: 2025 January 21 Album tracklist: Blind Eyes Red , HER , Drive U Crazy, Cherry Sky, Valentine's Dream, It's Okay, Obsession Album runtime: 22 minutes  Ah, so this is why Blind Eyes Red didn't get its own release. Still a little confused on that front as I don't understand the reasoning, but I'm willing to overlook it because it wasn't just released into the wind. I apparently need to fix my algorithms to get things back to where they were a few months ago so I'm more aware of when things are pre-releases or not. My apologies, CUBE. In other news, I'm pretty excited for this, so I'll be updating that post with the album info at the top here when I'm finished and then we can be on our way (also, apparently the video got very misplaced there somehow, so that's fixed now too). And I'm not a fan of the title track runtime, but the average of the album is okay. It's at least a three minute average. And already looking at some ...

Release date: 2025 January 20/ February Album tracklist: Doctor! Doctor! Album runtime: 2 minutes  Pre-release, is it? Okay, ZEROBASEONE, I see you. I do tend to like their music, so I do have tentatively high hopes for this upcoming album as well. But, we shall see. Also, I'm so thoroughly displeased with this whole "Oh, I'm just going to release two and a half minute songs and the fans will be fine with it" thing going on. To be clear, not directed at the members because I doubt they have much if any control over how long their songs are. I'm directing that more towards the company for picking the song, and the songwriters for writing it. If nothing else, then because when purchasing the albums, the consumer pays more per minute on albums with shorter tracks. This song is shorter than the shortest song from their previous mini album ( Eternity ), but that one wasn't a promoted single.  So I'm a super fan of the old, gospel-style music to start off. I...

  Most of the music shows are back on, which means the live stage performances, which I love best, are back in almost full force. We get more variety again! So, this week had another triple crown, which is exciting because once again, he got it without promoting the song other than the one performance. We got two first wins for songs, which is absolutely delightful for the groups. I'm so happy for them. On After School Club, Allen and Taeyoung rejoined as MCs with Aron for WEi, a five member boy group that debuted in 2020. There are some very cute dimples going on, some excellent English skills, more going for Taeyoung's MC job here, and some throwing the other members under the bus. That's always fun to see.  As always, the links in the chart go to my reviews. Show Champion: N/A MCountdown: BOYNEXTDOOR "If I Say, I Love You" (note: this performance is from the 250109 episode) Music Bank: BSS (Seventeen) "CBZ (Prime Time)"  Show! Music Core: G-Dragon (BI...

Release date: 2025 January 20 Album tracklist: PYTHON , SMOOTH, Our Youth, REMEMBER, Darling, TIDAL WAVE, OUT THE DOOR, her, Yours Truly Album runtime: 27 minutes  This is their first full group comeback post-military, right? And also their first major comeback after leaving JYPE? In both cases, I'm fully supportive of this. Also, congrats to GOT7 for their eleventh anniversary a few days ago! Whoo! There's a good average runtime, which I'm here for, but the length of the title track is something I am not. So I didn't have creepy doll vibes from a boy group on my 2025 K-Pop Bingo sheet, but here we are! I appreciate that a boy group is going to pull out that particular sound. It's one of my favorites, and I really want to hear it more often. Nice skittering beat that compliments and strengthens the creepy doll without making that part overpowering. It's a delicate balance that I do think was achieved. This hits my brain in a very good way.  They pack a lot into ...

  Release date: 2025 January 20 Album tracklist:  Mama Said , Umm Great , WARRIORS, Knock Knock, Like A Monster, See You On Tomorrow Album runtime: 17 minutes  Stray Kids officially have a little brother group in the same division! I think! I'd have laughed if they'd ended up debuting in October (because ATEEZ's younger brother group debuted in March, the month Stray Kids did, and I would have found that absolutely delightful), but January is good too. As I said in the pre-debut single, the maknae turns eighteen in a couple of months, so I'm grateful their debut took so long. Unfortunately, there's only one song on this debut album that is longer than three minutes. I haven't had an alarm be a regular beeping in years, and yet my trained response to hearing that sound at the beginning of this song fills me with the "I've slept in!" panic. The rest of the instrumentals are solid without being particularly revolutionary, and remind me quite a lot of ...

Release date: 2025 January 17 Album tracklist:  5AM , 5AM (Instrumental) Album runtime: 6 minutes  I know exactly one (former) member of a group with this name, but given that whatever happened, it didn't seem to happen on good terms, I'm not going to mention the group or add the group to the title if this is indeed him. And it is him. So I will take my cues from the group. He debuted as a soloist back in 2021 at the ripe age of 24 and is currently under SME.  My heart wants to say this is an acoustic guitar, but there are some very much electric guitar characteristics when the pick slides on the strings rather than what the acoustic guitar does. I could be wrong though. In other news, the instrumentals remind me of the soundtrack to Final Fantasy XV,  specifically either in the camp music or in one of the city/town locations, and that's something I really like because I like how laid back and cozy it is. In this case, the guitar seems to gently flirt with the other ...

 I am aware that this group exists. I know they're a fairly recent boy group, but have no idea their company, the number of members, or debut year, and I do have two of their songs in one of my playlists, but they're my Junk Drawer playlist and haven't gotten to them yet. Ah! Seven member group under Eden Entertainment (which is now sort of a subsidiary of JYPE, I think?) that just had their one year anniversary. And because they're a recent debut, I have to check the ages, but they pass! As of December, they're all eighteen or older. So, if I like the song, I can add it to the playlists! Nice! This song has a lot going on. I don't know why I'm getting strong tropical vibes with clanging metal, which sounds a little like an oxymoron as the associations with clanging metal are more industrial and the ones with jungle are more natural, but it is what it is. Also, I now understand why I remember seeing people who are excited about ALL(H)OURS joining JYPE becaus...

Release date: 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  YGE and BABYMONSTER are doing an excellent job of using a full album to...well, the fullest. This is the fourth music video to drop from it, which is almost more than some mini albums have tracks, and is part of the reason why I prefer the longer albums, even if there's an increased wait for them. I've also avoided listening to too much of the album because of the maknae's age. Not cool when they've been out for over a year and she is currently fifteen. But, because of that, I also still haven't heard this song and it's been a hot minute since the album was released, so I'm curious to now if this song is going to be dumped into the playlist of songs I get to move into my regularly scheduled programming playlists once the members are all of an acceptable age. Intr...

  Release date: 2024 August 04 Album tracklist: Waste My Time,  Tell My Momma , Boombox, SHIMMY SHIMMY, SPIN , Tell My Momma (Inst.), Boombox (Inst.) Album runtime: 22 minutes  Doing these has made me aware of a lot more groups, and with the majority of groups debuting being either boy groups or girl groups and only a small fraction of the debuts being co-ed, that makes me want to support the co-ed groups a little more. So, given that, I'm going to go back to August 2024, when I was first starting this, and hadn't exactly put KARD on my radar yet. I was familiar with their existence because of BM and Dive Studios, but they weren't a group that I was necessarily fully paying attention to. So, I plan to rectify this. And bless them, they included the instrumental so I can focus on that instead of trying to discern it under or through the voices. I really appreciate when groups do this. There's something rather old and sentimental about the instrumentals, which I attribute...

  Release date: 2025 January 15 Album tracklist: Take Care Album runtime: 4 minutes  So I know that Dynamicduo is a first gen duo, and I recognize the name Gummy from the Alchemy of Souls OST. It's an interesting pairing that I'm actually excited to hear, because I have high expectations for the first gen artists even though I don't typically listen to hip-hop (this has changed in recent days and I blame Seventeen and JR for this), and her voice should be a good contrast with theirs.  It would be really easy to assume that this is a nice, generic (again, I mean this as a compliment because I mean it as "adhering to the genre") hip-hop beat, which I kind of did at the first couple of listens, but there are some softer elements that shift it towards a ballad, but without leaving the genre. With the lighter plinking during the chorus that carries through during her verse, it's a good way to bring an element of longing and poignancy.  One of the Duo reminds me of ...

  Release date: 2025 January 15 Album tracklist: NOT ENOUGH , 143 ILY, FAKE LOVE, Top Shape, WITHOUT U Album runtime: 14 minutes  So I, for some reason, thought they were a girl group. I don't know why I thought this. I'm obviously mistaken. But that's okay! They're very obviously not a girl group, and they're obviously active, so the next time I run across their name or them, I'll remember. WEi is part of the slightly unfortunate batch of COVID debuts though, and I feel bad for them, but given that they've managed to survive this long, which is not something every 2021 group can boast, I hope they have continued and expanding success. The song does a really good job of keeping to a mellow stroll through most of it. The chorus has a little bit more of a burst of energy, which immensely helps snap the song out of the lulling rut it could have fond itself in. It's a very stable rhythm for the energy, which is itself a little lulling. This is of course only...

 I was actually really excited to get this suggestion via The Form, because this song has apparently been sitting in my Junk Drawer for ages, which means that I get to clean out the playlist a little. That feels a little illegal, but who cares? Thank you, dear suggester, for giving me an excellent excuse to move a song out of that unwieldy playlist. They also directed me towards a fan cam from Music Bank  for this song and mentioned that it was the reason they got into the group at all, so I'm excited to see what this fan-inducing fan cam was. You can get some incredible shots on fan cams, and I love them because they're usually the raw audio that's been unaltered by the program or agency to make the groups sound better. So, EXID is a 2012 group, which I'm very delighted for obvious reasons. They sit between B.A.P and NU'EST in age, being a February debut as well as my apparently preferred debut year of 2012. I like this. I also really like their logo because unless...

  Release date: 2024 November 04 Album tracklist:  Four Seasons , Four Seasons(Inst.) Album runtime: 7 minutes  I was looking at some first gen K-Pop groups and found out that this one is both still active, and I missed doing a review for this song when it was released. Possibly because there are so many K-Pop groups that it's just not feasible for me to get all the names memorized yet. Also, excitingly, Koyote is a co-ed group, so this should be fun. Koyote is a trio which debuted in 1998, and unlike most groups now, has had multiple line-up changes, as a lot of the older groups had. Of the three current members, only Shin Ji is an original member, with Jong Min joining in 2000 and the maknae, Bbaek Ga, joining in 2004. I'm not kidding. If you want a look at what feels like a lawless time, look into the original K-Pop groups. There are some absolutely wild stories going on with them. They're on average less pearl-clutching-worthy as the sordid tales from the American hai...

Release date: 2025 January 14 Album tracklist:  IKUK , We Are Young, DEVILISH LOVE, W, Rupert's drop , Valkyrie (Penta Ver.), Twilight  (Penta Ver.), LIT  (Penta Ver.), A Song Written Easily  (Penta Ver.), TO BE OR NOT TO BE  (Penta Ver.), BBUSEYEO  (Penta Ver.), No diggity  (Penta Ver.), BLACK MIRROR  (Penta Ver.), Life Is Beautiful  (Penta Ver.), LUNA  (Penta Ver.), Bring it on  (Penta Ver.), Same Scent  (Penta Ver.) Album runtime: 58 minutes  With the limited discourse I've seen around this, it seems like this may have been a bit of a surprise for the fans. I'm not positive. Don't quote me on that. But that's okay. Hello, once again, Oneus. It's good to see you again. Also, it looks like they did five member versions of their songs for this album, which is nice so that the fans have the option of listening to either the original song or the one that they'll be performing now.  Those are some smooth instrumentals wi...