February 2025 Wrap-Up: L is for the Way You Look at Me

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 This month has been me scrambling to catch up after my bout of flu at the very start of the month, which set me back about a week. Which is why I'm so late in posting this one. Hello, friends! I'm still not fully caught up, but I'm counting myself as close enough that I can get this done. Also, why were so many releases on February 24th? 

So. Debuts. Didn't cover a lot of them. I did cover NouerA and Hearts2Hearts. The other debuts that I didn't cover but I'm still going to mention are BLINGONE China, NEEZ, AWIN, DearALICE, and 3WAY. Moonbyul had her Japanese debut. As did ILLIT, DAYCHILD, WE;NA, and BXB. 

Releases that I was looking forward to are as follows:

  • ALL(H)OURS- I surprisingly really liked Graffiti a lot. I don't know why I was so surprised by how much I liked it. but the vibes reminded me of 2PM which is something that I can fully get behind
  • ONF- I just really like these guys. 
  • Changsub (BTOB)- He's my cat's bias. We both love his voice, and even if he isn't doing things with the group right now, I'm 10000% supporting everything he does.
  • Ilhoon (BTOB)- It's Ilhoon.
  • One Pact- I just generally like what this group has been putting out, I love Jay's voice, and I'd like to support them
  • ZEROBASEONE- Again, it was the pre-release that caught my attention because I loved the music video so much
  • ASTRO- I was really hoping that they'd release another anniversary song. 
  • G-Dragon- Man. Myth. Legend.

And there we have it. I was scrambling through most of February and barely had any idea of songs that had come out, let alone knowing about them beforehand. So I'm counting the ones I knew about and was looking forward to getting to the release. 

Here I'm going to give you the music show wins for the month by week. You can absolutely go find previous weeks on the applicable page, but here are this month's.

Week of 01/29 - 02/04

Week of 02/05 - 02/11

Week of 02/12 - 02/18

Week of 02/19 - 02/25

And now on to the good stuff: my favorite reviews that I've done (so far). There are likely still some that I haven't done yet that will get added to this list, but it's fine. In no particular order, here we are.

Top Releases of the Month:

  • Chung Ha (I.O.I) "Stress": How many playlists have I added this song to? Five? Six? It's amazing. Like, this song is the actual jam. And the music video? Wow.
  • Plave "Dash": I hadn't been intending to do this one, and I'm glad they got a win because holy moly on a cracker. I mean, I was super into the song anyway, right? But then that music video. Oh, wow. It's enough to make me want to dig back through their discography and figure out what the plot is.
  • I:MOND "Wonderland": Pretty new group, but they all debuted as adults. That's enough to get a thumbs up from me on principle. And even though I wasn't overly fond of the music video because of the lack of storyline which I obviously love, the song itself got added to my playlists of the "2025 Releases That Are Super Cool," so I'm not too upset about the music video. Gorgeous though.
  • Just B "한걸음만": I want this one in a movie so badly. Like, come on. I need this to happen. Tell me I'm wrong.
  • Hui (PENTAGON) "My Memory": I feel like I got a little bit spoiled by the song length on this one. And when this man lets his voice loose, the angels weep. In other news, the violin (I mean, there's a violin. Are you kidding?) mimics his vibrato, which is a fascinating addition to a song that I don't know that I've heard in K-Pop before this moment. 
  • Wooseok (PENTAGON) "ROMANCE": And rounding out the PENTAGON releases for the month, the maknae also dropped a single, but instead of a soulful ballad that almost brings me to tears, Wooseok gave us rock. I'm almost in love with his voice here. And I love the style of the music video.
  • NouerA "N.I.N (New is Now)": This song is so gloriously dramatic and it reminds me of Scoob-Doo, which is a weird thing to be reminded of? But it's so dramatic. And it's such a good debut. I'm so excited for this group. Like, this is a debut, you guys. De. But. I'm calling it now that this is going to be one of my top debuts of the year. 
  • LUN8 "Butterfly": Winner for the most beautiful choreography of the month. Easy. Like, I don't know if y'all have seen this or not, but wow. And the costuming? *chef's kiss*
  • Seungkwan (Seventeen) "Somewhere in This Universe": Seungkwan did an OST. Easy. Sold. Next. (I love the drama you usually find in OSTs and Seungkwan's voice has literally brought me to my knees from the sheer perfection it is. I have no notes for him other than two thumbs up.)
  • ONF "The Stranger": Bye My Monster was one of my favorite releases of 2024, the entire album was no-skip for me, and while The Stranger doesn't reach the same level of love for me, it's still such a solid song that I'm very here for it.
  • Changsub (BTOB) "Feel The Groove": This is another one that I've added to like half a dozen playlists. And I still haven't shown it to my cat. I'm a bad fur parent. (So to remedy that and so I just showed him. I said his name to wake him up. He opened his eyes and huffed at me. I hit play, watched his ears twitch and his pupils dilate, and now he's purring. So, it's finally T'Challa Approved™. And I put my headphones back on and now he's glaring at me. Such is life.)
  • ASTRO "Twilight": Almost had me in tears. I'm grateful for this.
  • Jackson Wang (GOT7) "High Alone": This music video. It's trying to trigger my film analysis brain. Also some mental panic because that's heavy. That is a heavy music video. Gorgeous. Lovely. But incredibly heavy.
  • Ilhoon (BTOB) "moonwalk": The sound of the song isn't exactly in my realm of "I'm in love with this," even if I love the way he raps, but the lyrics? They shot me through the heart. Double tap.

I was pleasantly surprised by how many of the releases I absolutely loved. ...I am realizing that it's a lot of boy groups and soloists. But March has quite a few girl groups and soloists that I'm interested in this batch of comebacks, so that should be a little bit better.

The full list of February reviews can be found here. Reviews for other months are:

I got a request for a regular review on The Form, so that was written this month. Those are an option to submit if you're curious on the reviewer thoughts over the fangirl thoughts.

I only did one Greatest Hits post, but it was a fun one.

  • Yoo Jae Suk (feat. EXO) "Dancing King": This came out of the submission form (found either to the left of this post in that menu or in the Junk Drawer), and at first I was skeptical. I'm not going to lie. But you know what? Wow. This is a phenomenal pairing. The submission was excellent. I'm pleased by this. Also, it is such a dancing song.

I also only got two Battle of the B-Sides posts done. The flu kicked my butt and work sucked out my will to do much. But I can see the light at the end of the tunnel with what's so difficult right now. 

  • Red Velvet's "Huff N Puff": Tossed at me via the submission form, I was pleased about this because Red Velvet is one of my girl groups that I generally really like. I just haven't explored enough of their discography for them to inundate my playlists.
  • BoA "Start Over": All Hail Queen BoA. I actually picked this one because I wanted to do it. I had to give myself a dose of dopamine because motivation, and while it's not an extensive post (I may add onto it later when work gets better), the lyrics are absolutely gorgeous. Between BoA's voice and the lyrics, it's an amazing song. Absolutely gorgeous.

Honorable Mentions:

  • xikers "Tricky House": The song turns two this March, so it's almost eligible for a GH post, but it's always available for a regular review. Also, it has one of the catchiest outros. Phenomenal. Stunning. Again. This is a debut song, y'all. Absolute monster rookies and they've only gotten better.

  • BLACKPINK "Kick It": I don't have a ton of BLACKPINK songs in my various playlists because I haven't gone through a lot of their discography. But this one? I like this one. I actually have this album specifically because of how much I love this song.

  • GFRIEND "Vacation": I have this song on my fleeing from work playlist. For hopefully obvious reasons.

  • BTOB "Be Alright": Oh, you mean I'm recommending a song about how "everything's gonna be alright" in a month where work was kicking my butt? I'm shocked. Also, BTOB are the healers and their songs always need more love.

  • SHINee "Sweet Misery": I mean, this is SHINee. They're incredible. And I love this song? Like, unapologetically, I just really love this song.

  • G-Dragon (BIGBANG) "Drama": While I wouldn't say that I loved Too Bad as much I wanted to, I do absolutely adore Drama. So I'll put it here even though I have plans to do a review for it.

You're all lovely people! You're awesome! See you next month!

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