Battle of the B-Sides:: Beauty Box: PLZ PLZ PLZ

 This group has a grand total of 2500 listeners a month on Spotify, so I'm super happy that the submitter decided to give this song to me. Let's see if we can introduce more people to them. I've also never actually heard of this group before so chances are, you and I are both going to be going on this venture into this b-side and group together for the first time. If you've already heard of them or listen to them, and there was something I didn't highlight about this song that you'd like to, go ahead and hop on over to the submission link, and I will make an addition with my focus on the thing you really enjoy about it. Debuted in 2021 under BY-U Entertainment (which is the most hilarious K-Pop company I've ever heard named, and that won't make sense for a lot of people, but that's okay. The ones who will get it, I see you. Me too.), they started out with six members, although it looks like they've had a few line-up changes over the years. The status of the group is also currently up in the air, although with these members, it's not looking particularly good, but we could see a re-debut of the 24K+ / 24K variety. I am a little bit concerned about the number and severity of health related hiatuses for the original members with regards to any future members the group has. Hopefully, I'm simply being an alarmist and am seeing patterns where none actually are. I feel really bad for the fans because that's three years without a lot of songs released or activity, and not a lot of transparency from the company. But, I also think the fandom name is completely adorable. They're called WIBBON, and that's cute.

This song comes from their first and only full album, released in 2022, although the album does consist of a mini album worth of music and then English or Instrumental versions of those songs so I'm not sure that I personally would agree with it being called an album, but looking at their discography, I'll give it to them anyway. As a side note, they have a song called Take My Heart?!, and the drama of the punctuation there makes me very curious. Back to PLZ PLZ PLZ, I'm looking at the writers, and for J-Lin, I'm seeing a few girl groups that I recognize by name, but I don't think I've listened to any of their music. A-Daily, Lip Service, Queenz Eye. I also see Varsity, boy group who, again I haven't listened to, but I recognize the name. Names I know fairly well are TWICE, Suho, Chen, NiziU, and Doyoung, so I'm kind of glad to see that J-Lin doesn't just write songs for groups that are, how should I put this, not actively promoting at the moment. The other songwriter that I'm interested in (the producer has only worked on a handful of songs, all of them Beauty Box songs, so probably an in-house producer or someone connected to someone at the company), B-Rock seems to be paired up with J-Lin a lot as I'm seeing both repeated groups and even repeated song titles for those groups. He, however, also gets MINIMANI and QRRA, neither of whom I've heard of, but if I like this one, I may go check all those songs out. I am also a little bit surprised that Favorite wasn't the one submitted to me as it has a performance video, but I'm not here to argue, just highlight beloved songs. 

The submitter didn't give me a lot to go on, just "This is my favorite song of theirs," which is fine, just means that I have to do a little bit of digging for what fans of the group are into with this. Because I know why I'm adding this to several playlists, but I don't know if they'll necessarily be the same reason as the actual fans.

Still!

This is for the fans so I'll be here to give the fans as much love for this song as I can and to acknowledge their love.

And I'm really kind of annoyed with the company because this song is so good! And I'm really excited about the fact that we have the instrumentals to this song because, even though this isn't a proper review, I want to touch on how fun and dramatic the instrumentals are. It's a lot of electric guitar that alternates between playful and driving, but the whole thing also sounds like something out of the Sims, if the Sims were a little more guitar heavy in their soundtracks. A lot of good textures to be heard, different biomes for the song to wander around in. I'm also having a particularly fun time tapping out the rhythm with my nails. Like, genuinely? I love this a lot. You can't give me something that sounds so much like the Sims and expect me not to fall head over heels in love.

Rambling about the instrumentals aside, Sori has such a lovely voice and I love that she opens it with a hint of a vibrato rumbling throughout her first part, and then she starts off the second verse with that lovely, lovely tone. It's clear. It's strong. It's got clear vibrato, which I absolutely love. I am such a happy Fangirl right here.

I also really love Anh's rapping. It reminds me of Moonbyul, so surprise, surprise, of course I love her voice. Her tone is low and solid, she clips her words well, and even thought she doesn't have a lot of lines, her voice is incredibly distinct. I'm curious about how she's been doing since she left the company.

Those mics are live, which is something I appreciate. I have absolutely no idea what this was for, other than being from 2022, but I'm glad to see it performed. The camera didn't do the best work of highlighting the choreography, but when it is highlighted, it's very cute. Also, the entire group is gorgeous.

This one was a few months later and you know what I'm really happy to be hearing? Continual growth. Professional athletes don't stop getting coaching and don't stop practicing just because they start winning tournaments. I'm happy as a clam to support a group that shows that they're still learning and progressing and growing as artists. That's a good thing, in my books.

Again, this sounds like those mics might be live, and the nearly stationary camera here did somehow better camerawork than the performance a year earlier. This is from their Tokyo Live from 2023 after some of the line-up changes, and I'm pleased to report that some of them have very nice muscle definition in their thighs. It's something I really like to see.

Proof these mics are live? You occasionally hear the wind through them. This one might be the earliest one, and the amount of joy they're obviously feeling is on full display. It's infectious. I think this might also have technically been performed before the album was released. So that's fun.

So, there you have it. The third most listened to song from this album, submitted via The Form, and now I'm going to mark this as finished. I hope you all enjoyed the track, and for the person who submitted it, I hope this was to your satisfaction!