Just A Little Fangirl Love

  Well, we're getting a little more variation again with the wins, not that I begrudge any of the artists their wins, but I like the variation because it gives me different stages to watch when I share them with y'all. So. Show Champion hasn't updated their playlist with the performances, but if she doesn't have one, I'll grab one from Music Bank . And when I found out about The Show , I'll share that. After School Club is still on hiatus, so I'm giving you episode 386, featuring the band ONEWE. They did some really cool covers while they were there and I thought it was adorable that one of them was promoting ONEUS, which is also fitting considering the two groups have a set of twins split between them (a minute apart, which does make me wonder about how twins work in Korean with the honorifics and such). Show Champion: Yuqi (i-dle) "M.O." MCountdown: aespa "Rich Man" Music Bank: IDID "CHAN-RAN" Show! Music Core: aespa "R...

Release date: 2025 September 29 Album tracklist: Fiesta; 5 4, 3 (Pretty woman) (feat. Lay Bankz) ; Worth it; For you; Young again; Earth Album runtime: 17 minutes  I'm going to do my level best to be normal about the review, especially when it comes to the music video. This is my dude, you know? Funny story. So I have pickets of Scoups and Joshua hanging up on my 95z section of my closet office. Joshua's is a little temperamental and likes to fall and be dramatic. SCoups's doesn't. Like, ever. A couple of weeks ago, I wore the Yunho jersey I have from the In Your Fantasy tour to work because I needed the emotional comfort because of the pair of Seventeen enlistments. I walked in, Joshua's had somehow fallen and rolled from behind my desk so he was staring at me when I came in. SCoups's had fallen as well. And I recognize they're inanimate objects and thus do not have any of the jealousy or accusation that they (especially SCoups) would be exhibiting, but th...

Release date: 2025 September 28 Album tracklist: In Your Arms , In Your Arms (inst.) Album runtime: 8 minutes  Well, my boys have dropped another single. I saw the preview for it and it sounds really good, so I'm excited to hear the song in full. These guys are a band who are coming up on their second anniversary in a couple of months and I highly recommend you look up their covers because they're quite impressive. And if you want to hear something funny, they're the bare minimum for not being on Underage Protocol because the maknae turned sixteen the day they debuted. The others were all in their twenties already, so at that point, I'm comfortable with my expectation that they can protect him from the icks of the entertainment industry, which is gross no matter the country. Also, fun fact, one of them was an idol trainee who dropped out because he doesn't like to dance that much. I laughed a little when I learned that. And moving back to the subject of this specifi...

Release date: 2025 September 24 Album tracklist:  Pretty Please Album runtime: 3 minutes  They have an album coming out soon, beginning on October, so I want to make sure to get this one done before then. Hearts2Hearts is on Underage Protocol, which I didn't even have to look up because I remembered this. But! But! That is almost three-and-a-half minutes worth of song, which I am so excited for, so hopefully I really like the song and can add it to my playlist I have to keep track of songs I want to add to other playlists once maknaes hit eighteen. This sounds so pre-2010, especially between the beat and the sparkly sound effects in the instrumental. There is a change in the style of the beat, which does add a little bit of variation, but most of the changes to variation are to back off from the amount of sound in the instrumental, rather than adding on to what is already there. Actually I take that back. While I do wish we got more of something with significantly more energy,...

Release date: 2025 September 25 Album tracklist: Called Game , Truth & Dare, As Much As I Love You, Summer Rain Album runtime: 12 minutes  Okay, so this is my first review for the group, which is always an exciting time, but because there are groups that also debuted in 2022 that I cannot listen to yet because their maknaes were fourteen, I do have to check. To my relief, it looks like the entire group was at least eighteen at debut, so I am good on that end, and the runtimes are also acceptable with everything under three minutes quite close and an average over three minutes.  I think this is one of those songs that are going to be described as refreshing, which hasn't made sense because I apparently use that word to mean something else (I use it to mean unusual in a good way, as in: "After having months of milquetoast songs, having a song released that has texture and depth is quite refreshing.") It also helps that I recently learned the word for refreshing in Korea...

Release date: 2025 September 24 Album tracklist:  I'll Never Love Again , Smashing Concrete Album runtime: 8 minutes  Welcome back, Woodz! You've been busy since you discharged from what I can tell. Funnily enough, this is not my first review for Woodz despite the fact that he was in the military for almost the entire time I've been listening to K-Pop because his song Drowning got a music show win a couple of months ago, so even though that song was a couple of years old, I needed to review it. While some might be upset with his first release in almost two years being only a single, he did just get out of the military. An adjustment period wouldn't be amiss. And he gave us two almost-four-minute songs. That's a yes. So, I obviously really like songs that are unusual in the current new-releases landscape, so novel in that respect though I don't need them to be novel in that there is no other song like it because that's unrealistic. It's been a moment sinc...

Release date: 2025 September 23 Album tracklist: I'm The One, MY PRIDE , I Don't Wanna Wait (IDWW), Every Ten Minutes Album runtime: 13 minutes  I have two of these to do for this release. Okay. Pre-release first, then the title track. Also, I thought this group was a lot older than they are. They're barely a year-old, and I apparently still do not remember who this group is. One day, I'll remember, I promise. There are just a lot of groups that debut and I have a lot in my head to keep track of. This is my first mini album with the group as previously, I've only done singles, so this will be interesting.  The song is very laidback and very chill. I did find myself zoning out a little bit while I was listening to this, which is not ideal, but it does mean that if someone is looking for a song to calm down to, to sleep to, to vibe to, this is probably a good candidate. It would also be a really good candidate for an acoustic version. Generally, the song has upbeat an...

Release date: 2025 September 22 Album tracklist: My First Love Song ,  Band-Aid , Crush, TIKI-TAKA, Gas On It, 404: Not Found, Secret Nightmare Album runtime: 18 minutes  The average of this album is quite low, which makes sense because of the songs, five of the seven are right around the two-and-a-half-minute mark. It's a big sigh from me, honestly. But, just as a reminder for those of you who care about such things, our illustrious maknae is eighteen, still in school but graduating next year (I think). I'm rooting for this group really hard. I want them to get a win. It's been terrible, terrible luck with every other release they've had, but this time they may have a decent shot at getting their first win. The instrumental startled me at the very beginning. If I used emojis in this, this would be a good place to put the laughing with the sweat drop emoji. The cat (PJ) did come over and try to lay on my phone, so I assume that this one is PJ Approved, which is actually...

Release date: 2025 September 23 Album tracklist: Last Flower , Festival, Forget, Last Flower - Instrumental Album runtime: 14 minutes  First of all, they've had an unfortunate little run the last little bit and I'm still upset that one of their members was removed from the group for having a job, but I was worried that this group would be facing a disbandment. I'm tentatively hopeful that I won't be going through one with them for at least a little bit because we're getting this. If you're unfamiliar with this group, they're a concept group where each of the members represents a different king, of sorts, who basically have to unite to fight off the growing darkness. Genuinely, so cool. They don't have a title track I don't love (although my favorite is either Long Live The King or COUP D'ETAT ) (links go to the music videos), and, fun fact, the spines of the history series of their albums form an image when lined up together. Cool, huh? Also, th...

Release date: 2025 September 22 Album tracklist: Head Shoulders Knees Toes Album runtime: 3 minutes  So the fun thing that Pledis is doing with TWS that they do not do with Seventeen is TWS gets pre-release singles. Every single one of their mini albums so far have included one. It's a good strategy and they're young enough to have the energy for it, though I do worry a little considering the maknae, Kyungmin, is still in school. Which I don't think will be a problem come the new year as I think he'll be graduating. In other news, I am also tentatively hopeful for the whole album given that this one is almost three minutes long. Also, can I just say that I'm kind of in love with the marketing for this? Tearing off the old albums to expose this one? Like saying that this is what was hiding behind their cute image? Very nice. I'm impressed and pleased with this. The instrumental for this one reminds me of Cyberpunk 2077, which is a little bit of a weird associatio...

  Okay. We're going to start off with a big congrats to the freshly debuted soloists who got wins this week! It's a little amusing to me that we have two SM winners. But congrats to everyone involved! Also, holy wow Dayoung is pretty. For the After School Club re-run while they're still on hiatus, I actually picked this one before I found out who the The Show winner was, so this was just a happy coincidence. This is ep. 372 from 2019 with WJSN as the guests and Jamie, Heejun, and Woosung from The Rose as the hosts! I couldn't find a good clip of them performing Boogie Up  there so I used their The Show performance instead because those two shows are on the same channel. And as always, the links down in the table go to my reviews, if you have any curiosity there. Enjoy what performances I could give you! Show Champion: aespa "Rich Man" MCountdown: aespa "Rich Man" Music Bank: Haechan (NCT) "CRZY" Show! Music Core: aespa "Rich Man...

Release date: 2025 September 12 Album tracklist:  Umbrella (10:00) , Tattoo (12:30) (with Lee Jiham, BK, Kang Yuchan & WoW), Too Bad (15:00) , Sugar (18:00), You should come (21:00),  Supernova (00:00) , Night (02:00), 호랑이 장기 가는 날 (10:00) Album runtime: 25 minutes  Are there new releases I need to take a look at? Yes. But this is Junhee and I'm going full steam ahead for him because he is wonderful and the album is a banger. I also wasn't expecting him to drop this one as a presumably promoted b-side, but here we are. I will get to the others, but Junhee, y'all.  For a song called "Too Bad", this song is surprisingly upbeat. With how mild the instrumental already is, it would make a good candidate for an acoustic version, and there's also not a lot to be said about it because it is incredibly consistent. But, and this is an important but, it stays out of the way of the vocals. The instrumentals are there to support and emphasize the vocals.  Junhee has gre...

Release date: 2025 September 16 Album tracklist: M.O. , Gone - Korean ver., Gone - Chinese ver. Album runtime: 9 minutes  When I logged in to vote and get my login stuff, I saw that one of the potential wins on Show Champion this week is this song, so rather than wait to see, I'm going to get this review done preemptively because that's a lot easier for me when it comes time to do my weekly music show wins post. The other song, I've already done a review for. Have I fully learned this lesson? Absolutely not. But I am having a moment where I apparently am being preemptive? I'd be more preemptive if I'd been able to do this when this was released, but I will take what I can get. I'm in love with this instrumental. Sold. Done. Ten seconds. We didn't lose that fun, old piano plinking even with the addition of the more hip-hop elements, and I'm gonna be honest, this feels a like something Destiny's Child would have done back in the 90s. But I genuinely l...

Release date: 2025 September 15 Album tracklist: CHAN-RAN , SLOW TIDE, STEP IT UP , ImPerfect, So G.oo.D, STICKY BOMB, Taking Off - Through Your Dreams, Blooming CROWN Album runtime: 24 minutes  I'm not sure that I ever did their pre-debut song. I'd have to go look. Oh well. In other news, even though I thought they were very nervous at KCon LA, I also thought they did a great job for being pre-debut rookies. And both because this is a debuting group as well as a survival show group, the odds that I'm going to be upset about ages is a little bit higher than normal, but I'm also pleased to report that by the end of October, all but two will be eighteen. As a side note, all but two members of the group were born in either April or October, and the October birthdays are kind of stacked on top of each other. 3rd, 5th, and 10th. The choice to basically start off with just an acoustic guitar is a really interesting one and one I'm pleased with because it highlights vocals...

Release date: 2025 September 09 Album tracklist: body , number one rockstar, marry me Album runtime: 8 minutes  I've got kind of a soft spot for this group because one of them was born on my best friend's birthday. It doesn't take much for me to just add people to my list of affection, which is probably why the list of groups I like to listen to is ridiculously long and distinguished. We also got three songs with this single, which does feel a little like an oxymoron, and there isn't a capital letter to be seen. Fascinating. But congrats on the solo debut! I'm sure you'll do well! The title track is under three minutes, but it's kind of close, even though the runtime is short. So, I think (not positive, but I think) that this is trap music for the instrumental. I've had to learn about a lot of different, unfamiliar genres over the past year or so (the ones I know well have been wholly useless for the most part), and I'm not always confident on it. St...

Release date: 2025 September 16 Album tracklist: Ash , 12 Midnight, Tippy Toes, FACE, Crescendo, NOT OKAY, Days , Birthday , Forevermore Album runtime: 31 minutes  I'm fully aware that this is in Japanese, but historically, I have really enjoyed their Japanese releases, sometimes more than their Korean title tracks. And I'm doing this in an order where I am feeling happy because Seventeen just keeps hitting me where it hurts today. I figure that this song is also going to be quite sad, which is fine because my mood is melancholy and it's appropriate. And if it isn't, well, all the better. There is no downside here. This is also a chonky album, with nine songs and multiple songs over four minutes. One of them is even almost five minutes long. Thank you, Hongjoong and Eden.  Apparently I just really like songs entitled "FACE" because that? That is my jam. I'm in love. And I already loved Not Okay even though I didn't do a review for it. That one is good...

Release date: 2025 September 16 Album tracklist: Take a Shot Album runtime: 2 minutes  I'm going to get this out of the way now, because if I don't do it now and I justify not doing it now because the music video isn't out yet, when the music video does drop, I'll probably use the excuse of "Oh, I'm so busy. I have so many other songs to do, and this one has been out for a while. What's one more day of not doing it?" And then I won't do it. Because this makes me sad and I'm handling this a lot worse than I thought I was going to. Both of them. But my Ppyopuli (species: steamed rice) is my buddy right now so we'll be okay. Serve well, Soonyoung. Serve well, Jihoon. I'll be waiting for you to get back. I've already added their photocards to my Enlistment Wall (I managed to find a Wooahae photocard to match the Horanghae photocard I decided on for Hoshi, so even though they're apart right now, they're still a matching set). It ...

  Well, everyone, this looks like it's a clean sweep this week. No winner from The Show, which seems to be the least frequently occurring of the bunch, but of the other five, all of them were won by a single group! So congrats to them! That's exciting! It also means that, if you like this song, that's five more stages for you to love. And if you haven't heard it yet, five more chances for you to fall in love with this song. This week for our After School Club re-run is ep. 547 with LE SSERAFIM! It was their second mini album and they were less than six months after debut. As I'm sure you're all aware, because I talk about it ceaselessly, Aron was one of the members of NU'EST that did not renew contracts with Pledis, which means that Aron and LE SSERAFIM were never under HYBE at the same time as debuted artists, so this could have been their first meeting. Interesting, huh? Yunjin was not present for this, unfortunately. The games and stuff were really fun to...

Release date: 2025 September 08 Album tracklist: S.O.S, WONDER YOU , UPSTANDER, IN MY DREANS Album runtime: 12 minutes  That is an album title, y'all. Goodness. Don't get me wrong, I love weird album titles that make it sound like they're a book title from a series. It's just that how I title these reviews make the weird, long album titles that sound like they're a book title from a series look really weird and overly punctuated, which is ironic given my allergy to commas (an actual comment on my 30k word submission for my creative writing class from the professor) (actually, the comment on the submission was "Commas are free. You don't have to pay to use them", but he did ask if I had a comma allergy at one point during the class. Do I know how to use them? Yes. Do I take the time to hit the button unless they're absolutely necessary for clarity in the sentence? No. That's an editing, Future Me problem and also one of the last things I add to ...

Release date: 2025 September 10 Album tracklist: Calling All You, Love Poem, White T-Shirt, Season of Tears, My Secret Story, Shocking Drama, Monday To Sunday, Headbang, I Did It , Buzzer Beater Album runtime: 28 minutes  So this song popped up on YouTube (the YouTube algorithm is really helpful in a lot of ways because it does help me with keeping songs on my radar), and I had never heard of this group (solo artist? It's hard to tell), and I also hadn't had it on my radar beforehand, so I'm going to do it now before I forget or get distracted, but because I'm wholly unfamiliar with this group or artist, I do need to look into them. Oh! I do actually know who this is! FTISLAND had them open for them last year I think? They're FNC's new rock band, N.Flying's little brothers. Okay. I actually have semi-high hopes for them considering I like FTISLAND and CNBLUE, and I adore N.Flying, which makes AxMxP (read: "amp") the latest in quite the legacy of id...

Release date: 2025 September 12 Album tracklist:  Umbrella (10:00) , Tattoo (12:30) (with Lee Jiham, BK, Kang Yuchan & WoW),  Too Bad (15:00) , Sugar (18:00), You should come (21:00),  Supernova (00:00) , Night (02:00), 호랑이 장기 가는 날 (10:00) Album runtime: 25 minutes  Congrats on the official debut, Junhee. Y'all. I have been waiting for this since his cover of Your Idol (see below) dropped. He's incredible. So excited. Gorgeous voice. I'm really looking forward to listening to the whole album. And also, I think it's really, really cute that one of his songs is actually secretly an A.C.E song. That's adorable. I love it when idols bring in other members of their group for their solo debuts. And even with having a song that is barely two minutes long, the average is still over three minutes. Do you know how happy that makes me? Listened to the whole album. No skip, and Supernova being midnight makes sense. It's also all sad, and while I need to double check w...

Release date: 2025 September 09 Album tracklist: VCF, READY 2 RUMBLE , DO IT, GOOD JOB (Kunho, Xayden, Masami, Hyunbin), La Vida Loca (Youmin, Minje, ON:N, Kunho) Album runtime: 13 minutes  I keep forgetting that this group isn't even two yet. They're all over the place. Also as a reminder, as of last December, the entire group is at least eighteen, so if you're one who cares about ages and the entertainment industry as a whole, they're good to go for you. If you don't, then that's fine too and they've been pretty active for how young they are, so you have quite a bit of music to go through. The runtime is a bit of a problem, but you know what? It's fine. I've hit my frustrated limit, and and it is closer to a three-minute average than a two-minute average. So on the whole, could be worse. It's a very minimalist sort of instrumental for most of it, though the build-up is interesting. This has a lot of the marks of a hip-hop track, with a strong b...

Release date: 2025 September 8 Album tracklist: Everglow, LIGHTS, BABY BABY, HIGHER Album runtime: 13 minutes  Okay. Well. It appears that this may be the title track? I think? This may also be both her solo debut and her English debut, so that's interesting and exciting for her! I wish her a long and successful career! And I know I just did a review of Secret Number's newest song, but she is a former member who left the group, not an active member, so these are slightly unrelated. It's been a minute since I've said a song was similar to a Disney Channel song, but this one is. The beginning is a little bit more techno than that sound usually is, but it does provide a decent, related contrast to the rest of the song, which is very much rock. There's actually a really good build of energy and progression through the song, with a cute, cheeky little soften to it as a lead-in to the second verse, but the variation through the majority of the song is surprisingly high, ...

Release date: 2025 September 10 Album tracklist: Fill Me Album runtime: 4 minutes  I have no idea who this fellow is, so I'll need to look him up. I assume everything is fine, but I'll just take a quick look so I can place him within the general K-Pop arena. Which of course reveals that my 2012 debuts pop up literally everywhere. I feel like I keep running into them as soloists, which is great that they're continuing music careers, but at the same time, it's a little funny. This of course will not be news to you that he's a member of the apparently still active group Cross Gene, because I helpfully labeled that in the post title above this. They're due for a comeback soon now that the three of them are out of the military. Fingers crossed. I'd like to see a 2012 debut have one. And four minutes of song! I think I just fell in love a tiny bit. It's fine. That's a way to start with a song. I may be adding this to my Halloween playlist because it's ...

Release date: 2025 September 08 Album tracklist: Camera Lights, CRZY , ADRENALINE, Love Beyond, Roll With Me, Intermission, Talented, WYN?, Should Be, Grey Rain, Outro (Back In The Studio)  Album runtime: 33 minutes  So, it's actually kind of funny. When I was tagging this post before I started it, his name already came up. And I was briefly confused so I did a quick search to figure out which group he was in because I couldn't remember why I'd already used his name when I knew this was his solo debut. That search revealed he's a member of NCT, at which point I remembered where I knew his name from: Mark's pre-debut release . But, look! Other than a pair of "supposed to be short" songs, there's only one song on here that's under three minutes. Fabulous. Phenomenal. Dare I say we seem to be moving away from the era of the ridiculously short songs? Is HYBE the only actual hold-out left? We'll see. Fingers crossed though. Ten seconds and I'm s...

  So I was expecting to have a different name that I'd be writing. Well done, Stray Kids and IVE. You surprised me. Also, that makes this six wins for one and two first wins across this week's wins, which is also exciting.  With ASC still on hiatus, the re-run for this week is ep. 596 with the boy group POW from 2023. This group I just generally keep forgetting that I really like them, and then I hear their music and go "Who is this????" Then, when I look up the song, I remember I like this group. Allen, Aron, and Taeyoung were the hosts. This is also a reminder for me to do the review I need to from June for the group. Also, Jungbin's hair is so adorable and fluffy. Just wanted to say that. As always, the links below in the table go to my reviews for your perusal if you'd so desire. Show Champion: Stray Kids "CEREMONY" MCountdown: Stray Kids "CEREMONY" Music Bank: IVE "XOXZ" Show! Music Core: IVE "XOXZ" Inkigayo: IVE ...

Release date: 2025 September 08 Album tracklist: RODEO , RODEO - Instrumental Album runtime: 6 minutes  When I was a teenager, for some reason, I thought that every book I read was by an author who was dead. Going to the bookstore to get new books? Obviously a posthumous release. What snapped me out of it was finding out that Brandon Sanderson had a class he was teaching. What do you mean, he was (and still is, still publishing books at a rate many people can't read fast enough to keep up) alive? And now that you're confused about why I'm talking about a fantasy author, I apparently assume that all kpop groups, if I haven't seen them doing a release in the last year or know that they're on hiatus for military, are disbanded. So imagine my surprise when MOMOLAND drops a new single! Yay! Loving the runtime, and also, with a name like "Rodeo", I have expectations. This was not what I was expecting. At all. Okay, readjustment of the song is in order. I was exp...

Release date: 2025 September 08 Album tracklist: GO! , What You Want , FaSHioN , JoyRide, Lullaby, What You Want (feat. Teezo Touchdown) Album runtime: 17 minutes  I'm going to say something meaningful in a moment, but first, I need to talk about that title. Is that style still used for mocking things? Does it mean something different in Korea when you randomly capitalize letters? I have questions, but hopefully the song itself will answer some of them. Moving on, I'm caught between being pleased that Cortis isn't just being left after their debut and concerned that they're this busy, especially given that all but one of them are minors. It does give me an acceptable reason to listen to their stuff when I can't recreationally listen to them, because with one hit and one miss for me, I'm genuinely really curious about all of this. If you didn't catch either of my reviews for their debut and pre-debut songs, the links are up there, and I'm running on the U...

Release date: 2025 September 05 Album tracklist: Dream Bus; INSIDE OUT ; Sun, Stay Asleep; Disco Day; My Way; Before the Stars; Take All My Heart; Dream Rider; So It's the End; Our Season Album runtime: 32 minutes  Happy 10th anniversary! That was actually this weekend, so it's a little belated, but I'm happy to be getting to this review. Also, while I'm not well-versed in their discography, their last few albums I have listened to in full, and they've been solid. So that's where I'm at. Can we just acknowledge how many really good groups, that are still active, have had tenth anniversaries this year? We've also had some anniversary comebacks that have required the groups to get back together for them, which makes me both happy and sad, so I'm glad that DAY6 was not one of those groups, that they didn't have to get back together for their anniversary. Also, I think it's really cute that the album is called "The DECADE" and that it h...

Release date: 2025 September 05 Album tracklist: Rich Man , Drift, Bubble, Count On Me, Angel #48, To The Girls Album runtime: 19 minutes  So, while I haven't heard the song yet, mostly by deliberately shoving my head under a rock, I did read some thoughts on it and some of aespa's other recent songs over on Tumblr. The post was well-written, which I appreciate, and brought in examples of effective use of some of SM's shared universe elements, which I recently discovered existed because of a user on Reddit, and why they were more effective with certain groups over others. I didn't read the post too well because I hadn't reviewed the song yet and didn't want those thoughts to influence mine. I will admit though that it has already been categorized a little bit in my head, though luckily I'm not that familiar with their discography to be intimately knowledgeable on all the songs that the post discussed, so most of it kind of went over my head. Good news is the...