August 2025 Wrap-Up: The Witch is Back!

 Okay, everyone. Welcome back!!! It's been a hot minute since I've written one of these, but considering how many songs I didn't review over the course of the last three months, I didn't feel like I had enough done to warrant a wrap-up. Still, let's get to it! And yes, the title is a reference to the movie Hocus Pocus, but also, I absolutely adore Nina Simone's. High Priestess of Soul, indeed.

Back to K-Pop, first up, our lovely debuts. Now, to be clear, I do have a couple that I'm still planning on covering and once I do, this will be updated, but still. The debuts I covered were N. Top, idntt, AtHeart, Cortis, and soloist ZZONE (cignature/Good Day). Debuts I'm still planning on covering are Rainbow18 and ZOONIZINI (ASTRO). Other debuts include MADEIN S, OFF EQUALS, IXIA, LIPSTICKERZ, and iii. (I may actually consider LIPSTICKERZ as well because that's a whole mini album and an intriguing concept.)

Next section is for the songs I was looking forward to:

• NewBeat- I got a preview of it at KCon and it was cool
• RE:WIND- This is my BSB or NSYNC feeling group. Like, it's insane how much they remind me of them
• Key (SHINee)- Y'all, he's incredible. That's it. My only note. Second gen idols just hit different
• Junhee (A.C.E)- If you haven't seen his cover of Your Idol from K-Pop Demon Hunters, you definitely need to. He did such a good job while he was preparing for his solo debut (if you wait until the honorable mentions, it's down there)
• Moonbyul (MAMAMOO)- My girl, Moonbyul! Stunning! Amazing! Incredible!
• TEEN TOP- While they aren't one of the biggest heavyweights of second gen, they are turning fifteen this year and all of them are now back from the military
• 8TURN- I've seen them in person and thus, they have my loyalty. Plus, they actually came to my city, so that's cool
• Hyunsik (BTOB)- He announced it with about a week's worth of warning, but that's fine because he's got a great voice
• Stray Kids- I cannot believe how much they've been clowning the Stays
• Purple Kiss- On one hand, I'm thoroughly enthusiastic about anything they release because I love them. On the other hand, they're disbanding, theoretically, and that makes me sad.

Whoo! I know that I'm pretty limited on the girl groups and soloists, but every time I find a girl group I really like, they're inactive, disbanded, or soon to be disbanded, and it's really quite frustrating. This is why I'm clinging to ODD YOUTH and desperately shouting into the void about them because I need them to be successful so my apparent curse doesn't hit them too. 

While you absolutely can go to the Music Show Wins hub, let me present to you the links so you don't have to go hunting for them. Not that they're difficult to find. If you don't see the page link at the top, then you can always find it in the Junk Drawer, where I ramble on for a bit before I get to the links.

Week of 07/30 - 08/05

Week of 08/06 - 08/12

Week of 08/13 - 08/19

Week of 08/20 - 08/26

Week of 08/27 - 09/02

And now the good stuff, where I share which releases were my favorites. It helps that I now have a playlist on YouTube Music where I keep track of that.

Top Releases of the Month:

• Lim Young Woong "Eternal Moment": There's a reason why all the ahjummas love him. His voice is angelic.
• ZZONE (cignature/Good Day) "Devil's Jam": I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did. But that music video is 100% what fixed any problem I had with the song.
• In A Minute "How We Do": The Mature Voices! If the song was longer, I'd be in absolute heaven.
• xikers "ICONIC": The kids' first English track! Oh, it's so good. And the choreo? Amazing. It's another dance practice video where we got to see the foot stomping shaking the lights.
• Hyunsik (BTOB) "The Answer": This is a "Who hurt him?" breakup song.
• TEEN TOP "Cherry Pie": I misheard the lyrics originally, and it still makes me laugh a little. But, no, that's a good song and I'm glad to see them back post military.
• 8TURN "Electric Heart": Belts! Harmonies! That's two of the three things I want to see!
• Moonbyul (MAMAMOO) "Goodbyes and Sad Eyes": Took me about twenty seconds to fall in love with this song. 
• BoA "Crazier": She's Queen BoA for a reason, and she does very well with rock. It fits her perfectly.
• Key (SHINee) "HUNTER": There's a song on there that I actually like better, but the ad-libs at the end are so gorgeous.
• LOVEONE "LOVE HIGH": My other girls! We're getting closer to some big vocal displays but it's such a strongly summery song. 
• Junhee (A.C.E) "Supernova": Was not expecting an all-English track and the music video is absolutely delightful.
• Joy (Red Velvet) "Love Splash!": We got a summer song from Joy as well, and it fits so well! With such a cute music video!
• idntt "Storm": I know that technically it's a b-side. I know. I'm aware. But the music video dropped like the same day as for the title track and holy moly I love this song.

Aren't they cool? Pretty good batch of songs this month. The number of songs I like from August is a surprise to me too.

Full list of the August Reviews can be found here.

Reviews for other months are:

• VANNER "Goodbye & Hello" (5/21)
• from20 (BIGSTAR) "Eye Candy" (4/11)
• THE BOYZ "Stylish" (7/28)
• TOMORROW X TOGETHER "Beautiful Stranger" (7/21)
• OH MY GIRL "Weather Diary" (7/22)
• Minhyuk (BTOB) "Bora" (7/21)
• TWICE "THIS IS FOR" (7/11)
• Onew (SHINee) "ANIMALS" (7/15)
• ifeye "r u okay?" (7/14)
• NCT Dream (NCT) "Chiller" (7/14)

So...I didn't get any GH or BBS posts done, and haven't for the past several months. But by the time you read this, I will have a Stray Kids BBS post done and finished. It'll count for September, but it is what it is.

Honorable Mentions:

• Key (SHINee) "Strange": My favorite song on the album. Hands down. It's amazing and incredible and just goes so hard! And it's spooky! Have I already added it to the Halloween playlist? Absolutely, I did.

• Saja Boys (KPDH) "Your Idol": I did limit this to the first one on the soundtrack that I listened to the most. But in my defense, it's really good and it reminds me so, so much of VIXX and A.C.E. And also, I love Kevin. It peeves me that his second verse got cut from the movie. (But because the official videos cut that verse, I'm giving you Junhee's again.)

• 20th Century Boy'z "Dreaming": Band that debuted in the last couple of months. This is actually their debut album. I love the entire album. It's incredible. No skip. But this was the first one that I listened to the most. (Also, I just found out that they did a cover of Golden)

• JxW (Seventeen) "Last Night":  I miss them, and their solo songs make me sad. This one makes me less sad. 

• HxW (Seventeen) "96ers": I miss them and they haven't even left yet. Sigh. It's going to be a long eighteen months.

• NU'EST "FACE": We should all know how much I love this song by this point. It's genuinely just so good.

• Baekho (NU'EST) "That day, We": Okay, so this is an OST from the kdrama The Crowned Clown. I've seen it. It's really good. But you want to know how high this song is? I think this is the only time I've heard him use a falsetto. And his parts aren't low. His parts that he gives himself because he's a songwriter/producer with Bumzu. 

• Catch the Young "The Legend": One of my first debuts after I started listening to K-Pop. They're a band and they did a ton of covers before they debuted, many in English, so it's both not a surprise that they had this in their second mini album and also something quite fitting. But this is such an anthem of a song that I'm surprised I don't hear about it more often.

• I.N (Stray Kids) "Maknae On Top": This is one of my guilty pleasure songs.

• g.o.d "0%": The majority of these are from 2020 or younger, but then we have my favorite of the first gens groups. And you know what? It's not one of their sad songs! And I could have picked something a little more official, but this performance is an absolute delight and you get to see the choreography. And their ability to work a crowd after, at that point, 24 years in the industry.