Just A Little Fangirl Love

  With Chuseok well and truly over for the year, we have all the music shows giving us first place winners on their charts! This hasn't happened in over a month! Also, now that triple crowns have been won, I got to share other performances from other groups! We've got four  first song wins, and one of those is a first time win for the group as a whole! Yay! Baksu! And even though those aren't recent performances for the two IVE wins, I shared them anyway because I like having a full set of performances. Also, with After School Club still on hiatus as far as I know, I decided to give y'all a group I've started listening to more because they've got some nice Halloween-y songs: episode 537 with TRI.BE! They spend a lot of time dancing, and not just to their own songs. This was a fun episode. Not that most of them aren't fun, but the vibes are with this group. As always, the links in the chart below go to my reviews of the songs. Show Champion: ONEWE "MAZE...

Release date: 2025 October 03 Album tracklist: What's wrong? Album runtime: 4 minutes   So apparently neither of these two pre-releases are actually on the mini album. That’s a bit of a surprise and I don’t understand why, but whatever. It’s fine. Also, this is almost a four minute song, so I am happy as a clam right now.  This has a very 80s sound, and I love that for it. What I love more is that there’s a very distinct EDM dance break that completely changes the sound of the song, and there are two separate sections for the dance break. I didn’t like EDM dance breaks until I started listening to K-Pop and now here I am being excited over them. Crazy how your musical taste can change. But what I love most is the even rarer key change. I adore key changes, and it’s not very often that recent K-Pop has a key change. It’s rare enough in music, but recently it’s been harder to find than a Millennial without a crippling caffeine addiction. They really elevate both complexity and v...

Release date: 2025 October 06 Album tracklist: HAPPY , A-HA! , PAGE, GROSS, CHARIZZMA Album runtime: 13 minutes  Another girl group that I cannot listen to. When I saw them at KCon, I looked up the group because a couple of them looked about twelve and I was alarmed. There is exactly one member who is over eighteen right now, the maknae turned fifteen shortly before they debuted, but I'm going to be honest, they don't look that old. Again, I was very alarmed, and I recognize that they're going to look younger than most of the older teens I'm usually around because of the make-up and whatnot, but a couple of them looked closer in ag e to the ten-year-olds I'm around in terms of their physicality. So, needless to say, this is going on Underage Protocol, and I really hope no one is lying about age, because it has happened before in kpop. Also, even though they've released three singles before this, because I was so very behind, this is the first one I'm doing. ...

Release date: 2025 October 13 Album tracklist: Body Language Album runtime: 3 minutes   I’m really excited for the full release of the album or mini album or whatever it is because of when it’s releasing. Very excited. I’m also excited about this because I think this will be the first time that I hear one of his solo songs. I’ve heard a couple of Max Changmin’s and obviously I love the group songs, but I don’t think I’ve heard one by just him. This’ll be fun. Also, just so everyone knows, he is incredibly smart.  I was not kidding when I said this was going to be fun. A harmonica? Really? A harmonica? I definitely did not have a harmonica in K-Pop music on my 2025 Bingo sheet. The cool bit, from my end, is that the harmonica is not forced to be only an interesting gimmick to hook the listener in from the novelty of it at the beginning. My only complaint about the harmonica is that it’s two measures of harmonica that’s repeated. It could have been even cooler. Still, the combin...

Release date: 2025 October 14 Album tracklist: BURNING UP Album runtime: 3 minutes   Not quite a three minute song, and it does round up, but that’s a little lower than I’m comfortable with usually. Oof. Hi, there. Bet you weren’t expecting this many reviews to be posted today. This is apparently what happens when you trap me in a car in the dark for four-and-a-half hours with nothing else to do and the ability to read in the car and feel completely fine. But I’ll just keep going. I was working on NMIXX’s and Spotify told me that I should listen to this one because it was also a new review. Well, I can’t listen to them because they’re too young. But. I still find it really funny that BABYMONSTER and MEOVV regularly have similar comeback schedules and they’re not from the same company, but I do call The BlackLabel “YGE Lite”. They’re affiliated in a way that makes me consider BABYMONSTER and MEOVV to be sister groups, which is why it’s just funny how often the two groups have releas...

Release date: 2025 October 13 Album tracklist: Blue Valentine, SPINNIN' ON IT , Phoenix, Reality Hurts, RICO, Game Face, PODIUM, Crush On You, ADORE U, Shape of Love, O.O Part 1 (Baila), O.O Part 2 (Superhero) Album runtime: 34 minutes   Honestly, I’m a little surprised by how quickly I’m getting to the actual release when it feels like I just posted the pre-release, but I suppose that’s what happens when I’m behind and get into a good space where I can just go. The album runtime is a little bit short for my tastes, but the title track is over three minutes long, so I’m okay with it.  Soft punk rock was not where I was expecting this song to be at, but you know what? I’m down with this. It’s got some very spunky drums in places where the song kicks up its heels a little and shows off some attitude, but there are some spots where it’s a very soft song, and I love the contrast there.  This is like soft Avril Lavigne, or maybe a similar artist, but it feels enough like tha...

Release date: 2025 October 10 Album tracklist: ME+YOU , MEEEEEE (Nayeon), FIX A DRINK (Jeongyeon), MOVE LIKE THAT (Momo), DECAFFEINATED (Sana), ATM (Jihyo), STONE COLD (Mina), CHESS (Dahyun), IN MY ROOM (Chaeyoung), DIVE IN (Tzuyu) Album runtime: 28 minutes   Happy anniversary, TWICE! I couldn’t be happier to see it. This is definitely giving me some early 00s R&B. The instrumental is incredibly consistent throughout, though it does have brief little blips of interruption to the regularly scheduled programming of the song. But this very much is not the focus of the song, and it shows. I’m actually kind of happy about that because of the fluffy nature of the lyrics. I love the group affirmation songs. They’re very comforting. We also regularly get the lovely vocals with songs like this, which again is something I historically really like. TWICE, because of their numbers, gets to do something I also really like to see, or hear, rather. They’re a very special kind of love song. Al...

Release date: 2025 October 15 Album tracklist: Good Goodbye , Good Goodbye (with. Duomo) Album runtime: 8 minutes  Now that I've seen her in person, I think she's even more stunning than the camera previously led me to believe. Voice of an angel. Looks to match. I'm a tiny bit in love and it's fine. You know why? Because it's Hwasa the Queen. All hail. Also all hail for the runtime, which makes me even happier. The majority of the song instrumentally is largely without too much variation. It's quiet and very stable, which allows the real star of the sh ow to shine. The version with Duomo has a violin and I'm going to be completely normal about it. But the actual title track? It's very consistent. The melody sounds in the same vein as about four other songs, which is great.  She’s got that gorgeous, smoky voice that I really love to hear so much, the kind of voice that you most regularly hear with indie artists in coffeehouses, but when she firms up her v...

Release date: 2025 October 10 Album tracklist: WE GO UP , PSYCHO, SUPA DUPA LUV, WILD Album runtime: 12 minutes  I watched the video where YG the Dude outlined what was going on with Treasure, BABYMONSTER, and BLACKPINK a few months ago, where he also said that they'd be moving the release date of this album to a later one to better work with Chuseok. Which was smart of them. He also said that one of them is kind of a country song? I must say that I'm very intrigued by this. Unfortunately, unless it ends up having a music video with it so I can review it, I can't listen to the song yet because the maknae was too young at debut and won't be eighteen until 2027. So. That's where I'm at. On the other hand, both the title track and the album runtime are good, so if I end up liking this, then I get to add it to my playlist for groups that are too young but have songs I want to listen to. Sucks that I need a playlist like that, but on the other hand, I look forward to...

Release date: 2025 October 10 Album tracklist:  I gotta feeling Album runtime: 4 minutes  This is what happens when I get curious about a new group. I find more of them. So, have another band. With the loss of their former maknae leaving the group for whatever reason, the entire group is technically older than I am. The new maknae is a week younger than SCoups. And looking at their discography, they have a surprising number of songs with what looks like titles in Russian. Or something similar. The language definitely looks like it uses Cyrillic, which is interesting for a Korean group, but I'm not going to lie, it's a little intriguing. Interesting. This song is one of those that just stays on full tilt the entire time, no sense of subtlety. It definitely has a specific sound I'm not used to hearing from Korean bands, and reminds me a bit of kid rock (not the artist Kid Rock), but not in a bad way. This sounds like something that would have been in Clueless or What A Girl ...

 So, this week is a little bit weird in that we're coming off of Chuseok, so the music shows haven't quite come back in the swing of things yet. I'm assuming that The Show didn't have one, which makes it only a first time win and a third triple crown. Quite the spread. For the After School Club re-run episode, I went with episode 540 from 2022, with the always lovely Rocket Punch! I really like this group, y'all. Show Champion: N/A MCountdown: N/A Music Bank: CxM (Seventeen) "5,4,3 Pretty Woman" Show! Music Core: Inkigayo: aespa "Rich Man" ASC Performance: 20220920 Rocket Punch "Flash" (note: MC Challenge starts at 14:57  and I went with their performance on The Show so there would be more than just SCoups and Mingyu for you to watch) The Show: N/A

Release date: 2025 October 09 / October 29 Album tracklist:  Parasite Album runtime: 4 minutes  There have been so many pre-releases for this month. Goodness. I'm departing from my normal idol group or idol band reviews to bring you what is apparently a Korean metal band, which is actually something that I've been looking for lately. They are both co-ed and at least two of them are older than I am, which is also something that I'm excited about. Debuted in 2016, this is apparently their second full album, which does make me raise an eyebrow a little, but whatever. It's fine. Given the time of year, I'm very excited because of the title of this song. Hopes have been raised. Also, they have a song called My Soul is a Wasteland. I haven't heard it yet, but the drama in that title? Yes. This is what we call an action movie OST. Or for an action video game of some sort. So I have a playlist that is specifically for songs to help me keep my cool when I'm dealing w...

Release date: 2025 October 13 Album tracklist: Head Shoulders Knees Toes , OVERDRIVE , HOT BLUE SHOES, Caffeine Rush, overthinking, Here For You Album runtime: 16 minutes  If you've been around the blog before (if you haven't, welcome!), you'll know that I love TWS, as well as the other Pledis groups. I don't know what it is about Pledis, but for as disappointing as they often are as a company, one place where they are never disappointing is in their group formations. I say this having just found out that one of my favorite soloists actually passed the Pledis audition and went to YG instead. So obviously, I've been looking forward to this. And if you're someone with more stringent minor rules than I have, Kyungmin is eighteen as of last week and no longer has to leave at 10 PM. I'm sure he's excited about that. (Also, happy birthday to my cousin, as well as Jimin from BTS! Just found out they share a birthday!) Unfortunately, it seems that this album ha...

Release date: 2025 October 07 Album tracklist: Lucky 12, MAZE , UFO, Hide & Seek, Trace, Diary, Beyond the Storm Album runtime: 26 minutes  This is a good week, y'all. But! I will instead focus on the fact that I really like this band, and I'm excited basically anytime that a band drops music. So, here we are. Everything is good. The runtime is phenomenal and brings me joy. Four minute title track.  If this were an idol group, this would have had a dance break. Because this isn't an idol group, instead this gets a guitar solo that, in this day and age, seems ludicrously extravagant, especially with how long it is. The Big Band feel to the entire song has me practically over the moon. Honestly, it has all the pieces that I love, and it's fantastic and amazing and fun. If this ends up being one of those actually sad songs with the super upbeat instrumental, I might cry.  I love the little shortcuts that happen with Koreans speak in English, or sing in this case. On...

Release date: 2025 September 26 Album tracklist: Gravity , Gravity - instrumental Album runtime: 5 minutes  Look, I recognize that I'm currently behind work the October reviews, but this one has been nagging at me because I love this group. They're one of my new rookie groups. This one is their monthly minute for September (missed the ones for July and August), and it clocks in at a grand total of two-and-a-half minutes. That last part irritates me, as expected, but they have had longer songs and this feels like more of a project song than a full release. It's not an ideal world, but I am very much rooting for this group and I hope they can get some traction. There's a soft whimsy or wistfulness to the instrumental that I am fully on board with. There's not a lot of variation to the song, mostly consisting of the percussion backing off in a few spots, but with a runtime like this, I'm unfortunately not expecting a lot of it anyway. Still, it is very pretty, very...

Release date: 2025 October 06 Album tracklist: Blue Whale Album runtime: 4 minutes   Yes.  We have a four minute song. Yes, yes, yes. While I do have three minutes as the point where I want my songs to be, I really would prefer them to be three-and-a-half. Although in the rare occasion that I don't like the song, then it doesn't matter how long it is because I'm not listening to it, or really talking abut it ever. QWER, though, they tend to give me songs I like, so I'm excited about this one even if it is only a single. This is nice. The instrumental feels a lot like the sad, but happy, country music from the early to mid-2000s. I doubt that it was inspired by that, although I would be delighted to find out that it was, but there's a very specific acoustic-ability that this song shares with that flavor of country music that I deeply appreciate. I get a hankering every once in a while, and this soothes it fairly well. Slow, chill, textured and varied enough that it c...

Release date: 2025 October 31 Album tracklist:  Album runtime:  minutes  It's just pre-release central up in here right now. And if you missed my last review of a Wonho song, I'm giving him back to his group because I'm so annoyed with the circumstances behind his being forced out, and I'm sure that feeling is double for fans. Also, I am still intending to cover the song that he released over the summer as a review. Just for the record. Also, fingers crossed that we get good song lengths. I'm noticing we are moving away from that, we've got a better chance than we used to. This one is close, so I'm not going to be too grumpy yet. We've got a little bit of the haunted doll piano. It's not strong enough that I'm wanting to toss it into that category, but it is present enough that, combined with the lyrics, gives the song a bit of a horror feel in general. But we've also got the spooky strings being plucked, which I am all about. Is this technic...

Release date: 2025 October 02 Album tracklist: One day Album runtime: 3 minutes  I think technically that title translates to "Will you be my girlfriend for a day?" If that is the case, that's actually a really sweet title and definitely gives me expectations for what the song is going to be like. I believe they're down to five for this comeback? Unless one of them gets to stay active with his group while he's in the survival show group, which makes me eye Wanna One and sigh a little, but it's fine. Doha, I hope you recover well from whatever is ailing you. Those are the Pachelbel's Canon in D chords. I was struggling a little bit with getting this one started, so I decided to color while I listened to it, because I am in actuality a kindergartner (this is a joke). And there I am, peacefully coloring in the pumpkin when my head pops up and I'm staring at my computer because I suddenly heard Rob Paravonian yelling about Pachelbel in my head. I didn...

Release date: 2025 October Album tracklist:  Album runtime:  minutes  There are a whole lot of pre-releases that have all dropped at the same time, belonging to albums that are not all dropping on the same day. Fascinating. Also, that means that you all have lots to look forward to. Happily, the maknae is eighteen as of a couple of weeks ago. Happy birthday, Yuki! Also, this album looks like it's going to be longer than the last one I covered, so I am very happy about that one. Title track is questionably short, but this one is within acceptable limits. My only question here is if that sound at the beginning of the music video is in the actual audio track or not. If it's not, I'm sad. The general thing the instrumental is doing is interesting, and I kinda vibe with it because there are a textures to the song and I really like that. However, the opening sound? I was catapulted back to childhood with the similarity to the THX sound effect. I want that in the official audio ...

 We're already in October. Goodness. You know, it might be interesting for me to go through and tally how many groups got how many wins this year, and how many times each music show had a winner for an end of year music show summary post. I don't know. I'll have to think about it. That might be fun though. Y'all have all the raw data already and I could make pie charts and bar charts and... Sorry, I'm math nerd-ing again.  Two exciting things happened this week! First, we got two triple crowns this week! The only way I would be happier is if it was for a song that I could have given you more stage performances for, but that is super exciting! Congrats to the group! And, something that I have been rooting for since they debuted in January because they have had the absolute worst luck with timing, KickFlip got their first win! I couldn't be happier! Happy Chuseok, everyone! 추석 잘 보내세요!!! 즐겁고 풍성한 한가위 되세요!!!!  In the spirit of Chuseok, I decided to go with last year...

Release date: 2025 September 30 Album tracklist: BLACK CROWN , Nine 2 Five, Ichigoichie, BLACK CROWN - Instrumental, Nine 2 Five - Instrumental, Ichigoichie - Instrumental Album runtime: 16 minutes  Okay, just because I don't want EPITHYMiA to be lonely in my sudden departure from my normal, I'll do another J-Pop group (and I'm going to do the JO1 recent release because I recently discovered that I love them). This one popped up on my YouTube recommendations, much like some of the C-Pop releases that have shown up but I'm not quite ready for that yet. I can't guarantee that I'll be doing more J-Pop groups, but the best way to get me to do one would be to drop the request in The Form . This is actually a group of former trainees from Produce 101 Japan , and they debuted back in 2020, with all of them being born last century. I too was born last century. It's fine. Actually, one of them is part of the illustrious 95z line and the other three are part of the eq...

Release date: 2025 June 29 Album tracklist: Our time, We Remain, The Arrival of Remain Album runtime: 9 minutes  Okay, this is a departure from literally everything else I've done and that's fine, because you know what? There I am, getting on Youtube to go do the review for NMIXX's pre-release. And I really hate that YouTube on the app does that thing where it opens shorts first because I rabbit hole so easily. I hate it. Genuinely hate it. Second least favorite feature YouTube has done in recent times. But it has done two things for me (bear with me, this paragraph will be long, or you can skip it and go straight to the review paragraphs). First, it informed me that Park Je Up, my beloved Grim Reaper Boy from Build Up does lives nearly every morning where he spends most of them singing. Lovely thing to listen to while I get ready for work. Second, and now related to why I'm suddenly doing a review for a Japanese boy group, I got on to get to NMIXX's song, got dragg...

Release date: 2025 October 10 Album tracklist:  Blue Valentine,  SPINNIN' ON IT,  Phoenix, Reality Hurts, RICO, Game Face, PODIUM, Crush On You, ADORE U, Shape of Love, O.O Part 1 (Baila), O.O Part 2 (Superhero) Album runtime: 34 minutes  Pre-release for their first full album! Whoo! How exciting! And it's over three minutes, so I couldn't be happier about it. This is one of those times where there is so much going on vocally that my ears are kind of filtering out the instrumental so that I can better hear the vocals. Do I love it when that happens? Yes. But that does make it a little difficult for me to do this part. The places where my ears prick up the most and pay attention to the instrumental were mostly in the middle or the end. There is some interesting, high-pitched vocal mimicry going on. I'm not sure if whatever instrument that is is mimicking what's going on with the whistle, or if the whistle is mimicking the instrument. Realistically, I don't think ...

Release date: 2025 September 14 Album tracklist: DUST ON YOUR MIND, No man's land (feat. Qim Isle), save me,  MIRROR , Put it back on, TO, Take pills, Another season with you, Karma calls, Lovers of Artists, Television star, you broke my heart but..., in the middle, Your Yerin (feat. Rejjie Snow) Album runtime: 48 minutes  So. A couple of things. One, she was the last member of After School to leave Pledis after fifteen years. Which, you know, good for her. I hope she's happy in her new home. (I have thoughts, but they're basically conspiracy theories because I don't have enough evidence to back them up (yet)). Pledis, for the record, never gave the official notice for After School and also, After School and Orange Caramel are both still listed on their website as current artists (you'll notice that Pristin, who got a disbandment notice that used the word disbandment about four or five times, isn't listed and neither is fromis_9, who is at a new company). Two, ...

Release date: 2025 October 02 Album tracklist: DUST ON YOUR MIND, No man's land (feat. Qim Isle), save me, MIRROR , Put it back on, TO, Take pills, Another season with you, Karma calls, Lovers of Artists, Television star, you broke my heart but..., in the middle, Your Yerin (feat. Rejjie Snow) Album runtime: 48 minutes  I've got a few of her songs on the Roulette Wheel I built mostly for my own purposes and figured I'd share with everyone, so I clearly enjoy the songs on there, but I'm not sure I can recall any of them off the top of my head. Still, that does bode well for this one because I am always looking forward to finding new music I like.  Ooh, this one is fun. This is perfect music to explore a dilapidated mansion filled with zombies to. It's fun. It's jazzy. It's a little spunky. And I'm sitting here writing this and just vibing to it. That's it. That's all the notes.  This is a smooth set of vocals. Chill. Relaxing. Cheers. If it seems ...

Release date: 2025 September 29 Album tracklist: Wall Flowers Album runtime: 3 minutes  Okay, we've got a nice single from this group I remember being one of the ones that I forget I like until I listen to them, and then I remember that I like them. Progress. And , even more excitingly, there's a dance practice to go along with it.  The instrumental is basically easy listening jazz. If this was just on its own, it would be calm, chill, snoozy time music. But it's not, and normally you'd expect smoother vocals, maybe some husky singing, but instead, we get quite the dichotomy. This is a Christmas instrumental you just casually put on in the background while you open presents. What we actually get from the members is about as far from Christmas instrumental as you could possibly get. The rapping is slow enough that you get tricked into thinking that this is going to be a chill song, but the shouting in the latter half to a quarter of the song immediately negates the chill...

Release date: 2025 September 30 Album tracklist: Supercrush, Mamma Mia , Racecar, In the Rain, SIGN (Remix) Album runtime: 13 minutes  I actually really was looking forward to seeing what they'd have for me this time. I don't watch as much of their content as I'd like, because there are a lot of groups out there. But I do always look forward to their releases, even if the runtimes of the album and the title track disappoints me beyond the telling of it. There's a lot of beat happening in the instrumentals, apart of the delightful little plinking that happens, albeit rarely. It's supportive, which I like, and not overpowering, which I also like, but for the most part I'm not entirely wowed by it. However, the dance break at the end? I wish this was coming at the end of a big driving build of energy, rather than having it be a sudden shift. I want this song to have more, and it doesn't because the song is barely over two and a half minutes, which is frustratin...

 It's the most wonderful time of the year!  I'm back with a new selection of Halloween themed or generally spooky songs for you all! Have I spent the year looking for new songs for my playlist? Yes. Yes, yes I have, so if you have anymore suggestions for me, give me the creepy doll songs, the predatory wolfy songs, the haunting and the eerie. I love my Halloween playlist and I listen to it all year long, but October is the official start of when I don't get weird looks from people for listening to it. I am so excited. I get to pull out my Halloween nail polish and the glow in the dark stickers. It's a good time to be me, and also hopefully you as well. So the Halloween recs for you for the year 2025 are: Welcome To The Other Side by DPR Ian (C-Clown) Yes, he's Australian, but he was in the K-Pop group C-Clown, which is one of my beloved 2012s, so I'm counting him. Also, this song is super spooky with dramatic strings at the beginning and artistically applied au...

Release date: 2025 September 29 Album tracklist: Arcadia, No Gravity, Help Me (Somebody 2 Love), In My Life, Deja-Vu Album runtime: 14 minutes  Spotify has been very helpful in reminding me about this album since it became available for pre-saving. I'm just very behind. Sorry, Chen. I do actually really like his voice, so I was looking forward to this mini album. This may also be the tail end of big activity while they prepare for their first comeback as a full group post-military. That is something I'm looking forward to. The angle on the album cover is interesting. Not bad interesting. Just worth pointing out. Ooh, that was not where I was expecting this to start. My strongest association with the word "Arcadia" is the level in the horror video game BioShock , which is one of my favorites even when I was too much of a scaredy-cat to finish it, but prior to listening to this, I was aware of that and trying to ignore the association. The thing is that the intro to thi...