Song Review:: NEXZ: Beat-Boxer- I'm Him {Pre-Release}

-

  • 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 track so badly, partially because of that instant connection, but also because nothing else that I've heard recently has been like that and the subsequent novelty is absolutely delightful. The rest of the song is quite industrial, which is nice because even though I'm not overly a fan of it in this case, I appreciate it because it's very saturated and textured. I'll always support that, even when I don't like it. 

I wish it had more singing because think I really like the singing bits. Also, this reminds me a lot of JJAM by Stray Kids. A lot. So much. The majority of the song is a bit rap heavy and also a little bit shouty, which isn't something I thought I would be cool with generally speaking, but at least there's something going on and it's not trying to be background elevator music. And of course with the singing bits, that's also something that's very nice to be hearing, especially with how strong the rapping is.

Well, this is a bit of a bragadocious song, but one thing that it has to its benefit is that it isn't the title track. There will be those of you who disagree with me, but they're not even a year-and-a-half old, which generally doesn't incline me to believe that they have the street cred yet, not with second and third gen groups still so heavily dominant in the industry and fourth beginning to rise and break free from the older groups, but that doesn't mean they won't. This is why I'm okay with this kind of song as a b-side. The music video reflects this kind of expectation for the group to eventually be top of the industry in a very vibes and visuals way. It's not my kind of song, which is fine, and there are still some redeeming qualities even I can see. So, I hope they do well with it.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Battle of the B-Sides: LABOUM: 빛이 되어쥐 (Be the Light)

-
Image
 Unless I do The Roulette Wheel, I obviously can pick which of the suggestions I've gotten that I'll write posts for. I also have a spreadsheet where I have my posts organized by generation and boy group, girl group, and co-ed. The co-ed groups definitely need more attention, but I'm taking these last few Specialty posts to focus on the girl groups because they're not my natural inclination, and while the Roulette Wheel is weighted equally, I don't like that it's uneven. So, I ignored my normal addition of the B/G/Co-Ed Wheel spin and just did it for a girl group, and I ended up with LABOUM. I'm not sure I've heard of them, so this will be exciting.  LABOUM is a third gen girl group that are younger sisters to U-KISS and Brown Eyed Girls, which is wildly hilarious considering the last GH post I did was in fact for BEG's song Abracadabra . So, that was unintended. 빛이 되어쥐 , or Be the Light  as I will be calling it through this because while it would be...
Read more

Music Show Wins:: Week of 09/10 - 09/16

-
Image
  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...
Read more

Greatest Hits:: MBLAQ: Stay

-
Image
 Summoned for you directly from The Form, it's ironically a song from the same album that I've already done a BBS post from. I chose to do Darling  because of the roulette wheel and shuffle, so that one's on me. But apparently someone out there in the world really likes this album to slide the title track my way as well.  So, I was technically focusing on the repackage album of this for Darling , so you get sort of new information. Released in 2011, this was their first full album. Containing a grand total of thirteen tracks and a runtime of 43 minutes, which averages out to a little more than three minutes a song, it's at a good length, even with the first track dropping the average. It did pretty well on the charts, peaking at second on the Gaon weekly chart and third on the Gaon monthly chart. No music show wins with it, but that doesn't matter because music show wins are not the final dictator of love for a song.  Flashing Lights warning for the music video. Gro...
Read more

Song Review:: TREASURE: LOVE PULSE- PARADISE

-
Image
Release date: 2025 September 01 Album tracklist: EVERYTHING, PARADISE , NOW FOREVER, BETTER THAN ME Album runtime: 12 minutes  I did watch the YG announcement for TREASURE, BABYMONSTER, and BLACKPINK. That is a lot of capitalizations. So I knew this was coming and this was on my list of releases I was curious about for this month. I haven't listened to them a lot, much like I haven't actually listened to a lot of BIGBANG, WINNER, or iKON (again, so many capital letters), but when I like one of their songs, I tend to really, really like it. Plus, the members of TREASURE are all adults now, and that's important because at debut, I couldn't have listened to them (maknae was fifteen). So I came it at a good time. The album doesn't quite hit the desired three minute average, but each song is at least in the 2:50 range, so it could be a lot worse. The title track is the shortest of the bunch, but it could be worse. I'd prefer if all the songs got an extra ten seconds,...
Read more

Song Review:: Monsta X: THE X- N the Front

-
Image
Release date: 2025 September 01 Album tracklist:  Do What I Want , N the Front , Savior, Tuscan Leather, Catch Me Now, Fire & Ice Album runtime: 18 minutes  Happy tenth anniversary, Monsta X! Everyone but Mr. Maknae I.M has returned from the military, and I'm pretty sure he needs to go this year. But! This is also my first review for September, which means that I have now, officially, been doing this for over a year. Whoo! I did have to round that up, mostly because the first and the last tracks on the album are under 2:45, and while I'm a little surprised that they didn't drop something longer for their tenth anniversary, the fact that they've been rereleasing their older songs both re-recorded in Korean and newly released in Japanese, clearly specifically for their tenth anniversary makes the mini album a few months later better. Do What I Want , despite my already having done the review for it, dropped as a pre-release so it technically doesn't count as the ...
Read more

Battle of the B-Sides:: Stray Kids: MEGAVERSE

-
Image
 Yeah, I'm still continuing this. Needed some mental motivation and then I got a nice little boost, so here we are, here you are, and here this is. This comes to you from The Form , so if you've got a song you want me to highlight, go for it. Throw as many or as few as you want. For the person who submitted this, I hope it finds you. And also for the dance practice you want me to highlight. I too am very much into the dance practices, so I'm deeply looking forward to this. This is my second Stray Kids post for either a GH or a BBS, the first being My Pace , so it'll be fun to do one that is a lot more recent. (I have another one on the list suggested by my Stay friend, so that'll happen eventually) Before I begin with the chatting about the cool bits of the song, if any of you get hit by the Felix Effect, do let me know. If you don't want to let me know here, you can find me over on Tumblr (or wherever else you happen to have found this, I post them in places). ...
Read more

Song Review:: BoA: Crazier- Crazier

-
Image
Release Date: 2025 August 4 Album tracklist: Crazier , Healing Generation, It Takes Two, Don't Mind Me, How Could, What She Wants, Up And Down, Love Like This, Like I Like, Hit You Up, Clockwise Album runtime: 17 minutes  One of the Queens of K-Pop is back! Queen BoA! The legend you are! My girl needs no introduction. Eleven songs on her eleventh album with an average of three minutes per song. The title track is a little short, but the last one is nearly four minutes long. Happy as a clam, I am. I have the single she released in May on my list of songs to cover, but even though I'm so behind, it is on the list. Grungy guitar and a firm drumline make up the majority of the instrumentals for this song, but there's enough play to it that the rock feels fun. It's intense and driving, but the little trills and echoes of the melody with the guitar give the song so much character that it's hard to ignore. Like, I know that this is short, but I'm genuinely so in love w...
Read more

Battle of the B-Sides:: KOYOTE: 웃자 (Let's Laugh)

-
Image
 Okay, so, Koyote is a co-ed group that originally debuted in 1998, and since has had line-up changes like they're one of the Doctors. The current line-up is Kim Jongim, Shinji, and Bbaekga. Also, I just learned that they did a Killing Voice a year and a half ago (2023) so I recommend you all go check that out. They're there to have fun, and also sing. First gen idols are just built different, you guys. Also also, if you look into their history, there's a really good reason for all the line-up changes. It's a miracle the group has made it this long, even with these members, because it has just been one thing after another, so I'm really happy that we have a current line-up that is stable, long-lasting, and a lot less problematic. And I know I said on the review for Four Seasons  that I'd be doing a GH post for this group, and I still intend to do so (so let me know if there's a title track you really like), but I'm doing one of these instead. 웃자 comes f...
Read more

Song Review:: Dayoung (WJSN): gonna love me, right?- body {Debut}

-
Image
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...
Read more

Song Review:: ODD YOUTH: I Like You- I Like You

-
Image
Release Date: 2025 April 15 Album tracklist: Spooky, I Like You , Bubble Bubble, Hot Chicken, Bestie Album runtime: 15 minutes  First comeback from my girls! Yes! You can find my reviews of their first two songs ( Best Friendz and THAT'S ME respectively), and Best Friendz has an English version, and I just love them so much. That's a run-on sentence technically. I don't think I care. I still love Best Friendz so much. ODD YOUTH are still in their first six months, so to recap, by the end of their first year, they'll all be adults except the maknae who will still be eighteen by the end of this year, so I'm allowing myself to err on the side of ambiguity, and I really like them.  Okay, I did a quick listen of the whole mini album, and I gotta say that Hot Chicken is a delight . It's so weird and also is such a strong song, and yes, I'm now partial to it, but I kind of wish they'd gone with that one for the title track because it's so weird. Would ...
Read more