Just A Little Fangirl Love

Release date: 2026 January 15 Album track list: Intro : CRTK, PEACE , Victor, KALish, RIDE, Myself, All in on me, Shame, Iris, Masterpiece, Free! Album runtime: 37 mi nutes  Band debut! So this one is a little bit interesting. The band is at Dreamcatcher Company, home to the girl group Dreamcatcher, whom I love because they're kind of spooky witch girls with some big rock vocals. This bodes well for this band. Also, good news, they debuted with the maknae over twenty-one. It's important bringing up Dreamcatcher because Siyeon is the lead singer for the band as well as one of the producers. Whoo! And there are enough minutes to this album that you could have twelve songs over three minutes, or if you remove the intro track, which is only a minute long, that puts the rest of them averaging over three-and-a-half minutes. That's even more impressive because the title track is very close to three minutes, but it's still under. This is a very satisfying instrumental. The guit...

Release date: 2026 January 28 Album track list: BRUISE Album runtime: 3 mi nutes  I really like it when the smaller groups actually take a visit to my city because then I get to advocate on personal, live experience rather than just "they're good on video and in the recording booth." They worked well with the crowd, they feel like they're comfortable on stage, and they're not afraid to say (paraphrased) "You guys kind of have a reputation and I'm happy to be wrong." The vibe is good with them, in other words. If you get the chance, go see them. They put on a really good concert. I'm going to start off with saying that the instrumental is weirdly muted. Not in volume, because it's actually pretty well balanced there, but more in the voice of the song. I keep hearing instruments and notes that aren't there. There's a very fierce song somewhere in this song. Now, that being said, what is present in the song is fascinating. There's a ...

Release date: 2026 January 29 Album track list: WHO'S THE NEXT, ROCK THE NATION , DDANG, ELEVATE, NO SHINE Album runtime: 13 mi nutes  I was almost really excited about the run time, and then I did the math correctly and was saddened. There's only one song on here that's over three minutes, half of the remaining four are under two and a half. I was so hopeful only a few hours ago. Oh, well. I have found songs by them that I like from their discography, and the title of this song is giving me hope that this is also a rock song. There have been a lot of them lately across the groups. That is not what I was expecting. I know you can't see my expression, but I had to pause the song and I'm sitting here with my eyes wide and eyebrows raised. Okay. I think I've reset my expectations. There is a lot going on. This is the most street music song I've heard in a very long time. I'm not sure I know what to do with this song. I keep having to pause it. It does, brie...

Release date: 2026 January 27 Album track list: A Minute, A Second ; A Minute, A Second - Instrumental Album runtime: 6 mi nutes  I have covered two of their songs so far, one in 2024 (coinciding with re-watching PD 101 S2) and one last year (coinciding with watching B:MY BOYS and two of the former Wanna One members from AB6IX being judges). I'm not watching a survival show right now, which makes it a hilarious departure from the pattern I'd accidentally made. Their seventh anniversary is also this year, so I'm happy, although stressed, about this because they've got about four months before that. The album artwork is gorgeous too. It looks like an oil painting. Seriously, not that I'm complaining, but why are so many of the releases this month in rock or rock adjacent genres? What was going on last year that prompted so many? We're also seeing movement back towards the three minute song rather than the two minute song, which, again, isn't something that I...

Release date: 2026 January 27 Album track list: Delulu, 404 (New Era) , UNDERDOGS, MUNGNYANG, Dizzy, To Me From Me Album runtime: 17 mi nutes  We have a Tablo produced song in this one! I can't listen to it because the group is on Underage Protocol for a bit because the maknae was fourteen at debut, but that's exciting for Future Fangirl. Unless that one gets a music video. Then I can listen to it early if I review it. It's a good motivation. Also, I'm always delighted by their album and song titles. They're a lot of fun, and I like that for them. They're young and rookies. They don't need the serious songs yet. Let them have their fun. And while the album runtime is a bit too short, the title track hits three minutes, so the disappointment is definitely less. Wait. Wait. Did I review the Tablo song? Hold up. I did not. I'm really hoping I'm not having deja vu again. Only partially. I had it on my list to do and then never did it. I was not expecting...

 Boy, are y'all in for a treat. An absolute treat , I tell you. This one is because I found the music video on YouTube and went "I need to share this with people." I'd actually intended this one to be slightly earlier, but I had a submission that was time sensitive and wanted to get that one completed first. Jewelry, in case you're unfamiliar with them, was a first gen girl group who, on paper, kind of epitomized the strangeness and fluidity of the first gen groups. I've mentioned this before, that the first gen groups have lineup changes like the cast of the TV show Doctor Who (or, if I haven't said it in those exact words yet on here, it's how I describe the situation to people who are not "with the K-Pop" yet.). By the time Jewelry disbanded, they hadn't had an original member in five years, but when they disbanded, they were the longest running girl group with more than two members and the group had fourteen years worth of songs unde...

Release date: 2026 January 27 Album track list:  cloud palace , cloud palace - Before moonset mix, cloud palace - Before moonrise mix Album runtime: 11 mi nutes  There are a couple of things I like about this group and that also amuse me. First, there are three (3) L's in their group name. Second, they often have a massive lack of capital letters in a lot of their song and album titles. Plus, even though I haven't heard a lot of their songs, the ones I have heard, I like. I'm just hesitant to get too into them because girl groups I really like...don't last too long. Still, I can peripherally listen to them when their songs pop up into my general playlists and I can't know too much about them. But I would like more of their songs to listen to. And look at that runtime! This is an instrumental that feels a bit jazzy mixed with trap. It could have been incredibly easy to put this song into something of more of an easy-listening genre, and they didn't. It starts off...

  Hello, everyone! This week comes with a first group win as well as a first win for a song! It was also almost a clean sweep from this brand new rookie group! Whoo! Big congrats! For our extra stages, I said in TNX's review that I might grab one of their After School Club episodes, and so I did. This is ep. 619 from 2023. I admire any idol that works at speaking a language that isn't their native one, and Hyunsoo did so well with his English. They're also a funny group of guys, and I appreciate that (not least of which they accidentally clowned Aron on his age, and that was funny too). For The Show, I grabbed a stage for Lapillus, who at this point were only a few months old, which makes it all the more impressive. And someone over on Reddit commented on how impressive AxMxP's Inkigayo stage was, and since I hadn't decided on which show I'd grab the extra stage from and they're very much a rookie group, I figured that was a good enough recommendation. As al...

Release date: 2026 February 02 Album track list:  Running to Future , Roses,  LOVEPOCALYPSE Album runtime: 8 mi nutes  Two minute song, everyone. You'd think that if there was a possibility that the group might not survive through negotiations that the company would give them songs of a reasonable length, which two minutes is not. Still, this is the second of the pre-releases for this album. The first was quite emotional, so I'm curious about what this one will be like. There have been so many rock songs lately. This one is on the funkier side of things, but I'd still put it in that category. I'm not going to lie, I am struggling with this song for some reason, and I'm not sure if it's me rebelling against the fact that they're in contract negotiations and it's looking like four of them may not continue with the group if the others do, or if the song just isn't holding my attention for some other reason. I suspect it may be the former because there a...

Release date: 2026 January 21 Album track list: Just Like a Dream , Born Album runtime: 5 mi nutes  So, this is a duo technically under JYPE and I've heard some very interesting things about their debut song, although nothing that I specifically remember. I try not to focus on spoilers before I've heard a song so that I can do the review without too much. Someone did say that one majored in Korean music and the other in Korean dance, though, so my interest is piqued. I'm a little bit disappointed by the song lengths, but at the same time, I am unfamiliar enough with what I think the genre is that the disappointment is more of a leftover, because I don't know if this runtime is typical or atypical in this case. This taps into my love of American country music and Irish music in the best way, though one more than the other at different parts of the song. Instrumentally, that guitar at the beginning is a very strong choice and catapults me back to my youth, which is absolu...

Release date: 2026 January 22 Album track list:  CALL ME BACK , Love letter Album runtime: 6 mi nutes  I like these guys. They're funny. I really wish that ASC was still going (still holding out hope...) because they're delightful. These guys are Psy's kids who have a new younger sister group now (Baby DONT Cry) and their general chill vibe is a delight. Hmmm. Maybe I'll do one of their episodes this week for the re-run. Why are so many groups giving us rock songs lately? Removing AxMxP's new album because they actually are a rock band, I think this is like the fifth or sixth one this month. I'm not complaining about it at all because I love rock and there's an automatic bloom of saturated color that you get from rock songs. Call Me Back doesn't just give us a burst of color at the same level though, because there is a much needed rest spot for the ears and for the performers to get a little bit softer and catch their breath before they get back to what ...

 The turnaround on this one is really fast because it was submitted Wednesday night in The Form and in order to fulfill the request, I had to pivot from the post I had started working on (first gen girl group, the song is the bomb...pun slightly intended) and start on this one. But that was good timing and gave me plenty of time. Four days was enough. The submitter asked me to do this one because of the ticket sales for the tour that started to celebrate those who got tickets and to comfort those who didn't. Which is a lot to ask of a song, a lot of pressure for me, and I hope that I can do this justice. But it's really heartwarming that the Army submitted it for everyone. That's really sweet. Spoilers, it's a very pretty song. It's also a little amusing, because it directly translates to "never seen" from French (the amusing part because some of you have not seen them before), but also to compound on the sweetness, jamais vu is a concept that something fa...

Release date: 2026 January 21 Album tracklist: PASS,  Too Much, Punch-Drunk, I Melody You, Thereafter, Bittersweet, Be yours Album runtime: 19 minutes  So, I watched a video yesterday morning of DK and Seungkwan from Seventeen on ODG with a kid that they'd done the video with five years ago when he was twelve, who has now debuted in AxMxP. They treated Juhwan, whose name and face I now know, like he's their younger brother. It was adorably sweet. I still can't listen to them for a bit because the maknae debuted at fifteen, but I've got at least one down by name. And this is their first mini album, so I hope they do well! I'm very disappointed by the run time though. There's only one song that's over three minutes. Ah, that's just a good rock song. Too short. It needs a little bit of extra time to really strut and fan out those tail feathers in a dramatic display, let the instruments do their thing, but it's got some really nice peaks and valleys to i...

Release date: 2026 January 21 Album tracklist:  WABIF (Wide Awake before I Fall) Album runtime: 3 minutes  I am still fully intending to hit the debut and pre-debut tracks because a small group like this at a small company needs all the help and coverage they can get. For the uninitiated, they're a five member group (pronounced like "universe") with two North Koreans in the group, two Americans (including I think K-Pop's first idol from Arkansas), and a Japanese member. They're also hilarious. Their content is great and you usually get subtitles in two or three languages, and they do their own color-coded lyrics. But you know what's the coolest? Kenny and Nathan (the two Americans) were lyricists for this song! Hyuk is still on hiatus, and I hope he's happy and healthy and recovering. Yeah, I really do need to cover those other songs. This reminds me of a very specific song from the mid- to late- 00s, something that I heard on the bus maybe or from one of ...

Release date: 2026 January 21 Album tracklist:  History , History - Instrumental Album runtime: 6 minutes  I was sort of peripherally fond of M.O.N.T because of Peak Time and how much I love Noir (which I found and loved before watching Peak Time because that's how I roll), until they dropped IDGAF (links go to music video, not the review because they came out before I started doing this and if someone wanted to use The Form to submit IDGAF for me to do a regular review, that would be great, please and thank you). I fell in love with that mini album. So I was enthusiastically supporting Bitsaeon while he was on Build Up, and if you haven't seen his performance of Drowning or Dangerously , y'all I highly  recommend them. Every time Dangerously in particular comes up, I stop what I'm doing and immediately go into break-up-at-three-am mode. Bitsaeon's high note is a piece of beauty. And Roda is an incredible songwriter as well. I know I'm spending a lot of set-...

Release date: 2026 January 20 Album tracklist: Grenade , STOP & MOVE, When you're close to me Album runtime: 9 minutes  I have no idea how to pronounce the album title. Apparently it translates to "original" in Japanese, though I still have no idea how to pronounce it, but at least I've got another point of orientation for understanding and comprehension. I'm also really curious with their situation because apparently they've left RBW, but they're also working with RBW still? I'm not sure how that's going to work, but hey, if it works, that can only be good news for other groups.  This song has a strong street vibe to the instrumental. I'm not sure exactly what the word for the siren whistle that is fairly prevalent but not omnipresent is, but I'm grateful that it's not there as much as it isn't because otherwise it would easily overpower the song. And, when it comes back in after the beginning, it's been buried underneath t...

 Before anyone comes at me with pitchforks and torches and chases me up a rickety windmill before setting fire to it for me to dramatically fall in a blaze of heartrending glory (I've been thinking a lot about the end of Frankenstein 1932 if you cannot tell), I'm labeling this as a b-side because it was a pre-release of an album, not the actual title track. You may also be wondering why, at this point in the year, I'm covering a NewJeans song when according to my own rules, I won't listen to groups if they had too many members debut underage or if they had members debut too young, both of which actually still apply to this group for a few more months but will soon be removed from the U.P list so that I can actually dig into their discography. To which I say, Underage Protocol does not apply to the Greatest Hits or the Battle of the B-Sides. If you're also curious about the timing, it has been almost two years, two very long, stressful years. No matter what I or any...

Release date: 2026 January 19 Album tracklist: Evolution : Prelude; Amplify ;  Stay In The Dream;  Sail;  Better Days;  28 Days;  From Now On; I'm Already In Love With You; Addicted; Hurricane; Alive; Reperio; To You, Standing Before Me; The Young Wave (2026 Remix) Album runtime: 51 minutes  Look at that runtime, everyone! Look at it! This was apparently supposed to be released last year, but getting all the songs together took longer than expected. Not that I'm complaining, especially because of that runtime. If they're going to put the effort in to having this many songs of this length, many if not all of them written by the members, then I'm going to be patiently happy. Also, generally, I just really love their songs, so I've been looking forward to this. They turned two in November, and you can already tell they've settled. I'm hoping that I love most of the songs in this album. I always leave room for ones I don't quite like as well in my expectatio...

  This is an exciting week for the wins! We've got some first wins for songs, which I'm loving, but more excitingly, we had two different milestones happen! First up, we had a group's first win! Congrats to idntt on that all important first win! And with the subunit's debut as well! That's so cool! Second, we had a triple crown from Inkigayo! Congrats to Hwasa for that! It was also girl group domination this week, so that's pretty cool, ranging from second gen (Apink) to fifth gen (ILLIT). I like the range here. Continuing with my stubborn insistence on supporting the smaller groups, this week's After School Club re-run is ATBO on ep. 576 from 2023. I'm not happy that they've been disbanded, but I hope that the members are doing well despite this. For this episode, we didn't have the full list of members as two of them were participating in King of the Masked Singer at the time. I found a really interesting performance on The Show from earlier...

Release date: 2026 January 16 Album tracklist: 사건의 발단, No Way Back (Fear. So!oON!), 도망자들, Knife , Stealer, 우리가 찾던 목소리, 목격자, Big Girls Don't Cry, Lost Island, Sleep Tight, 사건의 너머 Album runtime: 24 minutes  It was kind of funny when they announced their comeback because I was suddenly very excited and also exhausted. However, I also know that this group has had a problem in recent comebacks, through very little fault of their own, with having songs longer than three minutes. So, I took a look at the runtime and was horrified. But I wanted to see what was the cause of this. So I took notes. Of that tracklist, six of them are actual songs with singing by the members, not the speaking that's going on by I don't know who. Of those, only one of the six is over three minutes. But you know the most sickening thing? There's a song that's shorter that two minutes. That is so far from even pretending to be okay that I want to shake whoever decided that this was going to be how ...

Release date: 2026 January 13 Album tracklist: Backseat, Saucin' , Moonwalkin', FaceTime, Never Let Go Album runtime: 15 minutes  Okay, Jay Park's kids have offi cially debuted so congrats to them! Whoo! I saw a comment from him today that he thinks K-Pop has lost its romanticism, and LNGSHOT are his way of correcting that. Regardless of whether or not he's correct, and whether or not you agree with him, that's a bold statement to make and have be the mission statement, so to speak, for a group. It does give me a very specific forward facing expectation to what they're going to be doing in the future, but, for now, we've got this. And because of the maknae's age, this is going on Underage Protocol. But, even though I'm very disappointed in that, we've got an average of three minutes per song and the title track is a very healthy three-and-a-half minutes. It’s funny that you can hear Jay Park’s R&B roots in this song. It’s a very smooth song ...

Release date: 2026 January 19 Album tracklist: Crown , Back It Up, Crazy, Suffocate, Moonlight Shadows, Back Pocket, Touch & Go, Flatline, I'm Home Album runtime: 28 minutes  My first comeback with EXO coinciding with their first comeback is a delightful happenstance, and I'm excited to be here with the EXO-Ls for this. I'm so beyond frustrated with SM over this whole situation, but until SM decides to be completely nonsensical, I'm going to treat this as a simple hiatus for them from the group. They'll come back. And the average is over three minutes, so I am so, so happy. One of the more interesting things about the instrumental is that there are sirens going on through almost the entire thing, but they’re subtle enough that the song isn’t taken over by them and you’re unlikely to be jump-scared by them while you’re driving. But they’re there and they add a strong flavor to the song, which is otherwise majority a beat and rhythm, rather than having much of a m...