January 2026 Wrap-Up: Pivot! Pivot! Pivot!

 First one of the year, everyone! I was so stressed about certain things that I kind of completely missed that we'd tipped into February. Good news, January feels like it took only 34 years to get through instead of the 37 years January 2025 took. Progress. Make sure that you're getting your sunshine and supplements for vitamin D. Seasonal depression is no joke. I have a new planner (this one from the BTOB season's greetings) that I'm using to keep track of specifically when artists are having releases and what groups are debuting each month, as well as some blog specific stuff, (like stuff for the 2026 music show wins recap post, how many posts I cover for each month, etc). I figure that they'd appreciate it being used instead of me just going "Look how pretty!!!!!" and never using it. 

January debuts! The full groups that I covered are LATENCY, Alpha Drive One, LNGSHOT, dodree, and ChRocktikal. The subunits I covered yesweare (idntt) and DxS (Seventeen). The ones I didn't cover were MY:RAKL (which I'm going to guess based on the Hangeul is pronounced like "miracle"; global virtual boy group with the mo-cap), LU'NIZE (female duo), KISEO (a live girl group, this one looks interesting and I may come back to them), and COMMA (boy group, again, may take another look). 

Songs I was looking forward to:

• Jinho (Pentagon): He's got such an incredible voice. I need him to get more attention
• CNBLUE: Look, we all know that I'm a huge fan of the bands, especially the older bands because we get the vocals I want and the band instrumental sound I want. These guys scratch both of those itches. Metaphorically
• DxS (Seventeen): Seventeen's main vocalists in a subunit together? Sign me up. No, I'm not kidding
• Catch the Young: I've got a soft spot a mile wide for this band. This album was supposed to be out last year, but I'd rather they take their time with it than put it out prematurely
• EXO: EXO's first full comeback post-military. I'd have to be six feet under not to be excited about this, even if SM sucks and won't let CBX participate
• M.O.N.T: BITSAEON!!!!!!!!
• 8TURN: They actually came on tour to my city last year and they've dropped some absolute bangers already, so between the two, I very much look forward to supporting them

Are you ready for all of the music show wins? It took a couple of weeks for all the shows to get moving, but we're moving now and we've gotten some good wins so far. 

Week of 12/31 - 01/06

Week of 01/07 - 01/13

Week of 01/14 - 01/20

Week of 01/21 - 01/27

Week of 01/28 - 02/03

Now for my favorite segment. I feel like a full third (or more) of the songs I reviewed this month I really, really enjoyed, but so many of them were rock or rock-adjacent and I'm a complete sucker for rock. Thank you, playlist. There are two songs that I still want to cover from this month, not because I've heard them already, but because I need to shout about those two.

Top Releases of the Month:

• CNBLUE "Still, a Flower": The music video with the hand-drawn animations looks absolutely beautiful. Also, I love that this was the song to start off the year, given that it's both energetic and comforting.
• Apink "Love Me More": It reminds me of my favorite video game, their voices are so full and rich, and the music video has them be snow witches. Literally, what is not to love here?
• Re:Hearts "Persona": This is such a promising song. We don't have a bigsample size from them because they're a freshly debuted (co-ed!!!!) band, but this one has final boss from a video game energy.
• CNBLUE "Killer Joy": First of all, I love their challenge for this song is a vocal challenge, and I am shouting about them from the rooftops because we've had DK, Eunkwang, and Minho (SHINee) do it? Umm, yes, please? But there's such a good energy control to the song, as well as sounding like an opening number to a musical, that I would worry about myself if I didn't love it.
• H1-KEY "Not Like a Movie": This is a very cute song. And it's such a cute song, with some very interesting little details, that even though I historically am not enthralled by the cute songs in terms of longevity, this one made the cut.
• Bada (S.E.S) "Our Loud Goodbye": Four minute song that's themed to her stage name. Strings and a piano. Full-bodied first gen voice very much on display. Yes. Please.
• LATENCY "It Was Love": Girl band debut! Four idol members from different groups and a pretty well-known guitarist to round it out. And that is such a sick guitar solo. 
• ZEROBASEONE "Running to Future": Just about everything I want in a song.
• DxS (Seventeen) "Blue": I spent roughly twenty minutes trying not to cry while I was trying to write this. And the music video is a full movie (and I tipped into a little bit of film analysis, it's so good) and it did make me cry. So that's where we're at.
• EXO "Crown": You can obviously hear the missing members. But. This otherwise is strong for the EXO formula, as I understand it. The song elements, if not the vocal ones, that I expect to hear in an EXO song, I hear a lot of them.
• LNGSHOT "Moonwalkin'": I honestly wasn't overly with their pre-debut song, although I'll admit that I enjoyed the music video a lot. And I did spend a lot of time debating on whether or not to include this here. What eventually won me on this is the fact that dropping an R&B song for the debut song is a bold choice. I also like that it's part of the "men pining" subgenre.
• Catch the Young "Amplify": This is a very satisfying song. I immediately, within ten seconds, had slotted it into the playlist, but it's the fact that the discordance of the song is timed so perfectly with my limit of that kind of sound that would have put it in the playlist.
• M.O.N.T "History": This is going to be such a good concert song.
• dodree "Just Like a Dream": I love old and/or folksy sounding music. Absolutely adore it. And I love getting to expand into different flavors of that. Also, there's sword dancing in the music video.
• TNX "CALL ME BACK": Yet another of the groups that gave us rock or rock-adjacent songs. Teenage Fangirl would have added it to her MySpace page.
• AB6IX "A Minute, A Second": This is another concert song, although this one is an encore song with the crowd interactions basically baked into it. It's soft. It's a comfort hug.
• 8TURN "BRUISE": Look. I acknowledge that I've gotten a soft spot for this group. And even though I have some thoughts on the instrumental, the vocals are practically perfect.
• ChRocktikal "PEACE": Siyeon has an amazing, incredible voice. Oh, wow. And another co-ed band debut for this month, even if we don't get as many voices other than hers if I'd like.
• ALL(H)OURS "My Spring, My Light, My Breath": The instrumental alone would have had it included here. The music video warms my heart.
• Lee Hyori (Fin.K.L) "My Heart, Like Ice, Hardened": I love that we got two first gen queens bookending the month. Lee Hyori has masterful control over her vibrato and the instrumental is just so deliciously melancholic.

I told you I liked a lot of the songs this month. That's so many. 

Full list of January reviews: here

Reviews for other months:

• LOVEONE "Dreamin'" (April 2025)

Greatest Hits and Battle of the B-Sides! Check them out! We're officially back, baby!

Greatest Hits

• Monsta X "Beautiful": I wanted to start off the year with something a little softer but energetic, and a song called "Beautiful" is a great way to cover both. Plus, that choreography is great and I got to spend a lot of time staring at it. Shout out to the jackets.
• Stellar "Vibrato": A submission that made me laugh because the person who submitted it has very vivid feelings about their company. I wish circumstances for the song (at least the music video) were different because that song is a banger. 
• Dreamcatcher "BOCA": Spooky dorky girls with their spooky rock concept in a very statement declarative song. Some of the bits of the choreography are absolutely brilliant and the princess dresses are stunning. 
• Jewelry "Back It Up": First gen group with a very fun music video and choreography that they did in platform stilettos. I ran across the music video and went "I need to talk about this." So I did. And it's really satisfying.

Battle of the B-Sides

• TWS "Oh Mymy : 7s": It was erroneously labeled as a GH by the submitter, but since it's a pre-release, into the b-sides it goes. Still, the song is now two so they would have gotten that right, and while I did get a little bit sappy, I also found a rock version of this song, which I am so happy to have discovered.
• NewJeans "Super Shy": The submitter very politely asked me if I'd do this song even though I've got my rules about underage members (still can't listen to them on my own time because the maknae is not eighteen for a few more months), and I liked that. So, here we are. It's a very soothingly catchy song, the kind of earworm that you find yourself gently and absentmindedly humming.
• BTS "Jamais Vu": This submission actually interrupted my work on Jewelry's song because the submitter asked if I'd have this one out as a gift for the fans after the chaos and trauma of ticketing that week, which meant I had only a four-day turnaround to get it. It's a beautiful song and I had a lot of fun with the metaphor of the title. English lit degree for the win.

As always, if you've got a song you'd like me to cover, feel free to leave a comment, a message, or The Form. It can be a song you love, a song you only kind of like, a song you wish people wouldn't forget, an obscure song that you wish people had heard. If there's a birthday coming up or an anniversary of something, those are great things to submit for and if you have a specific day you want it posted on or by, do let me know. I cannot read your mind and I don't have all of the group/fandom anniversaries or all the idol birthdays memorized. Unfortunately.

I posted a couple of interesting things this month. 

First, my recap of the MMAs. I really enjoyed some of those performances, loved seeing the growth some of those very young groups have made already, and I'm delighted by some of those wins. 

Second, and I don't know where else you're going to find something like this, but I went back through all of my 2025 music show win posts and took down some numbers. And then turned those numbers into graphs and stats and trends that I noticed. Like, did you know that there was only one of the music shows where a soloist got the highest score for the year? That's one of the many things you can learn about k-pop last year in the 2025 Music Show Wins Recap. Still working on my 2025 recap. But that's because I'm realizing a lot of things that I want to include, but I'm having to go back and hunt that information down instead of having it already available (which is affecting how I'm setting up 2026. I'm still having growing pains with this thing, it seems). It's going to be chonky. I hope you're still looking forward to it.

Thanks for reading, everyone! Enjoy February!

Honorable Mentions:

• DxS (Seventeen) "Blue": I'm not even going to pretend with this one. I listened to this song so much this month, it's not even funny. The entire album, actually. Guilty Pleasure would also have been a good candidate, but I just love this one so much that I'm going to forgo my favorite b-side to once again scream to the void about how amazing this song is. (And I could write papers on the music video because that's a movie, actually.)

• BTS "Moon": Why did I listen to this one so much this month? I don't know because it's not in the playlist I listened to the most this month. It's a gorgeous song though and it reminds me of Jin's concert. He really does have such a nice voice.
  

• Girls' Generation "The Boys": I know that there are other songs by SNSD that are more defining like New World and Gee, but this is probably one of my favorites by them. I really like that song sound, especially from the girl groups, that sort of militaristic aggression. Plus this is the song I think of every time I see or read the name of this group. 

• Woozi (Seventeen) "Destiny": It feels like once a month I have one of their solos from their tenth anniversary on here. I guess January was Woozi's turn. It's such a soft gift to him from Bumzu. He deserves all the love.

• Secret "Poison": Speaking of the second gen girl group love, the brass instruments in this song are insane and so sassy. Everything about this song is loud in the best way and the vocals put me six feet under. Do you hear the vibrato? I know you do because they are large and in charge here.

• Seventeen "Kidult": SCoups's punishment song (makes me laugh every time I think about it; this is why he's my bias) that is simultaneously one of the prettiest and biggest hugs in their entire discography that isn't a vocal unit specific song. If I ever get to hear this live, I'm weeping, eyeliner be damned. Still not my favorite, though. Might be top five.

• Hui (Pentagon), Jang Hye Jin "Nameless": So apparently this was the month of the vocals, if the other six songs are any indication. This one is no different, although I didn't realize that I was listening to it this much this month.