Song Review:: Minhyun (NU'EST/Wanna One): Truth

-

  • Release date: 2026 February 11
  • Album tracklist: Truth
  • Album runtime: 3 minutes

 First post-military release! I can't believe I forgot about this! I am so sorry, Minhyun!

You know, considering the album artwork, this feels appropriately underwater-y. Some bits of the instrumental sound a bit like whale song or the other interesting sounds that you hear in the ocean. This is very calm and laid-back, and I'm reminded a bit of bamboo at different points as well. I know I just woke up, but it's soothing enough that my brain is like "Yeah, we can just go back to sleep. Let's do that."  I can't. But this is trying to convince me that I can.

He is giving us the absolute minimum amount of vibrato. It just barely touches the ends of the lines because they're held for a beat or two, so it shows up with regularity, but at the same time, it's such a mild addition that I almost missed it on my first listen, except at the very end when the instrumental falls out from under his voice. And you know me, I live for vibrato. Such a pretty voice though. He's got the most lullaby voice I've heard in a while, and when he goes for songs that highlight that rather than something more energetic, his voice thrives.

No music video as expected, but they did put out a recording of his stage from his fanmeeting, so enjoy that!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Music Show Wins:: Week of 07/08 - 07/14

-
Image
  I'm getting closer to being caught up.  The links down in the chart, as always, go to my reviews I've written for the songs. Show Champion: Hearts2Hearts "Lemon Tang" MCountdown: LE SSERAFIM + ILLIT + KATSEYE "ICONIC BY MISTAKE" Music Bank: ATEEZ "BAD" Show! Music Core: aespa "LEMONADE" Inkigayo: I.O.I "Suddenly" ASC Performance: N/A The Show: RESCENE "Pretty Girl" The Extra Stage: BABYMONSTER "I LIKE IT"
Read more

Battle of the B-Sides:: WJSN: Pantomime

-
Image
 And here's our closer to the b-side month I decided to do. You know what's kind of funny? The first songs I reviewed are about to become eligible for Greatest Hits posts. Some of them are practically those posts in length already, so it would be interesting to see what I do with them now, especially now that I've had time to sit with some of them and performances have had time to happen. In the meantime, we've got a song that comes with mcuh recommendation from the K-Pop community at large and kind of a perfect way to bridge what I've been doing with July and the events that are going to happen in August. Because this kind of is an event on its own, but it's also a b-side by an artist I haven't covered. Win-win. Best of both worlds. Perfect bridge. And it has a bridge, which is a throwback to May. WJSN, also known as Cosmic Girls, debuted as a twelve-member group under Starship Entertainment back in 2016. I've actually got a pretty big soft spot for thi...
Read more

Song Review:: 8TURN: 8.X- Stagefright

-
Image
Release date: 2026 July 21 Album tracklist: Stagefright , 8PM Album runtime: 5 minutes  I'm so excited that they're coming back to my city. They put on a pretty good concert, even with how small that venue was, and I like a lot of their music. EXCEL is still my favorite song of theirs, but even then, they've released a few other songs I like nearly as well. I'm just happy that they're still active. I really am. There is a specific level of sultry drama in the instrumental. While the instrumental has the slow beat that lets the ong have a little bit of an inherent weight, the actual instruments being used are largely light and high. The instrumental uses the heavy weight of a lone percussion as punctuation for the song instead of letting the ong ahve a swagger weight through the whole thing. I imagine that we're going to get some very smooth choreography with this song. I also mostly love how the instrumental falls out from underneath the rapping to let him stan...
Read more

Song Review:: Bijou: Summer Night 2026

-
Image
Release date: 2026 July 24 Album tracklist: Summer Night 2026 , Summer Night 2026 - Instrumental Album runtime: 3 minutes  Okay. So. I'm sure you're all aware that I try to pay specific attention to the first Gen groups when they drop new music. And this isn't technically new music in the way we might think, but it is a new edition, so to speak, from their 2017 song. Oh, and they're a co-ed group. We need the co-ed groups to stay active because there are so few of them. Ah, listen to that saxophone at the beginning. I wish it lingered a little bit more throughout the song, but it pops up enough that I'm okay with it not being present throughout. Funnily enough, when the saxophone isn't around, it sounds like video game menu music for something that's brightly colored with cute animals. It's kind of Viva Pinata, you know? The saxophone ages it up a little and turns it into easy listening, and it's really nice, and then it goes back to the menu music. ...
Read more

Song Review:: Billlie: appendix: Of All We Have Lost- trampoline {Pre-Release}

-
Image
Release date: 2024 October 16 Album tracklist:  remembrance c andy ,  trampoline, Bluerose, BTTB (Back to the Basics),  shame,  dream diary ~ etching mémoires of midnight rêverie Album runtime: 20 minutes  I'm aware of one of the members of the group by name and know she and one of the other members came off hiatus earlier in the year. I'm always relieved when a member on hiatus for whatever reason becomes active again, and I hope she is doing well. I also believe this is the first full group album in a while, so that's also an exciting moment. I'm also aware of the recent controversy of the use of AI in promotional/album artwork for this album, or this particular single. I'm not entirely sure. I also do not condone the use of generative AI in artwork. But that's something to be aware of.  Audience participation snapping? Be still, my soul. There are a couple of sections where you could actually have audience participation clapping as well, which ...
Read more

Music Show Wins:: Week of 09/17 - 09/23

-
Image
  Okay. We're going to start off with a big congrats to the freshly debuted soloists who got wins this week! It's a little amusing to me that we have two SM winners. But congrats to everyone involved! Also, holy wow Dayoung is pretty. For the After School Club re-run while they're still on hiatus, I actually picked this one before I found out who the The Show winner was, so this was just a happy coincidence. This is ep. 372 from 2019 with WJSN as the guests and Jamie, Heejun, and Woosung from The Rose as the hosts! I couldn't find a good clip of them performing Boogie Up  there so I used their The Show performance instead because those two shows are on the same channel. And as always, the links down in the table go to my reviews, if you have any curiosity there. Enjoy what performances I could give you! Show Champion: aespa "Rich Man" MCountdown: aespa "Rich Man" Music Bank: Haechan (NCT) "CRZY" Show! Music Core: aespa "Rich Man...
Read more

May 2026 Wrap-Up: What Happens In Vegas

-
Image
 [Insert the upside down smiley face here] In all seriousness, I know I'm very late, but I think I got through most of the reviews I wanted to do and it's time to do this. Otherwise I'll just keep putting it off and end up having to write it in December so that I can write my year-end wrap-up. Like last year. We're trying to avoid the stress I put myself through in December again. And spoiler for the songs I was listening to this month, it was a lot of NU'EST, so I'm only going to include the one I listened to the most rather than the four that would be included. For once, my top NU'EST listen was not FACE.  Debut time! Debuts I covered: NAZE , YUHZ , HEART OF WOMAN , AND2BLE , and H//PE PRINCESS . Debuts I didn't cover: FLARE U . Soloists whose debut I did not cover: J.Seph (KARD) (note: this is actually a draft so this will likely be finished at some point so this will be edited when I do) and Gabee (JAESSBEE) .  Songs I was looking forward to: I.O.I-...
Read more

Battle of the B-Sides:: Monsta X: Hero

-
Image
 We just had a whole lot of b-sides for July, but a bunch of those were buried tracks. This one, this one is iconic, so iconic, in fact, that when I was thinking about what songs to do for August, that was when I found out that this and another one that I'm planning are both b-sides. I genuinely thought it was a title track. These two songs are also songs that you regularly see pop up in the K-Pop compilation videos that get posted on YouTube, so if you're like me and watch those regularly but also haven't actually heard this song yet, here's your chance to find out why it's in all of those videos delivered to you on a silver platter. I've done all the groundwork for you here. The other kind of funny thing is that both songs I was considering started off life as a b-side and then became a Japanese debut for the group. What's the other song I'm talking about? You'll find out. You can blame the order of these posts on my EXO-L friend (and now Baby Stay...
Read more

Greatest Hits:: AOA: Miniskirt

-
Image
 Welcome to August and the beginning of songs that could be considered "Events" in some way. It's what I'm calling this month, anyway. And we're starting with one of the technically milder songs, but still one of the bigger ones because of what this song did for the group. Cultural impact, not just a dinosaur-killing asteroid impact crater in terms of group popularity counts here in August, so you'll be seeing a range. Also, I'm going to quietly admit that I have fallen into my tendencies again for August, so you can expect boy groups to be b-sides and the girl groups to be title tracks and I really don't mean to do that as consistently as I do, so while I'm looking at the rest of the year, I'm going to have to be thinking about that tendency. Case in point, we have a girl group's title track to start out the month of August (my VIP friend picked this one from my list I was thinking about for August). AOA debuted in 2012 as an eight-member ...
Read more

Song Review:: TWS: SODA SODA: SODA SODA {Japanese}

-
Image
Release date: 2026 August 03 Album tracklist:  SODA SODA;  Palm Tree; If I'm S, Can You Be My N? - Japanese ver. Album runtime: 8 minutes  There are a few boy groups that debuted within the last couple of years that just scream summer to me, three of them being BOYNEXTDOOR, NCT Wish, and TWS, which is ironic given that two of them debuted in January. Japanese releases tend towards that bright sound anyway, so here's hoping the patterns are repeated. I was not expecting the disco today. I'm not complaining because this is bright and summery, perfect for a festival or a fan meeting, or once their discography gets a bit bigger, perfect for their inevitable fun section of a concert. The instrumental has everything from brass instruments to chimes and a very funky little guitar.  I love the "S-O-D-A" chant that pops up periodically. It's recognizable enough to make it a point of familiarity, but it's not so repetitive that it takes over the song. The song has h...
Read more