Song Review:: TVXQ!: Identity {Japanese}

-

  • Release date: 2026 February 12
  • Album tracklist: Identity
  • Album runtime: 5 minutes

 SHE LIVES! I have spent the last four days (five days? Week? Time means nothing anymore) adding in some scaffolding and such to the more than 60 Greatest Hits or Battle of the B-Sides posts I've published, including extra work (some of it major remodeling) to about twenty of those to expand them. You can now start at any of those posts and follow links in chronological publishing order, rather than rely solely on the main hub pages for each set.  I'm writing this paragraph before I even know what song I'm going to do, because I have no idea what's come out recently. I didn't even do the weekly music show wins post. I think ATEEZ got some wins? I don't know.

I'm so tired.

TVXQ! is apparently the group that gets to be my first after that monster undertaking. There are a few others and I should probably do one for a smaller group that needs the exposure more, but, frankly, the odds are really high that I'll like this because of the sentiment of the song and the length and the fact that I tend to love their Japanese releases, which means my mental workload will be lower. This is the soundtrack to their Japanese 20th anniversary film, so it's kind of a big deal too.

Ah, this is nice and jazzy, vibrantly energetic and distinctly celebratory. Even when the number of instruments going at once drops to something that lets the instrumental be much softer, it never loses that quivering joy, because in several of those moments it turns into something that reminds me of a music box. Ah. This is nice. I like this a lot. 

The song starts off with vibrato, and I'm pretty sure that's Max. So much vibrato. The whole song is so saturated in vibrato that it'll chill me about about vibrato for a while. We get harmonizations and vocal layering. We don't get any big belts but we do get some notes that had they been extended a little bit could have been big belts. But it's fine. Two out of the three will do great because we get so much of the other two that I'm honestly fine with not having my third one. 

I have a feeling that when I embed this video, something will go weird (their Japanese stuff tends to do that). So, if it just says that you need to watch it in YouTube, you can either follow the link it gives you or you can search directly on YouTube. I promise there will be no Rick Rolling here.

Ah, as expected. It's a compilation. I love this genre of music video. It warms my little heart to see their love for each other and for their fans, and their fans' love for them. Like. They debuted twenty-three years ago. They survived scandal and poisoning and losing 60% of their members because their company is the worst. But at the end of the day, love remains.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Battle of the B-Sides:: f(x): Shadow

-
Image
 I love when I get suggestions for groups that I've heard of but haven't actively listened to. I know that f(x) has several songs that are on the list of K-Pop influential songs that pretty much everyone should be familiar with, if they don't know  them. I don't think this is one of them, because this is a b-side, but I could also be wrong. Which is why I like being able to dig into the albums and the songs a little bit. So, this comes from their second studio album Pink Tape, released in 2013, which won a bonsaeng in 2014 at the GDAs, and hit number 1 on multiple music charts worldwide. One of the songs on the album was originally supposed to be Ariana Grande's song, and f(x) got it instead. So that's pretty cool. It's the second track on the album and is described as creepy pop, which I am down for entirely and that was one of the reasons why this song was suggested for me to do as the suggestion included the note that I seem to really like eerie or otherw...
Read more

Song Review:: RESCENE: lip bomb- Heart Drop {Pre-Release}

-
Image
Release date: 2025 November 25 Album tracklist: Heart Drop, Bloom , Love Echo, Hello XO, MVP Album runtime: 15 minutes  I know, I know. The album has already come out and that's probably what you were expecting me to do, but I apparently didn't get to this one, but both songs are on Underage Protocol because the maknae is far too young. It's really unfortunate. I feel like we've moved from the light and milquetoast to roughly the same instrumental that would simply be the milquetoast of old if we removed the percussion from it. On the one hand, it's no longer a single note scent, which I deeply appreciate, but on the other, it still feels a little too safe. But it's nice. Even if it doesn't completely catch my attention, I'm not bored, which sounds like a backhanded compliment, but I promise that it's a good thing in my head. Instead, we've still got some layers to the song, which is good, and it sticks a little, which is also good.  They have su...
Read more

Greatest Hits:: Monsta X: Beautiful

-
Image
 I decided to have my first one of these for 2026 be something upbeat.  Plus, considering they had their tenth anniversary last year and I didn’t do anything for them then (because that was during my lean months), I figure that this would be a good one to go with now. I’m pretty sure that this isn’t one of their softer songs, but I like the idea of starting off the year with a song called “Beautiful” anyway because it taps into the romantic and sentimental bit of my soul that attaches like a barnacle to some of these groups. So, this is the title track, and second track, for their first album, The Clan Pt. 2.5: The Final Chapter, which was released in 2017, and what do you mean it was produced by someone whose stage name is Star Wars? I’m completely delighted. Anyway, some other artists that Star Wars ( I can't stop smiling in delight over that name) has worked on songs with are Wanna One, WJSN, Cravity, Billlie, Rania, BAE173, ITZY, TWICE, Sistar, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, and ZER...
Read more

Battle of the B-Sides:: NU'EST: Thank You (Evening by Evening)

-
Image
 Whichever LOVE sent this in and specifically requested I time this release to come out when Minhyun gets out, I love you. GUESS WHAT EVERYONE! MINHYUN HAS BEEN DISCHARGED. I try to avoid the caps lock, but I'm honestly so happy I could cry.  Thank You (Evening by Evening) is the fourth track from their fifth mini album, Canvas, which sold a grand total of 10 first day units and was released in 2016. I'll let that sink in for a second. The things you learn, and honestly, I couldn't be prouder of their survival with that little factoid. Writing credits include Bumzu, who recently won Legendary Producer at the 2025 AAAs and is most well-known for being Seventeen's producer alongside Woozi but also has done songs for Jin (BTS), Block B, TWS, 2PM, fromis_9, NCT Dream, Pristin, EXO, and Rain among others. Also with the writing credits is Jo Jayoung, who along with Seventeen and NU'EST songs as well, also has songs for UP10TION. And then the most surprising credit and I...
Read more

Battle of the B-Sides:: NewJeans: Super Shy

-
Image
 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...
Read more

Song Review:: EXO: REVERXE- Crown

-
Image
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...
Read more

Battle of the B-Sides:: BTS: Jamais Vu

-
Image
 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...
Read more

Greatest Hits:: Taemin (SHINee): Advice

-
Image
 So this was a request I got that made me smile and I'm doing this one here because I think it'll pair well with the last Greatest Hits post I did. The person who submitted it said they were at Taemin's concert in Vegas and saw this performed for the first time. They found my blog a few days ago and when they found out that I take submissions for this, they wanted to know if I'd do this one. The answer is, of course! I'll send you a message with it as soon as I've got this posted! Taemin, maknae of the second gen boy group SHINee, debuted under SM Entertainment in 2008 with his group and 2014 as a soloist. He's generally regarded as one of the best dancers in K-Pop and also has the nickname "Idol of Idols" because of the number of younger idols who cite him as their inspiration and the reason they decided to go into K-Pop. Advice  (the song) is the title track for Taemin's third mini album, Advice (the album), which was released roughly two wee...
Read more

Music Show Wins:: Week of 01/21 - 01/27

-
Image
  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...
Read more

Song Review:: Billlie: cloud palace ~ false awakening- cloud palace

-
Image
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...
Read more