Just A Little Fangirl Love

  I had wondered a little what would happen with Inkigayo as that is the wildcard of the music shows. You can get some very interesting wins from there. Congrats on the triple crown! Congrats to the groups that got first wins for the songs! For the After School Club episode, I decided to not just go really far back in the history of the show (Ep. 15), but also with a gentleman who debuted before nearly every idol was born. Pretty much only the first gen groups had members who were alive when Lee Seungchul debuted as a singer. This man is old school and a legend. The amount of fanboying that Hanbyul (LEDApple) does the entire time is adorable, but his vocals are completely insane. (I'm definitely not thinking about doing one of his songs for my GH and BBS posts... Nope...) For The Show, I went with a performance from 2023 and the magnificent Kwon Eunbi. And then for the extra stage, as promised, I went with ALL'N, a new soloist who has a song that uses a violin. I'd be fully...

Release date: 2026 April 20 Album tracklist: ALIVE (SKIT), EAST COAST, Good Day (feat. Jay Park & 1iL) , HAErise , RACE, HELP, ROCKET, Goodbye (feat. Tablo), TOO LATE, FLOWER, TO YOU (SKIT), HBD, BEAUTIFUL Album runtime: 36 minutes  I'm going to stick with the second gen for a minute because I just want to settle before I get back to the younger groups who will have so many struggles and so many successes ahead of them. Congrats on the first album, Donghae! There's an interestingly modern version of traditional music at the beginning there. Actually, you want to know what this instrumental kind of reminds me a little bit of in some very specific spots? PTT by LOONA, though it doesn't get nearly as dramatic as that. It's a pretty steady instrumental with a few soft spots to add a bit of a different texture, but I'm not really feeling a strong climactic moment, which is a shame. The vibes are there, though.  We get a little bit of everything from here, which I lo...

Release date: 2026 April 19 Album tracklist:  15th Season Album runtime: 4 minutes  Happy anniversary, Apink! I'm glad you've made it this long and that you're still doing what you're doing! I like how playful the piano is during this instrumental. I mean, the instrumental in general is just really pretty, but we've got a melody going on with both the guitar and the piano to reinforce and support the melody that the vocals have got going on, rather than simply providing something for the vocals to push off against. This is so pretty, but there's substance and weight to it instead of just being a gossamer fluff piece of a song, which is as expected of a second gen group. Their vocals are gorgeous. Oh, I love how you can hear the maturity there, even when they're hitting the higher notes because it just gives the vocals a richness that you don't get from teenagers or even the recently adult aged singers. We've got vibrato aplenty, and I'm basking i...

Release date: 2026 April 17 Album tracklist:  Rock Solid (feat. Anderson .Paak) Album runtime: 2 minutes  A two minute song. The disappointment is in my soul. Still, even though I'm drastically behind, I'm going to do his because even though I'm almost positive that this is not going to be a song I like (I'm almost positive that this man is a rapper in NCT and I'm just so picky about the rapping I'll listen to), I don't know. I just feel like I should. So I'm going to. Okay, the majority of the song is in a hip-hop style, and I may not be able to listen to this song as much as I normally do when I write these reviews because of the repetition of "rock solid" in the back track. It's a bit much. The good news is that there are two spots where the repetition goes away and the hip-hop instrumental goes away to let a much softer moment to breathe before it starts back up again. Oh, look. I was right about the rapping. Anderson .Paak has a moment...

Release date: 2026 April 17 Album tracklist: Helium Balloon, Voyager , No Cool Kids Zone, Hurt So Good, Rise High Rise, KTM, X room Album runtime: 22 minutes  I may have to try to do four a day to try to catch up. Because I almost caught up and then a whole lot of songs were released on the 20th and now I'm very behind again. Still, I'm very excited about this album, and I love seeing rock bands get recognition. You know, I just really like rock music, as I'm sure you could have guessed. The drums in this one have some interesting pattern disruptions during the chorus that I didn't notice during the chorus until I was specifically listening to them. They're hanging out on the quarter note but close to the end of the cycle, they have a pair of eighth notes instead, which is subtle, but an excellent addition. The dominance of the guitar through the whole thing is also a big highlight for me, but there are so many spots where everything has a moment to kick up its heel...

Release date: 2026 April 16 Album tracklist: The Symphony of Fxxkboys , Truth Hurts  Album runtime: 6 minutes  I think she was the last one to release a solo song (I'll get to Solar's, I promise) leading up to their twelfth anniversary, which is so impressive. And I know I don't talk about her quite as much as I do Moonbyul and Hwasa, but I still love her voice and I think she's so pretty. And she's also really funny. Whole package. And the title of this song sends me back to high school, which was the last time I had to deal with any of them. Ooh, she's giving us a bit of a rock song. Having that during the chorus is a good choice because it helps strengthen the vocal build, but then during the build where it's just a piano, then slamming into the rock again changes the mood of the song from just being pissed to more of a declaration. I also love how the rock has an interrupted rhythm because it strengthens the power of the vocal punch. And you have all of ...

 Hello, everyone! I went for a pick from my playlist that I've heard before but haven't decided where I want to slot it, the appropriately name "Maybe" playlist. Threw it on shuffle, and here we are. I'm actually pretty amused that two of the three male soloists I've done for this will not just have been from SM groups, but were also the two soloists who performed in Las Vegas a few months ago. I don't know if this was on the setlist or not. I just think that's really funny. I also find it kind of funny that even though I'm only loosely picking where songs are coming from, we're still ending up with some kind of cohesive flow.  Baekhyun originally debuted under SM Entertainment as part of the boy group EXO in 2012, but later debuted as a soloist in 2019. He's known for his voice, though to be fair, EXO is one of those groups that's renowned for their vocals, and their somewhat persnickety and often amusing opinions when the fans are not...

Release date: 2026 April 15 Album tracklist: I'll Be There, Hazy (Daisy) , Padam Padam, Touch, Forever Us Album runtime: 14 minutes  The maknae was fifteen at debut, so unfortunately they are on Underage Protocol. If you're new here (welcome! I love to see new faces! Glad to meet you!), Underage Protocol is part of my refusal to support the companies debuting anyone under the age of sixteen or if the group debuts with more than fifty percent of the members under the age of eighteen. The reason for this is, the members of groups often do not have their parents to step in and protect them from predatory adults and being exposed to everything at a young age can mess up the artists (multiple of the ones who debuted at fourteen, for instance, have said that they wished they'd debuted when they were older). I'd love to say I trust the companies to protect them, but that requires a level of faith in companies to be human and not exploitative in a way that I simply cannot trust...

Release date: 2026 April 15 Album tracklist:  Cherry Blossom Album runtime: 3 minutes  This group is definitely on Underage Protocol. Two fifteen-year-olds at debut. Still, I think they're in a good position to potentially carve out a similar niche as a group like Lovelyz based on what we've gotten from them so far. If I had to describe this song, it would be solidly dreamy. We've got audience participation snapping through most of the song, with solid but not excitable percussion and a softness to everything else that it just generally sounds very spring-like, which is deeply appropriate considering that we're in early spring now. The moments where the percussion drops out and we gets just the dreaminess with the audience participation snapping are very well place to let the song take a big breath.  Every part of the vocals are a little breathy, including the rapping. There isn't a whole lot of variation with the vocals, although one of the members does have a lowe...

Release date: 2026 April 15 Album tracklist:  SLAM DUNK , SLAM DUNK (inst) Album runtime: 6 minutes  I'd like to see them drop more music or more regularly release singles. They need the attention. And not just because I'm loud and vocal in my support for my boy, Hakseong, the first North Korean idol to debut. They've got a lot going for them. (I'm also writing this after the JUSTB concert and my flabbers are gasted. I'm going to need 3-5 business days to recover from what happened for my friend and me; trust me, it was a very good thing (on an unrelated note, I feel so bad for them because they were having the worst sound issues and Bain promised to come back to do a better concert)). This is a very odd instrumental. I don't think I'm the target audience for this song, at least not in this stage of the listen, but that could change with the vocals. There's audience participation snapping in some spots, and a lot of record squeaking. Seriously. So much r...

Release date: 2026 April 14 Album tracklist: LOVE IS PAIN Album runtime: 3 minutes  This guy looks a bit like Hyunsik from BTOB. Or, well, I suppose Hyunsik looks a bit like him given that I'm assuming Kangin is older. Also, given past events, he probably should just stop drinking. It doesn't look like that's been going so well for him, and he got kicked out of the group because of the poor decisions he's made while drinking. That being said, I did have to dig a little to figure out if this was his debut single or not. It looks like he may have released that back in 2016, a decade after his group debut. I am, however, a little amused that he releases music every ten years. Group debut in 2006. Solo debut (possibly) in 2016. New music in 2026. Edit: I'm almost positive that this might actually be his debut now. So that's been updated. I love the almost gospel-sound to this instrumental. And I was sitting here on my first listen, just kind of absorbing the sound t...

Release date: 2026 April 14 Album tracklist:  SSS , White Tee Album runtime: 7 minutes This is the group I have associated with bright green for some unknown reason but it turns out that bright green is one of their fandom colors. So that's appropriate. Ooh, we've got some audience participation snapping. Excellent. It's been a moment since the last time I got that in a new track. There's actually a really good blend of the instruments, where none of them quite manage to be the "main" instrument, if that makes sense. Because even while the drums are doing their necessary beat thing, we've got the guitar doing a lot of heavy lifting with melody, but that synthesizer is a constant presence. And! The drums aren't even the only percussion instrument we've got. We also get some a cappella, or near a cappella, and it all adds up to a solid instrumental. I've got vibrato and a belt, and that belt turns into a run at the end. We actually get vibrato in...

Release date: 2026 April 13 Album tracklist: Bed of Thorns, Stick With You , Take Me to Nirvana (feat.Vinida Weng), So What, 21st Century Romance, Dream of Mine Album runtime: 16 minutes  Am I seeing this correctly? Has TOMORROW X TOGETHER released a song that's over three minutes? I mean, there are also three that are 2:3X and one that's under two-and-a-half minutes. And the title track is not one of the longer two. So. But I am all for them getting to have longer songs again. I'd love to see HYBE lift whatever nonsensical ban they have on title tracks longer than three minutes. Even TXT's older brothers didn't manage to escape it last month. The first part of the song has very little variation to it, then we get a bit techno. And then it's back to business. I'm very much enjoying the fact that the song ends a cappella, thought I'm not sure if that's one of their voices with heavy post-production effects or autotune on it or if it's a synthesize...

Release date: 2026 April 13 Album tracklist: Feel Me , Feel Me - inst. Album runtime: 7 minutes  A follow-up single to Blue ? Yes, please. I'm still so in love with that song that it's a little concerning, but if my magnificent main vocalists are going to drop more music, well, then, I'm going to be here for it. I really like Seventeen. If you can't tell.  Most of the song is taken up by a skittering beat but there's enough movement around the skittering that it doesn't feel entirely rushed or oppressive. There's a spot about halfway through where the balance shifts, the beat's volume is decreased a bit, and then it gets turned back up. You can still hear it there, unlike the later spot where the skittering is removed. I like that they're not the exact same. The instrumental doesn't give me quite the rush I always am looking for, but depending on what's going on vocally, this could be a very solid support for the vocals. This is such a soft s...

Release date: 2026 April 13 Album tracklist: Blossom Parade, HMPH!, Born Savage , Lunar Hearts, Think I Am Album runtime: 16 minutes  I know it's been a hot minute since I last did one of their songs, but here we are. I have returned to them.  I love this guitar. There are fun little flourishes that keep the song from being too predictable or stable, which is fun to be hearing. I love what the instrumental is doing during the rapping though. It strips out and mimics the rapping, or the rapping mirrors the instrumental. Either way, it makes for a very distinctive matching sound, and I think it stands out well in the rest of the song. There's also a strong energy build at one point, which I like to see on principle. The car alarm sound effect at the beginning did startle me, but that's good! It's a good addition and a good signal for the start of the song in case you're listening on repeat. I'm loving the rock here, as we expect. And the rapping is in a really goo...

Release date: 2026 April 15 Album tracklist:  We Up - Radio Edit , We Up - Extended Mix, We Up - Instrumental Album runtime: 11 minutes  Look, I'll be completely forthright about this. Found this guy on Instagram a couple of weeks ago, said he was making his K-Pop debut and with an emphasis on the violin. Say less, bro. Y'all know me. But then a couple of days later, I see a reel where he's like "My manager just told me that I'm going to be performing on some of the music shows." The nervous energy on this kid (no idea the age, I'm assuming younger than me and everyone is kid if they're younger than me) had me commenting "I'll make sure to add one of your stages to my music show wins post since I have the spot for extra stages." And he responded. So just so everyone knows, that will be included next week. However, he's also a) a new debut and b) most likely from a very small company, both of which are things that I'm very much wan...

 Hello, everyone! I decided to go back to my origins and use the old roulette wheel to decide on a Greatest Hits from a third gen boy group I have not covered yet. I've been circling around the group quite a lot, ever since the first time I saw their name written in Hangeul and was the first group I read and figured out before I knew them. I did of course check to see if there was a boy group called "HOTSHOT" to see if I'd read that correctly. So, yeah. I'm very curious about this group. They seem really familiar for some reason though, like I should know them more than by name and from After School Club. ...Ah. I just remembered where I knew them. Produce 101. They were one of the other debuted groups that had members join, and I think the only other group to have members debut in Wanna One. Imagine me looking into the camera like I'm in The Office with a "Welp" expression on my face. That realization as I was looking into them for this section dipp...

Release date: 2026 April 13 Album tracklist: Bubee Album runtime: 3 minutes  I didn't do this when the original Japanese version dropped just because if I remember correctly, there were a lot of releases at that time. Not that there aren't a lot of releases now, but if I skip the song again, I'll feel bad because ILLIT deserves the attention as well. Okay, we've got a skittering beat on this one, but crucially, it doesn't take up the entirety of the sonic landscape for the song. It's a really interesting choice, for reasons I'll talk about during the vocals, but there are actually quite a few different sections to the song, which makes me happy to have a good level of variety going on in here. We also get over three minutes of song, which means that there's room to have that much song. Thank goodness. It's very cute.  The cuteness does extend to the vocals, and there are a couple of spots where you can hear the fact that this song started off life as...

Release date: 2026 April 13 Album tracklist: HOOK , REVENANT, HOOK Chinese ver., HOOK Inst. Album runtime: 12 minutes  MY OTHER BOY STORY BOY GOT TO DEBUT THIS TIME! YOU GO, LI ZIHAO! Sorry for the capitals. Ahem. Let me try that again. MODYSSEY is the boy group consisting of the Planet C members from Boys Planet 2, the paired group to Alpha Drive One. As should have happened originally, but I digress. Our maknae turned 20 this year, so we're completely fine on that end, and I'm actually really pleased about this line-up. A lot of the ones I wanted that shot at debuting managed to this time around. And, very cool for them, Stray Kids's 3Racha wrote the this song, so I'm anticipating this to sound a lot like a Stray Kids song. And it turns out that Li Zihao, who is at JYP with Stray Kids and 3Racha while in Boy Story, said that this was intended to be a Stray Kids song, according to I.N. If there were a Stray Kids instrumental that this was going to sound like, it would ...

Release date: 2026 April 13 Album tracklist: Higher , Higher (Instrumental) Album runtime: 6 minutes  I didn't do his last one. I'm making sure to do this one. I have continued hope that his voice continues to be highlighted as well as it should be. This instrumental is very much guitar heavy, which is fine because it feels like the guitar has been plucked instead of strummed for the most part, which is surprising and a little big delightful, not going to lie. We also get a little bit of a camera flash sound effect, but largely what's going on with this song is a melody in the instrumental, and given my love for melodies, that's something I'm fully supportive of. Wow, his voice just starts right in there, doesn't it. He's a bit on the breathy side at the start, but he's got moments when that strengthens up well, and we've also got a very fun run to pair up with his vibrato. This is of course one of the reasons I love his voice, and that's the vib...

  Y'all, I almost forgot today was Tuesday. We did not have a clean sweep this week, but we did have three Triple Crowns, which is a different, but equally impressive achievement. The group who achieved has, understandably, not been promoting on the music shows because they've started their world tour. The other artist got a first win for the song, and I hope she gets at least one more. For the After School Club re-run, I went with one that I covered and I have already shared, back in 2024. It's ep.649 with Billlie! I revisited some of the older episodes while I was sick this last week and I was reminded of how much I liked this one, even though I'm not as familiar with the group. For the The Show re-run, I went with CSR back in 2022. And for the two extra stages to compensate for the lack of stages by the winners this week, I went with the freshly debuted KEYVITUP and the goddess Hwasa.  As always, the links in the spreadsheet go to my reviews, and the link for ASC goe...

Release date: 2025 December 26 Album tracklist:  I Can't Go to Shinchon , I Can't Go to Shinchon (Inst.) Album runtime: 8 minutes  We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming of 2026 releases to do a review for a song released in December of 2025. Why am I suddenly doing this song four months later? Because I was just looking at the second gen groups because there have to be groups between TVXQ! and Super Junior. Enter: V.O.S with a 2004 debut. And then I was going to go look at their discography, and saw that they'd released a song in 2025. And for the record, with Spotify's recent slop of AI songs released under the older gen artists who aren't as active, I didn't look on Spotify. I was looking on Melon because I wanted the title track of the song for their second album and I saw the new release there. I think they actually put out two things last year, another Best Of album and a digital single. This one is the digital single. I know nothing about them, ...

Release date: 2026 April 13 Album tracklist: We on Fire, Bewitched, HOTLINE, Sakura-iro Yell, We on Fire (Korean ver.), Bewitched (Korean ver.) Album runtime: 17 minutes  The cold continues to kick my butt. However, &TEAM dropped a new song and I've recently been sniffing around the group trying to decide if I want to listen to them more, so this is actually a pretty strong sign I should. And while I'm pretty sure that this is a Japanese release, they added the Korean version to the album, so here we are. The funny thing is that they're not even the first HYBE group to drop something this month. ILLIT dropped an OST last week. They also won't be the last because almost every group under HYBE has music expected to be released this month. Which means that we can also expect unpleasantly short songs from all of them because HYBE is the way it is right now and seems to think that shorter songs are better. Case in point: this one is barely over two-and-a-half minutes.  I...

Release date: 2026 April 03 Album track list: SELF CRUCIFIXION; THE GIANT;  Studio54 ; A SMALL, FILTHY SHOW WINDOW; ZERO-COKE; Another Dimension Holy Dude!!!!!!!!; SEOUL CHAOS;  DESPERADO ; FOR FANS; STENDHAL SYNDROME; BE SOLID Album runtime: 37 mi nutes  Second song to get a music video from this album! Let's go, T.O.P! This song is so soft at the start, relying on the vocals and background vocals to set the mood, but even once the beat kicks in and the synth starts to synth, it still stays so soft because of that extended note from whatever that instrument is. It's got weight. It's got power. There are a couple of spots where it pretends to kick up its heels a little, but the actual speed never actually increases and the energy level remains surprisingly heavy and occasionally chaotic. I have a high suspicion that I'm probably going to get to confirm with the music video if the lyrics are included what I think I'm hearing, because if I'm hearing it and underst...

 I went back to the roulette wheel for this one because I figure that I can stray again from what I'm familiar with, and instead it gave me the first song I started listening to by MAMAMOO and the reason I continued listening to them. 6000 songs, at least a third of which I've never heard before. And yet, ironically, it's a song called "Destiny" that chaos decided for me. What's even funnier about this is the last song I did was by their younger brothers, who debuted the year this came out. Ah, I'm excited for you to hear this one if you haven't already. MAMAMOO is a four member girl group that debuted in 2014 under RBW. They're known for industry defying behavior (especially when told not to do something), insane vocals, and a level of chaos that has caused them to be called the female BTOB (and BTOB gets called the male MAMAMOO, which is accurate and funny). Also, Changsub and Solar are besties and she's about two days older. Or a day older. ...