Just A Little Fangirl Love

Release date: 2026 April 29 Album tracklist: TIME'S UP, COOL , BYE BYE, DREAM PARADE, HALF TONIGHT, STAY GOLD Album runtime: 17 minutes  Well, this was not the one I was going to do next, but I got on YouTube to see if I could find someone had uploaded the entire "movie" for the video game Night Trap , and my algorithm decided to show me that this music video had dropped. And I obviously decided to do a quick search to see if this was an AI artist or not because I didn't recognize the name and the views were pretty low. Turns out, this is a late second gen group that lasted their seven years plus and then disbanded, except they didn't, and now they're back together post military. And then , I realized that I was in fact already aware of them because I did an ASC re-run featuring them on a music show wins post last year. Shows how much I pay attention. But, I do remember, now that I know that I saw it, that I liked them. So, is this in Japanese? Possibly. And ...

 And here we are with the last of the posts for the randomness of April. Over six thousand songs, and once again, the Roulette Wheel picks a song I love a lot. Every time it turns up in my playlist, I go "Wow, I love this song. Which one is this?" And then go "Why didn't I recognize it?" I'm almost positive that that particular problem will be fixed after I write this post, which would be nice. But right now, it feels like I'm discovering it every time I listen to it, and I love it each time. So, if this is your first time listening to this, that's my recommendation right up front. I love it so much I fall in love with it again each time I hear it. ASTRO debuted as a six-member group under Fantagio Entertainment in 2016, which means that their tenth anniversary was this year. Congrats to them! They're currently active as a four member group, though I could also see the arguments for a five or six member group, just depending on how you decide to ...

Release date: 2026 April 27 Album tracklist: Dancing Anyway, Glow , Light the Fire, Wishlist, Lovin' on Me Album runtime: 15 minutes  I avoided doing his debut song because I'm still upset that SM treated him like this and it set a dangerous precedent. However, and to be clear I am still very upset about it, at some point no matter how unfair something is, you either have to step away entirely or accept it. And my being upset with SM and avoiding his solo work is not fair to him because he has worked too hard for this. So. RIIZE is getting moved off of Underage Protocol, and I'll starting doing his songs. This has been sitting on me for a few months, probably since January or February, because I don't enjoy being this angry, but it's been long enough that my avoidance won't do anything. So, it's good to see you, Seunghan. Let's see what you've got for me. This is such an SM sounding song. I can practically smell the SHINee coming off the instrumental...

Release date: 2026 April 27 Album tracklist:  ROLL THE DICE Album runtime: 3 minutes  You know, it makes sense why we got a Chan and my boy Versachoi for Yaochen. He's been at JYPE for ages and was a trainee alongside Chan. So let's get right to it, shall we? (And it's right at three minutes, so I'm already pleased.) I like that we're getting to see 3Racha and co. branch out more with who gets their songs. That does mean though that the 3Racha (and each member of 3Racha separately) sound is being isolated against the Stray Kids sound. But if you want some more "noise music", this is where you should go to. This has some fantastic clanging and street sounds to it along with some science fiction warbling and whatnot. It's a bit more than I want, particularly because there isn't a strong shift in texture of the instrumental, but that's fine that it's not for me.  Vocally, this sounds a bit like a combination between Do It and Adrenaline by A...

  The BigHit domination continues, with the one to follow BTS being their very own little brothers. It feels a bit like they were passing on the torch, which makes me smile. There was also a Grand Slam (still have not looked that up and no one is correcting me so we're assuming that I'm correct) this week, so congrats! Surprise! We got three extra stages this time: two from Show Champion and one from Show! Music Core . Obviously because TXT won, I had to add on an ALL'N performance (please refer to last week's wins if you're unfamiliar with their adorable meet-cute in the elevator). And interestingly, that performance has a surprisingly high number of views for a freshly debuted soloist not in a decently sized company or from a group, more so than some of the other stages I shared. The other two extras I shared, because I can share what I want, were Donghae and Be Boys. (Just to make it obvious what I'm doing in case you're new here and missed the irritati...

Release date: 2026 April 24 Album tracklist: Celebration Album runtime: 2 minutes  I've already heard some mixed reactions for this song, but I tried not to pay too much attention to it because I knew I was going to be doing this and I didn't want the strong opinions to influence whatever conclusion I come to. I do already like the group and am hoping that I like their new album, but I also recognize that I may not, and that's fine. What I'm already not  happy about is the two-and-a-half minute runtime, but that's what I'm coming to expect from HYBE groups because of HYBE's obsession with short songs. They need to back off and let songs have lengths again. The plinking water notes are actually pretty repetitious through that first part, although thankfully, they pause and give us a break from that before coming baleck. It's kind of a weird combination of sounds with this track, because we've got the plinking water notes, and then we've got the sc...

Release date: 2026 April 02 Album tracklist:  appear Album runtime: 3 minutes  Here is the sequence of events for why I'm covering this song now instead of one of the more recent releases that I need to get to. Changsub (former CUBE artist) dropped a single last week that I just covered. Then, because I did that one, Hui's (also former CUBE artist) popped up as one I should listen to on YouTube. So I started that review. In the middle of it, I decided to look up the writing credits to make sure I was correct about Hui being the writer for his song. Well, I noticed that it was mixed and edited at Cube Studio, so I looked them up because that felt a bit odd, and yes, they do seem to be connected to CUBE. So I commented about the oddity to my Stay friend, who asked who was left at Cube. I started listing artists (Shinwon from Pentagon, i-dle, LIGHTSUM, NOWZ, CLC technically and or possibly). She said "I forgot about LIGHTSUM." And then I panicked a little bit because wha...

Release date: 2026 April 27 Album tracklist:  Dear Tomorrow Album runtime: 3 minutes I was about to type that it seems like the former CUBE soloists were just trying to take me out with the soft feels and then the song kicked up its heels and got a bit spunky with the instrumental. We've still got all the instruments I like: piano, violin, and guitar. Plus, we've got the staple triumvirate of the piano, guitar, and drums. I love this, actually. I genuinely do. It's fun, it's bright, it's got that brief soften to let you catch your breath before it drags you laughing back into the chaos of the song. I love his voice so much. I don't know what's in CUBE's water but whatever they do to their artists produces some incredible voices. I'm also half in love with his vibrato because he's got a vibrato like a first or second gen idol, falsetto or chest voice or anywhere in between, which this song has all of. If you want a pretty good introduction to his ...

Release date: 2026 April 23 Album tracklist: Youth Album runtime: 3 minutes  My cousin tried to tell me that his reaction to Changsub meant that my cat hates him. And yet, my cat fell asleep today listening to the sound of his voice and his tail stopped bothering him. This is the cat that growls and hisses while his tail is up and relaxed and also bites to say "I love you." Somewhere he learned weird things. And loves Changsub almost as much as he loves me, theoretically. I never want to put that to the test. Piano and then a soft violin to start a song is always a good choice as far as I'm concerned, but then a guitar joins in, equally softly. This is the kind of song that I think should qualify as a lullaby because while it's got a bit of movement and change throughout, the instrumental is so delicately lulling with the exact right BPM to rock a baby to.  And speaking of lullabies, this is one of Changsub's strengths. He's got such a pleasant timbre and vibr...

Release date: 2026 April 23 Album tracklist: Navi Album runtime: 3 minutes  So good news. The rock band is having a comeback. I'm uncertain if this one is a pre-release or not, but for the moment, I'm leaving this labeled as a digital single. And I don't have to worry about ages. Delightfully. You know, traditional instruments being used in a rock song by a rock band was not on my 2026 kpop bingo sheet, but I'm the exact opposite of upset about it. It's not a sound combination that I thought would have worked, but the flute-like instrument holds its own against the guitar, which is impressive, and while it is a little shrill when it's hitting those higher notes, the difference in texture is just fascinating. That's ignoring how the whole song starts out too, because we've got strings and softness and then it just explodes. Fascinating.  I'm not completely familiar with the vocal techniques I'm hearing, which is great and I love learning new thing...

 For the record, if anyone needed some proof that I am not actually picking what songs I do this month, then this would do it. For starters, I literally just did a Baekhyun post and I would never have chosen to do an EXO song that soon after it. The amount of spacing out I've been doing for the EXID posts should be proof enough for that. Secondly, I've got May planned at least by which songs I'm doing, though the order is still a bit flexible and  I've chosen the first couple of June songs, and in that batch is an EXO song. So, apologies if you want more variety, but if you're an EXO-L, well, you'll enjoy the coverage the next six or so weeks. I decided to pull this song from the Roulette Wheel as well, and as a Carat, I'm sure you can guess what clip will be  included for this one. I feel like I'm legally required. But more importantly, I love this song, so I'm the opposite of mad about getting to yap about how amazing this song is, even if the tim...

Release date: 2026 April 21 Album tracklist: V.V.$, A$K, COUNT IT UP, DA$H, BOTTLE$, MIXIN' THANGS, VAMO$, $TAY THE NIGHT Album runtime: 16 minutes  The fact that I have to specify that this is the girl group (because there's also a boy group and VVS is the name of the Vanner fandom) makes me a little peevish. Their company should have done their research better. I also never actually did their debut song. Whoops. We are on Underage Protocol on them until next year, which could have been worse because the maknae was almost sixteen at debut, but not quite, which is why we're on Underage Protocol. This is the second longest song on here, and at an acceptable length, but the overall runtime leaves something to be desired. This is an impressive instrumental in its stability. There's very little that changes throughout the song on this end, but it's got both weight and energy, as well as some very interesting instruments to extend and  meld the two different sections. I ...

Release date: 2026 April 22 Album tracklist: I'll Be There , I'll Be There (Instrumental) Album runtime: 6 minutes  So funny thing. I've been sitting here, going "Why is his name familiar?" So, naturally, I looked him up and immediately recognized his face. He was the Wanna One boy that was the other judge on Build Up with my boys Baekho and Eunkwang, and Solar my queen. I'm looking forward to this because he's supposed to have a stunning voice, and, as we know, I love stunning voices.  The instrumental on its own is provided, which makes me a happy camper, and what an instrumental this is. Guitar? Check. Piano? Check. Drums? Check. Strings? Gloriously check. We have the cinematic swelling that I love to see. Well, hear. But generally speaking, the amount of movement in the instrumental directly tied to the amount of dramatic turning points glows so brilliantly that he's got to have a voice to match it. I'm a little bit more excited, tentatively, f...

Release date: 2026 April 21 Album tracklist:  Rock Paper Scissors , CPR, Colors on me, 5959, The star Album runtime: 16 minutes  And here is the actual title track, everyone! I don't know why I didn't do what I normally do, which is triple check what the title track is after the TVXQ! thing back in 2024 when I had just started this, but here we are. Apparently, someone who reads this needed to hear CPR. Or I did. I don't know. But here we are with the actual title track.  This sounds more like a title track. We've got high-dancing energy with the instrumental and some very fun record scratching both in the instrumental and mimicked in the vocals. You know what else this instrumental has? Audience participation clapping. This song is so close to just being full festival energy; it's just missing a little bit more drama. This start of this song sounds like Chicken by Sungjae . I love that song and I smiled when I realized what song this sounded like. If I were less ti...

Release date: 2026 April 21 Album tracklist: POSE , What If I Miss Love? Album runtime: 6 minutes  Because I made the error, I'm going to separate the two B1A4 posts with this one that I also need to do. I also generally really like this group, y'all. I'm not as hyped about the runtime on this song, although the b-side has an acceptable length. As a side note, sometimes I think about how often I use adverbs when I write any of these and the general rule of thumb I was taught (and apparently ignore) was to use as few as possible. Yet, here I am. At least I'm using commas more.  This one has a pretty hip-hop feeling beat, but it's a very slow one. We don't have a ton of variation going on, which is fine, though there are some bars of rests in the instrumental, which I appreciate. This one doesn't really do it for me though, although given what I was doing for the majority of the day yesterday, I imagine this would be a really good cleaning song. It doesn't...

Release date: 2026 April 21 Album tracklist:  Rock Paper Scissors , CPR, Colors on me, 5959, The star Album runtime: 16 minutes  So I recently discovered the meaning behind this group's name, and it's the members' blood types. That reminds me of Dragon Pony, the band that is so named because they were born in either the Year of the Dragon or the Year of the Horse. Or 2NE1, because the average age of the members at debut was 21 years old. I love the weirdly literal names. And this is actually their first release under their own company after fourteen years at WM Entertainment. Ooh, this song makes excellent use of a stereo sound system. That's fantastic. The instrumental is just plinking all over the place and it keeps the song fairly unpredictable with actual physical movement instead of just relying on more static variations. That's satisfying. Generally, the entire this is pretty gentle, and ironically, a song that you could actually use for CPR, although it is on...

Release date: 2026 May 04 Album tracklist:  TNT , REDRED, ACAI , YOUNGCREATORCREW, Wassup, Blue Lips Album runtime: 16 minutes  It's not many groups that I can't listen to because they have too many minors. Usually it's the fifteen- and fourteen-year-old maknaes that land a group on Underage Protocol. Unfortunately, Cortis is on the list because they have the same issue as my beloved NU'EST at debut, who are the reason why I added that stipulation. Taemin and Max Changmin prompted the under sixteen issue. NU'EST resulted in the >50% rule. Good news is that we have less than a year before I lift that and can stop worrying about it. Cortis's music so far has been kind of hit and miss for me, at least as far as the promoted songs go that I've reviewed, so I'm not sure which side is going to get this song or the title track when the mini album is released. We are still plagued by the HYBE refusal to have songs over three minutes, which will be in sharp re...

 The actual proper name of this song is " 널 기다려", so if you're looking for it, that may be what you need to look for. Okay, now that that's out of the way, welcome, everyone! This one came to you from from the big Roulette Wheel I made (which, if you're looking for it, the link is in the Junk Drawer page). This is one of the songs on there that I've never heard before, and, if I'm being honest, there are only two songs that I know I've heard by them because one is in my big The Jams playlist: Hug U . The other one was shared as the extra stage from The Show . So, I'm kind of excited about this because I know that this group gets recommended to me often from the various algorithms. If you're also unfamiliar, we get to explore them together! So, DIA debuted in 2015 as a seven member group, but they've had a few different lineups over the years. For this album, the line-up was Eunice, Cathy (now Huihyeon), Jenny, Yebin, Eunjin, Chaeyeon, and C...

Release date: 2026 April 20 Album tracklist: 2.0 (TWO POINT O), Ode to Love , Sticky, Feel The Beat, Crush, Street (2AM), Glow Up, Everglow, Don't Say You Love Me, Voyage Album runtime: 30 minutes  Congrats on the first full album! Title track over three minutes? Check! Average runtime over three minutes? Check! Maknae who is eighteen? Check! I am a happy fangirl for this moment.  This is a pretty mild instrumental, more so than I was expecting. We've got the skittering beat that usually promises high danceability, but combined with the relatively low BPM (I've only just now realized that what I consider a low BPM is actually pretty fast because this feels like it's in the low 130s, so ignore me on that point), it allows the song to to translate its softness to lightness. We don't have any big bursts of drama with the instrumental, though we do have a softening dip that allows there to be a good contrast of energy with the song at equilibrium. It's nice. This wi...

Release date: 2026 April 21 Album tracklist:  UNCHILD , ENERGY Album runtime: 4 minutes  Well, everyone, we've come to the age of two-minute tracks. Literally. And the title track is better, but still under two-and-a-half minutes. I will say that the group has a pretty cool logo. I'll give them that. But with a freshly debuted group, I have to check. I'm holding out no hope. I have been pleasantly surprised. There are three members (including the maknae) who are seventeen and of those, two are turning eighteen in a few months. Because of that and because the maknae will turn eighteen before their first year is up, I'm not going to put them on Underage Protocol, tentatively. I reserve the right to put them back on if I find out the company is abusive and garbage in the next year. So despite the runtime that makes me frustrated, I hope I like them. Two things are going to be simultaneously true about this song. I really like the instrumental. The song makes the most for t...

Release date: 2026 April 20 Album tracklist: Backtalk , STAY Album runtime: 6 minutes  I have no quips or comments or stories for this one, other than I really liked Keita when he was on Boys Planet . That is an interesting instrumental. It's very 80s techno for quite a bit of it, and while it doesn't have the science fiction warbling, it does have the science fiction sparkling. We've also got some distortion and crackling fuzz to the instrumental that gives the song an aesthetic age that you don't hear in music very often anymore. I'm listening to the aural equivalent of something filmed on Super8 film to give it that very distinct home movie feel. I'm not overly fond, just because the pitch of the sustained notes is bothering me a little, but as a choice, it's kind of a bold one, and I love that for the song. It knows what it is trying to do, and I think it's doing it successfully. There's a lot of variation going on in the vocals, and they all fee...

  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...