Song Review:: Kangin (Super Junior): LOVE IS PAIN

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  • 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.

I love the almost gospel-sound to this instrumental. And I was sitting here on my first listen, just kind of absorbing the sound to figure out how to talk about it, and then I think we got a key change. It startled me out of the absorption. We've got a lot of guitar in the instrumental, and it's probably the dominant instrument with some very strong support from the drums and either an organ or a synthesizer set up to sound like an organ. We do get some moments where the song kicks up some heels a tiny bit, not enough to really change the energy level or the emotion, but it does help with the variations to the song, which I'm always looking to be hearing.

He sounds like a member of Super Junior. Not a specific one. But just generally, he's got a very Super Junior sound to his voice. I don't listen to them enough to be able to say what it is, but I can still hear it. He's also got that second gen vibrato I love to hear, as expected, and this song is soft enough that it really shows it off well. I think this is another one of those songs that requires age, maturity, and experience to really sell it. He's not going through five divorces at once, but he's already gone through them and come out the other side with new wear and emotional scars. 

Ooh, a slice of life music video with translation to confirm that this is the post divorce song. And given the amount of usage of the word "scars", I swear, I didn't watch it before getting to this paragraph. This is a soft, uncomplicated music video, and it matches the aesthetic of the song well.

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