Just A Little Fangirl Love

Release date: 2026 June 24 Album tracklist: Cosmic , Ring Album runtime: 6 minutes  This is their first release for the year, and ideally (because I know that this is a smaller group, which stresses me out on principle), I'd like to see at least a mini album from them by the end of the year. Preferably a full album, but that's less likely to happen, so I'd be content to have a mini album from them. If this doesn't have some solid choreography, this instrumental is wasted on the song. We've got some sleek R&B music here with a strong beat that's quite repetitious, which I'm not overly a fan of to begin with as we know, and there is a tiny bit of a melody working its way through the song that we can hear, although it's not strong enough for my taste. Still, this is a very strong beat that doesn't send my nervous system into a complete tizzy, because it's not a set of multiple aggressive beats stacked and layered over each other to produce the i...

 I have changed which song I want to do for Jeonghan's discharge song three times now. I considered Pretty U, because I love the bit of the choreography where he does the cheek tapping move. And I would consider it for Joshua because of his iconic mistake, but since he's an LA native born and raised, he won't be getting discharged. And I have the cheek tapping move attached to Jeonghan. It's very cute. Then I thought about doing one of the Japanese releases because he learned Japanese to talk to the Japanese Carats because English and Chinese were already covered. My second favorite Seventeen song is a Japanese release, but I also feel like I want to hold onto Ima for a different occasion. So then I switched to Power of Love , because I liked the symbolism of that and up until a couple of days ago, I had Power of Love locked. Until I suddenly decided, literally the day I finished my post for Something for Ren's discharge, that Power of Love was in fact wrong, and ...

Release date: 2026 June 24 Album tracklist: 24 Hours Album runtime: 2  minutes  The maknae is currently on a medical hiatus for an inner ear issue related to vertigo. I hope he recovers quickly, that therapy goes well, and that he can return fully without having it come back and without needing surgery. He also turns sixteen in a couple of days, so happy birthday in advance (along with the two oldest members)! And even though he's not active with the group right now, I'm leaving them on Underage Protocol.  This is a surprisingly soft instrumental with a touch of something sultry and a bit of what feels like it could be longing. It's almost an acoustic version of a song with soft, floaty bits and spots where it's about 3% more active than the baseline of the song.  We've got a little bit of rapping, and a little bit of singing, and, like with the instrumental, everything is just really soft. There's no bite here, but there is a good amount of variation to vocals,...

Release date: 2026 June 23 Album tracklist: Runaway , Defined, Chamomile Album runtime: 9  minutes  It's a single, but he's got a stunning voice. And congrats on the wedding last year, my dude! Ah, that's a strong guitar. It's easily the strongest and most prominent of the instruments going on here, but it's comfortingly country in a way that I personally really enjoy. I mean this is very country, but not honky-tonk, which is what I think a lot of people think of when they think of country music (I love honky tonk music, for the record, and you can pry Watermelon Crawl out of my cold, dead hands), but this feels more like your classic country love song. I'm fascinated that we're getting so many songs that have country music elements that feel like country music in K-Pop right now, because there's a very big difference between country music from someone who understands country and someone who knows what pieces should be included. Like, I could write a ro...

Release date: 2026 June 08 Album tracklist: 06070, VIRAL , ddok ddok ddok , ADIOS! , Upside Down, DIVE, Forever You, I Wonder Album runtime: 25 minutes  I'm super behind but I'll hit this b-side all the same. This sounds like a summer pop song from the mid-2000s. Remember when everything was just a little bit alt-rock? That's what this instrumental is doing. It feels a bit brighter than you'd typically expect from a rock song, but the guitars are doing their job and alternating between being supportive and then aggressively emotional. We've got some variation going on with the drums as well with changes in their rhythms, so that they're not just doing the beat. And I love how it ends with just the vocals and cuts the instrumental out. That actually does a really good job of ending the song on a sense of goodbye, having it be just the vocals. After the amount of sound that the rest of the song has vocally, especially leading up into the ending, having there be a ...

Release date: 2026 June 24 Album tracklist: RUN IT Album runtime: 3  minutes  Look at all the capital letters. We've got a little over a month and a half before the album is going to be released, and between now and then, their next tour is starting. Seungmin, I hope you're well by then. Chan, you'd better have that surgery before then. The timing of the tour feels very rushed, but there is a looming e-word sitting over Lee Know's head dropping closer every day, so despite how ridiculous the schedule is, before we find out what that is going to look like for Stray Kids, I'm willing to chalk it up to them trying to get one last tour in before that all begins. The runtime on this one has me very hopeful for the rest of the album's runtime. Fingers crossed. Y'all know I'm down for brass instruments. As fierce and dramatic as this instrumental is, and it's pretty dramatic in the "we're marching off to battle" sort of way, I'm intrigued ...

 So when I was trying to decide how I was going to honor my boys getting discharged, I decided to give each one of them a song to represent another aspect about them other than just as idols. For Minhyun back in December, it was a NU'EST song he was a lyricist for (thank you Submitter, for tossing that into my lap and helping me decide how I was going to do this). For JR back in March, it was a song for which he learned to play the bass guitar that was in a drama he acted in. For Baekho, I'm going to do a song he has writing credits for (y'all are going to be surprised by what song I pick, but you've got about a year before you get to find out which one it is). For Ren, as soon as I decided it was going to be some sort of a representative song, there was literally only one choice I could do: Something by Girl's Day. For those of you who know, of course I'm going to include that. For those of you who don't, look forward to a very funny comment section. I als...

Release date: 2026 June 22 Album tracklist:  Dust Album runtime: 2  minutes  I would have had no idea he'd released a new song if I hadn't been wandering about Tumblr today and if one of my mutuals didn't post about the song like twelve times. And now you all get to know about it too! I'm going to leave him connected to VIXX here and in the future, because while the whole mess over his enlistment is deeply serious, as are his health problems, and he did finish his military service back in December with a double enlistment. He may not be able to be part of the group anymore since withdrawing back in 2022, but I'm accepting what happened as the final consequences as far as I'm concerned and I'll leave him connected to his group. As long as nothing else happens with him. I will be most cross and disappointed. I'm also disappointed in the runtime, but you know what? It's his first one back after years. I'll give him this one, but I'm not rounding...

Release date: 2026 May 29 Album tracklist: WDA (Whole Different Animal) (feat. G-Dragon) , LEMONADE , SHAKIN', Can't Help Myself, Camouflage, Bite, Switchblade (feat. Ty Dolla $ign), Roll, My Plan, 'Til We Die, LEMONADE (feat. Becky G) Album runtime: 33  minutes  And continuing with the SM obsession with lemons. It's a proud tradition at this point (with even Onew having a bunch of them in one of his music videos), and I know I'm doing things out of order, but this one got a win (congrats!) so I want to make sure I have it done before I post the Weekly Music Show Wins that I'm behind on. I just think it's really funny that we got two SM lemon songs this season. First this one and then Lemon Tang by Hearts2Hearts. And, delightfully, the runtime is acceptable. This sounds very Whiplash . It's not my favorite sound for an instrumental, because it's not complex enough for my brain to really enjoy it, but this one is very science fiction in a Tron sort o...

Release date: 2026 June 22 Album tracklist: Lemon Tang , 15-LOVE, Baby Steps, heart emoji (♡), Secret Recipe, RUDE! Album runtime: 17  minutes  Underage Protocol is active because SM has an alarming habit of debuting actual full children. But the group is down to less than two years now before the maknae is eighteen. However, as a side note, I had one of my teacher friends show either  RUDE!  or FOCUS to her students and her students loved it and thought it was really cool that one of them was fourteen, which made me raise my eyebrows and shake my head, but they're like ten. Fourteen is cool and old when you're ten, even if she may have been fifteen when whichever song it was came out. I'm not enthused about the runtime, but it could be worse. The title track is a little too short for my liking, but it could be a lot worse. Could be worse. The slightly off-key whistling at the beginning is a bold choice and one that I happen to think is quite charming. The pian...

  Sigh. It was good while it lasted. This is such classic The Show behavior that I'm unsurprised, just disappointed. We have three first wins for songs, and with the exception of one, all of the wins are Big 4. Actually, Big 2, because only two of them are represented here. A rookie group also got themselves a second win, which is a little funny because every single member has several years worth of experience from other groups prior to debut. For the After School Club performance, since they got a win this week, I decided to go with ILLIT from ep. 621. I love watching the rookies the most because they're usually a little bit skittish and uncertain, but I like seeing how quickly they warm up and get comfortable. I'm looking for a full episode from 2018 for a duo, but I can afford to take some time to hunt it down. I'm going to sulk a little over The Show, so you don't get a performance. Sorry. However, I did give you MEOVV for the extra stage because I absolutely a...

 Sorry for the wait, whoever suggested this! I had the May theme all set up, so I arranged June so that this would fit in well, because I listened to this song after you suggested it and went "Okay. I need to step outside my comfort zone a bit." Which is why, if y'all noticed, I added two new rappers to the Expanded Offerings line-up to help set Woodz up a bit in his capacity of metal for this song, and specifically rappers that were being a bit more aggressive than I've done on here previously. It's all for my good. Not that I don't listen to metal on occasion; I've got several work playlists that are basically just metal and heavy rock so that I can have screaming expressed in my soul without me actually doing it out of frustration. Never have I related to an anime more than Aggretsuko . I highly recommend it. Woodz has had a pretty illustrious career already, originally debuting as the main rapper of YueHua's boy group, UNIQ, in 2014, then debuting ...

Release date: 2026 June 17 Album tracklist: Lilac Album runtime: 3 minutes  Oh, I'm exited about this song because I adored their debut song.  More traditional Korean music taps into my love for traditional Irish music. I fully recognize that they tap into the same part of my brain, and it's fine. We've got so much melody going on in the instrumental and a range of textures because we've got a range of instrument types. Percussion, stringed, woodwind. And, delightfully, we've also got audience participation snapping. I love it when we get that as part of the instrumental. Gorgeous. They have beautiful voices. Well-supported, a little bit lower, haunting on occasion. Those are some very pretty runs and vocalizations they've got going on, and some of the vocal techniques remind me a bit of yodeling, which just delights me more. The vocal skill and control that's on display with this song is very nice. I like this a lot. I may have gotten distracted by the Cara...

Release date: 2026 May 30 Album tracklist:  Ain't No Hard Feelings Album runtime: 3 minutes  Queen BoA is in he house! I am so behind, but I'm not going to skip, especially not when this is her first release following her establishment of her own company after leaving SM. The majority of the instrumental is taken up by the beat with various instruments, but there are spots where a sort of melody brushes against it. There is a little bit of variation going on with the instruments, not as much as I'd like though. The danceability to this song is quite high though, so I'm expecting the choreography to be strong for this song. For those of you who prefer UK garage as a genre, or at least enjoy it more than I do, you may really like this song, though I'm not sure how good of a representation of that genre this is. I'm learning still. She sounds a lot like Hwasa here, and I know she's both older and senior to Hwasa, but because BoA doesn't always sound like th...

Release date: 2026 June 01 Album tracklist: Sad Girls Schemin', Peer, Baby Flower , Type of Girl, Sleek, I Like That, Me Myself Mode Album runtime: 17  minutes  Congrats on the win! The funny thing about tripleS, and I hope one of them can get the help she needs when she's ready, is that at one point, I actually could have listened to the whole group, but then the new maknae got added. We are very much on Underage Protocol now. I can still listen to some of the subunits, thought, but I have to check each one to make sure I can. I was kind of hoping that this was a subunit, but it's the whole group, so yes, we are on Underage Protocol. Underage Protocol is my small way of protesting when companies debuting minors that are under sixteen, or debuting more than half of a group underage. If a group is on Underage Protocol, I won't listen to them until the entire group is eighteen. I give the songs a single listen each for instrumental and vocals, and then two at most watches...

Release date: 2026 June 08 Album tracklist: SUGAR HONEY ICE TEA Album runtime: 3  minutes  I'm pretty sure that this is not a pre-release, but if it is, then I'll make sure to update this accordingly. We are on Underage Protocol until next February, and then I'l actually be able to dig into their discography. I've heard some things about some of their b-sides that make me think I'll really like them, but I can't until Chiquita is eighteen. Unless someone wants to drop their debut song or a b-side or two into The Form . But at least it's three minutes long, or close enough. There is some really interesting synthwork going on in the instrumental, which is a good thing because this kind of instrumental is all too easy to make entirely monotonous by relying only on the various beats in the song to support the vocals, but then not actually doing anything with the instrumental to give it a personality. Again, they didn't do that, so color me surprised but plea...

Release date: 2026 June 04 Album tracklist: Blooming (Intro), 4 Flowers ,  4 Flowers (Acoustic Remix),  4 Flowers (Latin Remix),  4 Flowers (Inst.) Album runtime: 14  minutes  I love how all of their album artwork is simple and cohesive. I really do. The albums all match for the most part and that's so satisfying. Wasn't their anniversary soon? I know I'm mixing my tenses here, but I'm not sure if their anniversary is before or after this date, so I'm just covering my bases. I'm pretty sure that this was released around then, but their anniversary is not one of the ones that I have memorized. Also, this is a three-minute song. Thank you, songwriters (including Solar and Moonbyul). Ah, we got just the instrumental. Nice. Thank you, lovelies. This is actually a very quiet song for the instrumental. I was listening to the actual track a couple of ties before I remembered there is an instrumental only track. The piano at the end in particular is lovely and delicate,...

 Hello, everyone! I'm excited for this one because it's a little bit of a departure from our regularly scheduled strictly K-Pop posts, and while I could have done Lee Chanwon given my newfound love for him, I don't need SCoups's picket to get uppity again even though he's currently not hanging on the wall. So, instead, we're going to go with Lim Young Woong, who is apparently going to do some country healing this summer with his dog. Good for him.  Lim Young Woong debuted in 2016, and, after a few variety and survival shows, became the first trot singer to get a win on a music show since Kang Jin, and in 2020 was the second most streamed artist in South Korea. Not bad for Mr. Lim. Not bad at all. Also, he has made it into the Diamond Club on Melon for more than ten billion streams, joining a single idol group with seven members that debuted in 2013 as the only other member of that club. Again, that's not bad. Well done. Lovely Touch comes off of his first a...

 THE SHOW IS BACK, BABY! MY STUBBORNNESS AND HOPE HAS BEEN REWARDED! Anyway, congrats to the artists that got their first wins for the song this week! And we ended up having two Triple Crowns and a first win for a song! It's an exciting time! I'm just delighted.  For the extras, I went with M.O.N.T in 2024 on After School Club on episode 617. I would have sworn the title track for the album was IDGAF , but instead they were promoting Honestly , which I'm not mad about, no matter how much I love IDGAF . Why? Because they showed off their harmonies and playing the instruments. Also, they're adorable and couldn't stop giggling. And because we keep having wins predominately from the Big 4, I'm going to keep adding the extra performances. This week, it was xikers on The Show . As always, the links in the spreadsheet go to my reviews of the songs, and the link down with After School Club goes to the full episode. Enjoy the stages! Show Champion: ZEROBASEONE "TOP ...