Just A Little Fangirl Love

 I promised that I'd do a VIXX post, didn't I? After all, what would Halloween be without the original Concept Kings? If you were to have a list of Halloween appropriate songs and it wasn't half-filled with VIXX songs, I'd be confused. In this case, I have a special fondness for this song because I keep singing part of it during my D&D games because it's wholly appropriate for our poor characters. Also, if anyone needs the range of concept that VIXX pulled out, the last post I did for the whole group was VOODOO DOLL, where they were trapped dolls in their own rooms of torment and external control. What is it this time? A lot of fun. VIXX debuted in 2012 as a six-member group under Jellyfish Entertainment. Most of their songs so far have been with the six of them, and considering how early this one is, it wouldn't be surprising that this one is with all six. Which it is. Also, all six of them are over 180cm, so they're also fairly tall. The more you learn...

Release date: 2026 August 24 Album tracklist: BORN DIRE , Diamond Hour, One More Time, Talk to me , OMG! , Good Life, WELCOME home Album runtime: 18 minutes  Congrats on the win! I'm so behind that we've had another music video drop for a track from this album. I'm deeply disappointed by the runtimes though because there's one that's exactly three minutes long and one that's slightly more than three minutes, but that album runtime is not it. Also, why is the last song so oddly threatening in the title? You know, just as I was thinking about how this song just went full tilt and didn't pause for a breath, it did in fact slow down a little. So that's good that we've got that variation. There's something missing from it to make this instrumental as eerily threatening as I think it wants to be, and I think what's missing is the fact that the song is in a major key. There's nothing technically wrong with it. It's got a lot of really good p...

 Did y'all know I've written over 1200 posts now? And that's not counting the drafts of the reviews I've got sitting to be typed up. Those are just the ones that have actually been posted. I'm super behind on literally everything to do with this blog. But it's fine. June was a good month. Debuts! Debuts I covered were: NXON , Keyveatz , and V8 (Seventeen) . The ones I did not were HAT:Q , B.YOUR SIDE , A-1000 , for groups, HyunHaYo (Treasure) for a sub-unit, and some of the soloists were Renjun (NCT) , Evan (Enhypen) ,  Lee Jae Wook , Kaina , and Kim Dong Geum . I'd just like to point out Lee Jae Wook, because he is of course the lead actor for Alchemy of Souls , which is, of course, the reason that I'm sitting here writing these words in my present and you're sitting or standing or laying there reading these words in your present.  Songs I was looking forward to: SHINee: I love that even though they're not the most active of groups these days, ...

Release date: 2026 June 29 Album tracklist: Key Beats , Catch My Breath, OXY , SUB_ZERO (feat. punchnello) , SUCK IT UP Album runtime: 12 minutes  Well, not a single song on here is over three minutes. That's not ideal. Also, the group is not on Underage Protocol, which is nice, because then I get to sit on the song for a little bit. But, let's see what kind of a debut we're working with.  Okay. This is quite the intense song. Even when the skittering beat goes away, we're left with a deep bass that at concert levels is going to rattle the bones in your chest. Very strong techno music going on. There's a spot that's got the variation levels that I look for where that deep bass is cut out, but overall, there's something about the song that feels a bit too frantic for my energy right now.  We've got a decent mix of rapping and singing, which is good. On both ends, we're listening to well-supported voices, and this is obviously a group where it's ra...

Release date: 2026 October 19 Album tracklist: Like you, 12 o'clock , Outside, One plus one, Not personal (Joshua Solo), Coloring (Jeonghan Solo), No looking back Album runtime: 19 minutes  Whoo! The next of the Seventeen subunits has debuted, which means that now Jeonghan is in almost as many subunits as Hoshi is. If they'd done the Guoz subunit, then SCoups would have been in as many official subunits as Hoshi. I'm deeply upset though over the fact that we have a title track that is shorter than two-and-a-half minutes. And only two of the seven songs are over three minutes. But this is a specific problem across all of the HYBE groups. I don't know what it is about this song, but it sounds oddly SHINee. Am I the only one hearing that? It's got a good streak of funky guitar and almost catcalling whistling. It's just really too short to have too much variation to it, although I love how the rest of the instrumental sort of pauses a little during the whistling. We...

Release date: 2026 October 09 Album tracklist:  Will I See You , Will I See You - Inst. Album runtime: 7 minutes  I'm so excited about the older groups being more active right now. Also, with the weather getting colder, I have to start wearing my wrist and thumb brace more which makes it a bit difficult to type, but it's easier to type on a keyboard than on my phone right now because of the lack of thumb movement. Gotta love car accidents. So much fun. Anyway, they debuted in 2004 and all three of them are married. Good for them. I'm glad they could have that bit of normalcy. This is a gorgeous instrumental. It's almost a lullaby of a song. We've got the trio of instruments that are just so versatile: piano, guitar, and drums. We get both kinds of guitars, which is always fun to hear, although the acoustic guitar does get a little bit more airtime. On top of the standard trio, we've also got a gorgeous violin just soaring its way through the instrumental. This e...

 Thank you to whoever decided to submit this song for October. I'm slightly surprised that this one was chosen instead of one of their other Halloween-appropriate songs, but I'm the opposite of upset or disappointed. I actually had an idea to do a similarly titled song by Girls' Generation, but then this landed in my lap from The Form, and I'm perfectly fine with swapping it out.  i-dle debuted in 2018 under Cube Entertainment as a six-member group, originally under the name "(G)i-dle". A lot of their songs have been written by their leader, the very fierce Soyeon, and I just have to say that this specific album has a lot of songs I really like on it. VILLAIN DIES is the third track of their 2022 album, I NEVER DIE . The lyricist and composer is Soyeon (CLC, Baby DONT Cry, Key, Kim Namjoo, and Ravi), and the composer-only is THE PROOF (iKON, Jo Yuri, BVNDIT, CLC, ASTRO, Pentagon, Hyolyn, VAV, Viini, and Verivery). This is a dark fairytale of a song, and I lov...

  Yes. Hello. Still very behind. Have some stages.  All links below in the spreadsheet go to my reviews of the songs. Have fun! Show Champion: Stray Kids "THIS & THAT" MCountdown:  Stray Kids "THIS & THAT" Music Bank:  Stray Kids "THIS & THAT" Show! Music Core:  ATEEZ "BAD" Inkigayo:  Stray Kids "THIS & THAT" ASC Performance: N/A The Show: N/A The Extra Stage: NOWZ "Achilles" The Extra Extra Stage: Hyunsik (XODIAC) "After School" The Extra Extra Stage: KiiiKiii "Pop Off Pop Off"

Release date: 2026 August 21 Album track list: Two Fools, Stuck, Bad For You, Bloody Paradise , Checkmate , Highlight Album runtime: 15 mi nutes  They've gotten some nice wins with this song. Very nice. I'm genuinely pleased for them. Don't get me wrong about that. But. I need to point out that this song isn't even two-and-a-quarter minutes long. It's barely two minutes long. What is wrong with HYBE? We've got a nice Latin vibe to the song, which I appreciate, and that beat is heavy. There's something deeply unsettling about it as well, which as a concept is not overly surprising for the K-Pop vampires. But the amount of repetition in the instrumental doesn't allow for growth within the song. We do get a little bit, but not enough to actually change the sound of the song at any point. So much of the mumbling and whispering that pretends to be cool but tries too hard to be cool. It's fine. This as a trend in sound will move on eventually as did all th...

Release date: 2026 August 10 Album track list: Ever2Late!, Hey Hi, Pop Off Pop Off , SWEET SOUR, Candy Pink Magic Hole Flip Phone , Blue Hour Album runtime: 15 mi nutes  Well, they didn't get a win with this song, so I'll do a review of it because I'm so wildly behind and this way I have to while also being like "Here's this song! You should listen to it! Don't just take my word for it! Feel free to disagree with me!" I don't know what this sounds like yet. I just assume someone is going to disagree with me and that's fine as long as you can articulate why. They're on Underage Protocol, so I can't listen to it like I normally would, but as time marches on, eventually they'll be off it and I'll actually get to listen to their discography. I'm also late enough that I didn't notice that apparently another song from this album had a music video. I need to know what that song sounds like, so I'll be doing that one probably ne...

Release date: 2026 August 17 Album tracklist: After School , we're not the same anymore, Take My Time Album runtime: 11 minutes  I decided to do this song as one of the extra stages for a Music Show Wins post, so I need to do the review. Which works! It's fine! This is a good way to force me to do reviews I didn't originally get to. I don't think this is his official solo debut and it is an OST, but I'm not entirely positive about what all is going on there. I just know he performed this on Show Champion. I'm trying to decide what kind of song this sounds like. It's a very pleasant instrumental that doesn't have a lot of variation. But. There are some points of rest and little resets, but it's just pleasant and comfortable through most of it. But it's also the kind of song where the instrumental is very much secondary to the vocals by design. At least there's some weight to it, though. It's not a floaty song even with how soft his vocals ...

Release date: 2026 September 30 Album tracklist: Pulse, LOUDER , Lucky Charm, LOVE ME, Seize The Night, Fantasy, Odd One Out Album runtime: 20  minutes  I feel really bad for the groups that debuted either right before or during the Covid shutdown. They've had an uphill battle from the start, even more so than the normal uphill battle every group has. I wish Cravity could get more attention because they turn seven next year. The start of this instrumental immediately reminded of The Avengers (the theme song from the movie), and then it went a little bit harder and grindier than the start of the song implies. It's appropriately titled because this is a loud instrumental and rather metallic in places. This will make a great workout song, but I think it's a bit too much for me right now. The stages of this song are probably great though. We've got an excellent range of the voices in this song. A lot of the singing is quite high, and then there's the much lower, more s...

 This is one of the many groups that debuted in 2012, which is why 2012 was called the year of boy groups. There were a lot that debuted and a lot that did really well. Some of them took longer than others, but generally speaking (and it's not just me with my love of 2012 groups), the 2012 boy groups were a good crop. And they are actually technically no longer on hiatus because they released a song back in June of this year (2026)! Yay! I'm fully aware that I'm projecting with the 2012 groups, but it brings me both relief and joy any time I see any of them doing a comeback. There's actually a cute anecdote about Yongseok seeing his leader at an airport in Japan, realizing it was Shin, and calling out to him. They had a meal together and Yongseok admitted he missed being in a group. Shin came around to the idea after a long letter that Yongseok sent him because he was the last one at the company and was still holding onto Cross Gene. Cross Gene debuted as a six-member ...