Song Review:: Hyunsik (XODIAC): After School- After School {OST}

• 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 are through most of it, and that's because of the instrumental.

See, this is why it's so frustrating when I see people say that fifth gen idols can't sing. He obviously can and you can even hear a little bit of a vibrato. Do I miss the days when the idols got to actually have a vibrato and were trained in how to use it? Yes, even though I wasn't technically around for it. But vibrato is one of those things that can make a real difference in the sound of a song. This is the perfect song for vibrato, but you can only hear it occasionally with him. But even though I'm cranky about the vibrato, he can still sing. He sounds like he might have a natural husk to his voice as well, because even when he strengthens up his voice a little, he's still got a lot of rasp there. Gorgeous song though. 

I can give you a live clip with the lyrics instead of a music video for this song. Being at the beach is a good vibe for the song, although I don't know how live this is because we're not getting a lot of ocean sounds. Although there are spots where he does not sound like the studio version. It's still very pretty regardless.