Just A Little Fangirl Love

Release date: 2024 November 14 Album tracklist: Viola , Hashtag, Gone Girl, Tik Tok , DIM Album runtime: 14 minutes  I'm not sure if I knew that Yves had another album coming out, but I'm glad the roulette wheel had me do a LOONA song  last week, as that helps make the group somewhat fresh in my mind and as well as for the lovely people who read it. It looks like she made her solo debut the end of May, and her songs tend toward being less than three minutes long, but, regardless, I hope she continues to do well with what she chooses to do. For a song called "Viola", I was expecting to hear more of a viola presence. It's a little bit of a shame that we don't get to hear that instrument, as I have a special fondness for it. Instead, we get some fabulous funky guitar and synth that is dark and gritty and works surprisingly well for the song. The opening implied a different kind of song would be following, but the switch to the piano at the last fifteen seconds wa

Release date: 2024 November 12 Album tracklist: November Album runtime: 3 minutes  This is apparently the month for returning acts who haven't been active in years, in this case four. Hello, Lovelyz. It's nice to meet you, and happy almost anniversary.  It's funny. Despite the similarities with the bright, airy tone favored by many of the groups to debut after their last release, there's something rather solid about the instrumentals here. They are weighted down and grounded, obviously relying on the percussion, but the piano too provides a great counterbalance as the notes it plays are at least an octave, maybe two, beneath the main melody. Other than the chiming that is an infrequent participant to the instrumentals and rarely alongside the lyrics, most of what we get supporting the members' voices are in the mid- to mid-low range.  We got vibrato and soaring ad-libs in this lovely (pun partially intended) anniversary song, alongside breath-supported voices, and I

Release date: 2024 November 13 Album tracklist: Think I Wanna Do, Power of Love , TOXIC, Cool My Head , Bounce It Album runtime: 15 minutes  These members have had a rough go of it, haven't they? I'm sorry they went through what they did, and I hope that their new company treats them exponentially better. I also hope their path going forward is much easier than their path has been. I've had this sitting in my drafts since October, but never ended up doing it. But since there were so many Japanese releases today, including the album this belongs to, I figure, why not do it now? I'm a big fan of the instrumentals. They remind me of Avril Lavigne and that general genre circa 2004, while also simultaneously having band energy. I don't think they're a band, although I could wrong and I'd be happy to be wrong. But it's got that energy. I checked to see who the composers were out of curiosity and my usual source for that kind of information gave me only the voc

Release date: 2024 November 13 Album tracklist: GIANT , Chk Chk Boom -Japanese ver.-, NIGHT, Falling Up, WHY?, Saiyan, Aiwokuretanoninaze, Christmas Love, NIGHT -English ver.-, Falling Up -English ver.- Album runtime: 31 minutes  Even though I don't do a lot of the Japan releases, my Stay friend asked me if I would do this one. And so I shall! And I deeply approve of the run time. Ah, industrial music. It's the pinging and clanging of metal that makes me smile fondly, which is likely due to the fact that while I was watching the movie Looper  with commentary (because that's what I, a movie nerd, do in my spare time), they were talking about making the music and going out and recording in a parking garage, I think, sounds while banging different bits of metal together to get the specific sounds that Rian Johnson, the director, wanted with the music. The last time I watched it with commentary was prior to The Last Jedi  coming out, so I may be misremembering specifics. But th

Release date: 2024 November 11 Album tracklist: Goodbye Album runtime: 3 minutes  I'm very excited for the amount of singles and albums he's been putting out since September. With this one, that puts it at an album with two music videos and two singles. Which is more than some groups put out in a year I admire the work ethic and love of music, but I'm also starting to get a little worried for him. How long has he been sitting on these songs, and can he maintain the release momentum without burning out?  The combination of the percussion and the high-pitched piano-like music gives the song unexpected depth and a dreamy quality. It also reminds me of 1940s jazz. I know it isn't jazz, because it doesn't have any of the correct characteristics, but because of the effects at the beginning, the production reminds me of the age, and the popular music at the time was often jazz or jazz-adjacent. The instrumentals are pretty stripped down, consisting primarily of a, dare I s

Release date: 2024 November 11 Album tracklist:  Take It Slow,  Take It Slow - Radio Edit Version, Take It Slow (Inst.) Album runtime: 12 minutes  I had to refresh myself on the group and the last single they did that I reviewed. I need to remember that they're the Boys Planet group, not the official one, but given how many of them were on Boys Planet, it's a fair description. And I also have another single of theirs sitting in my drafts that I apparently need to review. I guess I'll get to it eventually. But in the meantime, I should watch some of their content so I can actually attach a member's name to the group. That'll help. I am happy as a clam over the runtime. Don't mind me, I'm just over here basking in a four minute song. The title is probably going to be appropriate for the style, and so I have some expectations on what I'm going to hear, but if I don't, that's fine too. Not going to lie, when I saw "radio edit version", I d