2023 Reviews

 As things get more filled up, this page will get more filled up. But right now, this large page for one little link is because of organization and consistency.

August

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Greatest Hits:: Girls' Generation: FOREVER1

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 I ran into this music video quite by accident, did some mental calculations, and decided this would be a good next choice for this segment. This is also one that I've already recommended to introduce people to K-Pop, so independent of the random selection, I obviously do consider this to be one of Girls' Generation's Greatest Hits. The group itself is also one of The Groups, one of the titans of the second generation, so one can hardly doubt the influence they've had on the industry. And most recently, their debut song has become an anthem, so, again, it's hard to argue against this influence that's stretched for almost twenty years now. In terms of the length of influence, this song barely  qualifies for a Greatest Hits post as it's barely two years old, but it qualifies by that requirement and the title track requirement. Also, excitingly, the album this comes from marked the end of a five year hiatus for the group and was released to celebrate their fift...
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Battle of the B-Sides: B.A.P: Carnival

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 So this was actually suggested to me by multiple members of the fandom when I shared the Greatest Hits post for the title track,  Feel So Good,  with them. There's been enough time since I posted that (about a month) and there's been enough variation in the GH and BBS posts since then that this feels like a good time to post this. And that way, I can get this back to them finally, and it can stop sitting on my head screaming at me to do it. So, this is from the B.A.P's eponymous 2016 album, Carnival. You all are apparently getting very cheery songs right now. I don't know how much of it is me wanting cheerful songs, but aggressive cheerfulness can almost never go wrong. Honestly, the song feels like a finale song to a musical, where they're dancing down the middle of a street, with the others in the cast falling in behind while streamers and confetti rain down around them and the band is actually a marching band. It's just fun incarnate.  Every time I hear Ban...
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Greatest Hits:: VIXX: VOODOO DOLL

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 This comes from my submission form, and it's the first one I'm doing from there! Whoo! I was going to put this off a little because I just did a 2012 debut for a Battle of the B-Sides post, but oh, well! I have a feeling that this one isn't like that song either, so I'm less worried about doing too much of the same. Variety, yes, but I can do what I want and the few songs I've already heard of theirs ( Chained Up is in many of my playlists) I've liked already. How much of that is because I know they're in the 2012 debut club, which automatically enters them into my category of groups I look upon favorably, I don't know. But I do know that even without that, what I've heard is very good. I've also heard some interesting and hilarious things about the group, and am curious to know if they're true or not. But! This submission came with the note that the submitter was pretty sure this song was VIXX's first win and that was why it was being ...
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Song Review:: Onew (SHINee): Connection- Winner

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  Release date: 2025 January 06 Album tracklist:  Winner , Promise You, Boy, Graduation, Conversation,  Yay Album runtime: 17 minutes  Lovely to see you putting out music again, Onew! Especially so close to the last one. Right now, I fully trust that he isn't overworking himself, partially because I trust him to know his limits as a seventeen-year idol, and partially because I trust his new company. The CEO's comments about selling the funeral wreaths they've been sent gives me life, and I'm also genuinely delighted that Onew is getting to do music he wants to do and exploring so much. Yay  was a little bit of a weird fever dream that I am still fully here for, and I'm curious to see where he went with Winner . Even if I am side-eyeing the album runtime a little. An OST vibe to the song is where he went with this one. I know he only worked on the lyrics, and so full kudos to the composers. Oh, my word. It's incredibly cinematic without most of the orchestral tra...
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Battle of the B-Sides:: fromis_9: Fly High

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This is the second time that fromis_9 has left a company, and while part of me is sad about this, I'm wishing them well in their future endeavors and hope they can find a new home that will treat them well and as they deserve. So, in honor of this, I'm going to go back to 2019 shortly after debut when they were still at their first company and their single, FUN FACTORY, and one of the b-sides contained therein.  This is a song sung by only two of the members, Jiwon and Hayoung, but they also have credits as the writers! The talent! It's such a pretty song. Also, their composing composing team is called "Dam-Dam," which I also think is kind of cute, and this was the first song that they did together. This is very much a summer kind of song and the irony that I'm doing this in winter is not lost on me, but it's summer somewhere, so it's fine. It's also, as you can tell by the title, a song about hope and freedom, which again makes this singularly app...
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Song Review:: Just B: Still I Luv You

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Release date: 2024 January 05 Album tracklist: Still I Luv You , Still I Luv You - Instrumental Album runtime: 6 minutes  Last we saw Just B, they were teamed up with ATBO for Ace of Ace  and now that The CrewOne has broken back apart, this is their first release since then. Their company needs to do a better job of giving them releases, because I'm looking at their list and that's not a lot. And y'all! I just found out that their debut song was produced by Bang Yongguk of B.A.P! Nice! As I always am, I'm very appreciative of the inclusion of the instrumental track. It makes life a lot easier for me. We've got a lovely rock song this time around, but it isn't one that goes hard the entire time. There's even a section of about four seconds of rests right near the end which follows a milder sound and which precedes a burst that is stronger by comparison. I enjoy this a lot. The fluctuating energy levels prevent the song from being stale and provide excellent t...
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December 2024 Wrap Up: 'Tis the Season

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삼가 고인의 명복을 빕니다. It feels very weird to be in a little bit more of a "celebratory" tone given what's happened this month, and I'm caught between wanting normalcy and respecting my pattern, and wanting to be reverent. Which is part of why the posts slowed down a lot toward at the end there. Still! There were things to celebrate, like a few debuts! NINE.i had their Japanese debut ! I can't believe they turn three next March! I only covered one other debut, for Irubin, formerly of 1TEAM . Debuts, I didn't cover include Nakwon , T:EV , Dáff , Wish (formerly of ViV) , A20 MAY (a Chinese girl group, but you may have an interest there as well), Lee Gwangseok (a former Build Up contestant) , and KYSB . Most of these debuts were for soloists; only two were for groups. Although finding out that ViV is one of the first groups to disband that debuted this year is also rather disheartening. But, I also wish her luck as a soloist. There weren't as many releases that I k...
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Battle of the B-Sides:: f(x): Shadow

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 I love when I get suggestions for groups that I've heard of but haven't actively listened to. I know that f(x) has several songs that are on the list of K-Pop influential songs that pretty much everyone should be familiar with, if they don't know  them. I don't think this is one of them, because this is a b-side, but I could also be wrong. Which is why I like being able to dig into the albums and the songs a little bit. So, this comes from their second studio album Pink Tape, released in 2013, which won a bonsaeng in 2014 at the GDAs, and hit number 1 on multiple music charts worldwide. One of the songs on the album was originally supposed to be Ariana Grande's song, and f(x) got it instead. So that's pretty cool. It's the second track on the album and is described as creepy pop, which I am down for entirely and that was one of the reasons why this song was suggested for me to do as the suggestion included the note that I seem to really like eerie or otherw...
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Battle of the B-Sides:: IN2IT: Young & Dumb

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 So this lovely group left their company after a little over two years, founded their own company, and are now going by the name Skye as of 2023. So, yes, technically IN2IT is disbanded, but it's more of a B2ST/Highlight situation. I also found out that they did a cover of SHINee's An Encore  a few months ago, which delights me to no end because that's my favorite SHINee song, and they did a great job. This one was also recommended to me, and because I've never heard of this group before, I'm genuinely delighted by the idea that I get to cover a group I haven't heard of. And the only group I've covered in one of these posts, going by some of the numbers, that's smaller is the ill-fated Chocolate, which I also hadn't heard of before I started looking into them.  Some brief background on them. They debuted in 2017 as an 8-member project group from the survival show BOYS24 under what is now WAKEONE and left at the end of their contracts in 2020, which m...
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Greatest Hits:: Pattern: Malibu

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 This one was recommended to me over on Threads, which delights me for a couple of reasons. Firstly, because small groups like this give me life, and I desperately want to shout about them from the rooftops (the void of the internet will do as I don't want a noise complaint). Second, the user actually gave me two recommendations, their debut song and their most recent release. Thirdly, because when I looked them up after getting which was the group name and which was the fandom name, I found out they were all adults at debut, even starting with their earlier Japan activities. and that's something I will always support. Let the twenty-somethings have their dreams too! For this, obviously I was going to pick their debut song, because I absolutely love debuts. This is going to be a little late, but circumstances being what they are, this shouldn't be too late. Also, multiple of the members are former members of other groups, which means a special fondness from me that they...
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