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.

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20230417 NCT DoJaeJung "Perfume"

August

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Song Review:: Daesung (BIGBANG): Falling Slowly

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  Release date: 2024 March 05 Album tracklist: Falling Slowly , Light Album runtime: 7 minutes Ah, a proper song length. I'm writing this before the frantic rush of the next few days in terms of releases, because competition there will be fierce. And also to start to pad out the March releases because somebody had to get a win on a music show months later. I joke. I'm actually very happy for them. And I picked this one because I scrolled randomly, and his was the one my cursor was on when I stopped. I feel like Daesung needs very little introduction. He is the maknae of BIGBANG after all.  The instrumentals for this song are absolutely gorgeous with a lovely acoustic guitar that gets to spend time at the front of the song, before it hands over the reigns to an electric for very strategic sections. But seriously, that beginning is one of the most soothing things. There's a sense of the bittersweet to it, because at no point is there a strong bass driving the song, and the ho...
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Song Review:: Seventeen: SPILL THE FEELS- Eyes on You

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Release date: 2024 October 14 Album tracklist: Eyes on You,  Love, Fame, Money (feat. DJ Khalid) , 1 to 13, Candy, Rain, Water Album runtime: 18 minutes As excited as I am to see them in about two weeks, I really wish their schedule wasn't as packed as it currently is so they could give some time to their second promoted track. Well, and so they could properly promote their first  title track, but I think I've accepted that part of the unfortunate circumstance. Hopefully they get a little bit of a break at the start of the year. I don't remember if I said this on LFM's review, but I had to round out to get to the 18 minutes. Some of these songs are worryingly short. I'd really like Woozi and Bumzu to not be following that  specific trend. There's a specific b-side from NU'EST that honestly was the first thing I thought of when I first heard this song when it came out, because while this is very  reminiscent of early NU'EST,  it's actually BLACK  fro...
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Song Review:: Irubin (1TEAM): Foolproof {Debut}

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Release date: 2024 December 11 Album tracklist: Foolproof Album runtime: 3 minutes  Okay, so! Irubin is part of the 95z along with SCoups, Gon, and Minhyun, and he's actually a week younger than the latter. He was on a couple of trainee survival shows the same year NU'EST was on theirs. Almost made the debut team on BOYS24 and was the first boy trainee to be TOP1 on MixNine (where we also had a bunch of future ATEEZ and Treasure members), ended the show as the third ranked so he made the debut team, but that never happened. I actually remember him. Obviously I was focused on ATEEZ when I watched it this summer, but I do remember him. He went by the name Rubin then, and he was really good. He did finally debut with the group 1TEAM, which unfortunately disbanded within two years, and then he became a tattoo artist. Irubin is multi-talented then, and part of me is curious about why he decided to come back to music almost four years later, but I hope he has better luck as a soloist...
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Song Review:: BABYMONSTER: CHOOM- CHOOM

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Release date: 2026 May 04 Album tracklist: MOON, CHOOM , I LIKE IT, LOCKED IN Album runtime: 12 minutes  We are on Underage Protocol for this group, which is annoying but fine, because five of the seven were under eighteen at debut, and the maknae was all of fourteen, which means both conditions for Underage Protocol were triggered. It's not an achievement for the company. For shame, YGE.  It's even worse because I could fully vibe with this group. Next year. We've got kind of an Indian sound going on here, which provides an interesting counterbalance to the rapping parts of the vocals, but it's still a lighter sound than I would have expected. We've also got a few different sections for variation, so I'm pleased that the song is as long as it is. I'm really curious about the other songs they've got. I mean this in the highest compliment possible, but this sounds so YG Girl Group. The company bloodline, metaphorically speaking, is strong with them. The b...
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Song Review:: SF9: About Love- Love Comes Slowly

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Release date: 2026 March 25 Album tracklist: Love Comes Slowly , Fade Into Memories, You Think Too Much, Last of Us, Hurt & Hollow, By Your Side, Broken Way Album runtime: 21 minutes  I was very happy to be able to pull Dawon's photocard off my Enlistment Wall a couple of months ago, so I'm hoping that he was involved in this comeback. There are a couple of track names on this album that I'm definitely interested in, and so I'll be listening to the whole thing after I'm done with this. "So" is apparently my word for today. This song would be very easy to turn into an acoustic version. I mean, we are talking laughably easy. I haven't heard a song where I could hear the non-existent acoustic version this strongly. Anyway, there's actually a pretty big chunk of this song that has effects to make it sound like it's a 40s lacquer disc, particularly with the piano. I'm in love with the sound of this instrumental, by the way. It's wonderfu...
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Song Review:: The CrewOne: Hit the Floor {Debut}

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Release date: 2024 November 1 Album tracklist: Hit The Floor Album runtime: 3 minutes  Considering Ace of Ace  has been over for weeks, I had no intention to do any reviews on the final tracks. But by the time this gets published, The CrewOne will have been on ASC, which means that I have to follow my rules. For the uninitiated, The CrewOne was a team put together for Ace of Ace  consisting of the fourth gen boy groups ATBO and JUST B. Apparently disbandment was in their future before the two groups got put together, which is completely ridiculous as JUST B debuted in 2021 and ATBO debuted in 2022. I'm sorry, there are a number of groups that went on to be very successful after three not-successful years and if their companies had disbanded them, the face of K-Pop would be radically different. And yes, one of those groups I'm talking about is in fact BTS, though I wouldn't be me if I didn't also mention NU'EST here. But, I digress. If The CrewOne are going to be an...
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Song Review:: Xiumin (EXO): Interview X- WHEE!

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Release date: 2025 March 10 Album track list: Can't Help Myself, WHEE! , Make You Lala, Switch Off, Lost Paradise, Love is U Album runtime: 17 mi nutes  I'm going to do the soloists in age order since there were a significant number of soloists releasing music today. This way, it can be orderly. There's a little bit of controversy regarding this release which I'm not going to get into, but I will frown disapprovingly at a certain former company of his. In other news, I've kind of enjoyed the individual members releasing solo material because that's made it easier for me to get to know each of them individually. And given my predilection for 2012 debuts, I fully anticipate EXO getting added to my list of groups I really like, that plus my soft spot for groups that have been mistreated badly because the company is garbage and knowing a little bit of EXO's history, it's an inevitability for me. So, this is nice ahead of their reunion once the maknae is disc...
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Song Review:: Cortis: GREENGREEN- TNT

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Release date: 2026 May 04 Album tracklist: TNT , REDRED , ACAI , YOUNGCREATORCREW, Wassup, Blue Lips Album runtime: 16 minutes  So many capital letters from these guys. As a side note, I was deeply amused by James's valid crash out over the new-and-false version of the alphabet song. Fun fact, the ememememoh problem kids can have is easily fixed by instead singing it to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star until they get it, and then switching to the correct version. We didn't need a new version. I don't know what role James takes in the group, not a clue, but I have a feeling that this may take up some of their next album, HYBE permitting. Speaking of HYBE, two-minute title track. Alright. This had better have something big if this is going to be two-minutes long. And, it doesn't. The instrumental goes nowhere. It sounds nice. But it just is there and it fades into the background so fast that I'm wildly disappointed. I didn't even notice that it disappeared ...
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Greatest Hits:: BerryGood: Angel

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 This was actually supposed to be the song after After School, but I didn't write it down in my notes. And then when I checked my notes and double checked numbers (because for timing's sake, the last three must be the last three), I was missing one. So you get this one now, instead of when it was supposed to be, but that's fine because it works here as well. We're still on theme for May, and I think y'all will enjoy this one if you haven't heard it before. Funny story about this group, every time I see their name, my brain starts playing "Very Good" by Block B. It's probably a problem, but it's a me problem and I hope it's not a you problem now as well. They debuted in 2014 as a five member group, but by the time they disbanded, there were only two of the original members in the six-member group. Fun fact, they released multiple crowdfunded mini albums, including this one, and the lineup for this album was Taeha, Seoyul, Daye, Sehyung, and ...
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Music Show Wins:: Week of 05/06 - 05/12

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  So many first wins for songs, and, I think we may have a first win for a group? I think so? If that's the case, then an even bigger congrats!  I miss back when After School Club was active (yes, I'm still in denial) because then I didn't have to pick an artist. And then I didn't miss seeing those three every week. It was nice getting to see what Aron is up to. Sigh. Don't let my melancholy stop you from enjoying Ep. 576 from back in 2023, featuring ATBO, though! For The Show, I went with Cravity (and it was actually my first time hearing that song; whoever is doing the ad-libs there at the end, yowza) in 2020. I grabbed three extra stages for y'all this week. First up, I went with 82MAJOR, then ILLIT, then Xnghan&Xoul, so I hope you enjoy those as much as I did.  As always, any links in the spreadsheet go to my reviews, and then down with the ASC episode, that link goes to the entire episode, which gets a bit wonky when I try to embed it, so I don't tr...
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