Just A Little Fangirl Love

Release date: 2025 August 25 Album tracklist:  Devil's Jam , Devil's Jam(Inst) Album runtime: 7 minutes  Okay, so if you're a fan of cignature, you might be confused about that name because none of the cignature members went by that name. This is Jeewon! Whoo! Apparently this is her official solo debut, although she did release a solo song earlier than this. I also can say that I do occasionally listen to cignature. They're not one of my groups that make super excited to see music or content from, but I do have some of their songs in some of my playlists. So I am looking forward to seeing what she'll give us with this digital single. It's interesting that there have been a couple of songs released in the last month or so that have sort of an Indian vibe or overlay or something of the sort. It does make me wonder if something was prompting this the last couple of years for songwriters and for the companies to pick these songs. There are some synth effects that ki...

Release date: 2025 August 25 Album tracklist: XOXZ ; Wild Bird; Dear, My Feelings; GOTCHA (Baddest Eros); 비삑 (♥️beats); Midnight Kiss Album runtime: 17 minutes  There are two songs that are reasonable lengths on this. That's it. I feel like I should be grateful that any of them are over three minutes, but I don't understand why I should have to accept crumbs when other than those two reasonably lengthed, not a single one is over 2:45. Sigh. As a side note, I was actually rather impressed with them at KCon, and not just because I thought they exhibited good professionalism with the mic collision and loss incident. I'm actually pretty pleased with this instrumental, but there is an asterisk to that statement. It would have been really easy to have this song go fully the route of the milquetoast, and I think there may still be some residual from that trend within the song, but there's enough of a bite that the sound has moved on from the trend. Which I appreciate, hence wh...

Release date: 2025 August 25 Album tracklist: Press Play, How We Do , 5ive, At Dawn Album runtime: 11 minutes  These guys were not on my radar for a new release, at all. But, thankfully, YouTube's algorithm has my back. And you know the best part of this? Even if it's only four songs, this is their first mini album! Whoo! The runtime is abysmal and I'm looking at the title track specifically in horror, but while I'd like to say something positive about this, not a single song is over three minutes. It's so unnecessary, you know? But I am diligent with this group because they need love and I really like them.  Going into this, if you were to tell me that the two-and-a-half minute song had a dance break, I would have laughed in your face. Across the board, the song could benefit from about another minute in length, so keep that in mind as true for both instrumentals and vocals because I don't want to repeat myself, and I'm not going to. There's a funky gro...

Release date: 2025 August 25 Album tracklist: Square Up, STUPID , Friday Trouble, A Million Dreams, Plan for You Album runtime: 15 minutes  So what's kind of funny is I've been watching the survival show B:MY BOYS (which has been about 1000% more pleasant than Boys Planet 2, by the way, not in a small part because there have been at most four people going home so far) and their rounds are centered around a specific idol group, members of which come on and are the judges for the performances, which I actually adore as a concept. One of the rounds, former Wanna One members came on (which was simultaneously also funny because of who the Planet Master is over on Boys Planet 2), including two of the members of this group, Lee Daehwi and Park Woojin. And look at how long the album and the title track are. This'll do. Wow, okay. I'm loving the amount of rock, or rock-adjacent, songs coming out as title tracks recently. I will likely get a little antsy in looking for a differen...

Release date: 2025 August 24 Album tracklist: Too Late , Too Late - Instrumental Album runtime: 6 minutes  Sorry, JustB. I left my list of August releases elsewhere yesterday and couldn't get yours done. I am glad that they're still releasing music though. Considering the news I got this weekend, it's a little bit of a relief.  Okay, so we've got a little bit of a punk vibe going on here with this instrumental. We've got majority drums and guitar, and I'd definitely argue that the primary instrument is the electric guitar, but most importantly, there is a rhythm and a flow. It doesn't just go hard the entire time. There's a relative softness in places as well as an actual softness to join with the more vibrant emoting of the instruments. And there's audience participation clapping. This genre is a good sound for the group. Enough of them have an edge to their voices that it there's a pleasing harmony with the guitar. Interestingly, there doesn...

Release date: 2025 August 12 Album tracklist: Surf Album runtime: 3 minutes  Well, I was going to sleep after I did the VANNER review, but as it turns out, I need to emotionally recover, or at least make it so that I'm not crying as I'm trying to sleep because I don't need my eyes to be that red and puffy at work tomorrow. So instead, I'm going to focus on NCT Wish, because they got a win, so I need to write a review for this anyway and having a good distraction will help. Focusing on something happy, no matter how small, is a powerful tool. And I like NCT Wish, anyway. Such a summery song. The instrumental does make me laugh a little bit because the instrumental track for this song reminds me a lot of a theme song for a comedy set in the 70s. Though, to be fair\, it doesn't have to be a full comedy because it also reminds me a little of Hawaii Five-O  or Magnum, P.I . Though, to be fair the latter one is mostly from the 80s, but my point still stands. It's summ...

Release date: 2025 May 21 Album tracklist: Goodbye & Hello , Pinch Me, New Heights - ENG Version Album runtime: 10  minutes  Maybe I'm just being sensitive, but the title of this digital single puts my hackles up. Could simply be the time of year combined with the title, but I also don't like the implication right now. Not for these guys. Also, weekends are a great time right now for me to hit some of my backlog, and while I know this is a relatively older song, I really like VANNER and want to make sure that I give them the attention they deserve. Even if it's late. Also, Junny is on the credits as composer and lyricist, so that's super exciting. This is a pretty soft and chill song. I just want you all to know this. The beat is actually pretty slow and when more volume is wanted, more instruments are added rather than an increase in the dynamics. But even when more volume is created, it's never aggressive or relentlessly energetic. I'm not entirely sure wh...

Release date: 2025 August 1 Album tracklist:  ICONIC Album runtime: 3 minutes  Is this their first single? Ooh, this is exciting. And I know I'm super late with them, but I've also been avoiding listening to it until now because I wanted it to be fresh for when I did the review, and I was in LA when this dropped and didn't have a lot of time or energy to review much at the time. But, here we are with my first rookie group! (Not my first group I was there for their debut, that was RIIZE.) One day, we'll get a win for them. One day. Hopefully soon. Also, this has a perfect runtime.  The beginning part of this hilariously sounds like the very beginning of Your Idol , just after the chanting. I doubt there's any way the two are connected, but I just think that's kind of funny considering ATEEZ are basically the Saja Boys in real life . The song has a good, strong beat to it, and there are fun little quirks that pop in for emphasis occasionally. But do you hear that ...

Release date: 2025 April 11 Album tracklist: Eye Candy Album runtime: 2 minutes  So, I, uh, saw this for the first time at KCon. Figured I wanted to review it, because goodness. I also don't remember much of the song itself, because my brain short-circuited a little watching him, but since I've seen him perform it live, I thought I should. I'm also going really far back for this one because I would eventually like to get my April wrap-up finished. Also, it turns out that he's one of my 2012 debuts, which honestly tracks more than I'd like to admit, but the group disbanded at the seven year mark. This is a painfully short song though. Interesting thing, I think he was 20 when he debuted with BIGSTAR. Is that where his stage name comes from? Maybe. So, the song has a lot of repetition in the instrumentals, and sounds pretty science fiction warbly, but if it was science fiction from the 70s with some hip-hop dumped into it. It's got a quiet swagger that is occasion...

Release date: 2025 July 28 Album tracklist: Stylish , Talk, You and I, Constellation, AURA Album runtime: 15 minutes  Taking advantage of the weekend and the slowdown in releases to get this one done so that I can finally add it to the week it got a music show win. I'm deeply frustrated by what's been going on at their company with them, and I cannot imagine how angry the fans are. I'd be stubborn about some things, like with fan chants. But, anyway. Here we are. And even though the album runtime is fifteen minutes long, the title track is the shortest of the bunch and gets averaged out by the three-and-a-half minute song. Not my favorite thing, but it could be worse. There are some interesting things going on with this instrumental. It's got some sirens in it, which I really appreciate, but they're kind of constant through the entire thing, which I don't like. It's a little bit too aurally grating, so I can't actually listen to the song on repeat like I...

Release date: 2025 August 22 Album tracklist: The Answer Album runtime: 5 minutes  Goodness, Hyunsik. Over here dropping a song with almost five minutes on it. I expected something close to four, probably a little bit over, but not more than four-and-a-half. This is actually kind of funny because the last song I played on Spotify was a song by Changsub, so, apparently today is just BTOB day. Also, I appreciate a man who does understand the decision of "single", not that I don't like multi track singles, but that phrase itself is kind of an oxymoron.  You can really tell where Hyunsik learned music from because that instrumental track practically screams it. It's soft. It's mellow, but it utilizes the drum set to keep track of things, occasionally pop in and be a bit more obvious, but for the most part, it isn't there for the drama, but rather to keep the song on track. The guitar is where you get most of the texture of the song, which I think is also his prefe...

Release date: 2025 August 22 Album tracklist: BLEEP, CEREMONY , CREED, MESS, In My Head, Half Time, Phoenix, Ghost, 0801, CEREMONY (Festival Version), CEREMONY (English Version) Album runtime: 32 minutes  Congrats to my Baby Stay friend who has graduated to Toddler Stay! Whoooo! And the fact that they spent the tour giving spoilers and no one noticed. When they revealed that, I had to blink and sigh. It's fine. I'm just being clowned this year by my groups.  I could swear, I can feel that drum or bass in my bones, but I'm not even listening to it in a way that would allow me to feel it in my bones. This song doesn't feel like it's as long as it is, which is both weird and a shame. We've got kind of an Indian vibe to the whole thing layered over the top of the bass and the drums that is just satisfying to hear, you know? Also, the siren alarms is a very nice addition. This is going to be a really good performance song, which is good considering K-Pop in general i...

Release date: 2025 August 21 Album tracklist: Umbrella, Cherry Pie , Home Alone (But U), Ce Chaos, I Wanna Love 2025 Album runtime: 14 minutes  Mild disappointment in the old group because that runtime. However, Happy fifteenth anniversary, Teen Top! Good to see you alive and kicking! Even if I'm disappointed in them falling prey to that modern trend and even though that does make it slightly more difficult for newer groups when the older groups remain active, it's also good for the newer groups to see the older groups and how they interact to model their behavior after when it comes to interacting with other groups. It's like that one part of the book Lost World by Michael Crichton. The raptors didn't have older members of the pack to teach them how to behave and interact with the world as examples and so they were more feral than they should have been. The presence of the older groups is good because they provide both examples to aspire to as well as role models for a...

Release date: 2025 August 21 Album tracklist: Electric Heart , Close To Me Album runtime: 7 minutes  I was actually really pleased with them when they were here on tour, and also, two of the members loved it so much, they were like "I want to move here." That makes me happy, and hopeful that we'll get more kpop coming here because so far, our numbers have not been high for that. Beyond that, I thought they performed well and even though they were not quite as polished as some other groups I've seen, even amongst the rookies, I'd see them again. And they sound better in person, which is what I am always hoping for. Plus, the whole group are eighteen or over now! The best part of this little single they've released is the title track is over three minutes and the other one is almost four minutes long. Y'all.  We have some good sound design in this music video, which is exciting. We have the sudden cut off in the instrumentals just before the climax, a soft, ...

Release date: 2025 July 21 Album tracklist: Upside Down Kiss, Beautiful Strangers , Ghost Girl, Sunday river, Dance With You, Take My Half, Bird of Night, Song of the Stars Album runtime: 22 minutes  Okay, I have two left of these to review to get caught up on the music show wins this quarter, and since I have time right now, I'm going to get to work on this one. I've been deeply disappointed by their album runtimes of late, and I'm largely blaming that on HYBE for several reasons, but also some other things. But! This time we have two songs that are over three minutes long and one of those is nearly three-and-a-half. So. We're moving in the correct direction. Unfortunately, the title track is neither of those two songs. Instead, this song comes in at a paltry two minutes and eighteen seconds. Not even two-and-a-half minutes. Why. Okay. Let's see if this can avoid being milquetoast. I'm really, really hoping for this. We're moving away from that sound in gen...

Release date: 2025 August 19 Album tracklist: Cotton, Goodbyes and Sad Eyes , Da Capo, Chocolate Tea, DRIP, Over You, ICY BBY , Take-off Album runtime: 3 minutes  We have a four and a half minute song, everyone! Alert! This is not a drill! The title track is even three-and-a-half minutes long. I love her just a little bit more for restoring my faith in K-Pop song lengths, because we are over a three minute average. Happy, happy, joy, joy. Y'all, she has been so active as a soloist the last little bit. I am waiting somewhat impatiently for the next MAMAMOO comeback, but Moonbyul is doing well to be active while I and their MOOMOOS wait.  Twenty seconds was all I needed. Done. Sold. This actually reminds me a lot of the rock-country music I grew up. It also feels pretty 00s alt-rock, so it feels really familiar. The only way that this could feel more targeted directly for me to drag me back to my childhood is if this had been a proper country song. It doesn't go hard the en...

Release date: 2025 August 19 Album tracklist: Taste Better, BUBBLE GUM , Don't Be Dumb, Ice Tea, Yum (KOR ver.) Album runtime: 3 minutes  I am glad to see them continuing to make music as a group. Would I have liked to have all of them renew? Yes. But it's fine that that didn't happen because Kep1er did something I don't think any other project group has done. Correct me if I'm wrong, but they're the first group formed solely from a survival group with the temporary contract to sign a new, longer one to make them a permanent group, right? That's pretty cool. I'm however appalled at the album runtime. Even removing the first song, which is barely a minute long, the average still doesn't make it to three minutes. I'm so annoyed that this isn't the exception anymore. And here's where normally, I'd be like "It's fine" but you know what? No. It's not. Why do kpop companies give them diet songs? It's bad enough that so...

Release date: 2025 August 19 Album tracklist: Don't Touch Album runtime: 3 minutes  So other than an OST done for Business Proposal, this review will mean that I've done both of their most recent songs as it's been almost exactly two years since then. Starlight was part of my attempt to make the obvious favoritism for NINE.i for their songs released in August of 2023 a little more diluted, otherwise I wouldn't have done it. And now, two years later, they've released their next song. I don't know about you all, but I'm concerned about that. I do have to give a shout out, though, because even though this is only a single and it's their first release in two years, we didn't get a two-and-a-half minute song. In other words, I have mixed feelings and a lot of concern. However, because four new members have been added to the group, I do have to take a look at ages, to know if I can listen to this  song. Ages are fine. The new maknae turned nineteen this ye...

Release date: 2025 July 22 Album tracklist: Weather Diary , Weather Diary (Inst.) Album runtime: 6 minutes  I am fairly confident in saying that this is their tenth anniversary release that was first heard in their concert back in April. Do I get a little twitchy around tenth anniversaries? Yes. But I'd have heard if the d-word has applied to them, and it hasn't. So, yay! Also, I'm quite pleased for the song length. Songs seem to be both lengthening and shortening these days. and obviously I'm an advocate for them being at minimum three minutes long. OH MY GIRL delivered on that here. The good news is that even though this is a pretty relaxed song, it's actually got quite a lot of different bits making up the instrumental, which makes the mellowness feel intentional, rather than an apathetic consequence. A stronger drum line would make this song quite energetic, but the song doesn't need it. This is a ten year anniversary song, and a sense of celebration, but no...

Release date: 2025 July 21 Album tracklist: V, Bora , Wet, Rosy, XOXO, Colorful, Break Free Album runtime: 18 minutes  That is a weird combination of runtimes, my dude. You've got one minute-and-a-half song, which I assume is some sort of introduction. You've got two that are under two-and-a-half minutes, one of which is the title track and gets a disapproving stare from me. The other four are all three minutes or over. There is no middle ground here. I know he debuted one of these at Water Bomb, and that's one of the three minute songs, but it's just kind of funny. Also, I need to get this one out because Changsub and Ilhoon also had songs come out, and Hyunsik has one coming out on Friday. So. Here we are. Strong beat, y'all. It's actually as I'd expect from him because he seems to really enjoy dancing and this sort of instrumental gives him a lot to work with, especially where he wouldn't necessarily get to do this with his group. I love them to piece...