Just A Little Fangirl Love

Release date: 2026 March 05 Album track list: Siren Song, Hold My Breath , Crying Child, Juliet and Romeo, Forever Yours, Save Your Tears Album runtime: 22 mi nutes  So 7Princess was a 2nd gen kid group (debuted in 2004 at the age of nine), so she's got a bit of experience from a young age and she debuted as a soloist last year in 2025. I obviously missed it. But, I'll cover this one so that if you're interested in getting to know her more, you have a starting point here. Also, while every song is over three minutes long, the title track is an unbelievably fantastic five minutes long.  There's a very dreamy floating to this instrumental. It's steady without being loud, soft without being fluffy. I like the balance here, because it keeps the song in the same sphere as an Enya song, but it lets the vocals be ambitious without being ambitious itself. It just is, with no fuss and nothing to get energetic about. That sort of steadiness is so soothing. It's genuinely ...

Release date: 2026 March 03 Album track list: ROCKROCK , ROCKROCK Instrumental Album runtime: 6 mi nutes  So, as a debuting group, I need to figure out who they are. First of all, this is a band and all of the members are over 180 cm. One of them is a former member of the band 2Z. Three of the members are twenty-four or older, the other two do not have birth years attached to them, but given the age of the others, I'm tentatively inclined to not put them on Underage Protocol. I'm fully willing to later once we get ages, but for now, I won't. And it's an auspicious start to their careers that their pre-debut song is over three minutes. The electric guitar is fully front and center in this instrumental. I'm excited to see how this supports the vocals because while there's quite a lot of steady movement going on with the melody, it doesn't have enough movement to be the main star of the show, AKA the song as a whole. Still, what we have in this part, which I ge...

Release date: 2026 March 05 Album track list: Be full of Romantic, To. My First Love , Stuck with You, My Wish, Not Like a Movie , To. My First Love (Instrumental), Not Like a Movie (Instrumental) Album runtime: 22 mi nutes  Well, I really liked what turned out to be a pre-release single, so I'm tentatively excited for this one. Although a lot of the time if I love the pre-release I don't like the actual title track as much. Which is fine. I'm not required to love every song. I just hope I do. And it's a good length too, which really makes me hope for this.  More rock. At some point I need to just accept that I'm in a year of plenty and that I'm stockpiling the songs for when the tides change and we go back to styles and trends that I like less. Rather than being something groundbreaking or unusual, the majority of the song does exactly what it should based on the genre. It hits the expected genre story beats in a very satisfying way. And I'm using the word ...

Release date: 2026 March 04 Album track list: 00:30, Super Lazy, Dayfly, The Spark, Human Extinction , Stray, Bloodline, Downtown, STOP THAT, NA NA NA, Struggle, BEEP, Plastic, GLASSS, CINEMA , SAMO, To My January Album runtime: 49 mi nutes  Seventeen songs. Seventeen flipping songs. That ends up being a little bit shorter than three minutes for the runtime, but the title track is three and a half minutes, so we are good. I am happy about this. Thank you, Woodz. I also find it a little amusing that the shortest song on here is called "Dayfly". Anyway, back to the title track. That's our focus. That opening is so long. It's almost forty-five seconds of proper rock band intro with the instruments fully showing off before the vocals kick in. This is hitting so well. Seriously, there has been so much rock this year so far that I'm glowing. High energy, high angst. When the vocals kick in is one of the few times in the song when it's quieter, but no less dramatic. ...

Release date: 2026 March 03 Album track list: How the Fire Started Album runtime: 3 mi nutes  I swear, Eric has been everywhere the last little bit, and now he's dropping a single. Is it a pre-release single? I have no idea, but here we are.  This feels like country music, but it doesn't feel like agricultural country music, if that makes sense. Western, but not farmer. While the guitar functions almost like a percussion instrument providing the backbone of the instrumental, there are enough quiet little additions layered onto the guitar with subtle changes to the rhythm that keep the whole thing from being somewhat monotonous. One of the spots where that's most obvious is, interestingly, during the bridge, a section of section that typically gets a little bit more stripped down.  This is an all-English track, which did make me consider if I wanted to do this review or not, but this is Eric Nam. He gets a pass. He could drop a song in French and I'd be surprised, but I...

Release date: 2026 March 03 Album track list: 100%, I'm Alive , Obsessed, Twenty Something Album runtime: 11 mi nutes  Well, well, well. This is the new boy group for IST Entertainment, former home of The Boyz. And because this is a debut group, I need to check the ages, which I did before I started writing this and I found something hilarious. So this is a seven member group, with like four of them from Boy's Planet 2. Which is fine. Use the trainees you have and since most of them made it close to the end, they're likely that special blend of well-trained and slightly skittish that you often see with trainees that go through survival shows like that. But the thing I noticed, which made me laugh is that their birthdays range from January to November. Now, you may be asking yourself, "Fangirl, why is that funny? That's how birthdays work." It is exactly how birthdays work, which is why this is so funny. All of them, except for the maknae, were born in 2005, wh...

 Two months down! My apricot tree has started to form the blossom buds which is concerning, but maybe I'll take a picture for the March wrap-up so you can see how pretty it is.  Okay, let's take a look at these debuts, shall we? The groups that I covered were NAVILLERA ,  Daily:Direction . I covered two subunit debuts for QQQ (OnlyOneOf) and NCT JNJM (NCT) . For soloists, I covered Jiwoo (KARD ,  Lee Daeyeol (Golden Child) and Lee Jiham (A.C.E) 's debuts. If I can find a better list of debuts, then I'll include the ones I missed. Songs I was looking forward to:  ATEEZ: I'm deeply curious about where the lore is going to go with this, and also the b-sides because they've got some b-sides that I want tattooed onto my brain Monsta X: I love that they're getting more active again, although I am a little sad that they now have to wait for their maknae to get discharged NOWZ: We've had a streak of songs that I've really liked. I'm okay now if they sw...

Release date: 2026 March 03 Album track list: BREAKOUT, FOCUS, CODE , Can't Be Broken Album runtime: 10 mi nutes  I'm glad to see that they're still mostly together and still releasing music after leaving their company last year. They had me worried because I kind of like them and I'm kind of a curse on girl groups, it feels like. Their new company has an amusing name because it looks very censored. I'm generally less pleased about the song lengths for the album, because there isn't a single one that's three minutes long and one that's exactly two minutes. Still, in their case, I won't be too picky this time because transitioning to a new company can be incredibly stressful and I understand if song length was the thing they decided to drop.  We've got a good beat with this song. It took me three listens to figure out what the instrumental reminds me of, at which point I promptly choked on my water because I inhaled in excitement at the wrong mome...

Release date: 2026 March 03 Album track list: Alive, One Man Army , Back, Cold Moon, Alive (Inst.), One Man Army  (Inst.), Back  (Inst.), Cold Moon  (Inst.) Album runtime: 20 mi nutes  First coverage post for March! There were a few of them today, so we're just going to start with these guys because I have been lax and missed one. And all of the songs on the mini album got their instrumental only version, so I'm happy. Oh, I'm ready for the vocals to go with this. This is full on Final Fantasy combat music for a boss battle. If it wasn't unprofessional to go with caps lock, the next two sentences would be full caps lock. We get combat music with a violin and a piano? Are you kidding me? I'm fully in love. There are even sword clanging sound effects and the sound of the ocean. This is just a soundtrack instrumental. I don't know what else to say about it because all I want is to see if I like the vocals even a third as well as I like the instrumental so I can add...

Release date: 2026 March 02 Album track list:  When I think about you , Over It , Dreaming, Portrait, Answer, When I think about you (Inst.) Album runtime: 15 mi nutes I was looking ahead at the March comebacks and releases so I can get them added to my planner, and I recognized one of the names as someone who dropped a song in February, which means that this was a pre-release, which means I'd like to cover it before doing the title track. I really like the word "which" apparently. It turns out that he is the leader of INFINITE and my expectations raised a lot. First, he's a second gen idol. If you've been around this long, then you'd better have the skills to warrant that longevity, and he debuted as a soloist in 2012. Second, it's INFINITE. They're one of the reasons why K-Pop today has the standards for synchronization that they do, and that's on top of their vocal skills. Third, I expect a lot from leaders because the good ones rise to the occa...

Release date: 2026 February 23 Album track list:  BLACKHOLE ,  BANG BANG , Hush, Stuck In Your Head, Fireworks, HOT COFFEE, 8 (Jang Wonyoung Solo), Odd (Gaeul Solo), Super ICY (Leeseo Solo), Unreal (Liz Solo), In Your Heart (Rei Solo), Force (An Yujin Solo) Album runtime: 34 mi nutes  Okay. Let's get this one out of the way now so that if it gets any wins, as I suspect it may, I have it already done and don't need to worry about it in the future. Congrats on the comeback, IVE! Ah, such lovely saturation to the instrumental. There's heft to this instrumental, which immediately balances out their lovely vocals and creates quite a nice level of contrast for the song overall. There are some disruptive beats of rest to make the song responsive and bold in a way that sounds very nice for the group. I'm enjoying this one. I love the vocal slowdown effect at the beginning. Even in spots where there is a bit of repetition, we get other things happening around the repetition. Lar...

Release date: 2026 February 23 Album track list: BOTH SIDES , I.D.O.L, What It Is, HASHTAG, WIND UP, sexier Album runtime: 16 mi nutes  Well, another NCT subunit has debuted. This one is a duo like DoJaeJung was a trio, but comprises of Jeno and Jaemin, both of whom are members of NCT Dream and NCT U already (and have a lot of personal history between the two of them). Even though the NCT Dream members are generally quite young, I'm going to go out on a limb and say I don't need to double check their ages because Dream debuted almost ten years ago, even if the current lineup was set years later. I will say that, even though they don't have a single song actually at three minutes and two songs that don't even average out to two-and-a-half minutes, the title track is the longest song on the mini album and it's within an acceptable distance shy of three minutes. Well, as we know, I'm not overly fond of hip-hop, but I will attempt to be fair about this. The use and ...

Release date: 2026 February 11 Album track list: Home Sweet Home , Mutual, Dang Dong (feat. BM of KARD), Lily, Home Sweet Home (Inst.) Album runtime: 15 mi nutes  Congrats on your solo debut! I'm really excited to see what you have for us even if I'm posting this much later than I probably should have! She debuted in 2017, almost ten years ago, in the co-ed group KARD, and not to put too much pressure on her, but given that level of experience and how good her voice is in the group setting, I have high hopes for her as a soloist. This instrumental is so heavy that if it were faster, it would be called noise music, especially in the later part of the song. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the buzz saw sounding bit, because it was incredibly jarring. But interestingly, the song becomes more "noise" as the song goes on. That steady build, though, I really like. The buzz saw being added wasn't jarring because the song had built itself in that direction, but ...

Release date: 2026 February 26 Album track list: The Boy In The Mirror (feat. Yun Hyerin), Still Rose , Purple Rain, Full Moon, Replay Album runtime: 15 mi nutes  Their first mini album! Y'all,when I tell you that I love this group, I'm not kidding in the slightest. One of my favorite 2024 debuts, and I had quite a few that year that I kind of fell in love with. I'm actually tentatively excited to review this for you all. I haven't heard it yet, but I have more or less really liked what I've heard of them so far. Also, even to this day, every time I hear "Sweet Devil" I could swear they're saying "Sweet Denim", and it makes me giggle every single time. And I couldn't be happier about the fact that a) second gen idols are getting another chance and b) that the younger ones are still full-grown, in-their-twenties adults. It's like five stresses get lifted off my shoulders when groups debut as adults. The song goes through like three di...

Release date: 2026 February 27 Album track list:  JUMP , GO ,  Me and my, Champion, Fxxxboy Album runtime: 15 mi nutes  Well, here we go. Four more songs added to their discography, which means their entire group discography is still less than forty songs after ten years. Still, despite that, I'm very happy for the BLINKS to be able to get this from them, and I hope you all really enjoy the songs. Good news, the title track is over three minutes, so it's not skimpy that way and I am pleased. The instrumental sounds like two different songs. I actually really like the less packed version, because it reminds me of a song that comes during the ending credits of a YA dystopia based-on-the-book film. It's agitated enough that there's a strong energy to the song, but it's settled enough that the energy reads as determined rather than distressed for the most part. The chorus has a very strong sound by contrast and it's a continued disruption of the rest of the song, bu...

Release date: 2026 February 13 Album track list: Kart Racer Album runtime: 3 mi nutes  Okay. Let's do this. I have no fun little quips or comments to make with this one, but I do know there've been a few of their songs I've liked (I may or may not have one that I'm eyeing for a Battle of the B-Sides post), but I am still curious about anything new to come from them.  This is very much a street music kind of song, complete with some sirens so be careful if you're going to listen to this while driving. It's still, despite both of those things, a somewhat sedate instrumental. Yes, this feels very hip-hop, but it's actually rather chill with a fairly low BPM, or at least a fairly low BPM compared to what I normally listen to. It's taken me a lot longer than it should have to get this one written, so I'm curious about what exactly it is about this song that I'm mentally resisting like this, but at the same time, there's nothing really here that I...

Release date: 2026 February 23 Album track list:  ROOMBADOOMBA , Self Album runtime: 5 mi nutes  That is a fascinating title for a song. It's also incredibly fun to say, and I haven't even heard the song yet. But I get to do some investigating for all of us. So, Daily:Direction is a six-member new boy group under a new company called ODDWAVE, whose CEO was the creative director of projects for LE SSERAFIM, Stray Kids, and ZEROBASEONE, so I'm cautiously optimistic. The group has two previously debuted members (Kim Joohyoung formerly of NINE.i and E-VAN formerly of MIRAE). EN-KIM, Lim Jihwan, and Lee Wonwoo were all former members of various survival shows. And then the maknae is named Jang Yoonseok, and he turns nineteen in a few weeks, so we are good on that front. The pre-debut teasers have been wild though, so I'm hoping that they continue with this oddity.  Wow, that started out a lot more mildly than I was expecting. Instead of going the high energy route, or the br...

Release date: 2026 February 26 Album track list: UNCOOL , QtoresQ, Rainbow shade, Burnaway (into the fire) Album runtime: 13 mi nutes  The debut of a new subunit is always an exciting time and considering what group this is a subunit of, I'm very interested. I haven't listened to a lot of the base group's songs, but the ones I have, I've found very interesting. The members involved in this subunit are KB, Jisung, and Nine, which is apparently a very interesting combination considering Jisung is the former leader of OnlyOneOf, who left the group in 2021. I have to say, that has me forcing down some strong excitement because there are some groups who have had members leave that I'd love to see return. So while I haven't gotten to experience this necessarily first hand, were that to happen, I'd probably spend the entire music video bawling my eyes and heart out because of how happy I was. I can empathize with those fans. And every single one of these songs is o...

Release date: 2026 February 25 Album track list: Bloom hour , Mirror Album runtime: 6 mi nutes  I'm apparently just going to keep going with the Starship thing right now. I'm not sure that I knew that they were dropping something new, but apparently they did! And it's very exciting since I have a birthday twin in the group. That was actually the first thing I learned about the group. And happy tenth anniversary, WJSN! Congrats on surviving and keeping going! This is one of those watery instrumentals, but it's less deep water and more shallow pool near a waterfall. There's a lot of splashing happening in my head, like they hiked up to the waterfall and are playing in the water now. This is of course is all metaphorical. It's got a surprisingly fast beat that's comprised almost entirely of percussion instruments. I'm not hearing any particularly low, grounding notes from bass instruments, but the song also isn't particularly saturated with high notes i...

Release date: 2026 February 23 Album track list: BLACKHOLE , BANG BANG , Hush, Stuck In Your Head, Fireworks, HOT COFFEE, 8 (Jang Wonyoung Solo), Odd (Gaeul Solo), Super ICY (Leeseo Solo), Unreal (Liz Solo), In Your Heart (Rei Solo), Force (An Yujin Solo) Album runtime: 34 mi nutes  So, they dropped a pre-release single and now the album is out. And I'm behind. As usual. It's fine, actually. At the end of last year, if you missed it, I did a Greatest Hits post on Love Dive  so if you wanted to take a look at that, you totally should. I decided to do the pre-release first because odds are good that they'll get a win on the title track, so I will likely have to do that anyway. Let's get crackin', shall we? Ooh, I was not expecting that guitar at the beginning. The shift into the street music disappointed me a little but then the guitar came back and I was fine with it. We do get a bit of variation and some interesting sound effects, which I appreciate, and generally s...