Just A Little Fangirl Love

Release date: 2024 December 24 Album tracklist: Everyday X-MAS Album runtime: 3 minutes  My first question is "Does this include Jay?", not because I necessarily only want One Pact with Jay, but because I have no idea what is happening with the B.D.U situation is, and I'm a little concerned. Barring that, let's see what this Christmas offering is. I am very much excited to see what is going on. These are some very smooth instrumentals. I'm very impressed by it. Also, it's either chimes or a xylophone that is gently twinkling up above the rest of the much more noticeable drums, synth, and piano. I'm not sure which specifically it is because I can't tell if it's metal or not. Or it's possible that both are used and my uncertainty is because both are available. Either way, it's a very nice touch to what is a very generic (as in, adhering to the rules of the genre, which is not a bad thing) set of instrumentals, and the only thing that is more ...

Release date: 2024 December 23 Album tracklist: We X Mas , Actor Album runtime: 8 minutes Do I need to do a review of the new Christmas single from ONEWE? No. Do I want to? Yes. I really like the band, and this falls under my principle of trying to focus on smaller groups so that they can get more attention. Plus, they're a band, and I've been vocal about my love for bands. There's nothing particularly Christmassy about the instrumentals, or at least nothing that particularly invokes the season. If I weren't looking directly at the name, I'd suspect this to be a regular single. There is a sense of nostalgia, or at least fondness, but it's not necessarily seasonal based on the instrumentals. The guitar solo however is my favorite part. It's nothing that's grand or groundbreaking, but going up the scale like it does reminds me of rock ballads from the 80s. We get that same thing in miniature a couple of other times during the song, which makes it even bett...

Release date: 2024 December 20 Album tracklist: My Christmas Sweet Love , Jazz Bar (Carol ver.), Wonderland (Carol ver.) Album runtime: 11 minutes  My spooky Halloween girl group dropped a Christmas single! Most exciting! I'm even more excited about the fact that it's almost four minutes long. Don't mind me. I'm just happily basking in this. I spent about the first quarter of the song thinking about how pretty and surprisingly subdued the instrumentals were, especially for a Dreamcatcher song, then the energy kicked up and the rock-tinged instrumentals I know and love flared to life. The chorus should normally have an increase in energy, but this epitomizes the notion of the quiet before the storm. The chorus instrumentals automatically appear to be louder just by virtue of the relative quiet immediately preceding and proceeding the chorus. The bells are not as present throughout the song as I would have expected, but instead, during the chorus, we have what might be a ...

 This will be updated throughout the month as I'm going to include as many of the new  holiday or winter songs as are released as I can find. If I missed any, which is likely, please yell at me. I'm also going to include ten "oldies" just for a little bit of variety in age in no particular order. Hope you find one you haven't heard before. (Also, the Country Kko Kko album that song comes from has Feliz Navidad  in Korean on it and when I tell you that I giggled, my dog was worried because I haven't laughed that hard in a while. It's a glorious song and breaks my brain a little.) This is just a bunch of music! Enjoy! The Old HELLO VENUS, ASTRO, Weki Meki All I Want aespa Jingle Bell Rock EXO December, 2014 Country Kko Kko Happy Christmas NINE.i Back to Christmas THE BOYZ White Apink PINK CHRISTMAS 2021 SBS Gayo Daejun All I Want For Christmas Is You Crayon Pop Lonely Christmas TVXQ! Duet -winter ver.- JUST KIDDING! I'm actually including a bonus 11th be...

Release date: 2024 December 18 Album tracklist: Winter Magic, Christmas With You , Snow, Christmas With You - Unplugged, Winter Magic - Instrumental, Christmas With You - Instrumental, Snow - Instrumental Album runtime: 27 minutes  I'm so excited to listen to this. Obviously I'm very excited since I'm actually posting this on the day it releases, but I'm over the moon (pun not intended...mostly) that they're releasing a Christmas album. I've already fallen in love with the teaser, and I was waiting most impatiently for them to actually drop the thing. I'll need to find something else to look forward to for the rest of the week, but I can do that. In the meantime, I'm just going to bask. And Merry Christmas to me, it comes with the instrumentals and an unplugged version. That piano is gorgeous. The piano is the dominant sound going on in the instrumentals, which does make it sound a little bit like lounge music, but it's so unbelievably soothing that ...

Release date: 2024 December 10 Album tracklist:  The Last Christmas Album runtime: 4 minutes  I was surprised to see that One Hundred Label (or BPM? I'm not sure which one would be more accurate) decided to do a company-wide Christmas Special like other companies back in Ye Olden Days. Artists involved in this one are Lee Seung Gi, Taemin, Baekhyun, Chen, Xiumin, Ha Sungwoon, VIVIZ, Lee Mujin, BE'O, and BADVILLAIN. It took me this long to do this, because I was sulking that Ren wasn't included. I didn't think he would be, but I was also hoping that they recorded this before he enlisted. And he won't be on next year's either if they do one because he'll still be enlisted. I'm fine. It's fine. Just about a year and a half. That is a gorgeous song length. Why does the very start of this song remind me of When You Wish Upon A Star ? Otherwise, whoever composed it did a great job of making this sound pleasantly Christmas-y. It's the bells. It's al...

Release date: 2024 December 10 Album tracklist: Must Have love - 2024 Version , Must Have love - Eng Version, Must Have love - Instrumental Album runtime: 11 minutes  I was just talking about this in the M.O.N.T and Jay reviews I did recently about how I was worried about what was going on with B.D.U. And look at what just showed up! A Christmas song, or at least I assume it's a Christmas song, judging by the title of the album. I'm fully expecting this to be Gorgeous Voice Central for almost four minutes. Do I know what "2024 Version" means? No, so I'm going to go take a look. And the answer is, this is a remake of a collaboration between SG Wannabe and Brown Eyed Girls from 2006 (and it's amazing, and that video they go into Feliz Navidad  and they sing in Spanish.). Brown Eyed Girls would go on to release their version of the song in 2014. ATBO did their version  last year. The bells instantly put you in the Christmas mood. I'm actually really happy...

Release date: 2024 December 09 Album tracklist:  When You Say My Name , Naughty or Nice Album runtime: 6 minutes  The Ship of Theseus has returned to port for a brief time for a seasonal celebration before heading back out to sea. 'Tis the season, everyone. Let's see what the offering from them is. I know there are people out there who don't like ballads. And that's fine. But I think I'm building a mental stock of the ballads to support me when the songs start straying into places I'm not particularly fond of. In this case, I genuinely don't think you can go wrong with the piano/strings combo. It's a one-two punch, except it's more of a caress with a soft smile. There's nothing here to distract from the vocals, although the rhythm of the instrumentals does go at odds with the members' voices in places.  Flex those pipes, girls! Flex them! Ship of Theseus this may be, but the new parts are not temporary replacement parts. They're the kinds...

Release date: 2024 December 10 Album tracklist:  Rupert's drop , Rupert's drop (Inst.) Album runtime: 7 minutes  As expected, all the groups that were on Ace of Ace are dropping mostly singles about a month after the show ended. This was the group I went into it hoping they'd win, even though I wanted all the groups to do well, but by the end, I really didn't care who won because they were all so good. There were some serious dark horses for me, whose reviews are coming up. But that's the thing about love: it's not a finite resource. Even though I added more groups to my ever growing list, Oneus's performances were also phenomenal. Also, one more thing I've learned is that Oneus's album artwork is gorgeous, Malus in particular. There's something about the instrumentals of this song that screams "indie band playing in the parents' garage," but specifically from the late 90s, early 00s, where the accompanying "music video" ...

Release date: 2024 December 06 Album tracklist:  White Christmas (with V of BTS) , White Christmas (with V of BTS)(Instrumental) Album runtime: 6 minutes  Technically, I think this is actually Bing's song that features V, and I've never run into this situation before. But, sure! Bing Crosby can be a K-Pop idol. He was kind of that equivalent back in the day.  I have a complicated relationship with this song. The entire time I lived in Las Vegas, I couldn't listen to White Christmas  in any version because I couldn't have a white Christmas, and after growing up where we got snowed in nearly every Christmas, it was just a bad reminder. Instant tears every time. I now live in a place where I could actually have one again, so it's back up to one of my favorite Christmas songs, and the Bing Crosby version is superior (especially the movie version) (although Franky Boy (Frank Sinatra), Dean Martin, and Elvis all have honorable mentions for me). But also, V has the perfect...

Release date: 2024 December 02 Album tracklist: Last Kiss , Candle Light, Winter Sleep Album runtime: 10 minutes This is likely going to be their final release under their old company, and I don't know what kind of song I'm expecting from them. This looks like a holiday album, judging by the names of the tracks, but I wonder how nostalgic they're going to get with it. Good luck, The Boyz! I wish you well in your new home!  Not gonna lie, I was not expecting that opening from a song called Last Kiss because it sounds like we're going into a hip hop song. Not that hip-hop can't have holiday songs, but I'm a bit of a traditionalist and do wrinkle my nose at attempts to make the classics "hip." The strong trap instrumentals are an interesting pair with the fairly mellow lyrics, and I don't think I particularly like it, particularly the way the beat is so much faster than the vocals. In a different kind of song, yes. It would be fine. This sounds like t...

Release date: 2024 December 02 Album tracklist: When Winter Comes Album runtime: 4 minutes My M.O.N.T boys! This is a surprise! I have such a fondness for them, not least of which because Bitsaeon is currently rocking it with B.D.U. But, I digress. I'm so very pleased about this. On with it! This is a mellower sound than we've been hearing from them recently, which fits a winter song. This isn't a mellow song. I want to be clear about that. But it isn't as aggressive as they normally go. The strumming has a somewhat watery affectation, which is what softens the sound of the instrumentals as much as they are. I'll need to take a look at the lyrics, but I would not have pegged this for a winter song. I went back a few hours after I wrote this to see if they lyrics had who did what attached to them yet, and I'm seeing Bitsaeon's name. I'm glad the three of them are ostensibly back together, but I'm confused, because of the above being in B.D.U. But now ...

Release date: 2024 November 29 Album tracklist:  Winter Ahead Album runtime: 4 minutes I don't listen to a lot of BTS. Not because I don't like what I've heard, but I don't want my algorithm to be nothing but them. However, V's voice? Wow. He has such a gorgeous timbre. And I'm so excited to hear what he has going on with this, and later the Bing Crosby collaboration.  And look at that masterpiece of a song length. There's nothing like a saxophone and a piano to set the mood for holiday music. This is such a quiet, gentle slow dance kind of song, with audience participation snapping. That's also not to mention the way that even though this song is what it is, it still has a gradual build in energy, and the addition of a violin about halfway through the song. I wish I could have the instrumentals for the song. I really do. It's just so pretty.  As expected. This is my first encounter with Park Hyo Shin, so I didn't now what to expect from him, but...