Just A Little Fangirl Love

  I'm simply really behind with this. I'm not through doing this. Anyway, we're running down to the end of the Seventeen comeback season, which opens the wins back up to everyone else, as we're clearly seeing below. As much as I've loved seeing Seventeen get their wins for their tenth anniversary, I'm glad for the variation now. Although we get another surprise win for Woodz. It's a welcome development, but a little baffling. I really hope that someone askes him how he feels about this when he gets out. I do have to say it's been a good week for soloists, though. I did not continue that with the After School Club re-run episode, however.  As always, the links in the graph below go to my reviews of those songs. Show Champion: Doyoung (NCT) "Memory" MCountdown: Seventeen "THUNDER" Music Bank: Doyoung (NCT) "Memory" Show! Music Core:  Doyoung (NCT) "Memory" Inkigayo: Woodz (UNIQ/X1) "Drowning" ASC Performanc...

   I fully count Seventeen TV (AKA the green prison) as a survival show sort of, which makes every win this week from a group that was in a survival show. Exciting? Absolutely. Two first wins for songs this week as well, so that's super exciting as well. Lots to celebrate, you know. For the After School Club re-run as they're still on hiatus, it's 2014 MBLAQ being all manly, with Eric and Kevin as the hosts. I really enjoyed getting to know the group a little bit considering I've done both a BBS post as well as a GH post on them. Show Champion: Seventeen "Thunder" MCountdown: Enhypen "Bad Desire (With or Without You)" Music Bank: Seventeen "Thunder" Show! Music Core: Enhypen  "Bad Desire (With or Without You)" Inkigayo: Enhypen  "Bad Desire (With or Without You)" ASC Performance: 20140401 MBLAQ "Be A Man" The Show: izna "Beep"

  Almost a clean sweep for Seventeen. They're just missing out on The Show  now for this comeback. I actually like that N. Flying got that instead, because as proud as I am of the Carats for coming out for Seventeen like that, I also like the variation. So much DK in the thumbnails. Since After School Club is still on hiatus, it's also time for the weekly rerun. It turns out that if you go back far enough on After School Club, you run into a theme song. This week's rerun if episode 005 from all the way back in 2012 with the girl group, 9MUSES. I didn't know a whole lot about this group if I'm going to be honest, but I actually kind of like this song. And 9MUSES were such a tall group! They were apparently the girl version of SF9 (gorgeous and tall). There was also a guest appearance, sort of, by B1A4 with another song I was delighted to learn about and a music video that is exactly as I'd expect from this era. Show Champion: Seventeen "Thunder" MCountd...

Release date: 2025 May 26 Album tracklist: HBD, THUNDER , Bad Influence (Prod. by Pharrell Williams), Skyfall (The8 Solo), Fortunate Change (Joshua  Solo), 99.9% (Wonwoo  Solo), Raindrops (Seungkwan  Solo), Damage (Hoshi  Solo) (feat. Timbaland), Shake It Off (Mingyu  Solo), Happy Virus (DK Solo), Destiny (Woozi  Solo), Shining Star (Vernon  Solo), Gemini (Jun Solo), Trigger (Dino  Solo), Coincidence (Jeonghan  Solo), Jungle (SCoups  Solo) Album runtime: 49 minutes  Hopefully I can be less stressed now that Seventeen has successfully hit their ten year anniversary. They got as big and dramatic a celebration as I hoped they would, ever since I heard what NU'EST had had planned for them until... This is a happy post. Genuinely, though, this might end up being incredibly healing as an event for me, and everyone looks so good for this comeback. I'm a little sad that Jeonghan and Wonwoo weren't able to perform with the rest of the group ...

Release date: 2025 April 19 Album tracklist: Moon Album runtime: 5 minutes  I'm going to put this under ASTRO since it is spearheaded by them/Eunwoo. There is a very long list of contributing artists, and given the nature of what this is, yes, I absolutely am going to list all of them with group members in parentheses with their group: (ASTRO: JinJin, MJ, Rocky, Eunwoo, Sanha), (VIVIZ: Eunbi, SinB, Umji), (Monsta X: Minhyuk, Kihyun, I.M), (Seventeen: Hoshi, Wonwoo, Mingyu, DK, Seungkwan), (IMFACT: HELLO GLOOM), (Weki Meki: Yoojung, Doyeon), (SF9: Chani), (Stray Kids: Bang Chan), and (Billie: Moon Sua) . It's a testament to how many people love Moonbin, really, because this is only a fraction. You can hardly go through the group pages of groups that debuted between 2014 and 2019 without finding a member or two who isn't friends with Moonbin. I genuinely don't know what form this review is going to take, but I highly doubt a lot of critical reviewing will take place. I ne...

 Hello, hello! Congrats to the winners this week! I'm fully in agreeance with who won. Excellent songs. A first time win, and then a couple of repeat winners, which is always nice to see them rack up those wins. Very nice.  Speaking of Very Nice, I'm delighted to share with you all this After School Club episode I found that has The Eric Nam, Jamie, and Kevin from U-KISS as the MCs. And while normally, because I like timing to work out well, I'd wait to have this closer to the group's tenth anniversary, I don't know how long ASC will be on hiatus, and I'd hate to miss the chance to share with you Baby Seventeen! That's right, gals, pals, and nonbinary pals! ASC for you all this time around is 2015 Seventeen, a month after debut! While I was watching it so that I had things to say about it, I had to keep pausing it because the cuteness aggression was making it hard to breathe sometimes. That or my posture was terrible. Either way, I want to squish them. Withi...

Release date: 2025 March 10 Album track list: PINOCCHIO (feat. So!YoON), 96ers , STUPID IDIOT Album runtime: 7 mi nutes  My level of coherence for this one might be a little low as I'm going to be waking up for it. This part I'm writing before I go to sleep so that I'm not trying to do all the things at once. So. I think this is one of the subunits that has been so deeply hoped for from the fanbase that I'm happy for the older fans who finally get it. And also, now we've got something of a pattern getting established for the enlistments. We'll have that confirmed depending on who the next subunit is. It's a lovely farewell-for-now present from them. That's all I'm saying. Although the run time is making me twitch a little. This is the most Hoshi and Woozi thing I've ever seen or heard in my life. And I'm deeply amused by the fact that this is the performance leader and the vocal leader, and this is a hip-hop song. The energy level through the...

Release date: 2025 February 01 Album tracklist: Somewhere in This Universe , Somewhere in This Universe (Inst.) Album runtime: 9 minutes  Our lovely, lovely Seungkwan. Have I mentioned how excited I am by the list of the artists for the OST for this song? Because I should have. I'm very excited by this. Continuing with the same, "expanse of space" vibes from Jin's, which I am fully ready to attribute to the held notes underneath all the other things that are happening with the more melody-esque instrumentation going on elsewhere, the guitar use here lends itself to making the song acoustic ready. Oh, you're trapped on a space station with a guitar and your voice? Well, this one is easy to turn into an acoustic version. I almost wish this one had been more acoustic, but I also get the sense that this one is a full love song with the occasional "space" trappings, rather than the emphasis being on the space motifs.  Seungkwan is one of the main vocalists of...

Release date: 2025 January 27 Album tracklist:  Better Half Album runtime: 4 minutes  Is this considered a solo debut? It's difficult because sometimes a single is considered the debut and sometimes there are a number of pre-debut singles released. And to put another wrench in the works, the Japanese version of this song will be on Omoinotake's upcoming album, Pisces, so I don't think I'm going to classify this as his solo debut for the previous reasons. With that out of the way, I'm so excited for him. Yes, he's been in the military since September 26th, and this was certainly a surprise to have announced, so even though he's not technically available, I'm pleased.  Also, in case there's anyone also like me who has no earthly clue about who they are other than a Japanese group, let me regurgitate some information on Omoinotake like a mother bird. They're a 2012 Japanese rock band that have done quite a few opening themes for anime with their hig...

  Most of the music shows are back on, which means the live stage performances, which I love best, are back in almost full force. We get more variety again! So, this week had another triple crown, which is exciting because once again, he got it without promoting the song other than the one performance. We got two first wins for songs, which is absolutely delightful for the groups. I'm so happy for them. On After School Club, Allen and Taeyoung rejoined as MCs with Aron for WEi, a five member boy group that debuted in 2020. There are some very cute dimples going on, some excellent English skills, more going for Taeyoung's MC job here, and some throwing the other members under the bus. That's always fun to see.  As always, the links in the chart go to my reviews. Show Champion: N/A MCountdown: BOYNEXTDOOR "If I Say, I Love You" (note: this performance is from the 250109 episode) Music Bank: BSS (Seventeen) "CBZ (Prime Time)"  Show! Music Core: G-Dragon (BI...

  Release date: 2025 January 08 Album tracklist: CBZ (Prime Time) , Happy Alone, Love Song Album runtime: 9 minutes  Every tick that marks off something makes us closer to the 96z enlistments. So while I'm very, very excited for this particular song because I love BSS and their particular brand of cheerful chaos, that awareness sits on my shoulder and glares at me. But, as long as it isn't in the vicinity of sad, I'll likely be fine listening to it. The Hoshi x Woozi subunit coming up shortly may be a different story, but that's a problem for Future Fangirl to worry about. Also, this is my 300th post review and I put off posting the special post to make BSS my 300th post. How many times can I say the word post? As expected, high energy and happy. There's the facsimile of audience participation clapping in the instrumentals, which makes it better because there's no pressure to clap, but you're absolutely invited to. The instrumentals for this song remind me a...

Release date: 2024 December 04 Album tracklist: 54321 (Lift Off) (feat. Vernon), Orbit (feat. JinJin's water) , Cold Love Album runtime: 9 minutes   I wish I could include the Chinese characters, but I don't have the first clue about how to go about writing them. Congrats to The8! I am assuming that the title means this is his first Chinese EP. I don't know what the difference is between an EP, a single, and a mini album are, but that's something I can learn later. I'm very excited for this, even more so after seeing Vernon in the credits for two of the three. The two shortest songs, naturally, because that seems to be the way of it these days. But also, he was working on this while being busy with the group activities and the tour and everything, and I both applaud that and worry. It takes almost thirty seconds for his voice to show up, and in that time, I'm left wondering what those instruments are. This song just washes over you without snagging or gripping t...

 October is my Spookening month, my favorite month of the year. It also marks the anniversary of my first K-Pop performance that I saw! Thank you for coming, NINE.i! Also, once more, I want to thank you all for reading any of the reviews thus far. You are all lovely and amazing, and I hope you always have a cool side to your pillow.  I'm also already seeing the personal benefits of doing this, namely how distracted I am from the recent enlistments and the upcoming ones across groups. There is a lot to be doing, and a lot to be paying attention to. So, let's get to it! Starting off with my space to be indulgent and a fan, as I sit here sipping from my Seventeen tumbler and wearing a NU'EST shirt, there were some releases that I've been looking forward to for months, one that might qualify as a historic occasion, and some that definitely piqued my interest more than others. Google already thinks I'm obsessed with only G-Dragon. There is only G-Dragon. (I have exactly ...

 With Seventeen out of the country, it's nigh impossible for them to film for these episodes of the music shows. And with R os é not exactly being able to promote with Bruno Mars on the music shows, actual performances of that one are few and far between. The struggle is real, my friends. On the bright side, The Show is finally back up again, so I get to include those wins starting now. And I appreciate this one because we got some variety to this week's wins. On the other hand, the SAY MY NAME members are kind of funny. Show Champion!: Seventeen "Love, Money, Fame" (note: Seventeen was out of the country for their tour, and I'm using the MCountdown performance here because they didn't win on MCountdown) MCountdown: Ro s é  x Bruno Mars "APT." (Note: I haven't seen her performing it anywhere. So...have the one from Bruno Mars's YouTube channel) Music Bank: Seventeen "Love, Money, Fame" (Note: They're not in the country, so this...

 I love Halloween. It's been my favorite holiday for literally my entire life. I have loved Halloween longer than Sangyeon of The Boyz has been alive, barely because my first Halloween was a couple of days before he was born, but according to my mother, even at the age of not-quite one years old, I have loved it. She dressed me up as a San Francisco 49ers cheerleader. I have pictures.  One of the most important things, then, is finding music that matches the Month of Spookening and horror. I love spooky movies. I love spooky books. I love spooky video games (even though I am a wuss of the nth degree and prefer to watch other people play them). And I love spooky music. THUS, this post is simply going to be a compilation of some of the songs I've added to my Halloween K-Pop playlist. If I were to add all of the songs in there, this post would be ages  long. So I'm only going to add as many as I feel like it. I don't know how long this is going to be. But there will be vib...

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...

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  Did I watch the concert so I've already seen this performed? Yes. Have I watched the music video trailer? No, which is a surprise. Normally I'm all over them like fur on a cat, but with my conflicted feelings over the title track collaboration, my reticence is unsurprising. The concert helped. Woozi was very clear that he  is the songwriter for the group, and I trust him. Also, I had to round up to hit that 18 minutes for the run time, which means the average length of song is less than 3 minutes. Which does not please me, and I'm a little disappointed in Woozi and Bumzu for that. At least the title track is over three minutes. There is a very Latin pop feel to the instrumentals, which I'm not sure we've seen a lot from Seventeen. It's been a familiar sound over at KQ and with Stray Kids as well, but we haven...