Just A Little Fangirl Love

 This group has a grand total of 2500 listeners a month on Spotify, so I'm super happy that the submitter decided to give this song to me. Let's see if we can introduce more people to them. I've also never actually heard of this group before so chances are, you and I are both going to be going on this venture into this b-side and group together for the first time. If you've already heard of them or listen to them, and there was something I didn't highlight about this song that you'd like to, go ahead and hop on over to the submission link, and I will make an addition with my focus on the thing you really enjoy about it. Debuted in 2021 under BY-U Entertainment (which is the most hilarious K-Pop company I've ever heard named, and that won't make sense for a lot of people, but that's okay. The ones who will get it, I see you. Me too.), they started out with six members, although it looks like they've had a few line-up changes over the years. The st...

 Okay, so, Koyote is a co-ed group that originally debuted in 1998, and since has had line-up changes like they're one of the Doctors. The current line-up is Kim Jongim, Shinji, and Bbaekga. Also, I just learned that they did a Killing Voice a year and a half ago (2023) so I recommend you all go check that out. They're there to have fun, and also sing. First gen idols are just built different, you guys. Also also, if you look into their history, there's a really good reason for all the line-up changes. It's a miracle the group has made it this long, even with these members, because it has just been one thing after another, so I'm really happy that we have a current line-up that is stable, long-lasting, and a lot less problematic. And I know I said on the review for Four Seasons  that I'd be doing a GH post for this group, and I still intend to do so (so let me know if there's a title track you really like), but I'm doing one of these instead. 웃자 comes f...

 There are some songs, beloved by fans, where it feels like the song just gets forgotten in the basement after release. I have quite a few songs like this, where the likelihood of the group or soloist performing the song in a concert is pretty low and I know that, but it doesn't change my love or my hope. Dune  is also one of them, and I'm not alone in this, because it was submitted via The Form by someone who also loves this song. I'm sorry it's taken so long, but the two car accidents in a week (neither of which were my fault, I feel like I have to clarify that I am not irresponsible, just horrifically unlucky) have made it so that I'm doing things as I feel like and also when I have time that's not spent on mental and emotional recovery.  But! That also means I get to sit with this song as I slowly work through it and take my time. Because Dune  deserves a lot of attention and one day, we may get to hear them perform it live. One day. So many songs from this ...

 This one is for my personal indulgences, because I wanted something first gen and I wanted something fairly recent. So, I'm going with Queen BoA, all hail the queen. The song does turn five this year, so it's not completely recent, but she's also got her 25th anniversary this year and I'm hoping she releases something for that. She also debuted at the age of thirteen, but we're not going to talk about that because then I'll be a little too filled with The Rage on her behalf and these are supposed to be not-rage-filled moments. This song comes from BoA's tenth studio album, Better, released in 2020 to mark her twentieth anniversary. Eleven tracks, of which Start Over is the ninth, for a total of thirty-eight minutes. Produced by SM the Dude and Marcus Andersson (who has produced for LE SSERAFIM, ILLIT, Demi Levato, and VCHA, among others) and written by Lee Seu Ran (who has written for BTS, TxT, IVE, Everglow, NCT, Super Junior, and GOT7, among others), Rosi...

 I haven't done a lot of the Big 3 groups in these, which is fine. I like that because while they've done a lot of groups, they haven't done all the groups and there are a lot of very good groups that aren't from one of the Big 3 companies. But I'm also not going to discriminate against a bigger group because though they've had more opportunities to grow because of the weight behind them, that doesn't mean they don't also deserve their renown. And so, thank you to whoever tossed Red Velvet at me from The Form. They're one of those groups that while I haven't heard a lot of their songs, the ones I have heard, I've loved ( Red Flavor is my absolute jam), so this opportunity for me to deep dive into one I haven't heard is awesome. Also, find me surprised that while looking up this song, I found out that the group did an OST for Hotel Del Luna , which was almost the second K-Drama I ever watched and could have sent me on an entirely differen...

 Unless I do The Roulette Wheel, I obviously can pick which of the suggestions I've gotten that I'll write posts for. I also have a spreadsheet where I have my posts organized by generation and boy group, girl group, and co-ed. The co-ed groups definitely need more attention, but I'm taking these last few Specialty posts to focus on the girl groups because they're not my natural inclination, and while the Roulette Wheel is weighted equally, I don't like that it's uneven. So, I ignored my normal addition of the B/G/Co-Ed Wheel spin and just did it for a girl group, and I ended up with LABOUM. I'm not sure I've heard of them, so this will be exciting.  LABOUM is a third gen girl group that are younger sisters to U-KISS and Brown Eyed Girls, which is wildly hilarious considering the last GH post I did was in fact for BEG's song Abracadabra . So, that was unintended. 빛이 되어쥐 , or Be the Light  as I will be calling it through this because while it would be...

 Even though I desperately want to do nothing but talk about my absolute ult and first group, the unfortunate reality I face every time I have to pick a song for either a GH or a BBS post, and it's one that everyone who is a fan of a disbanded group is aware of, is that until and unless they get back together after their enlistments, NU'EST songs are a finite resource. If I go hog wild on them, I will run out of them quickly. So, really, I should save them for special occasions, like birthdays and anniversaries. And this isn't one, but I have also spent the past week or so just missing them. So I'm ignoring the suggestions for this posting cycle, I'm ignoring the Roulette Wheel, and I'm ignoring the irrationality of the emotion. I'm sure this is partially fueled by the awareness of Hoshi's impending enlistment with the release of CBZ , but it is what it is. So I'm also giving myself permission to just fangirl over this song. Please note that the name...

 I love when I get suggestions for groups that I've heard of but haven't actively listened to. I know that f(x) has several songs that are on the list of K-Pop influential songs that pretty much everyone should be familiar with, if they don't know  them. I don't think this is one of them, because this is a b-side, but I could also be wrong. Which is why I like being able to dig into the albums and the songs a little bit. So, this comes from their second studio album Pink Tape, released in 2013, which won a bonsaeng in 2014 at the GDAs, and hit number 1 on multiple music charts worldwide. One of the songs on the album was originally supposed to be Ariana Grande's song, and f(x) got it instead. So that's pretty cool. It's the second track on the album and is described as creepy pop, which I am down for entirely and that was one of the reasons why this song was suggested for me to do as the suggestion included the note that I seem to really like eerie or otherw...

 Let's go back in time a little bit to May of 1998, before a lot of newer idols were born. And by newer, I mean, this song was released about two weeks before SinB of GFriend/VIVIZ was born. Fin.K.L is one of those groups which had the Korean name decided first, with the English name to follow, which is why the English meaning is a little confusing (Fin Killing Liberty). Still, they'd end up being one of the greats of the first generation of K-Pop and an act to help break ground for future girl groups and soloists to move further into various markets.  Welcome, Fin.K.L. Their name in Hangeul is the only reason I have any idea of how to pronounce their group name (핑클). This was also the group that saw the start of Lee Hyori, now an accomplished soloist in her own right, as well as Ock Joo-hyun, a celebrated musical theatre actress; Lee Jin of the drama and variety acting persuasion; and Sung Yuri of the drama and film acting persuasion. They've all done very well for themsel...

 So this lovely group left their company after a little over two years, founded their own company, and are now going by the name Skye as of 2023. So, yes, technically IN2IT is disbanded, but it's more of a B2ST/Highlight situation. I also found out that they did a cover of SHINee's An Encore  a few months ago, which delights me to no end because that's my favorite SHINee song, and they did a great job. This one was also recommended to me, and because I've never heard of this group before, I'm genuinely delighted by the idea that I get to cover a group I haven't heard of. And the only group I've covered in one of these posts, going by some of the numbers, that's smaller is the ill-fated Chocolate, which I also hadn't heard of before I started looking into them.  Some brief background on them. They debuted in 2017 as an 8-member project group from the survival show BOYS24 under what is now WAKEONE and left at the end of their contracts in 2020, which m...

 So this was actually suggested to me by multiple members of the fandom when I shared the Greatest Hits post for the title track,  Feel So Good,  with them. There's been enough time since I posted that (about a month) and there's been enough variation in the GH and BBS posts since then that this feels like a good time to post this. And that way, I can get this back to them finally, and it can stop sitting on my head screaming at me to do it. So, this is from the B.A.P's eponymous 2016 album, Carnival. You all are apparently getting very cheery songs right now. I don't know how much of it is me wanting cheerful songs, but aggressive cheerfulness can almost never go wrong. Honestly, the song feels like a finale song to a musical, where they're dancing down the middle of a street, with the others in the cast falling in behind while streamers and confetti rain down around them and the band is actually a marching band. It's just fun incarnate.  Every time I hear Ban...

This is the second time that fromis_9 has left a company, and while part of me is sad about this, I'm wishing them well in their future endeavors and hope they can find a new home that will treat them well and as they deserve. So, in honor of this, I'm going to go back to 2019 shortly after debut when they were still at their first company and their single, FUN FACTORY, and one of the b-sides contained therein.  This is a song sung by only two of the members, Jiwon and Hayoung, but they also have credits as the writers! The talent! It's such a pretty song. Also, their composing composing team is called "Dam-Dam," which I also think is kind of cute, and this was the first song that they did together. This is very much a summer kind of song and the irony that I'm doing this in winter is not lost on me, but it's summer somewhere, so it's fine. It's also, as you can tell by the title, a song about hope and freedom, which again makes this singularly app...

I know that The Roulette Wheel gave me VANNER to do, but I was genuinely pleased about this because I love this group. They're goofy goombahs with incredible voices. Also, Gon is a day older than SCoups, who is a day older than Minhyun. That's a clump. I was originally going to do Diamonds  or Savior from their first post- Peak Time  mini album, but then as I was listening to VENI VIDI VICI, waffling between the two songs, I realized I should probably do the one that I have in more of my playlists. Thus, WANT U BACK . The entire album is great though. Highly recommended.  Good news, the song has been out long enough that they have done performances of it. And you'll also be getting one of my favorite things: choreography video. Because they released that a few months ago. So they have a pair of rappers in the group. The always impressive Gon and Sungkook of the deep voice, currently doing his military service. Normally I have to warm up to rapping, which I'm working on...

As I can't tell that there's a discernable actual title track from this album beyond what I've already covered, I'm just going to pick my favorite track of the bunch to review. It's been bothering me that I haven't done one when I was so diligent with the tracks with the music videos. This album is a massive undertaking, and I genuinely don't know which ones are new songs and which are old. But I know at least this one is a b-side because there is absolutely no corresponding music video. Also, what a flex. Twentieth Japanese anniversary. King of Kings, indeed. Now, normally this would be the part where I go sniffing for them performing it, but it's literally such a new song, and I don't think they've had the opportunity to perform it. I thought that about Down too, from their last Korean album, and then I saw a clip a couple of days ago that about made me swallow my tongue. So you just get my thoughts on just the music, because I think that'...

 My first BBS request! I just saw some of the memes being made about their performance and the amount of space between Wendy and Jin, and I just have to say that they're hilarious and the amount of trolling I'm seeing from the fans gives me life. The timing is actually really helpful for me to get into fan mindset. This request comes from a user on Reddit, who simply said there was too much, they were obsessed, and then linked me to an appreciation post they'd done. This is what I like to see, and it gave me a very good place to start: Jin and Wendy's voices. As a side note, Jin really does have the perfect trot voice. This isn't even in that genre or anywhere approaching it, but that honestly doesn't change this fact about him. If he's willing to give us more trot or trot-adjacent, I'd be a happy camper and eat it up. Heart on the Window comes from Jin's debut album and is the fifth track between a soft rock ballad and a full fat ballad. With the t...

Travelling to Oakland for Seventeen, and when my flights were absolutely killed my sleeping schedule, and I'm still recovering from it. Thankfully, there weren't a ton of releases in this second half. So instead, I'm dropping my first proper Battle of the B-Sides segment from MBLAQ's first album, BLAQ Style. Not going to lie, a lot of their title tracks are really good and I think would be popular again if they were to be rediscovered by this generation's current fans. But this isn't for title tracks. This is for b-sides because they need love too.  Also, all of this yapping is because I'm still trying to figure out how to format this, and talking about it usually helps me. It's more difficult to pick out what fans like about b-sides, (especially when they're older ones) because there isn't a dedicated music video typically that I can look through the comments for some repeating ideas or thoughts to pass on if it isn't a group I love myself....