Just A Little Fangirl Love

 Last of the girl group submissions for the moment, then I get to move on to some of the boy groups, but it's not just boy groups. There's a co-ed submission in there, which is such a yay from me. I'm excited for that. But! I'm also very excited for this, because she is a second gen heavy weight, reigning champion of an artist. Award-winning. Best-selling. Chart topping. And that's just her as a soloist, that's not even counting the years before that as the leader of Girls' Generation, which is one of the most well-known groups to come out of K-Pop. I admire her a lot, as you can tell, and I also think she's really cool. And funny. I don't know if she's generally known for her humor, but I think she's hilarious. She's also fairly out-spoken which is something else that I admire about her, but the group turns eighteen this year. If anyone has earned the right to pass judgement on the industry, someone who has been as active as she has the ...

 Looking at my submissions, of the five or so I've got left right now, all but two of them are boy groups and one of those two is a soloist. So I'll finish off the girl group submissions and then get going with the boy groups. The submitter for this one specifically pointed me to a performance on Show Champion for this and said that they really admired the group for coming back after the accident with a song like this. Now, I'm mostly familiar with Ladies' Code because that's the group that Ashley from Dive Studios is from, and I love her. I think she's hilarious. But I don't know much about the group or their songs, so this was news to me that something had happened.  This is the group's most streamed song on Spotify, I think, which makes me so soft inside. MYST3RY was Ladies' Code's first single album, released in February of 2016, and their first release as a trio following the loss of EunB and RiSe. Galaxy  has some chops behind it, produced...

Release date: 2025 February 28 Album track list: Carnival Album runtime: 4 mi nutes  Well, I'm pretty excited about the fact that they dropped another single. I'm tentatively hopeful by the title that this is going to be a fun song. For those of you who didn't catch my previous Nomad review, Nomad is pretty close to being an indie K-Pop group. The leader and the CEO were the ones to pick up the other four members. They were all adults at debut (thankfully because the photoshoot for their debut album was...a thing), but several of them trained at other companies, one of which was SM. Two of them were on different survival shows. And I deeply admire them for filming their struggles at debut because it was a lot harder than they expected it to be. The leader is also their producer and he is very exacting and deliberate, but he's got a great ear and the members seem to trust him. Okay. I was expecting something a bit more energetic and instead we've got a ballad. I will...

 This month has been me scrambling to catch up after my bout of flu at the very start of the month, which set me back about a week. Which is why I'm so late in posting this one. Hello, friends! I'm still not fully caught up, but I'm counting myself as close enough that I can get this done. Also, why were so many releases on February 24th?  So. Debuts. Didn't cover a lot of them. I did cover NouerA and Hearts2Hearts . The other debuts that I didn't cover but I'm still going to mention are BLINGONE China , NEEZ , AWIN , DearALICE , and 3WAY . Moonbyul had her Japanese debut. As did ILLIT , DAYCHILD , WE;NA , and BXB .  Releases that I was looking forward to are as follows: ALL(H)OURS- I surprisingly really liked Graffiti  a lot. I don't know why I was so surprised by how much I liked it. but the vibes reminded me of 2PM which is something that I can fully get behind ONF- I just really like these guys.  Changsub (BTOB)- He's my cat's bias. We both lov...

Release date: 2025 February 24 Album track list: The Chase , Butterflies Album runtime: 6 mi nutes  I still think it was a wasted opportunity not to have them debut on Valentine's Day with a group name like that, but what do I know? I have no control over marketing of any kind. I also have no control over when the idols debut, because this one has their maknae at the ripe age of fourteen. She's practically an nonagenarian. But, with some less opinionated facts, Hearts2Hearts is an eight member girl group that has debuted under SM entertainment, which is the second largest girl group they've debuted after Girls' Generation. What has become the group called Hearts2Hearts was originally slated to debut in August 2023 (checks maknae's age again, hopefully she's a new addition), but had several debut delays resulting in the debut date they now enjoy. One benefit of doing a debut review so late is that I can add that they've had an apparently successful debut, so ...

Release date: 2025 February 14 Album track list:  earthquake , Your Love, TEARS, Hugs & Kisses Album runtime: 12 mi nutes  There's a bit of a ramble that I  think is interesting, but you fully have my permission to stop reading this next paragraph at any point and just get down to the reviewing part. Not that you needed my permission. I can't control how much you read or don't read. I can just try to make things interesting foe me and hopefully someone else finds them interesting as well. I was hoping to be able to push this one off for a little bit longer, but Earthquake  has gotten wins, so here we are. It's literally nothing against Jisoo, but with my backlog, in an effort to catch up, I'm dumping songs into my drafts so that I remember to review them when I'm less slammed, but trying to focus on groups, with bigger profile releases getting the front of the line. As of this post and not  including it, I have 23 songs sitting in my drafts waiting to be rev...

Release date: 2025 February 24 Album track list: BLUE , Devil Game, Doctor! Doctor! , Out of Love, Step Back, Cruel Album runtime: 17 mi nutes  Okay, I think I'm getting closer to being caught up, so this is good. However, I think I may also be developing a little bit of a migraine, which isn't ideal for anyone. But, I've been looking forward to this album since Doctor! Doctor ! came out, even if I couldn't remember precisely when. And also, I believe one of the members just had a birthday. Or the maknae graduated. Or both things happened. The album runtime is a little bit uncomfy for me, though. There's another song that I'm reminded of. It's from a girl group. It's a little bit older, but still recent. Probably last five years or so. Ah, well. It'll come to me eventually.  I'm a little fascinated by the difference between the instrumentals and vocals. I don't know why, but it sounds like a mashup with two songs playing at the same time. And...

Release date: 2025 February 23 Album track list:  Twilight Album runtime: 3 mi nutes  I'm fine with them being on hiatus. They have enlistments coming up as well as continuing to heal emotionally, but I'm taking it as a good sign that they are still releasing anniversary songs. As a side note, I was looking through the March birthdays for my birthday wall of photocards and learned that Fantagio formed this group of members whose birthdays are all in the first three months and debuted the group in the middle of those months. So by the time April hits, unless the Aroha have a birthday as well, Astro is done with the birthdays for the year. That's insane.  Starting the song out the way it does, with the sound of a cassette tape and the ticking clock, it masterfully pulls this sense of nostalgia and the past, which is fitting for an anniversary song. The instrumentals to this song are in that nebulous area where if it never has choreography, that would be fitting, but if it d...

Release date: 2025 February 19 Album track list: Butterfly Album runtime: 3 mi nutes  I have a random photocard from this group that I don't know where I picked it up from. It's a single photcard of a random member. But I'm pretty sure this is a younger group, which means I need to go take a quick look-see. And we are good on that end. Both the former maknae and the current maknae are adults. Eunseop, I hope your future endeavors go as well as you hope. Welcome to the group, Yuma! This is the kind of song that you'd do a modern dance showcase with. There's a fluidity to the instrumentals (and a violin which helps) that, while you could do something with sharp angles, it's much more fitting for grace and bonelessness and flowing like water. The only part that would be more appropriate to have be sharper would be during the chorus when the baseline is more active. Also, you'll notice one of my other favorite things in songs. So we have a violin, which is what ...

Release date: 2025 February 26 Album track list: Sparkle, N.I.N (New is Now) , Bring the Crunk, MU, Jet Stream, Pairing Album runtime: 3 mi nutes  Okay. Technically I'm pulling this out of the draft line, but this is a debut and I'd like to make sure I get this one done before too much time has passed on it. Oh! I was watching this survival show! And then I got distracted! This is the debut group from MakeMate1! And everyone in the group is seventeen or older! I remember a couple of the members as the trainees, which is impressive because I only watched a couple of episodes before getting distracted. This should be interesting.  Five seconds in and I am in love. These instrumentals at the beginning feel exactly like an old theme song from the 60s, specifically for Batman or Scooby-Doo. Or Scooby-Doo and Batman, but that didn't happen until 1972. It's a little jazzy, a little disco, and all drama. Also. Hold on. Do my ears deceive me or is that an EDM dance break? In th...

Release date: 2025 February 20 Album tracklist: Bluebird , Winter (unreleased) Album runtime: 5 minutes  I recently rewatched the recorded day of the MCountdown Stage for KCon LA. It was a few weeks ago, but that included her stage with Hyolin, who I've already decided is one of my favorite soloists to come from a group I don't currently listen to. She has a really good stage presence. I was impressed. I also don't know a lot about her, so I'm going to have to look her up a little. Full soloist and has never been with a group, I don't think. Younger sister who also joined the industry. Cool. The run time of this single does make me twitch a little, but I suppose it's fine. Ah, so we're going for the indie-esque with the solo guitar and the soft, rasping vocals. Audience participation snapping gets added, which brings me as much joy as everyone expects, though it doesn't stay. Percussion of some sort also gets added, as does an organ, but it never fully l...

Release date: 2025 February 18 Album tracklist: TIME 2 SHINE , MY LOVE , LOVERS OR JUST FRIENDS Album runtime: 9 minutes  Yes, I remember this group. This is the group I thought would be more like xikers than TWS, and I was very wrong about that. Or at least I was with the last song they released that I covered. I don't know how indicative of their general sound OUR DAYS  was, but I liked that one. So here we are supporting the adults at debut once more. Also, this is for the title track. I now also understand why I had two XODIAC drafts sitting there. So the pre-release has been re-added to the draft list. I'm also sensing a theme with the song titles.  I've mentioned this before in other reviews, but Final Fantasy X  is my favorite video game and  I love the soundtrack so much that I bought it. I've ironically finished the sequel more times than I have that one, because I'm a chronic restarter (though those numbers are once and twice, respectively). So, to tha...

Release date: 2025 February 25 Album track list: HOME SWEET HOME (feat. Taeyang and Daesung) , POWER , TOO BAD , DRAMA, IBELONGIIU, TAKE ME, BONOMANA, GYRO-DROP Album runtime: 18 mi nutes  There are a lot of earlier releases that are higher up in my draft list. So many. So very many. But my music show wins senses are tingling so I'm just going to get this one out of the way now because it's likely that I'll be needing it. The king is back. Long live the king. In all seriousness, that fact that G-Dragon is returning to K-Pop after so long away from it and after everything that has happened with a certain former member whose name we don't mention and also T.O.P, as well as everything he's been accused of the last little bit. BIGBANG has not been a lucky group. Insanely talented, but not lucky. Also, why is everything capitalized... I'm genuinely surprised by how minimalistic these instrumentals are through most of the song. It's a pleasant surprise, if I'm...

Release date: 2025 February 18 Album track list:  The Stranger , Night Tale, Nothing but a stranger (ON Team Ver.), Anti Hero (OFF Team Ver.), Good Place, Collab Album runtime: 18 mi nutes  FINALLY I HAVE GOTTEN TO THIS ONE. Spotify has been yelling at me to listen to this song. YouTube has been yelling at me. Instagram has been yelling at me. The members have been throwing content at me. And it's not like I wasn't intending to listen to it! Beautiful Shadow from last year was fully 1000% a no-skip for me, so why wouldn't I get to this album? Oh, boy. As soon as this started up, my foot started tapping. So that's where we're at right now. I'm reminded strongly of Play That Funky Music  and I think it just generally reminds me of the 70s. I'm just generally enjoying this for them. It's fun and funky, not as dramatic as I generally like, but the song still has some very smooth instrumentals and very much of the makes you want to dance with the song. Also, ...

Release date: 2025 February 10 Album track list:  ROMANCE Album runtime: 3 mi nutes  The PENTAGON maknae has dropped his first solo music of the year! Whoo! I'm curious about when he's going to release a mini album, because so far I think he's only released singles, but that's still okay. My volume was up much too high for this song. Rock. Okay. Heavy electric guitar and drums here. There are moments where the instrumentals back off, which allows the lyrics to seem a lot softer, which shows that this is actually a really good show of technical skill, so kudos to the writers. But, otherwise, a solid entry into the genre. His voice suits this genre astonishingly well. Put this man in a rock band pronto. That's it. That's all I've got. I'm kind of half in love with his voice now, so this is something that I have to process. Normally, because he doesn't have a very strong variation going on in this song, though there are bursts of power, I'd be whini...

Release date: 2025 February 13 Album track list: Killer (feat. Jae Chong), Coincidence Album runtime: 8 mi nutes  Y'all. Baby V.O.X dropped new music (sort of but not technically) for the first time since 2016. This is legitimately one of the OG girl groups, older than all of the members of ATEEZ, the same age or older than all of the members of Stray Kids. We would not have K-Pop as we do without them. I was just glancing through the list of new releases and I saw this. Now, granted, these are re-releases of their old songs (one from 1999 and the other from 2002, which again are older than some of the members of entire K-Pop groups, which is crazy to think about), and neither of them have an accompanying music video, so I basically flipped a coin about which to cover on here from this single. Now, you could argue, "Fangirl, if they didn't actually release new music and there's no new music video, like with Fiestar, then why are you doing this when you have other songs...

Release date: 2025 February 18 Album track list: nu kidz, loop.dll, accident ~ at the studio, alien in Seoul, connected Album runtime: 16 mi nutes  So I'm having to move up my planned review of this because they're going to be on ASC, so I need that review done for my pattern to hold up. I’m not actually sure that I've ever done a review for them, and I'm not sure I've ever heard them before. So this should be interesting. But that also means I get to do a quick check up on the group. Unfortunately, due to the number of members that were underage at debut, this is a group I can't listen to on my own time until the maknae is eighteen. Good news, that's next year. Bad news, five of the seven at debut were seventeen or younger. That seems a little excessive. I'm writing this one on my phone as well, so pardon any errors. I'll take a look at it when I get back home. There's something really familiar about these instrumentals, like there's another...

Release date: 2025 February 17 Album track list:  Gimme Love Album runtime: 3 mi nutes  With what I'm assuming is probably a digital single, POW has officially stepped into 2025. Their singles I covered last year, and it's a little crazy I've been doing this long enough that I'm starting to see repeat names, were enjoyable and a little surprising. Full disclosure, I'm writing this on my phone at an airport, so if there are any mistakes, I'll try to catch them, but assume it was autocorrect and I'll go back over it when I'm back home. We've got the standard guitar and drums for the instrumentals, soft, mellow, and wholly fitting for the topic at hand. This is one of those super soft love songs that speak of the peace one finds with a partner who understands. We get some audience participation snapping that could very much function as audience participation clapping. Much in line with the instrumentals, their voices are so soft. This is the kind of son...

Release date: 2025 February 17 Album track list: My Memory , My Memory (Inst.) Album runtime: 8 mi nutes  My man, Hui. Apparently there's a twentieth Hallyu anniversary that he released a song for. I don't know what this whole thing is. His is the only release I've seen for it. I don't know. But regardless of what this is, Hui is one of those that I'll automatically and immediately add to my list, if I don't automatically do the review. Obviously, I didn't get it done right away, since this came out just under a week ago, but we're moving in the correct direction. Progress. And also, I'm really excited to listen to this song. Haven't yet, because I've been waiting to do this review. And good heavens, a four minute song. Hui. You spoil me. This is why you're my PENTAGON bias. That and your voice has an instant calming effect on my brain. Violin taking center stage with a piano right behind it and other orchestral instruments behind that. O...

Release date: 2025 February 10 Album tracklist : HOT MESS , Birthday, Love Like That, CROWN, Youth, Keshiki - Korean Version Album runtime: 19 minutes  This one is a little bit earlier than the ones that I've been doing recently, which makes me sad because I thought I was making progress and getting later  in the month, instead of earlier. But it's fine. At this point, the entirety of the group is at least eighteen, the youngest actually turns nineteen this year, so that's good. Project group formed from Boys Planet trainees, including Keita! Which is exciting! I liked him! But the length of the title track? Really? What is this? That beginning startled both me and my cat. Goodness. This song is chock full of energy from start to finish, a veritable runaway train. But like. Also if the runaway train wasn't going at breakneck speed? It doesn't make me feel out of breath listening to it, in other words. There's also a lot going on with the various instruments, to ...