Just A Little Fangirl Love

Release date: 2026 February 20 Album track list:  Dazzle Flash , No Clarity, Coming Home, Who Dat, Dazzle Flash - Instrumental, No Clarity  - Instrumental, Coming Home  - Instrumental, Who Dat  - Instrumental Album runtime: 25 mi nutes  Good news, everyone! This group is so not on Underage protocol that there are multiple members with a one in front of their birth year! And the maknae turned twenty the year they debuted! This is fantastic. I am fascinated with the runtimes though. Ignoring the fact that the title track is just over two and a half minutes for a second, there are two sets of songs that have the same runtime, and they're paired in an ABBA...I almost called it a rhyme scheme, but I suppose it is sort of. But that's the sort of thing that feels deliberate, you know? That scream at the beginning startled my cat. He paused purring for about two seconds, which is momentous because PJ purrs in his sleep. The rest of the instrumental, the occasional screa...

Release date: 2026 February 20 Album track list: RUDE! Album runtime: 3 mi nutes  Hearts2Hearts is one of those groups that have to be on Underage Protocol because the maknae was too young at debut, so I can't listen for another two years. But, that's fine. Also, congrats on the win now that I'm super late, you know? But I am happy about the fact that it's over three minutes. A mild instrumental without it being a weak one. The beat is good, even if it lacks the attitude of the lyrics. There feels like there's a ceiling holding the instrumental from getting any louder or exciting, which isn't necessarily a problem, but the song isn't feisty enough to warrant the ceiling being in the mid-range for both energy and complexity like it is. The sing-songy vocals is an irritating trend, but recently I've been well-fed enough on bigger vocals that I'm able to better tolerate it here. I would have liked it if the song had waited a little bit before that style...

 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 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...

Release date: 2026 February 11 Album track list: Truth Album runtime: 3 mi nutes  First post-military release! I can't believe I forgot about this! I am so sorry, Minhyun! You know, considering the album artwork, this feels appropriately underwater-y. Some bits of the instrumental sound a bit like whale song or the other interesting sounds that you hear in the ocean. This is very calm and laid-back, and I'm reminded a bit of bamboo at different points as well. I know I just woke up, but it's soothing enough that my brain is like "Yeah, we can just go back to sleep. Let's do that."  I can't. But this is trying to convince me that I can. He is giving us the absolute minimum amount of vibrato. It just barely touches the ends of the lines because they're held for a beat or two, so it shows up with regularity, but at the same time, it's such a mild addition that I almost missed it on my first listen, except at the very end when the instrumental falls ou...

Release date: 2026 February 12 Album track list: CINEMA , Bloodline Album runtime: 6 mi nutes  The title track is a fantastic length. The other one has a very interesting name, but I'm squinting at that unfortunate runtime. So I'm definitely going to be taking a listen to that when I'm finished here.  This song is Drowning 2.0. Drowning the Return. Drowning 2: Electric Bugaloo . Before the song decides to kick up its heels a little, it's haunting and melancholic with the kind of quiet repetition that forces the song into this humdrum existence until that first chorus and everything changes. The cool thing is that instead of just transitioning into the chorus instrumental, the song tries to have more energy. There are tiny little stopped flickers of energy that ultimately don't go anywhere because the song holds them leashed until the chorus gives it permission to go. I really love his singing voice. This makes sense because I tend to love it when rappers sing as the...

Release date: 2026 February 02 Album track list:  Godsaeng , Dancing under the Stars, Godsaeng(MR), Dancing under the Stars(MR) Album runtime: 12 mi nutes  It's so nice to be able to be properly creative again instead of administrative and editorial. You have no idea. So I'm going to get some of the songs I've been majorly neglecting done. It's a substantial list unfortunately, so I'm going to get some of the ones I have a good idea that I'm going to like out of the way first to minimize the mental load. And while I couldn't tell you which member Sungmin is right now because I only recognize five on sight and he is not one of them, I'm tentatively hopeful about this. (I am actually vaguely familiar with him as a name and what happened to him, but I didn't remember that until I started digging into the song a little.) I'm very intrigued about the whole MR tracks on this single, but I'll have to take a look at them when I'm done with this. ...

Release date: 2026 February 12 Album track list:  Identity Album runtime: 5 mi nutes  SHE LIVES! I have spent the last four days (five days? Week? Time means nothing anymore) adding in some scaffolding and such to the more than 60 Greatest Hits or Battle of the B-Sides posts I've published, including extra work (some of it major remodeling) to about twenty of those to expand them. You can now start at any of those posts and follow links in chronological publishing order, rather than rely solely on the main hub pages for each set.  I'm writing this paragraph before I even know what song I'm going to do, because I have no idea what's come out recently. I didn't even do the weekly music show wins post. I think ATEEZ got some wins? I don't know. I'm so tired. TVXQ! is apparently the group that gets to be my first after that monster undertaking. There are a few others and I should probably do one for a smaller group that needs the exposure more, but, frankly, the...

Release date: 2026 February 12 Album track list: Forever Mine , Too late , Film, If you leave me, Still with you Album runtime: 18 mi nutes  Whoo! He debuted as a soloist! We get to hear this lovely voice out in the wild now! And the runtime almost makes me want to cry from joy.  Okay, you know what? I'm down with this guitar. It's very calm and comforting. It takes a bit for the drums to properly join in although we get a small burst of them earlier. But the song gets so much time with just the guitar in the instrumental that I'm intrigued and pleased by this. The contrast of the verses and the chorus is delightful, full energy shift.  He's wailing  everyone. It's part of the ad-libs at the end, but it's incredible and I'm not just saying that because his vibrato gets fully unleashed in that little section. It's been such a long time since I've heard a proper wail like that in music. They've fallen out of style, which is fine because musical tre...

Release date: 2026 February 12 Album track list:  Where Stars Grow Album runtime: 4 mi nutes  I do not know who you are, but the YouTube algorithm gave me your music video, and so here I am doing this so that I do not forget to do it. I'm hoping that Golden Child is going to find a new home and this isn't actually the d-word because I really like this group. But, we're going to focus on him for the moment, not the group. this is Golden Child's leader and part of the '93 line, along with Suga, Taemin, Aron, Peniel, and D.O. And! It's his solo debut! Congrats to him! This song starts off so softly, but it's a lovely bright soft. The song gets a little more complexity once the vocals start up, added heft and solidness but nothing particularly overpowering. If this isn't in the comfort category of songs, I'll be deeply surprised because this is hitting me right in the Seventeen vocal unit and "almost everything by BTOB" spot in my brain. While ...