Just A Little Fangirl Love

Release date: 2025 February 13 Album tracklist: Time limit ,  君は輝いている (Kun Wa Kagayaite Iru) , Time limit - Instrumental,  君は輝いている (Kun Wa Kagayaite Iru)  - Instrumental Album runtime: 14 minutes  Look, I scream it from the rooftops enough, but if you're going to give me a group that disbands and then reforms or reunites, even under a different name, I'm going to love them automatically out of the probably misguided hope that NU'EST follows suit. Not that I didn't already like the limited songs I've heard from them. And now I find out that Boyfriend did in fact actually get their name back? Also, fun fact, between Seventeen, NU'EST, and Boyfriend, we've got a grand total of 10 members of the 95z. Boyfriend also gets some renown for having a set of identical twins, which is cool but stressful for those of us who can't tell identical twins apart. Although, this release is actually in Japanese, but you know what? I'm not picky. This is the exact situati...

Release date: 2025 February 10 Album tracklist: Jelly Bean Album runtime: 3 minutes  You know, this is likely a contributing factor to why Allen and Taeyoung weren't on ASC this last week. Huh. I'm glad that I have an explanation now, even if it's not the correct one. I don't like not knowing things. I love things like whistles in songs. They bring me a lot of joy because they add an element of audience participation to the songs, and I love places where that occurs. And, honestly, I'd slotted this song into being representative of the genre, despite those lovely whistles, but then the big, dramatic bursts of instrumental happened. That's exactly the kind of music I particularly like, even though I know that not all music can and should be like that because diversity and variation is good in any ecosystem. But that part is so much in my wheelhouse that I was immediately reevaluating. So there is quite a bit of bias here.  We've got some interesting vocal lay...

Release date: 2025 February 05 Album tracklist: Hoshiakari , Because of you, Is This Love? (Japanese Ver) Album runtime: 10 minutes  Japanese Debut incoming! I obviously don't do a lot of the Japanese releases, but this is Moobyul and  it's her Japanese debut, so obviously, I have to review this one. Obviously. She's stunning and phenomenal. She went for somethin gloriously soft for her debut. The guitar is quiet and sentimental, and even when the energy starts to spark up, the beats of rest that act as a reset for the song do a phenomenal job of specifically delineating the different sections and allowing the softness of the verses to come to the forefront without making it too jarring. Really, even when the energy has increased, this is just such a soft song that I'm delighted by this. Strictly speaking, debuts are how to announce what form the artist's career will be like, at least for a little bit, so with Moonbyul's being just so soft, it makes me genuinely...

Release date: 2024 December 03 Album tracklist: MIRAGE , MIRAGE - Instrumental Album runtime: 6 minutes  Finally! I get to post a new song of theirs! Genuinely couldn't be happier that they're being active again and their careers are progressing! Or, at least are less stalled than they've been for the majority of the year. So I am a happy me. I know I don't do a lot of Japanese releases, but this is my first group I saw perform. I may wander around many groups, but I come home to roost when my groups have something for me. And this is their Japanese debut! Yay for them! As a side note, I highly  recommend their Christmas song they released last year. It's so soft and sweet and adorable. And, 'tis the season right now too! You know, one thing I really very much appreciate about NINE.i, and it's something that I also appreciate with a few other groups as well, is how bright their sound is. It's very well-produced to have multiple layers to the sound as w...

Release date: 2024 November 13 Album tracklist: Think I Wanna Do, Power of Love , TOXIC, Cool My Head , Bounce It Album runtime: 15 minutes  These members have had a rough go of it, haven't they? I'm sorry they went through what they did, and I hope that their new company treats them exponentially better. I also hope their path going forward is much easier than their path has been. I've had this sitting in my drafts since October, but never ended up doing it. But since there were so many Japanese releases today, including the album this belongs to, I figure, why not do it now? I'm a big fan of the instrumentals. They remind me of Avril Lavigne and that general genre circa 2004, while also simultaneously having band energy. I don't think they're a band, although I could wrong and I'd be happy to be wrong. But it's got that energy. I checked to see who the composers were out of curiosity and my usual source for that kind of information gave me only the voc...

Release date: 2024 November 13 Album tracklist: GIANT , Chk Chk Boom -Japanese ver.-, NIGHT, Falling Up, WHY?, Saiyan, Aiwokuretanoninaze, Christmas Love, NIGHT -English ver.-, Falling Up -English ver.- Album runtime: 31 minutes  Even though I don't do a lot of the Japan releases, my Stay friend asked me if I would do this one. And so I shall! And I deeply approve of the run time. Ah, industrial music. It's the pinging and clanging of metal that makes me smile fondly, which is likely due to the fact that while I was watching the movie Looper  with commentary (because that's what I, a movie nerd, do in my spare time), they were talking about making the music and going out and recording in a parking garage, I think, sounds while banging different bits of metal together to get the specific sounds that Rian Johnson, the director, wanted with the music. The last time I watched it with commentary was prior to The Last Jedi  coming out, so I may be misremembering specifics. But ...

Release date: 2024 October 03/November 11 Album tracklist: LAST SONG, Off The Mask , Save You, BAD EUPHORIA, PRISONER, Goodbye, Butterfly - Depth Ver. Album runtime: 21 minutes  I didn't do the digital release for the album back at the beginning of last month because I'm still not sure exactly where I stand on the Japanese releases. But SME is doing such a piss-poor job of promoting him that I feel the need to this time around. Also, that's over a month between digital and physical album releases. Why so long? And I genuinely don't know when to say this was released, because I've got about three or four conflicting dates. I'll decide before I post this review, but I just want you all to know that I'm very confused, and even though I don't listen to NCT much in general, my algorithms give me new releases, even ones I wasn't aware of. And I still didn't get this one. As far as I can tell, this is his debut, and there should be so much pomp and cir...

  Release date: 2024 November 06 Album tracklist: Disc 1:  Introduction -Eternal Echoes-,  T.R.H.M,  On My Radar, Party Like Madonna,  Sweet Surrender , Parfum, Fresh, I'm sorry I couldn't express it well, Live Your Life , It's True It's Here, Damn Good, Ark, Dearest Disc 2: UTSUROI, The Reflex, PARALLEL PARALLEL, No Sympathy, Lime & Lemon, Sentimental Mood, Forever Love - ZONE Ver. Album runtime: 70 minutes  TVXQ! is feeding their fans well leading up to this album drop. Of course, when you have a two disc album, you have the room to have two pre-releases and not have to worry about the fans being bored because they've already heard everything. First one was mid-energy, but powerful, so I'm curious about what kind of song this one is. Orchestral and a piano. We're apparently going for the emotions this time. There's definitely percussion of some sort, but I'm not entirely sure that it's necessarily all drums. The way the music swells, then d...

  Release date: November 06 Album tracklist: Disc 1:  Introduction -Eternal Echoes-,  T.R.H.M,  On My Radar, Party Like Madonna, Sweet Surrender , Parfum, Fresh, I'm sorry I couldn't express it well, Live Your Life , It's True It's Here, Damn Good, Ark, Dearest Disc 2:  UTSUROI, The Reflex, PARALLEL PARALLEL, No Sympathy, Lime & Lemon, Sentimental Mood, Forever Love - ZONE Ver. Album runtime: 70 minutes I was not expecting TVXQ! to drop a single today! What is this? I don't even know if this is a Japanese release. It doesn't matter. I see TVXQ! is the artist, I must listen. Apparently this is a Japanese release. It's a pre-release for the album to celebrate their twentieth anniversary since their Japanese debut, and the related album is a chonky boy. I'll update Disc 2 when the album actually drops. Why is this song so ominously and weirdly sinister? It can't be because this is the Month of the Spookening, and my mind is on a lot of horror right ...

Release date: 2024 October 02 Album tracklist:  Birthday , Royal, Forevermore, Birthday - Instrumental, Royal - Instrumental, Forevermore - Instrumental Album runtime: 22 minutes  So is it just a KQ thing to include the instrumentals on the Japanese releases and not the Korean ones? Because there are some of the Korean songs that I'd absolutely love to have the instrumentals for. Oh, well. I didn't listen to the last Japanese release with BE:FIRST just because the timing was bad, but ATEEZ apparently enjoyed working with them on Hush Hush  because I see that one of their three songs on this single joins forces with them again. Maybe it's because I just watched ONEUS perform Kick It  on Ace of Ace, but this sounds like an NCT 127 song, especially that opening. Although I have to acknowledge that the flute warble in the intro sounds really familiar and it sounds like a movie, and not NCT 127. I'm not sure which movie, because I can't place it, but that is a movie soun...

  Release date: 2024 August 06 Album tracklist: Tsuki (Lunatic) , Cool, Are you serious?, Tsuki (Lunatic) - Instrumental, Cool - Instrumental, Are you serious? - Instrumental Album runtime: 20 minutes Look, I know I said that I was only going to think about doing a review on this song because it's in Japanese and not Korean, and I'm not well-versed enough to know the difference with if this is actually considered K-Pop when it's not in Korean. They are a K-Pop group...I don't know. Whatever. It's xikers, and I do actually love them. They need the attention. Plus, this was the first title track that I didn't immediately feel a little disappointed by! I actually like all three tracks here (unequally), which makes me laugh a little. I'm not head over heels in love, but the fact that it's their Japanese tracks that make me go "Yes, please," is a little ridiculous to my own mind. Much like with TVXQ! for some reason. I like their Japanese releases ...