Just A Little Fangirl Love

Release date: 2025 July 28 Album tracklist: Stylish , Talk, You and I, Constellation, AURA Album runtime: 15 minutes  Taking advantage of the weekend and the slowdown in releases to get this one done so that I can finally add it to the week it got a music show win. I'm deeply frustrated by what's been going on at their company with them, and I cannot imagine how angry the fans are. I'd be stubborn about some things, like with fan chants. But, anyway. Here we are. And even though the album runtime is fifteen minutes long, the title track is the shortest of the bunch and gets averaged out by the three-and-a-half minute song. Not my favorite thing, but it could be worse. There are some interesting things going on with this instrumental. It's got some sirens in it, which I really appreciate, but they're kind of constant through the entire thing, which I don't like. It's a little bit too aurally grating, so I can't actually listen to the song on repeat like I...

Release date: 2025 July 21 Album tracklist: Upside Down Kiss, Beautiful Strangers , Ghost Girl, Sunday river, Dance With You, Take My Half, Bird of Night, Song of the Stars Album runtime: 22 minutes  Okay, I have two left of these to review to get caught up on the music show wins this quarter, and since I have time right now, I'm going to get to work on this one. I've been deeply disappointed by their album runtimes of late, and I'm largely blaming that on HYBE for several reasons, but also some other things. But! This time we have two songs that are over three minutes long and one of those is nearly three-and-a-half. So. We're moving in the correct direction. Unfortunately, the title track is neither of those two songs. Instead, this song comes in at a paltry two minutes and eighteen seconds. Not even two-and-a-half minutes. Why. Okay. Let's see if this can avoid being milquetoast. I'm really, really hoping for this. We're moving away from that sound in gen...

Release date: 2025 July 22 Album tracklist: Weather Diary , Weather Diary (Inst.) Album runtime: 6 minutes  I am fairly confident in saying that this is their tenth anniversary release that was first heard in their concert back in April. Do I get a little twitchy around tenth anniversaries? Yes. But I'd have heard if the d-word has applied to them, and it hasn't. So, yay! Also, I'm quite pleased for the song length. Songs seem to be both lengthening and shortening these days. and obviously I'm an advocate for them being at minimum three minutes long. OH MY GIRL delivered on that here. The good news is that even though this is a pretty relaxed song, it's actually got quite a lot of different bits making up the instrumental, which makes the mellowness feel intentional, rather than an apathetic consequence. A stronger drum line would make this song quite energetic, but the song doesn't need it. This is a ten year anniversary song, and a sense of celebration, but no...

Release date: 2025 July 21 Album tracklist: V, Bora , Wet, Rosy, XOXO, Colorful, Break Free Album runtime: 18 minutes  That is a weird combination of runtimes, my dude. You've got one minute-and-a-half song, which I assume is some sort of introduction. You've got two that are under two-and-a-half minutes, one of which is the title track and gets a disapproving stare from me. The other four are all three minutes or over. There is no middle ground here. I know he debuted one of these at Water Bomb, and that's one of the three minute songs, but it's just kind of funny. Also, I need to get this one out because Changsub and Ilhoon also had songs come out, and Hyunsik has one coming out on Friday. So. Here we are. Strong beat, y'all. It's actually as I'd expect from him because he seems to really enjoy dancing and this sort of instrumental gives him a lot to work with, especially where he wouldn't necessarily get to do this with his group. I love them to piece...

Release date: 2025 July 11 Album tracklist: FOUR, THIS IS FOR , OPTIONS, MARS, RIGHT HAND GIRL, PEACH GELATO, HI HELLO, BATTITUDE (Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Momo, Mina), DAT AHH DAT OOH (Sana, Jihyo, Dahyun, Chaeyoung, Tzuyu), LET LOVE GO (Jeongyeon, Momo, Sana, Tzuyu), G.O.A.T (Mina, Dahyun, Chaeyoung), TALK (Nayeon, Jihyo), SEESAW, HEARBREAK AVENUE Album runtime: 17 minutes  I accidentally marked in my list of songs I need to cover that I had finished this review, only for me to look in my drafts and realize that I had in fact not done the review for this one. Oops. Also, I hope that TWICE gets to capitalize on the success from K-Pop Demon Hunters and continue to do well and be successful. I am however deeply opposed to a runtime of barely two minutes. That's barely a song. The Deluxe version of the album does have two more songs to put the length of sixteen songs and 42 minutes Yeah, if the new kpop listeners from KPDH get a hold of this song, I think it'll do pretty well. Not tha...

Release date: 2025 July 15 Album tracklist: Silky, Caffeine, Marshmallow, ANIMALS , Confidence, Oreo Cake, Far Away, MAN, PERCENT (%), Epilogue, Happy Birthday Album runtime: 30 minutes  My man, Onew. I'm so sad that I couldn't make it to his tour while he was here last spring. But that also would have meant I'd be going to LA every single weekend in May, and I don't even live in the state. But it is good to see him happy and healthy and just generally relaxed. He'll be back, and hopefully it won't be in a month when everyone else is going to be having concerts I want to go to. I'll get to the pre-release eventually.  First thing, his rap section is done a capella. That wasn't what I was expecting, because normally there's an increase of energy with rap sections, so that's a generally interesting point to the song. The song has a really good energy rhythm to it, generally matching, though sometimes it contrasts, which creates an inherent jolt of...

Release Date: 2025 July 16 Album tracklist: loverboy, friend like me, round and round, ifeye (interlude), r u okay? , say moo!, echo Album runtime: 17 minutes  Oh, ifeye. If they'd debuted a few weeks later, I could actually like this group like I want to. Okay, full disclosure, I did see this performed like at KCON LA 2025 before I wrote this, but I tried not to have my reviewing brain on. I will say I was impressed and am sulking because the maknae was fifteen at debut. But can we talk about the album runtime? I had to round up for that number, and it's awful. That's not even an average of two and a half minutes a song. Big, big sigh from me. Also, here's the review I did for their debut song , in case you're curious. So, I'm personally loving the tonal shift I've been hearing away from the milquetoast, elevator BGM sound that a lot of K-Pop has been using a lot lately, especially the girl groups. They're fine on their own occasionally for the sake of ...

Release date: 2025 July 14 Album tracklist: BTTF, CHILLER , I LIKE IT, DREAM TEAM, Interlude : Back to Our Paradise, 'Bout You, That Summer, Miss Me, Beautiful Sailing Album runtime: 27 minutes  I don't understand why SM keeps putting NCT subunits' comeback dates so close to each other. Like, yes, I know that there are fans of the individual subunits, and that's fine because for the most part, I think you could think of them as separate groups. There's not a lot of Whole Group Activities, you know? At least not that I'm aware of. But at the same time, I know there are also a lot of people who are NCTzens (and I finally learned how to pronounce that this weekend, so, yay me). But this happened back in November as well, right? I'm not even a fan, and that's frustrating. These instrumentals at the beginning remind me a lot of VHS tapes from the 80s and 90s. Also, and I think it's worth noting, I'm reminded a lot of the Friday the 13th game. So that...

Release date: 2025 July 23 Album tracklist:  dance with me! Album runtime: 2 minutes  So in an interesting turn of events, I had someone on Threads ask me to review this. Which is interesting. As I just said. The curiosity gave me a really big dopamine hit, I'd just like everyone to know this, so I'm going to do it. I can't promise this will always be the case, but this also isn't the first time (the first one was a message on Tumblr for something that was definitely not kpop, and that one wasn't a full review because of a couple of reasons, but I was still honest about it as I am with all of these.) And even though I have been historically interested in keeping this more strongly Korean than just K-Pop adjacent, I'm not opposed to venturing away from there. So I have some investigating to do on this artist. Be back in a tick. It's gone from interesting to surprising and pleasing, not going to lie. This is flattering. So according to Genius, the artist is a ...

Release date: 2025 July 23 Album tracklist:  SLAM DUNK Album runtime: 3 minutes  I love looking at the timing of album releases, and their pre-releases, because you can obviously tell when something is released because of a certain other thing that is also happening around that same time. It just makes me laugh a little. But I do have to say that they've been remarkably active, even in the less than a year since I started writing these reviews. With their contracts only being two-and-a-half years long, on top of being one of MNET's beloved project groups, it makes sense that they've been so active. Good for the fans, potentially exhausting for the group. So, I don't know if this is the result of me being the demographic I am, but literally every time we get one of these sports-type songs, my brain immediately flashes back to High School Musical (fun fact: one of my friends had a poster of Cordin Bleu in her gym locker). And even if it's not a song I probably would ...

Release date: 2025 July 11 Album tracklist: JUMP Album runtime: 3 minutes  I've been doing this for almost two years and this is the first BLACKPINK group song in at least two years, but the first non-OST in three. This brings the total up to just over thirty in total, which sounds like a lot until you factor in how long since debut. And that's a failure on the company's end. But it's still exciting for the fans now that the drought is a little bit over. It won't be over until there's a mini album or a proper album, but this is more of a quick cloudburst, enough to wet the ground but not enough to help the plants survive long. And I'm also pretty disappointed that it's less than three minutes long considering the above paragraph, but I'd still be disappointed even if the group was more active. This is probably dance pop at its finest with a sprinkling of latin and EDM to really round out the sound. Y'all will have to tell me if it feels like a BL...

Release date: 2025 July 9 Album tracklist: Fly to the youth (feat. Yuqi), EVERGLOW , Problem Child, Louder, DAY_AND Album runtime: 11 minutes  After watching the music video for Snowy Summer , the one for EVERGLOW was next up on my list. So, I figured I'd do that one next. Well, the pre-release with Yuqi because it came out first. I have high, high hopes that I may finally get the thing I've been wanting since they debuted, which is a less rappy title track. I kind of got one with the BEAST remake that I'm in love with, but I've been waiting for a non-remake title track that I love. I've got a good feeling about this album, and I've been holding off on listening to any of the songs until I could do these reviews. Fingers crossed. Although, even if I don't get one with IGNITION, I'll still be holding out for one. It'll happen. Also, I don't know if I mentioned this with either of my earlier reviews, but the reason why I'm being so stubborn ab...

Release date: 2025 July 9 Album tracklist: Paint Candy, Snowy Summer , You, Bubble Tea Album runtime: 11 minutes  Close Your Eyes debuted back in April , so I'm a little surprised that they are having a comeback so soon, but I'm not going to be too worried just yet. I hope they're taking care of the maknae and any of the other minors in the group specifically. I do have to say I really enjoyed their entire debut album, so I'm hoping that I like this one as well. The album runtime is a little bit suspect, but the title track is just shy of three minutes, so it could be worse and I'll accept it.  The instrumentals are relatively mild and out of the way, which is really nice, but I'll talk about that when it's time for the vocal section. I like how we have sections where the instrumentals mimic the vocals as it can be reassuring for the performers and with them being about three months old at this point, it could be a very subtle safety net. It's also mild ...

Release date: 2025 July 18 Album tracklist:  Sweet Palace , Sweet Palace (Inst) Album runtime: 6 minutes  Okay, so if y'all remember, one of my first debuts that I covered was the girl group New-L , and if I remember correctly, I mentioned that I hoped the group could work out some bugs in their next update in a video game metaphor. And I was actually just thinking about them a few weeks ago because they hadn't had a new release, I hadn't heard anything about them, and I was a little worried that they were going to be yet another group that debuts and then disbands within a year with only that release. But, I'm pleased to see this, even if it is only a single, because it means the group is still going. It also means, that of course I'm going to talk about it because if I can convince even one person to listen to them, then I will be satisfied. And we have the solo instrumental track, so I'm a happy camper. The instrumental sounds a little bit like a track from a...

Release date: 2025 July 8 Album tracklist: Express Mode , Haircut, Air, Delight, I Know, Say Less, D.N.A, Finale, Stuck With You,  Album runtime: 28 minutes  Average runtime of over three minutes, which is aided by the four minute song, but there are only two that are under three minutes. This is all good. Congrats on your almost 20th anniversary, SuJu! The fun thing about this group is that the group and me almost share a birthday. Just as a fun fact, The Incredibles movie is almost exactly one year older than the group.  The introduction of this song is one of the funniest things I've heard in a while. Oh, my gosh. I thought I'd accidentally hit a radio somehow.  Ah, we've got a skittering beat. Good stuff. I'm a little amused that for what I'm assuming is their 20th anniversary album, they went more hip-hop than they normally go, but you know what? The second gen groups adapting to the times is a good sign. They are keeping it in the family, though, because it...

Release date: 2025 July 7 Album tracklist:  Run Baby Run , Run Baby Run (Instrumental) Album runtime: 7 minutes  Well, okay, I seem to have picked up a new girl group. They're a fresh debut, November of 2024. Eldest is currently twenty-three, and the maknae is a minor, but she was the only minor and she was sixteen at debut. So, check, and check. We are good. It also looks like W!TCHX is their second group, but the first disbanded last year after a three year run. Which is a little concerning, especially since they didn't get an official notice. But! I endeavor to give attention to these groups! And also, I ran across this song because of the algorithm and went "When did this come out?" Then I was pleasantly surprised because that meant I got to cover it. And  it's slightly under three-and-a-half minutes long, which is even better. I'll need to take a look at their debut and the song they released in December, and sulk a little that we've only gotten singl...

Release date: 2025 July 11 Album tracklist:  Lemon Drop , Masterpiece, Now this house ain't a home, Castle, Bridge : The Edge of Reality, In Your Fantasy , NO1, Skin, Slide to me, Legacy, Creep, ROAR, Sagittarius, To be your light, In Your Fantasy (Korean Ver.) Album runtime: 44 minutes  The run time is just  shy of a three minute average, but I'm completely fine with that because Bridge : The Edge of Reality  is a minute and a half long, which will drag down the average quite a bit. I'm also a little tiny bit scared of this song because I've been hearing things from the ATINYs who've seen this on tour so far. But it's fine, and you know why? I can attempt to be calm about this. I've actually been avoiding listening to any of the concert vids, so it's mostly the unknown that I'm stressed about. But, since I'm already up for the Hoshi x Woozi concert, I might as well get this one out of the way now. This is...Okay. This sounds like an NSYNC song, ...

Release date: 2025 July 1 Album tracklist: HOT SAUCE Album runtime: 2 minutes  The number of groups that I can't do anything with because they debuted fourteen-year-olds is unsettling, especially since a bunch of those fourteen-year-olds are now sixteen and I have to actively remember when they debuted so I don't forget they debuted as fourteen-year-olds. Ignoring how much better they'd be if they'd gotten more time to physically mature before debut, I fully anticipate this group dominating the charts in a few years, if YGE can get their act together and actually invest and reliably promote the group unlike Treasure, and also make sure that they get regular group releases unlike BLACKPINK. Gold star for squandering the talents they've got. A+. The brass instrument gives the song a strong vibe. I'm getting some similar vibes to a few NCT songs, so that's a little bit of a delightful thing. I'm also pleased that despite the very short runtime, we've go...

Release date: 2025 July 1 Album tracklist: The Little Star, The Universe, Rendezvous , Incompleted, Cosmic Underdog, AHOF Album runtime: 17 minutes  I'm sorry, everyone. I've been fully distracted by K-Pop Demon Hunters. If my Threads is any indication, I'm hardly the only one. I'm actually building a whole playlist of similar groups and songs so that I can introduce the newcomers to lots of K-Pop, and I kind of feel like my time has come, in my somewhat humble opinion, because I get to launch my enthusiasm and love for the music at them. But, enough about that. AHOF is actually a group I've been looking forward to their debut for the sole reason of a single member (because I didn't watch their survival show). My man Woongki is getting another shot, another chance, another group. Love this kid. He's had a rough go of it, and he just won't give up and I'm 3000% here to support him. It's just going to have to wait with this one because the maknae i...

 I decided to do a roulette wheel so I can let the submissions fill up a little bit more again. Thank you to everyone who has submitted! I will get to them, I promise. In the meantime, I wanted something random, and so I present to you a song that I've heard of, but haven't listened to, though I have heard a couple of songs by the group before.   Brown Eyed Girls debuted in 2006, under Nega Network, firmly marking them as an early second generation group. Sound-G was their third studio album, released mid-2009. It won a Bonsang for Cyworld Digital Music Awards in 2010, another Bonsang went to the group at the Seoul Music Awards in 2009, and several other end-of-year awards for Abracadabra  itself. That's impressive. I'm also deeply entertained that as I was looking through the list of songs the lyricists had written thinking to myself, "Why are these songs so familiar?", I found another song I've written a GH post for, so that's exciting ( VOODOO DOLL ...