Just A Little Fangirl Love

  You know what's kind of cool? This week's music show wins cover three of the four categories I classify K-Pop under. The only one missing is a co-ed group. Boy group? Check. Girl group? Check? Soloist? Double check.  Nice. The ecosystem is flourishing. With After School Club still on hiatus, I'm still giving a rerun. This one comes from a boy group that debuted back in 2011. Episode 20, guys, gals, and nonbinary pals! And you know what's really cool? They're having their first comeback since 2018 this month! I'm really excited about this even though I previously had no previous knowledge of the group! Now, granted this is their first Japanese mini album and not a new Korean mini album, but you know what? I'm just happy to see them releasing new music. But, back in 2013, they were young and cute, and I think I really like this song. As always, the links to my reviews for these songs are found in the graph below. Show Champion: Kang Daniel "Episode...

Release date: 2025 June 16 Album tracklist: Movie Star, Episode , Love Game, One Call Away, Little Bit Lost Album runtime: 14 minutes  I'm late with this, but I've also been putting off listening to this until I could write the review. His voice is incredible, y'all. Ever song I've listened to by him has hit my brain so perfectly well, I'm glad I live in a time when I get to even hear it. Also congrats on the wins! Old timey and a little crackly. I like it. Now, let's see if we get that in other places in the song. And the answer is yes, so it's not a one off and I'm satisfied. There's a weird little quirk to the instrumental, and I mean this in the least insulting way possible, but in places, it sounds like Baby's First Midi Keyboard, or at least like a preset on a keyboard. You're obviously going to go, "But Fangirl, that's pretty insulting." To which I respond, "Yes. But it reminds me of my childhood and learning to make...

  I'm simply really behind with this. I'm not through doing this. Anyway, we're running down to the end of the Seventeen comeback season, which opens the wins back up to everyone else, as we're clearly seeing below. As much as I've loved seeing Seventeen get their wins for their tenth anniversary, I'm glad for the variation now. Although we get another surprise win for Woodz. It's a welcome development, but a little baffling. I really hope that someone askes him how he feels about this when he gets out. I do have to say it's been a good week for soloists, though. I did not continue that with the After School Club re-run episode, however.  As always, the links in the graph below go to my reviews of those songs. Show Champion: Doyoung (NCT) "Memory" MCountdown: Seventeen "THUNDER" Music Bank: Doyoung (NCT) "Memory" Show! Music Core:  Doyoung (NCT) "Memory" Inkigayo: Woodz (UNIQ/X1) "Drowning" ASC Performanc...

Release date: 2025 April 9 Album tracklist: Mess , Mess - Instrumental Album runtime: 5 minutes  Do I have to do the title track for his new mini album? Yes. Will I get to it soon? Yes, because Episode  has been getting wins on music shows! Yay! I'm slowly getting my backlog worked on, and I wanted to do this one. However, I'm deeply disappointed by the runtime. I mean, look at that. But this is Kang Daniel, and I've come to realize how good his voice is.  There's something very old about the instrumental track. I can't decide if it's the plink of the high notes on the piano or if it's from the slightly staticky overlay to most of the song, or maybe it's both, as both of those elements are found in music from the thirties. Although, to be fair, the one isn't necessarily on purpose but rather from the degradation of the recordings. The rest of the instrumentals aren't from the thirties. We've got the underwater echo that I love so much, but it...

 I love Halloween. It's been my favorite holiday for literally my entire life. I have loved Halloween longer than Sangyeon of The Boyz has been alive, barely because my first Halloween was a couple of days before he was born, but according to my mother, even at the age of not-quite one years old, I have loved it. She dressed me up as a San Francisco 49ers cheerleader. I have pictures.  One of the most important things, then, is finding music that matches the Month of Spookening and horror. I love spooky movies. I love spooky books. I love spooky video games (even though I am a wuss of the nth degree and prefer to watch other people play them). And I love spooky music. THUS, this post is simply going to be a compilation of some of the songs I've added to my Halloween K-Pop playlist. If I were to add all of the songs in there, this post would be ages  long. So I'm only going to add as many as I feel like it. I don't know how long this is going to be. But there will be vib...

Assuming this works, I'm going to start including the music show wins in a weekly post. Mondays are apparently the break day for the music shows. But I'm including the weekly performance on After School Club, which can be watched live on YouTube each week at 13:00 KST and is focused on international audiences, so the primary language is English with live Korean translations and subtitles. You can also watch them after the fact. Current hosts of After School Club are Aron of NU'EST, and Allen and Taeyoung of Cravity. I'm sure it's fairly obvious why I'm including After School Club (hereafter referred to as ASC).  And here are the various performances! Show Champion: Kang Daniel "Electric Shock" MCountdown: Yeonjun "GGUM" (note: This is from the 20240926 episode of MCountdown; if I can find a performance, I'll update) Music Bank: NCT Wish "Steady" Show! Music Core: Key "Pleasure Shop" (note: I can't tell you how hap...

 The official start of this little music review blog! I'm proud of it. And, again, thank you for everyone who has read even a single post so far, even if you aren't reading this one. I am simply happy and grateful and will endeavor to continue this honesty with love and recognition of the hard work of the artists. And for the one person who seems to be reading every single one, thank you and I love you. You make my morning every day. September of 2024 saw a couple of debuts, a re-debut, and some comebacks I was very much looking forward to, as well as some I would have been looking forward to had I been listening to the group/artist already. The ones I personally was emotionally invested are as follows: Vahn (NINE.i): They were the first group I saw in person, and the reason I watched Boy's Planet, after the fact of course because I didn't get into K-Pop until after ZB1 had already debuted. I love their voices, and I have yet to run into a song I didn't like by them...

  Release date: 2024 September 23 Album tracklist: Losing Myself, Get Loose, Electric Shock , Come Back to Me (feat. CHUNG HA), 9 Lives Album runtime: 15 minutes I am mostly familiar with Kang Daniel because of Produce 101, but I expect a lot from him because the quality of the Wanna One members demands that. I understand he's also been going through some legal problems, so finding out he was putting out a new album made me pleased and surprised. I wish him well. Hello, piano! That's fun and spritely! I haven't looked at the lyrics yet, but for some reason, I have a feeling that this is one of those cheerful sounding songs that have kind of depressing lyrics. Actually, the instrumentals remind me of a musical. It's probably the piano doing the frequent arpeggio that sounds like rain falling. There's also a sense of drama during the chorus, something that I deeply appreciate. He didn't just give it a tone shift, he added more bombastic layers to drive energy forw...