Yuqi “Freak” Imagine the cringe English parts in G-Idle songs make up a whole song - terrible. The track itself is as bland as a pop song gets, but the mv is fun. Same thing for former EXO member Lay and “Psychic”. PICKUS “Little Prince” This is a pretty solid debut, the chorus is funky and catchy, the verses could have been a bit better - but that’s what happens when you have a bunch of filler members. TIOT is another new boy group who went for a more pop-rock sound for their debut. Kim Woojin “I Like The Way” We still don’t know what this guy was thinking when he left JYPE and Stray Kids ..read more

HYBE has released some damning info about ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin. They accuse her and her team of creating an exit plan to go independent. There were two plans that ADOR executives had for the company to get out from under HYBE, which the audit team discovered. Either they would sell the company to sovereign wealth funds or they would form a separate company around NewJeans after cancelling their contracts. ADOR confirmed those plans existed, but that they were not official plans, just personal “musings” - which nobody is believing. Part of that plan was to claim that HYBE had mistreated NewJea ..read more

There’s some new backstabbing going on in the world of K-pop since the spectacular ousting of Lee Soo Man from SM Entertainment. His prodigy and ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin is allegedly trying to get out of HYBE. On April 22, HYBE initiated an audit against ADOR’s management, including CEO Min Hee Jin, after reportedly detecting attempts by ADOR to become independent. Following the reports, ADOR released the following statement; Min Hee Jin was upset over HYBE and Belift stealing her ides and copying NewJeans in favor of their new girl group ILLIT (which is true, imo). But if it’s true that she’s tr ..read more

RIIZE “Impossible” SM thought, let’s try to give these guys a good song for once, and went back to SHINee and f(x)’s sound from 2015. Well played! This is absolute gold. The fantastic melodies, the catchy hook, the energetic chorus - it’s a perfect pop song. ILLIT “Lucky Girl Syndrome” This was refreshing, innocent and really cute - I think this concept fits the group much better than the “Magnetic” sound which is just too much like NewJeans. BOYNEXTDOOR “Earth, Wind & Fire” With a title like that, I expect some funk and groove, instead we got an upbeat pop song that could have used a b ..read more

WOOAH “Blush” Wow, the Y2K sound is strong here, this sounds like a bunch of old Anime OST’s from the early 2000s. I like it, just wish the chorus was a bit more fleshed out. Same thing for QWER, taking the j-pop route. ONF “Bye My Monster” Great chorus, the dynamics between the verses, chorus and bridge were also really nice. The strings in the instrumental had that sorely missed 2nd gen melodramatic feel. Meanwhile, KISS OF LIFE’s “Midas Touch” goes for the 2003 Britney Spears sound. DRIPPIN “Beautiful MAZE” The simple drum and bass beat gets boring quick, because we’ve heard so many girl ..read more

BABYMONSTER “SHEESH” This is basically 2NE1 3.0 but stale. It’s very Teddy coded, lacking innovation in its formulaic buildup, and has an obnoxious hook - with lyrics that don’t match teenagers. TXT “Deja Vu” This was kinda underwhelming, I can’t say it was bad, like with most of TXT’s music, it just leaves me cold. The r'n'b trap beat sounds very 2010’s, but the chorus is just boring. Lucas “Renegade” After being accused of SA, he was kicked out of the NCT universe, but SM thought, now it’s time for his grand solo debut! The beat carries this track, since Lucas can’t rap nor sing ..read more

ILLIT “Magnetic” If you told me this was NewJeans’ comeback, I would have believed you no questions asked. But this is ILLIT’s debut. The song is fine, kinda like most drum and bass songs k-pop companies have put out the past two years. Nothing special, also like most drum and bass songs, except this one is slightly more boring. NCT DREAM “Smoothie“ My god, what even is going on in this track? So many beat changes, even for an NCT release, this was a rollercoaster of sounds. I’m not a fan of mixx-pop in general, but this should be hard to digest even for fans. BoA “Emptiness” BoA has been s ..read more

n.SSign “Funk Jam” This is straight up 90’s r'n'b and the guys got the vocals to pull of this sound. Really nice to hear something more funky and jazzy from a young boy group. Young Posse “XXL” And we’re not leaving the 90’s. This seems to be a tribute to Seo Taiji’s “Come Back Home”, which is a cool idea, but besides the engaging chorus, the mv is also hip and a rare concept for k-pop idols. TNX “Fuego” Nothing about this song stands out. PSY’s musical genius is not coming through with his first boy group. Maybe he’s more suited to producing for soloists. Same thing for Purple Kiss, who so ..read more

Kim Namjoo “Bad” Apink Namjoo’s debut is quite a lot, she tried a few too many things at once. The instrumental is bombastic and loud, then at 0:53 there’s big beat change to calm things down, until I realized that was the chorus. Strange choice to make the verses chaotic, and the chorus be the most underwhelming part. The last 30 seconds are the climax of the song, but because the verses are already so packed with synths and brass, it’s more exhausting than exiting, especially considering the track is only 2:40 long. THE BOYZ “Nectar” I’ve been complaining about TBZ not finding a good title ..read more

LUN8 “Super Power” Fantagio’s rookie boy group is putting out the kind of tracks young ASTRO was putting out, so I like it. It’s fresh and the chorus is super catchy. I can also appreciate a song that is longer than 3 minutes in this economy! Wendy “Wish you hell” Red Velvet’s Wendy went with a self-empowering concept using some horror elements. The chorus is very pop but at the same time a little too repetitive. NiziU also seems to have released a watered down version of “Heartris”. YooA “Rooftop” This really sounds like all the songs mid-2000’s idols would put out, even the music video is ..read more