It’s time for Kpopalypse roundup! Let’s take a look at some new releases!
Sunmi – Blue!
A decent song from Sunmi but not quite up there with her best, this one suffers a bit thanks to that awkward-as-shit timing change coming into the chorus. It seems Sunmi is still partially infected with “change-up” disease, here’s hoping for her future complete recovery.
i-dle – Arise
I-dle’s new song for some weeb-baiting gacha game nonsense actually isn’t bad and I’ll take it over KD/A just because it sound a little less like the usual generic power fantasy thing and there’s some cool synth sounds.
Soojin – Baditude
Soojin looks great as usual but once again the song just isn’t there. She should have filled up a USB full of tracks before she got kicked out of I-dle, it’s not theft if Soyeon pirated them anyway.
KiiiKiii – Strawberry Cheesegame
KiiiKiii have been a real mixed bag ever since they debuted and this song continues the trend by sounding like nobody was even trying at all.
Yoyomi – Save Me
100% pure trot is like 100% pure sugar, you’ll quickly get sick of it on its own but it’s great when combined with something else. Here Yoyomi fuses trot style with an 80s funk sound (which isn’t “city pop” because that doesn’t actually exist) and the results are the best song she’s had in a while.
ILLIT – Toki Yo Tomare
Illit stake their claim to the Japanese market by sounding just like one of the more average and bland Twice Japanese comebacks. I guess that’ll probably work?
GIRLSET – Commas
JYP riding the coattails of Kpop Demon Hunters to sneak in five seconds of a mid Twice track is I think as close as he’s ever going to get to realising his western pop domination dreams. Surely Girlset isn’t the magic bullet he’s looking for, KG did herself a favour by bailing on this nonsense.
Chaeyoung ft. Gliiico – Avocado
A weird, breathy tune that seems to be going for the vibes of “Don’t Be Shy” but with the dub reggae flavour replaced by a bunch of limp shoegazey pissing around. A genuine mistake of a song.
BoA – What She Wants
Nothing much going on here, I mean it’s not terrible and the rock sound is nice enough, but what she should want is a better song than this. Notice how they’ve superimposed her over the band in a still shot so it looks like they’re all playing together but they’re obviously not because it’s 2025 and we can’t have actual live k-pop vocals because you might notice that most of your faves simply can’t sing that well without the machine assist on max.
BoA – How Could
And here’s the other token awful slower song. This time they don’t even try to pretend that BoA is in the same room as the instrumentalists, I guess the song was too weak for anyone to even care.
Monsta X – N The Front
“N the front”? What’s the “N” word? Nuclear? Not Wonho? Nugu Alert? I’m not sure, but the song isn’t that bad at all and edging towards the better end of boy group songs this year in general. Meanwhile my readers might be edging in a different way to Shownu on that mechanical bull… which reminds me, don’t forget about the Kpopalypse Objectification Survey folks! I’m closing it off 24 hours after this roundup goes live, so hurry up and vote while you still can!
Miyeon – Sky Walking
Just a big ball of nothing in particular.
NCT WISH – Baby Blue
So drowned in random synth pads that it’s hard to tell where the vocals even begin and end, but maybe that’s not a bad thing given k-pop fans and their creepy vocal obsession.
NCT WISH – Color
Their other song is less interesting but still has the instruments swallowing up the vocals a little, which is definitely not a bad thing.
Moonbyul – Take-off
Not much of a song but since this “live” video is stitched together from multiple different live performances you do get to see Mira sorry I mean Moonbyul rocking various different fashions all of which suit her quite well, so there is that.
ZEROBASEONE – Iconik
Nothing of worth going on here musically, and not much happening visually here either, I’m deeply sorry to my readers who thirst over these guys, you might have to wait for next comeback.
AtHeart – Push Back
Instead of building on what they established in “Good Girl“, the creative team behind AtHeart have just chosen to play it ultra-safe and NewJeansify them instead, what a massive shame. Someone in quality control should have pushed back on this mid song.
Queenz Eye – Trippin’
You know when the opening shot is a cityscape that you’re in for a very mid, skippable song. Exception – if the cityscape is destroyed to all hell.
ONE OR EIGHT – Young & Reckless
I really like some of the things going on in the backing track here, it’s a pity that I can barely hear any of it because of all the generic k-pop boy-isms over the top crowding out the mix.
TREASURE – Paradise
YG had better hope that those BigBang gambling and prostitution bucks keep coming in for a little while longer because none of their other boy groups are capable of carrying the load. No wonder they got Blackpink back together, what else have they even got at this point.
FTISLAND – Monochrome
FTIsland videos are hilarious these days because they have to pad out their group visuals with session musicians just to make the numbers so it’s ultra strange to see “band” videos that just focus on the singer and bass player. Like, would it kill your ego that hard to give some nugu session musician five seconds of your precious screentime, I guess it would you fucking vain cunt.
The Rose – Trauma
Hey, The Rose are back, and they have a new ballad song about how tough it’s been for them all these years! Hey wait, where are you going? Come back! Actually better yet, take me with you and get me away from this fucking song…
iii – Forbidden Midnight
It’s pretty much the same as the original version from last year, don’t worry you can skip it and you probably should just to send a message.
In A Minute – How We Do
It’s a rule of k-pop that any song called “How We Do” is going to be trash.
RE:WIND – Little Too Late
This song was definitely too little and too late, so instead let’s have our weekly non-Korean LGBT feature here instead, yay! This week it’s Brockhampton which is actually a reader suggestion and while they’ve always been a little hit or miss for me, when they hit they really hit. They’re at their best with songs like “Heat” where the beats go hardest but it’s also worth checking out member Kevin Abstract’s “Empty” for reasons which will become clear if you’ve never seen it… anyway Kpopalypse supports LGBT invading the heteronormative rap space, there should be more gay rappers and less rappers being gay.
Juniel – Eternal Comet
Probably the best song Juniel ever did, pity it’s come about a decade after most k-pop fans forgot she even existed.
CMDM – Step with me
Okay so the best boy group k-pop song I’ve heard in a while is sung by a guy in a Johnsons Baby Oil shirt. This is the genre I’ve been following for the last decade? Fuck me.
UNICODE – Aing
It might look a bit like Orange Caramel but it sounds like 2007 Girls’ Generation at half speed.
Angel Noise – Ram Pang Pang
It sounded just okay until that chorus – what even is that? I’m not sure, but I like it.
Blockxy – On a night like this
Who the fuck are these nugus? It’s too polished to be in Nugu Alert, and it’s actually quite nice, in a harmless, forgettable, boring kind of way.
Priz-RE – Re:begin
Some kind of Davichi thing except it’s anime and they’re still in their “songs with drums” phase, for now.
Dahye – Lemon Cherry Bomb
It’s one thing to have the Paradise Diner in your video, but to lead with it, with a big comet? That’s sending a message that your’e stuck in nuguville. And to think that only a few short years ago Dahye was charting quite highly in the Kpopalypse Objectification Surveys… by the way you’ve got only 24 hours from the time of this post to vote in the 2025 edition if you haven’t yet so you’d better hop to it!
Jaehyun – Timeless
Of course the Kpopalypse Objectification Survey isn’t gender exclusive, you can vote for the guys also. For some reason people who watch my livestreams have been requesting grunge flanelette shirt cosplay and while I can’t oblige, I hope that Jaehyun in this video will fit the bill.
Olivia Marsh feat. Wonstein – Lucky Me
Is Olivia Marsh a k-pop? Does having a k-pop sister plus being signed to some imprint of a Korean label really qualify this Australian? I’m interested in your thoughts so put them below, but honestly if her songs keep being this mid I’m probably just going to skip them for pure quality reasons regardless.
Kimmy Gone feat. Sik-K – Bad B**ch
A promising song title and concept but the mix is just too nice, with not enough abrasiveness and the instruments too far back in the mix. These folks really needed to make it more “Gnarly“.
Lipstickerz – Back To You
What the fuck is this? This is good! Apparently the guy is actually well known but is hiding his face to let the music speak for itself, which is a fucking stupid idea because nobody except me and maybe three other k-pop fans actually care about music, hopefully he’s rich enough not to care.
BADA – Love Wave
Just your semi-regular reminder that s.e.s were always a trash group with no songs but Bada at least is capable of out-Hyolyning your summer comeback faves.
Min Jiwoon – Scared Of Love
It’s one thing to be nugu, it’s quite another to be nugu on SM Entertainment. Clearly they just couldn’t be fucked promoting her properly because her song is poop and they’d rather promote some cyber AI dicksucking bullshit.
Min Jiwoon – Byebye
Seriously, imagine signing up to SM Entertainment and having them tell you that you’re going to be huge and then nobody knows who you fucking are because the label won’t give you that big marketing push and they just lump you with conservative, boring songs that sound like ten year old B-sides. Her parents should be furious.
Gongwon – Escape
I’ll leave you with this shoegaze rock song which is actually decent.
RANDOM BONUS VIDEOS OF THE WEEK
AMFG Videos – please don’t blame the girls
An old video that a reader linked me, but a good one, just a compilation that drives home a lot of the incredible ridiculousness of Korean beauty standards and how girls often feel like stressed and trapped like they’re in a “no-win” situation. If you’re suddenly thinking “but wait, Kpopalypse aren’t you a hypocrite because you do boobs posts and objectify people” then you’re so close to getting the point of why I do that stuff, yet so far… the 2025 Kpopalypse Objectification survey closes in a day by the way, so don’t forget to vote tysm uwu
ain’t no other fan – Honest, Harsh And Unpopular Opinions On Kpop Vocals!
If by “unpopular” he means “actually I’m just barking up the entirely wrong tree completely”, then… yes. I concur with him on the Haewon probably crumbling physically a bit (also see – every other person in k-pop ever), but the rest of the stuff here… no, not so much. The gulf between “k-pop vocal fans” and “musicians actively working in the industry” is about as wide as it is between audio engineers and audiophiles. There’s a reason why people who know about sound on a technical level don’t spend thousands of dollars on just the right cables, and there’s also a reason why people who make pop songs don’t worry too much about the weird fetishes and preferences of vocal enthusiasts. I could do a whole blog series taking apart this type of needlessly obsessive nonsense piece by piece… oh wait, actually I did… but I could easily do more. Don’t tempt me.
BoA – Game
I’m not wild about this old song from BoA which I really don’t have a lot to say about, but it does have a little bit of spark to it and I’ll take it over the fairly unexciting stuff she’s been consigned to doing these days.
That’s all for this week! Kpopalypse roundup returns next week!
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