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It’s time for Kpopalypse roundup! Let’s take a look at some new releases!
I bet Jisoo’s brother is an SS501 stan.Yves feat. Lolo Zouai – Nail
Sounds like one of those latter-day Lim Kim artsy abortions, all that’s missing is someone screaming “I’m an Asian QWEEEEEEEEN” over and over.
CORTIS – Redred
Actually decent. It’s simple and basic and stupid and for complete morons who should be killed only, which is what the best pop music should be.
Irene – Love Can Make A Way
Competent but generic as they come, Irene’s latest is basically a Coldplay B-side.
ifeye – Hazy (Daisy)
It’s 2026 and we’re still in NewJeansification-for-everyone mode. By the way, did you know that the US Embassy wrote a letter the other day asking the Korean police to let Bang Si Hyuk and his exec friends (who are currently not permitted to leave the country due to criminal investigations) to leave South Korea to attend Trump’s 4th July celebration? Now you do.
NCT WISH – Ode to Love
NewJeansification isn’t just for the girls. HYBE sure fucked up.
HITGS – Cherry Blossom
Gawd, look at it. “Just film it yourselves, we’ll give you one afternoon”… someone’s running out of money. If you have a religion, pray for these girls.
APINK – 15th Season
“For the fans” crap is sadly all that Apink seem to do these days. Rather than constantly asking us to remember the good times, why not actually give us some more good times to remember?
AKMU – Spring Colors
Another pretty bright and happy and awful song from AKMU now that they’ve spent a year “finding themselves” or some bullshit. If I knew this was going to be the result I would have petitioned to send Han Seo Hee around to their place to introduce them to heroin. These two make much better music when they’re miserable.
MODYSSEY – Hook
Okay it’s the usual lame boy group music but as far as lame boy group music it’s on the upper end of what that style usually acheives. Okay that’s not saying much but I’ve heard worse songs this week.
&TEAM – We on Fire
I skipped this one last week on purpose because I was immediately deeply offended by the AI bird at 0:37. Why can’t we have real birds in music videos. Demand rights for birds. Kpopalypse would never.
Wheein – The Symphony of Fxxkboys
A promising song title but the song itself definitely doesn’t deliver. Just the usual power ballad thing, very dull.
EVNNE – Backtalk
Another snoozer.
KickFlip – Stup!d
Not sure what the one minute of dicking around at the start of the video is all about, maybe it’s to prove that Kickflip are just as bad as the group you’re in when it comes to stopping their fucking around and getting down to the business of actually making music during rehearsal.
Xdinary Heroes – Voyager
Starts off great with some unusual sonics but sadly ends up in relatively generic territory by the time the chorus kicks in as those same sonics get buried. It’s really not bad at all though, even the mid bits are pretty good.
BE BOYS – Slam Dunk
A song with about half a dozen different ideas for beats but they probably should have just stuck with the first one.
Taeyong feat. Anderson .Paak – Rock Star
Remember when NCT were just about to debut and people literally begged SM not to let Taeyong into the group because he was busted for being a scammer? Once day I’ll get sick of reminding you of this but today is not that day. Song’s alright by the way, maybe just don’t pay to stream it until you recoup whatever he got you for on ebay.
DK & Seunghwan – Feel Me
I like the glitter microphones here and that’s about all. I think we’ve come a long way for LGBT when men are allowed to rock glitter microphones. Korea are a little in front of the west in this regard.
CRAVITY – Spring, with You
Look at that thumbnail, they’re doing whatever I do when their songs come on.
Hi-Fi Un!corn – Marionette Wire
How come this group seem to have a new song every single week and it’s always boring.
Dragon Pony – Palm Lines
I have read my palm and my future tells me that I won’t listen to this song again.
DXMON – SSS (She’s Sweet & Sour)
A pretty good riff here but it’s buried in tons of boy-slop over-processed vocals and castrated yelping.
Angel Noise – Don’t Look For me
I like the spirit of it and especially the lo-fi vocal approach (the opposite of DMON above) but the song’s just not all that great. Maybe next time.
SF9 – Hurt & Hollow
Look at these poor boys, they look devastated. Definitely the look of some people who a\re yet to see a decent paycheck.
Arise – Run It
You can tell this isn’t a group on a big label because they’re not forcing the girls to sing in “high girly voice”. This isn’t just a Korean problem by the way – I’ve met fantastic western female singers personally who can’t get label interest because they sound too deep and “not feminine enough”.
Soyou – See through
Okay so this is pretty good and a rare example of how to do R&B styled k-pop right.
Yaochen feat. Kun – Outta My Way
Sports cars are a 100% sign of fuckheads.
Kangin – Love is Pain
Love might be painful but this song is more painful.
Woo feat. Bibi – Cheap
Actually really good. Weird-ass production that really works for this style, reminds me of Massive Attack/Tricky in terms of general vibe.
SUMMER CAKE – Weakness
The credits at the end say that this video was directed by Bob. Nice work, Bob.
ALL’N – We Up
Okay, now we need this but for guitars.
1000° – Fix It
Not bad but it needed to lean even heavier into the heavy parts. Power ballads don’t work unless you actually have power.
MoonMean – Tell Me Again
Hey this is okay actually.
O.O.O – Nevertheless
So is this. Lots of songs deleted this week so I’m trying to focus on the stuff that is at least alright because I’m such a positive person.
Sohlhee – Stay
Another good song. The nugus aren’t better this week, I’m just deleting all the crap for your health and safety.
Crucial Star – Radish
The most horse and radish content together I’ve seen in one music video. I’m sure that’s worth something.
KIMKIPYØ – Check Out
The person who was asking about 2Slimey influence in k-pop – we’re already not that far away, folks.
Power Of Idea – Hyper Yellow Thrash
You know how I keep saying that the Japanese suck suck suck SUCK flat out at any sort of commercial pop music and any j-pop ever made is just a pure disaster of utter pathetic shit, but you give them literally any other style at all and they’re fucking great and usually way better than everyone else? Well here’s yet another example, check out Power Of Idea, some super cool hardcore thrash/punk thing from the 1990s. (This is more or less what Kimchi Slappers sounds like by the way, in case you were still having trouble imagining it after reading the Shin Hana books.)
RANDOM BONUS VIDEOS OF THE WEEK
NMIXX’s Lily talks about preferring to sing without backing track assistance
I reuploaded this TikTok excerpt from Lily’s livestream to my YouTube channel because other versions of this clip on YouTube pissed me off because they tried to twist the context of what Lily said in order to make it look like she was shading other groups, when Lily is only really talking about her own personal preferences here. It’s understandably frustrating for someone like Lily who actually CAN sing to have to use backing tracks because that’s the industry standard, but it’s done that way because she’s the exception not the rule. The k-pop biz is full of corrupt agencies full of criminals floating groups full of abused teenagers who can’t sing to milk the hive-minded tendences of “fandom as a sport/business” fans desperate for a connection and a feeling of belonging. For an actual musician, not having music prioritised must get annoying sometimes.
힙철수 – Evolution of K-hip hop [1936 – 2025]
“We Don’t Stop” is pretty awful, some millenial-whooping nonsense that’s as painful to listen to as the gaudy video is to watch. Somehow they managed to make absolutely nobody here look any good. When I interviewed Cheska from this lineup of the group I asker her (as I do with all my interview subjects) to share some relevant photos for the article to make it look pretty and provide any relevant insight. The one she gave me related to this song came with a label from her that said “the worst comeback ever”. It’s hard to argue.
That’s all for this week! Kpopalypse roundup returns next week!
English (US) · 