Kpopalypse roundup – new k-pop releases 15/9/2025

5 hours ago 2

It’s time for Kpopalypse roundup! Let’s take a look at some new releases!

Chaeyoung – Shoot (Firecracker)

Definitely no sparks at all in this plodding nonsense, apparently this song was so dreary that even Twice fans refused to stream it. Who can blame them. Chaeyoung’s weedy computer-assisted vocals of course doesn’t help matters, but even the best singer ever couldn’t have saved this.

Yuqi – Gone

Some mid-paced rock idol thing, it’s not too bad I guess but it’s pretty much 2NE1’s “Ugly” without the catchiness.

KATSEYE – M.I.A

Katseye really crashed through the doors and made a big impact with “Gnarly” (whether you like the song or not, it sure got noticed) and so far have followed it up with not a whole lot. I guess it might be a bit much asking for k-pop of all things to be consistent but the amount of times groups don’t capitalise on the things they get right is amazing.

Wendy – Sunkiss

This isn’t too bad, it’s definitely lacking something special to really make it amazing but I could listen to this in the supermarket while buying toilet paper to send to her record company office or something.

Nana – God

Yes it’s that Nana, and she’s back with a cool horror(ish) concept video but the song isn’t much more than a static backing track with random stuff plopped over it. At least it sticks to one thing, but sadly it’s not a good thing. Oh well, I guess I can now scratch both Raina and Nana off the “I’m aware that Orange Caramel is super viral right now and gosh it’d sure be smart to capitalise on that” list. Lizzy, it’s all up to you, we’re cheering for you.

Dayoung – Body

I guess putting a Cybertruck at the start of the video is smart marketing because whatever else you decide to show, it’s only going to be an improvement from there.

UNIS – MoshiMoshi

You know how k-pop sometimes does the j-pop thing but they improve it drastically and it sounds way better just because the songwriting’s better? Well that totally didn’t happen this time. “MoshiMoshi” is a little bit too close to the original j-pop songwriting style to actually be any good. Someone asked me and I don’t know why Gehlee always wears an eyepatch lately but until someone fills me in I’m going to assume that she got smacked in the eye by management for complaining about the song quality.

BADVILLAIN – Thriller

Starts promising with the raps and a really nice beat but completely shits the bed at 0:16 when they start singing over it, and then it’s all over. This could have been okay if the vocal writer didn’t try to do five melody styles in the one song.

ALL(H)OURS – Ready 2 Rumble

From the sound of that chorus I don’t even think the producers were taking this all that seriously. “Get ready to rumboooooaaaaaaahhhhhhhh” sounds like what Americans imagine the Australian “no” sounds like where it passes through about seven vowel sounds.

DAY6 – Our Season

Fuck, this is so boring. Can we go back to days 1 through 5 already.

IDID – Chanran

Starship’s first boy group in five years and we’lre so excited and… yeah, this is just average, any nugu agency could have made this.

AxMxP – I Did It

Not a bad debut but this would have been a lot better without the stupid rap drops and other change-up nonsense.

AMPERS&ONE – Seesaw

Apparently shipping container pollution is a big problem worldwide, there’s just so many of them and nobody knows what to do with them all. At least using them for k-pop video sets is probably one of the eco friendier options.

AM8IC – Escher

This could have been good but once again melody writing that doesn’t match the backings fucks everything up.

Gavy NJ – Happiness (2025)

Not a bit different to the original song, and not that good either, don’t waste your time like I wasted mine.

Youngbin – Freak Show

A killer bassline doesn’t make a great song, but it can sure help, and if you focus on the bass of this song and just try to ignore literally everything else about it, it kind of works.

Moonbona – Find

We’re definitely stuck with this CGI avatar nonsense due to the large amounts of second-gen idols out of work, and I don’t mind that I guess but I’d be more onboard if the songs were better.

Jinny – Lights

Jinny who was in Secret Number has a bunch of these “perfomance videos” (with the mic not even plugged in) and the songs are all ass but it’s worth noting that someone here had a vague idea about how to use the Shure Super 55 correctly, so that’s something.

Woohyun feat.Damini – Think Too Much

Was looking forward to Damini but sadly she can’t get these bland R&B boyisms over the line.

AXN feat. MIMS – Ah Yeah

The concept doesn’t work any better when the genders are reversed.

Jackson Wang – Let Loose

Nothing much going on here, just the usual “random ex boy band member tries to be Taemin tries to be Michael Jackson” think we’ve all heard about 1500 times.

BamBam feat. Timethai – Dancing By Myself

I was ready to shit on this like all the other boy solos but then the song turned out to be decent. That’s all it takes to get a good review from Kpopalypse, folks.

BIG Naughty feat. Lee Mujin – Bye Bye

This is boring so let’s have our weekly non-Korean LGBT song here instead, yay! This week it’s Little Richard, who was one of the first openly gay celebrities ever, although he actually bounced back and forth between being openly gay, not so openly gay, bi, “omnisexual”, and a born again christian in denial throughout his entire career. Whatever the case he was very influential on many things, perhaps including incorrect Shure Super 55 microphone use in videos! In this video it’s pointed in roughly the right direction but far too far away from him.

Yuto Adachi – Dive In

Yuto from Pentagon’s new song both looks and sounds suspiciously like Beomham. He paved the way!

Shinwonho – Fill me

Not the Wonho you care about, but the Wonho from Cross Gene that you forgot existed. Don’t worry, so did I.

Tova Oh – Time 2 Time

I don’t like Tova Oh’s new pop thing as much as I liked the UZA stuff but she’s still got it. Mind you it’s not hard to beat this week’s crop of shit songs.

Dynamic Duo & Team Boss – Boss

It’s really sad when the music is so bland that I can’t tell the washed-up rap guys from the other washed-up guys I’ve never heard of.

BigMama – Bubble Gum

Hey don’t let me tread on your dreams of going to Nugu Park and being a k-pop, you go girl. I can’t throw stones, it’s all our dreams to go to Yongma Land and walk the sacred paths that Crayon Pop and Cherry Kim once walked. Just perhaps leave the latin-infused puke of a song back home next time, that’s all I’m saying.

Kardi – Tokkebi-Bull

Definitely my least favourite Kardi song because I just don’t like the funk-lite verses, but hey at least it sounds better than the country music that it threatened to be from the visuals.

Kim Hyerim – First Love

A pretty interesting video, I learned some things that I didn’t know, like how Gain had an entire mini-album in the works that didn’t happen. Also this channel is using T-ara as their section segue music so they’re alright by me.

KOOKIELIT – When K-Pop Idols Get Pissed At Other Members of Their Group

Someone linked this to me as “a rare good video” from Kookielit, and I’d have to agree that it’s one of the better ones. If nothing else it doesn’t sugarcoat the fact that people in groups who are foced to be with each other all the time don’t get along always… or even often. I know I’ve been in my fair share of the bands where I didn’t like certain members, and the times I’ve had to tour with them and sleep on the same floors, when you can’t get away the little things start to really get to you. This video gets very interesting when it covers the stuff around wooah, so worth a look even if you hate most of their content usually.

Boyfriend – I’ll Be There

A really weird-sounding track even for the time with synths bubbling and farting everywhere, it’s actually pretty heavy going to listen to because of the sheer synth overload. The most bizarre moment is at 1:45 with the strangely dry chord break (unusual for the producers, usually super-polished Sweetune) and the guys all rubbing their right knee in the snow for some reason, I’m sure it has some ultra-deep symbolic meaning that I’m missing, I look forward to seeing a choreographer explain the purpose of that one to me. Still, the core of the song is decent, it’s just the delivery system that is a bit strange. Oh, and that’s Spica’s Jiwon who appears briefly at the start of the video, doing I’m not sure what exactly, I guess blessing Boyfriend with the nugu spirit that ensured they would be later forgotten. It must’ve worked because Spica’s most popular video actually has more views than this.

That’s all for this week! Kpopalypse roundup returns next week!

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