Kpopalypse roundup – new k-pop releases 28/7/2025

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

Relax, Hyuna is fine, it’s just clever marketing for whatever her next upcoming massively disappointing ‘thing’ she’s promoting happens to be. K-pop media falls for the “slightly out of focus with harsh lighting and no smile and a bit of very controlled PG-rated nudity” trick every time.

Yves – White cat

Yves is looking terrific here but the combination of the hard Autotune on her voice and the hard grating synth noises on the track adds up to an extra hard nope. Just one or the other would have possibly worked but both in combination is a real earsore.

ZEROBASEONE – Slam Dunk

My gay readers are all crying in the streets that ZB1 are in floppy sportball-wear that doesn’t show anything in particular and not literally anything else. There there, it’s okay, vote for them in the Kpopalypse Objectification Survey it will make you feel better…

OH MY GIRL – Weather Diary

Today’s forecast is cloudy with a chance of awkward mid-song tempo and time signature changes for no good reason.

THE BOYZ – Stylish

Aside from this song being generally junk, there’s a really fucking annoying ultra-high pitched whine that happens at a certain place in the beat during the chorus that makes this song literally unlistenable. I like power electronics too but it just doesn’t go with the beat somehow, I don’t know.

EPEX – Grateful to Tears

Actually not a bad song, and I’m sure someone out there will appreciate the wet T-shirts.

ONE PACT – Yes, No, Maybe

I actually really liked the backing track they used here. Sure, the vocals are nothing notable but at least they don’t get too much in the way of all that weird angular crap going on in the background. A little abrasiveness of the right sort is an asset.

ASC2NT – Don’t Move

We definitely are in the era of boy groups all competing to have the most badass synth bassline. I don’t think this one really got there though.

CIX – Color

The k-pop boys in wet T-shirts continue… I guess Waterbomb really is sticking in people’s minds… or maybe they just really want those survey placings. Just gotta get the songs right now.

TEMPEST – My Way

Tempest’s song isn’t too bad although I don’t think many will care. Hey it’s also got accurate-looking studio recording setups, although I highly doubt they’re singing it live anyway but it might be good for people wanting to know how to at least look the part.

B:MY BOYZ – Be My Boyz

It’s another TV competition show thing. This sort of stuff is always good for me personally just for research and writing inspiration but the “christian horse boy” music here is too generic and a bit of a miss.

IDID – Step It Up

This new boy group is definitely a step down.

Cosmosy – BabyDon’tCry=BreakingTheLove

According to my song submitter “Cosmosy is a global girl group managed by a joint between a japanese and a korean agencies. The song has japanese, korean and english lyrics and it is promoted in korean music shows”. If you thought that sounds like it could be confusing and badly planned just wait until you hear the music.

Ryu Sujeong – New Car

Great sounds, but the melody writing to capitalise on it just isn’t there.

KARD – Pivot

KARD have successfully transitioned from shit tropical music to shit dancehall music and it’s boring either way and enough to make someone pivot towards Shannon Williams’ ex.

Youngtak feat. Kim Yeonja – Juicy Go

Silly fun amongst the midst of every other group taking themselves oh so damn seriously this week is a welcome change.

Mighty Mouth feat. Minyoung – Dance Cam

This is quite frankly poop but it might be still relevant for those filling out the Kpopalypse Objectification Survey which hopefully is every single one of you reading this. Do it, and have your say on the most attractive men and women in k-pop!

Jay – We Can’t Explain

I can’t explain why someone would give a shit about this boring song so let’s have our weekly non-Korean LGBT feature here instead, yay! This week it’s The B-52s and I always kind of forget this when I listen to them but they were gay as fucking shit, almost the entire band were queer, if you don’t know their history see if you can pick the only straight member by watching this video. The surf-guitar powered “Rock Lobster” was their debut and definitely their best song, their sound was sadly diluted for the radio a bit later on but they still paved the way for your queer faves.

Saera x Ser!n – Hidden Page

It rocks! I’m digging this, it has some decent guitaring in it plus some fun BADING vibes which should please Annie and the roughly 2356 other readers who think like Annie and read this site.

Miraero – Miraero 1

This also wasn’t too bad and I like the keyboard riffs a lot. In a week of boy group slop at least the nugus are doing well.

The Deeep – Birthday

I hope this is a lesson to all you creators out there that you can create a retina-blasting eyesore video without AI. Not a bad song though.

Woona – All My Green for You!

Girls getting chummy while guitar solos play seems to be a big thing at the moment in music videos. Not sure what the title refers to though. Money? Marijuana? Snot? Pistachio chocolate filling? Put your guesses in the comments!

Yeonwoo – The Star

Someone definitely said to her “look, this is your best angle, just trust me”…

Leto – The World’s End

I had a Thunderbird bass once, and played it in a punk band for years. It looked cool and was a good weapon to wave at people in the audience if they started fucking with our gear or getting violent, but the thing has a horrendous neck dive problem, probably more so than any other guitar or bass I’ve ever played. When standing you spend about 50% of your energy just holding the neck up. Very comfy sitting down though.

Isha – Palm Tree

Gowon from Berry Good continues to have songs which are a flaccid disappointment.

Rockit Girl – Blue Whale (acoustic version)

This isn’t notably different to their other version of the song, and certainly the worse version, I’m just reminding you that Rockit Girl exist, you’re welcome.

RANDOM BONUS VIDEOS OF THE WEEK

angelina – JYP Called Out for Editing Jeongyeon’s Body

Tsk tsk, very poor form JYP. How come we’re allowed to have men in k-pop groups like Shindong be proudly plus-size, but we can’t have Jeongyeon look like herself when she just looks fucking normal and good? It’s a crime, please join my protest movement tysm uwu or if you couldn’t be bothered signing my Change.org petition at least give her some votes in the survey to show your appreciation.

Neuros – Blackpink’s This Move Was the Worst Mistake

Here’s a video that makes as little sense as the video title they chose. Accusing YG of “killing the golden goose” by milking Blackpink and then of not milking Blackpink enough when fans demanded it not thirty seconds later isn’t a very coherent argument. Complaining about the new live setlist and how it’s similar to their older live setlist… um, yeah it’s called having a repertoire of songs your fans actually want to hear, also see literally every touring rock group ever in the history of time. Complaining that YG is all about the money… well, yes, but so is every other music agency. They’re right about the video being ugly as shit though, but everything else here is either Captain Obvious “k-pop is a business first” stuff, or just naive fanspeak. Videos like this existing makes me want to make more videos of my own… about what I’m not sure, but I’ll think of something, or you can and then request it, if you like.

SPEED – Pain The Love Of Heart

I don’t have a lot in common with Oli London, but one area where I did see eye to eye with him when we spoke years ago pre his right-wing grifter meltdown is that we both agreed that SPEED were a great boy group at their peak. “Pain The Love Of Heart” was a Bravesound song and even without the rubber-stamped intro it showed, being basically just Teen Top’s “To You” with a new coat of paint – Bravesound had a habit of releasing very soundalike songs in pairs to different teams back in the day. However SPEED’s song was the better version, being just a little bit perkier and more interesting. Of course it wasn’t enough to save the group from their inevitable fate but it’s aged well and at least I appreciate it these days.

That’s all for this week! Kpopalypse roundup returns next week! In the meantime, don’t forget that the Kpopalypse 2025 Objectification Survey is now open, so CLICK HERE to participate and have your say in who are the most attractive men and women of k-pop!