Kpopalypse roundup – new k-pop releases 7/4/2025

4 hours ago 4

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

ARTMS – Burn

Some Loona girls finally release something called “Burn” like they teased 57 comebacks ago but the only ones getting burned by this limp funk-lite are us.

AKMU – DADA

AKMU palm off most of the visual work to actors, meaning that Suhyun is only in the video for about five seconds and it’s a real shame because I really could have used a distraction from this dullness.

Solar – Want

Do not want.

Yoyomi – Sealing You

50% of the video for this boring trop-slop is just Yoyomi’s midriff gyrating against Windows Spotlight backgrounds. I guess if you’ve put in all that gym time why not flaunt it but I would have preferred a song that didn’t sound like Kard trying to record while drunk.

Ethan, Chung Ha – Find Love

You know how I actually liked a lot of songs over the past couple of weeks? Guess not this time.

Raina – Sleepless Night

Right when Orange Caramel are going nuclear viral and people are begging for a reunion harder than ever, or at least hoping for a little Orange Caramel style pizazz in any new material from literally anyone in k-pop right now, Raina gives us this boring shit. She’s dropping the ball here so hard she’s going to need to see a podiatrist. Somehow this is San E’s fault.

Kai – Adult Swim

Not as much topless Kai as I was expecting, the objectification survey for 2025 isn’t that far away, I think he’d better step it up. Speaking of surveys, it feels like a good opportunity to remind you that the latest Kpopalypse survey (not the objectification one, just the regular six-monthly one – although you can still objectify people in it if you want to) is now live, CLICK HERE to participate!

Mark – 1999

You’ll wish it was 1999 too, before shit music like this existed.

Moon Sua x Siyoon feat. sokodomo – Snap

Two of the girls from Billlie who I don’t even remember come back with a song which isn’t all that amazing but it’s still better than the last few Billlie comebacks.

xikers – Breathe

Not much of a song but I just like it that box videos are coming back. People used to complain but I always thought they were a lot of fun. I just hope they don’t hit their head on those chrome things.

ONE OR EIGHT – DSTM

The same label who put out XG now have a buy group so if crappy AI transitions are your thing but with boys, here you go.

CLOSE YOUR EYES – All My Poetry

Since this is the only song they have out, I guess that at least for now this technically is “all their poetry”. Unfortunately, it’s also all their music.

ONE PACT – Wild:

What’s with the colon at the end of the song title? Maybe it’s because the song sounds shit and you can’t have shit without a colon for it to pass through.

NewKids – So G.oo.D

Okay can we stop with the punctuation madness. I have OCD readers and they are heavily traumatised by this, you know. This group had a ton of other songs this week but I left them all out of roundup as punishment. As Hyoyoung says, “dogs only listen when they take a beating”.

UV – Sakurada

As usual with UV. I have no fuckin’ idea what is going on here. It’s not a bad song I guess because they really lean into it so hard, it makes what would have been boring kind of work despite itself.

Kei – A Song For You

According to my song submitter: “the song is a OST for a videogame and it is produced by the veteran producer behind Lovelyz debut era songs”. You definitely wouldn’t know it – it sounds as generic and dull as any other post-Lovelyz ballad.

RAVN – Comedy

Nothing much going on here except some shit AI filters.

Songsun x GK – I wanna say I love you

The girl is from TRI.BE apparently, but Shinsadong Tiger would never have approved of this sit-down ballad dreariness.

Shin Euijin – Anthem for You

Now that Dreamcatcher have basically completely shit the bed, fans of the group might want to look to Shin Euijun for something new to follow. What she lacks in production gloss she definitely makes up for in consistency.

Wing – Dopamine

Musically there’s nothing really here, but just from a purely technical standpoint this is great to watch – recommended. Not often that I say that about a vocalist, hey…

Effie – Maybe Baby

If you’re going to do the Autotune electro nonsense, you might as well go hard at it all the way. Effie’s song works because it owns the electronic spazzing 100%.

Truman, Jasmine – Enough

I wasn’t that interesting in this so instead let’s have our weekly non-Korean LGBT feature! This week it’s Coil, an industrial group which was comprised of two Psychic TV members, Peter Christopherson and his partner John Balance. Their music is varied and strange and impossible to sum up neatly here so I won’t bother, but if you liked Throbbing Gristle but felt that it wasn’t weird enough for you then Coil should satisfy.

Chae Eunjung with IK Brothers – Tonight

It’s not awful but I don’t care about it either. This is not the Eunjung I wanted.

An Yul – Heart on Fire

Actually pretty good and better than most “dancing on the tennis court” songs in recent memory.

Jungkey feat. Swan of Purple Kiss – Love Struck

Thing to hate in 2025: music videos where very good looking performers get barely any screentime due to Korea’s crap beauty standards. Jungkey had other songs this week but I’m not reviewing them all in protest.

Roy Kim – As Is

Yeah nah.

Yoon Seo Ryeong – Sad Gayageum

This trot entry is nothing special and sounds just like 90% of trot. Average songs like this make me appreciate the really good trot songs a lot more.

Shin Seong – You are so refreshing

And here’s the male version, which also is boring.

The VV – Try to smile

I just liked this because I like the girl with the six-string bass. Bringing a six-string bass to a song like this is a real committment to six-string bass, because you don’t exactly need one for this sort of music. I think she can shred but is seriously hodling herself back here.

Radio 939, Hakm – Go Stupid!, Ugly

Actually two songs, with the second one following that horrible trend in rap music at the moment where they don’t even have beats but just rap over an ambience or something. The beat is the only reason why we were going to listen to your jabbering ass at all.

Yung Blesh feat. KHAN, ShyboiiTobii, Wuuslime, Owen – ABC

They can afford nice cars but they can’t afford a tripod for their camera.

100KGOLD feat. JAMESMACA6OI – Money Ain’t

This first guy who raps definitely sounds like he has nuts in his mouth. Anyway that’ll do for roundup this week, damn what a shit week overall.

RANDOM BONUS VIDEOS OF THE WEEK

Why does Kpopalypse roundup exist?

Roundup already has its own FAQ that you can check out, but for those of you who like YouTube videos I made one where I just randomly talk about stuff and it ended up being a thing about Roundup. If you’d like me to do more of this type of content let me know.

kpop raps that ACTUALLY took skill in 2024

No they didn’t. There’s skill in writing rap lines, but not in performing rap lines – if you can talk in a rhythm, you can rap in a rhythm. Rapping doesn’t take any skill whatsoever beyond that required for basic speech if it’s someone else’s lines you’re rapping (outside of very rare edge cases like say, RA The Rugged Man). There’s a whole “rap appreciation” subculture of k-pop fans and they largely just don’t understand rap music. That’s why I wrote a post on it ages ago that’s still relevant now, because k-pop fans have only gotten dumber as time has passed.

Wonder Girls – So Hot

Proof that simple is often best, “So Hot” revolves around just two chords yet still manages to be catchy and cool. How JYP went from lighting up the charts with this to thinking that NMIXX’s debut concept was a good idea, is anyone’s guess.

That’s all for this week! Kpopalypse roundup returns next week! In the meantime, don’t forget to do the latest Kpopalypse survey, which you can access by clicking HERE! Stay safe, caonimas!

Read Entire Article