Kpopalypse roundup – new k-pop releases 27/10/2025
It’s time for Kpopalypse roundup! Let’s take a look at some new releases!
LE SSERAFIM feat. J-Hope – Spaghetti
A cool bassline sets the tone but limp, soft pre-chorus melodies really take the edge off. It’s good elsewhere though, and definitely a grower, especially if you can manage to ignore the lyrics. J-Hope believe it or not is actually a highlight because he fits better with the grittier parts of the song here than the girls do when they’re singing, it’s the best thing he’s done since problematically chasing girls in “War Of Hormone“.
TXT – Where Do You Go?
Not bad at all, but nothing special either. Just another song that exists.
EJAE – In Another World
It’s obvious that Ejae is outrageously talented and it’s great that K-pop Demon Hunters has boosted her career so much. However a syrupy boring ballad is still a syrupy boring ballad no matter how well it’s played and sung.
Jinsoul – Ring of Chaos
Could have used a lot more chaos, this is just dance-pop by numbers and not very notable. There are thousands of songs that sound like this and I don’t remember any of them.
NMIXX – Adore U
This sounds like a more drum-machine based version of the Pixies or something, what the fuck. It’s seriously really good. Apart from that rap break, which I suppose we had to have because it’s NMIXX so we have to shit the bed with a dumb change somehow, but hey like the “Roly Poly” rap it’s short enough to ignore – overall this is killer.
Ningning & Fairlane – Miss This Life
Every song for League of Legends is the same power-fantasy nonsense, but weirdly this one’s about 75% build-up. I guess that’s appropriate because listening to the song feels much like playing the game itself does, because most of the time your team either wins or throws right before your final item build kicks in.
&TEAM – Back To Life
Speaking of which I don’t think this sounds radically different to some “waiting music between rounds at the esport tournament” bollocks.
A20 MAY – Paparazzi Arrive
Lee Soo Man’s new electro-reggae things is quite good but I would have definitely preferred it with more of a dub reggae sound, I feel like I can’t really light up to this. Hopefully there’s a demo out there someone can unearth that doesn’t have all the botched computer noises on it, because I have a strong feeling that this started off life as an actually decent reggae track before it got Rich-Manned into synthesised oblivion.
I.MET.U – Still
This track tries to go for a dreamy feel to match the standard white-dresses swanning around the garden Apink thing, but somehow they’ve got Leadfingers on the bass guitar there trying to steal the show by flapping his strings in the breeze. Definitely a miss, but I guess at least it’s an interesting failure rather than a boring failure so that’s something.
VVUP – House Party
Brainless, stupid and fun, here’s proof that k-pop is finally starting to move in the right direction.
Xdinary Heroes – ICU
Great production but the song is nothing special. Hey JYP, can the next rock band you launch not be a boy band? I mean, it’s no wonder QWER are doing so well, nobody else has the balls to give the people what they want. We’ve only been begging for idol girl rock groups since AOA dumped their guitars for miniskirts early last decade.
NEXZ – Beat-Boxer
I laughed out loud when that distorted vocal kicked in at the start, but overall the song isn’t too bad I guess, even if it weirdly doesn’t actually contain any beat-boxing (or if it did I PTSD’ed it out of my memory as soon as I heard it).
JUSTB – Going South
Accurate song title of the week because something sure went south while they were writing this song.
BAE173 – Turned Up
Nothing very exciting here, nice Steve Irwin tribute at 1:34 though.
DKB – Irony
Hey for the person who asked me on livestream the other day what a “half time pre-chorus” is and how it can negatively impact a song, perfect example here from 0:53 to 1:08. And boy, the song was sounding great up until that point but halving the tempo right there sure kills the vibe, what a shame.
AM8IC – Buzzin’
Lame song but “Ghostbusters kill furries at Yongma Land” is a 10/10 concept, so points for that.
ATEEZ – From (2018)
I’m not sure why this was from 2018 but I wish it stayed there.
BADVILLAIN – Miss Us?
No, not really. This song should work in theory because the beat is there and that’s 95% of what I care about in rap music, but there’s something that’s just ‘off’ about the delivery, I can’t explain it, feel free to help me out in the comments.
NWHI – Like a Flame
The kind of awful song and video I’d normally expect to see with less views than one of my own YouTube videos, but this thing has 200k at the time of writing, I can’t even Nugu Alert it. Confusing times we live in.
LEVERGENT – Vroom (No break)
See, the male equivalent only has about a thousand views, now that’s more normal for something like this. I feel like the balance in the universe is now restored, thanks Levergent.
Hiphop Princess – Do my thang
Oh dear. It has really come to this, hasn’t it. Looks like you all didn’t cancel hip-hop themed girl groups hard enough, now we have to put up with an entire TV show of them.
Santo Bravos – 0%
According to my song submitter “Santo Bravos is a new HYBE boy group targeted at the Latin American market” and the song is well named because I think I give 0% of a fuck.
U-Know – Set In Stone
Total ass, pretty sure someone just typed “retro pop TVXQ solo comeback” into a prompt somewhere.
Dita – Love So Sweet
This is Dita from Scret Number, just in case you forgot, because I sure did.
Kang Yuchan – Close to You
ACE members not showing their legs in lame solo songs sure isn’t it, so instead let’s have our non-Korean LGBT feature for this week, yay! This week it’s pioneering German industrial group Einsturzende Neubauten, and while LGBT sexuality isn’t exactly at the front and center of their music in any very obvious way, lead “singer” (or whatever it is that he does) Blixa Bargeld has come out as non-binary. “Armenia” is still their best track for me, now this is what a real build up and payoff in a song sounds like. I’m sure Liz would approve. Wunderbar!
Lee Bada – Tingling
Someone really wanted this song in roundup this week and I can only assume it’s because their ears need a good syringing. That horrible chorus should do the job.
Jung Soyeon – Moonlight
It looks like the same room that Aseul made her “Always With You” video except nobody had the budget to light the room properly this time and also the music sucks.
Miso – Spotlight
You boys and girls might remember that MiSo is one of the girls from the girls’ group called “Girls Girls”, you might remember those girls from their song “Girls Girls“, or perhaps just because they’re girls. Anyway this song isn’t very good I just wanted to see how many times I could use the word “girls” in one sentence.
Hambuggy – Buggy Bounce
A great song right from the very first note, Hambuggy is the hero we need in k-pop this week to make roundup better. This song won’t win any awards for innvoation but it sure is catchy and fun and that’s all a song needs to be.
Hwina – Panic Attack
It’s another banger! Where’s the A-list, dead in a ditch I think. Everyone complains about roundup being too negative but if your bias got given songs this good there wouldn’t be a problem, cunt.
YYOi – Pathfinder
So many Korean “indie guitar” groups get this type of sound wrong because they try and aim for somewhere between Britpop shoegaze and soft rock, but YYOi get it oh so right by turning the wave of ambient guitars and punchy drums up loud enough to bowl you right over.
Rosy Barbie – Kung Fu
The first time I ever heard a “music sample” was a snatch of “Kung Fu Fighting” that my brother had on a floppy disc back in our 80s Commodore 64 gaming days. Even though it was only ten seconds long and super scratchy sounding because it was 8-bit and ultra-low sample rate, I was blown away that a computer could sample anything at all. Fast forward a few decades and I think Rosy Barbie is equally blown away because she’s got that same sample and made an entire ass rap song out of it.
PSV – Can’t Even Talk
Terrible beats make terrible rap songs.
Mad Clown – Don’t Die Today
Good on Mad Clown for trying to keep Koreans alive, the Korean suicide rate is no joke so this type of acknowledgement is probably needed by a lot of people out there. I would have preferred a song that was a bit more than some talking over a maudlin instrumental, but I can’t be too fussy about the result, because maybe some of those kids that he inspires to live another day will grow into amazing recording artists that make way better songs than this one.
Hebi – Be I
Yes it’s another one of those anime things or whatever, I’m told that this one comes from QWER’s label, but that doesn’t mean it’s another other than generic.
IRISE – Iridescent
If you close your eyes, and keep them closed all the way through the video, the song isn’t too bad. Just don’t look! Trust me it’s not worth the pain.
Song Sohee – Hamba Kahle
Oh god it’s terrible. I’ll leave you with this monstrosity because we’ve all had quite enough good music this week so it’s helpful to get that reminder that a lot of things still suck.
RANDOM BONUS VIDEOS OF THE WEEK
BASTTIE – STEP TOGETHER – Interview
The wildest thing about this new furry k-pop group is just how much effort went into it and how genuinely committed and passionate everyone is to the project. Yes these people are real furry fandom folks who seem to have been into this stuff for decades, it’s not some C-list boy group moonlighting as furries for the yiffbucks… well, assuming they’re not lying to us. But I don’t think they’re lying. One of them is even wearing a boobs-harness, so I think they’re the real deal. Just try not to think too hard about what happens in the dorms.
Kpopalypse Oppar – the Kpopalypse origin story
None of what’s in this video will be news to regular readers, this is more a little gift from me to the new readers who might be struggling to understand all the context of why the site exists and how I started doing what I do, as well as for the people who know me personally and are wondering how I got into this k-pop shit. And it is a gift quite literally, because my YouTube channel is not monetised. There’s another video here for those specifically curious about why these roundups exist and why I’m such a cunt all the time (supposedly). Oh, and if you found this video useful or interesting or laughable or shit or boring or didn’t even watch it, do my latest survey and tell me what you think, it’s only open until the end of October, folks.
VIVIDIVA – Service
As the thumbnail on my own video will tell you (which I didn’t pick out myself, the algorithm stans Sooyoung apparently), I do glaze Girls’ Generation’s “Gee” a bit. So did many people in k-pop over the last fifteen years, and several C and D-tier groups tried to make a similar sound work for themselves with varying degrees of success. Vividiva probably had one of the worst iterations of the “Gee-alike”, with “Service” sounding like they really had no idea what to even do. They’ve got all the superficial aspects of “Gee” here, like the fast beat, the loud smothery keyboard synth pads, and the girls singing the same word a lot of times in a row while smiling insipidly… and I think that’s all they thought it would take. The songwriting smarts are somewhere else completely.
That’s all for this week! Kpopalypse roundup returns next week!
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