Kpopalypse roundup – new k-pop releases 1/6/2026
It’s time for Kpopalypse roundup! Let’s take a look at some new releases!
Aespa – Lemonade
A great concept with aggressive rhythm and arresting visual style (even if partially ruined by the now-mandatory AI-slop add-ons) but sadly the chant chorus is lame and lets the whole show down. For those who asked, the outfit quality is the outfits at 2:47 > the race queen stuff > the fascist army officer stuff > whatever Zimzalabimmed monstrosity they’re wearing in the thumbnail.
NMIXX, Anderson .Paak – Caution
NMIXX are doing well lately on their own, but their western collabs, not so much. Exercise caution before pressing play.
IVE – Lucid Dream
Bland and a chore to sift through, like when you fill the sink with dishes and water and then leave it there overnight.
CORTIS – Blue Lips
I wonder why these boys are laying around the pool mumbling pathetically and looking all depressed. Maybe it’s because they want to do a ballad but nobody can find the control to dial down the Autotune.
SHINee – Atmos
SHINee go back to the sound of “View“, which isn’t exactly the best era of the group but it’s probably still better than what your bias is doing lately.
TREASURE – If I
You remember how Treasure had one of the best songs of last year? Well… that was last year, ahem.
MEOVV – DDI RO RI
Fascinatingly incompetent, with some of the most laugh-out-loud ugly visual ideas I’ve ever seen in a k-pop video. The song isn’t much better, stapling a verse and chorus together that aren’t too bad in isolation but don’t work at all when combined.
FIFTY FIFTY – Like a Bubble
I have to say that Fifty Fifty’s music has taken a quality dip lately. This isn’t as good as “Starry Night“, now that’s a song you could listen to, if you wanted.
tripleS – Baby Flower
Probably on the better end of tripleS songs, not quite up there with the Christian horse girl classics but hey it’s an attempt. Also I appreciate the captions telling you who is singing when, because otherwise who the fuck would know. I might be able to write that tripleS identification post soon thanks to this.
Taeyang feat. Tarzzan, Woochan – Would You
Don’t die of shock but there’s actually some good melody writing here. Of course whenever one of the other guys turns up to babble away everything goes completely to shit, but it’d be a decent song without those parts.
Taeyang – Bad
This other song is just shit though.
BoA – Ain’t No Hard Feelings
Look at BoA wandering around all relaxed and shit, probably saying to herself “finally I don’t have to do a tightly choreographed dance in a music video!” Being released from SM must feel like Bad Boy Bubby does when he finally gets let out of the house.
XLOV – Serve
XLOV are gradually filling the space left by N.O.M and I think it’s working, folks.
AND2BLE – Curious
How is anyone supposed to say these group names. There should be a moratorium on digits in idol group names. Anyway a wrong choice of chorus beat kills the significant promise of this one. Why so slow and dreary? There’s an early SHINee banger here trying to get out that’s completely hamstrung by the beat choice.
ALPHA DRIVE ONE – OMG!
I don’t have anything to say about this one and I don’t have anything random to say either so here’s a picture of my cat standing on her hind legs to grab her dinner.
ONEWE – Icarus
Very millennial and not all that interesting. Nice guitar solo though but it’s too short.
IDID – Fly!
I was more interested in the shirts being worn than the song itself. Bjork? Public Image Ltd? The costume department are sure making an effort, even if nobody else did.
HEART OF WOMAN – Lost in Proof
Heart Of Woman impress again – I wouldn’t go as far as to say that I would listen to this by choice, but it’s about as good as this type of style ever gets. Oh and ignore the botched audio transfer that varies in volume for no reason (it shoots up in volume at 0:20 and then back down again at 0:35 for no reason), it’s not like that on the actual official audio.
Queenz Eye – Y2K
A pretty awful concept and a pretty awful song, but… the outfits look good? That’s something. Hey I’m trying to be all positive and shit here. It’s hard, man.
H//PE Princess – One Day
Hslashslashpeprincess definitely haven’t been around for long enough to deserve a video with montage elements in it. Maybe one day?
Seeya – You, Like Spring
Yeah nah.
Jay Park & LNGSHOT – Run It Up
Jay Park pushing his way into his new boy group instead of letting them stand on their own two feet, they must be so sick of him at this point. Hey Jay why not run it up to Dan Murphy’s and get my girlfriend a soju bottle?
AB6IX – Endless
Oh my god, I just found the best copypasta in the comments.
Thank you, AB6IX, really, really. I’ve been to a total of three concerts: the one the year before last, last year, and this one. When I go to a concert venue, everyone there knows AB6IX and knows their songs. So, it felt like I was connected to everyone there. And when the concert starts, that feeling of connection intensifies; my head feels clear, my heart races, and I realize that I am truly enjoying AB6IX—that my AB6IX isn’t a fantasy, but reality. On the 23rd, the day of the concert, Daehwi said, “AB6IX albums are a 7-year diary filled with our hearts.” To me, AB6IX albums feel like a play button for those 7 years of memories…? For example, back in 2022, when I was in my second year of middle school, I was on the bus going to my cram school when the highlight medley for “Complete With You” started playing! I remember quietly putting on my earphones and listening to the songs on that highlight medley in that sunlit bus, and that memory comes to mind every time I listen to the “Complete With You” album. And when you give me an answer, I remember when my tutoring class finished right before the VIVID comeback show, so I told my mom to play it for me in advance… There are just so many things. I really want to talk about everything. Also, while waiting for the concert merchandise, I became close with another Avenue member. I thought to myself, if I hadn’t liked AB6IX or if they hadn’t existed, I wouldn’t have had this connection. I also became close with a friend in my third year of middle school by talking about idols, but if AB6IX hadn’t existed, I wouldn’t have known the first thing about idols haha… That’s how much AB6IX is like a lifelong friend who has been there for the seven years of my teenage years. Lastly, there is something the AB6IX members keep saying: “I’m sorry I couldn’t become a better singer.” Honestly, frankly… if we compare ourselves to others, there might be parts where we lose. But still, happiness is subjective, isn’t it? I’m not saying this just for comfort or without meaning; the memories that I, the Avenue members, and AB6IX have built over the past seven years make us happy. That is a fact that won’t lose to anyone. So, you are the singers who gave us happiness. Thank you so much. Also, I haven’t mentioned this here until now, but I am a man. I’ve been explaining up until now by saying, “I don’t like same-sex people; I’m just a fan because I genuinely love the team AB6IX, their songs, and their albums.” But yesterday, while talking with Avenue, whom I became close with, I realized something. Whether you are a man or a woman, the reason people like AB6IX and become fans is the same. So, there is no need to feel intimidated or hide it (though I do like the opposite sex). Anyway, that’s it. Lastly, I’ll leave one sentence for the members before I go. Woong-hyung, thank you for becoming the oldest member of AB6IX; I was so happy that you made the atmosphere so good and became the main vocalist of the team. Donghyun-hyung, thank you for making so many fan songs and for elevating AB6IX’s visuals. Woojin-hyung, thank you for silently doing your job as the only member in charge of rapping, even though it might have been difficult. Daehwi-hyung, thank you for becoming AB6IX’s producer, and thank you so much for making AB6IX’s songs the standard for my music. I am so happy to be an AB6IX fan, Avenue. I feel like I want to write down every single good thing I can say before I leave. TEAM AB6IX FOREVER
Definitely using this in future.
VVS – Mixin’ Thangs
Just your regular reminder that lyric videos that are just lazily looped footage are not eligible for roundup. Even if the bikini presentation is on point.
CrazAngel – Land of Dreams
These are lyrics designed to brainwash the girls singing them into the idea that they’re actually not wasting their time and they’re going to get somewhere meaningful with their group one day. It’s not for you, it’s for them.
Boyfriend – Starlit Voices
Boyfriend have been around for 15 years now, that’s a pretty good run. Enjoy your Christian horse boys.
xikers – Outsider
Wow, did every single nobody boy group release a song this week? Oh wait, BTS haven’t done anything…
Hi-Fi Un!corn – By Chance
I really wish Hi-Fi Unicorn would just stop making music for a while, have a little break. They’re dipping into country-infused music now so you know they’re scraping the bottom of the barrel for things to put in a music video.
PINK CLONE – Go On!
I’m not in the loop on why this exists but it’s definitely a parody of 2010-era 4minute/2NE1 style k-pop. Weirdly they forgot to smother everything in hard Autotune but apart from that it’s pretty accurate.
FRAME THE X – No Exit
As generic as it gets… until the chorus where there’s some pretty weird and interesting use of distorted guitar. It’s too messy to be good, but there was potential here.
DROP – Wiki Wiki
We’ve got nugu groups naming themselves after Wikipedia now.
UR:L – Wish Me Love
And another group named after website addresses. Is the flood of AI slop in Korea creating a fascination with old-web culture? Or do people just not know how to name things?
Krystal – PWLT
Yes, it’s that Krystal. Unfortunately she’s not much better at solo music than her sister, this song is pretty dreary. Maybe she should walk the path paved by Jessica like I did and get into novel writing?
Soran feat. Miyeon – Ceremony
How much do you reckon it costs to get Miyeon to feature in your song and video? I reckon she’d do a good deal, I mean it’s Miyeon not Wonyoung, you could probably hire her for a few grand. Worth thinking about if you’re in Korea trying to get a start.
Can’t Be Blue feat. Han – Can’t Love
Oh, we can be blue alright.
Kim Jaejoong – Oasis
My stream watchers observed that Jaejoong is looking pretty good. Of course it’s partly the TV makeup and editing and CGI (they AI-slopped the background, so you know they filtered the fuck out of his face too) but hey I won’t interfere with my reader’s fap experience. A better song would have been nice though, we know he has it in him.
Jang Hyunseung – My Only One
Lots of comments on this video along the lines of “only leave nice comments or I’m going to beat you up”, if that isn’t an invitation to troll I don’t know what is. Of course I would never do anything like that…
J.Seph – Easy
Some guy from KARD has a solo song and it sounds… like KARD. What was the point? Might as well have just made it a KARD song.
Yaochen – INTP
Crap song but it does have non-AI-generated horses and other fauna in the video so it’s not completely worthless.
Henry Lau – Enjoy The Show
After about 2358967234508976 years Henry finally leans into the fast pace and violin playing again. The song is pure nonsense but it’s kind of entertaining in its wanton relentless shameless cheesiness, best thing he’s done in ages.
BewhY – Stigmata
Some cool synth treatments help out the otherwise weak beat and get things over the line. Anyway god says I should stop roundup here.
CUTIE STREET – Can’t we just be cute?
According to my song submitter “the song was originally in japanese but they released in full korean lyrics and they promoted in korean music shows”. But I’m not going to allow j-shit like this into end of year lists or even future roundups based on such a technically or otherwise picks 1 to 30 on the worst list will just all be horrid crap exactly like this, and we have enough fully Korean garbage to shit on each and every week. It’s the same reason that OSTs don’t get in. But it can get in now as the week’s non-Korean pick even though it sucks major fucking ass.
RANDOM BONUS VIDEOS OF THE WEEK
Most Popular Girl Groups (2004 – 2026)
I always enjoy these bar graph videos about almost anything because I’m a nerd and I like numbers. This video is based on internet searches per month, watch the gradual takeover of k-pop in the girl group space and marvel at how The Supremes keep hanging in there. They paved the way.
4X4 PERFECT SYNC – Have You Ever Seen 80 Professional Dancers Perform a K-POP Random Play Dance?
Harisu – Liar
Harisu is the first trans k-pop idol and this song really isn’t bad at all. Back when she was around this type of slightly-trot dance banger was big. Perhaps now that this sound is trending again we’ll see a revival?
That’s all for this week! Kpopalypse roundup returns next week!
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