The Boyz hold the distinct honor of releasing one of the best songs of the year and one of the worst. For fans of film award celebrations, that’s like being nominated for an Oscar and a Razzie in the same year. I don’t know if the group themselves realize this, but they’ve dropped a follow-up music video for fresh album track Aura just a week after Stylish arrived to stink up the joint.
Having listened to the new mini album, Aura was my standout (though none of the songs come close to their best work). It doesn’t scream “idol title track,” but it does match the summer season well. As the song opens, you might mistake the instrumental for a bright, fairy-like girl group banger (think early GFriend or Oh My Girl). The song goes on to blossom into a breezy, light-as-air pop confection with slight city pop influence. The sound is too fizzy and inconsequential to stand as a discography highlight, but it’s quite refreshing and a better match for The Boyz’ charms than whatever weird posturing Stylish was trying to do.
And for those readers who like to follow along with my constantly-growing “songs for the roller rink” playlist, Aura is an easy addition. I don’t know if anyone goes to the roller rink anymore. I sure don’t. However, Aura‘s buoyant sound practically begs for roller skates and spinning disco balls. We could do much worse than that!
| Hooks | 8 |
| Production | 8 |
| Longevity | 8 |
| Bias | 8 |
| RATING | 8 |
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
Honestly, to me it feels so dull it’s unbearable. I’ve been inundated with work lately, and all I want to do is put music that will get my blood pumping, not put me to sleep. All to say, VVV is getting extra plays.
Anyways, Nick, I’m curious to know what you would rate TVXQ’s I Don’t Know. Would it be the same as I Think U Know (kinda funny that the two prominent dance tracks in the album have a word play with each other).
The other day I was wondering how it would have been if you had started the blog earlier. Like imagine writing and rating The Chaser and all these incredible songs as they came out!
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can these groups who are making disco/funk do it like morning musume? they need their bonkers energy injected
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I’m cackling… anyways, how do you usually catch up with the latest releases and material? It’s quite interesting how you are able to discover new songs and buried treasures even though some of them may be hidden in plain sight😵💫
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I think he has said before that he visits the kpop subreddit to check for releases? or maybe I’m misremembering lol
personally, I visit MelOn & Naver VIBE to check for daily releases since they’re in the front page
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ahh i see thanks a lot jeno!
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A variety of ways, but lately I’ve been using this page: https://kpopofficial.com/kpop-comeback-schedule-august-2025/
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I am hearing many things all at once. Mostly some combo of a long lost GFriend song, a flair of Dynamite (the descending main line of the chorus here follows the same in Dynamite closely) combined with the “oh yeah oh yeah” Jimin sings in “Boy with Luv” and a dash of Seventeen Aju Nice (at 0:56).
Its fine but not compelling.
I will be the nth person to wonder where is the energy at this year? And back to VVV for 3 minutes of adrenaline. Watch me dash watch me dash.
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Is “Stylish” from the same group that gave us powerful anthems like Boy, Giddy Up, Right Here, No Air, DDD, Tattoo, Stealer, Maverick, Watch It, Trigger and VVV???
Stylish is a walking stereotype of pandemic/post-pandemic kpop … and VVV has all the things which are (in general) missing from pandemic/post-pandemic kpop
Sometimes I want to believe that they’re just making fun of current trends….
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