2026 has seen many debuts of groups from mid-to-small agencies, but few of these acts have had much to say. Debuts offer the chance for new sounds and ideas, or maybe even a look back at a style we haven’t heard in awhile. It shouldn’t be yet another excuse to peddle the same sounds clogging up an already overstuffed industry.
TUNEXX arrive from IST Entertainment and boasts members from last year’s Boys II Planet. This comes after the agency unceremoniously dumped their last boy group ATBO. I’m not sure what makes TUNEXX think they’ll garner any more loyalty, but here we are with I’m Alive (내가 살아있다는 증거). And really, we might as well not have gotten the song at all. There’s no reason for this to exist. It completely lacks an identity of its own, repainting hundreds of other chant-heavy boy group tracks with new faces.
At its best, a new K-pop song can be a thrilling experience. Being a longtime fan makes those moments more rare because you’ve simply experienced more music and the novelty has faded. However, this kind of post-post-post-NCT song makes me wonder if K-pop simply hasn’t evolved in the past ten years. I can’t believe we’re still selling this style of hookless slop and expecting anyone to be excited about it. It’s wholly unremarkable in every way.
| Hooks | 6 |
| Production | 7 |
| Longevity | 6 |
| Bias | 6 |
| RATING | 6.25 |
Grade: D
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
To this song’s credit, it has some nice moments and the production has some nice, groovy aspects to it imo. But yeah, it’s boring.
7 (6, 8, 7, 7) for me.
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The melodies that are in the song are nice. Glad to see Donggyu and Arctic here from Boys II Planet, but the song is a miss.
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I like the production and the vocal parts (pre-chorus & outro in particular) are really nice. there’s loads of potential, but in the state of k-pop today, potential is just not cutting it.
all that aside, I’m happy to see my boy Donggyu debut finally, he is a gem of a talent and even though he wasn’t wasted on this track, I hope IST gives them better material soon. I’m rooting for this group.
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2:34 All I can hear is “shitty, shitty”.
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I feel like these agencies don’t give enough time for a group to grow organically, experiment and find a particular sound, and build their fanbase over the years, they’re just looking to cash in on the current trends and expect instant success, which of course won’t last. What happened with ATBO was very sad but IST was clearly also just not investing in them at all. Their early music was also so painfully generic, and obviously ATBO was never going to debut with the same instant success as, like, Wanna One because their survival show simply wasn’t popular enough!
They unfortunately didn’t stand out on Peak Time, and IST then put them together with JUSTB for RTK but then refused to even see that collaboration through. It sucks, because I feel this new group is also going to face the same trajectory because this whole thing just looks like a desperate grab to stay on top of any post-B2P attention for a while, but with songs like this I don’t see how this new group can evolve an identity for themselves. I wish the best for these boys though – maybe this time will be the charm, though I very highly doubt it 😦
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and the 11th song that is rated below a 7 joins this year…
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actually, 12th because of everglow’s song
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Actually 13th cause Young Posse’s Visa got a 3.25, the lowest of this year (so far but I doubt anyone would bea this one) 🥴
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Throw some more quality releases bookending this and I think Nick gives this a 7.25.
Personally, though it isn’t trailblazing, the song is nice enough. I would give it 7,9,7,8 = 7.75
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I feel like I’ve lived through several different songs.
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