Feature

Every GFRIEND Single Ranked: From Worst to Best

Posted on by 19 Comments

Every GFRIEND Single Ranked - From Worst to BestI’ve listed my “top tens” for many artists, but it’s time to rummage through entire discographies and rank every single from worst to best. This feature will primarily tackle groups who have disbanded or gone on indefinite hiatus. It’s a way for me to re-evaluate my initial thoughts on their singles run. Don’t be surprised if the order has changed from past countdowns. These things are always in flux!

First up is GFriend, who haven’t released a bad single. It’s all quality here (of varying degrees, or course!). Presented with minimal commentary, here’s my list!

18. Wave (2016)

A rather toothless cover, but fun summer fluff. (original review)

17. Fallin’ Light (2019)

My least favorite of their Japanese singles. (original review)

16. Crossroads (2020)

My least-played GFriend title track, so there you go… (original review)

15. Fever (2018)

A little more generic than I’d like, but I dig this tropical sound. (original review)

14. Summer Rain (2017)

A pleasant retread. (original review)

13. Flower (2019)

Tango! Tango! And it works. (original review)

12. Sunrise (2019)

Dramatic and elegant, even if I never got behind this one the way others did. (original review)

11. Apple (2020)

A sultry sound with a great series of melodies. (original review)

10. Sunny Summer (2018)

GFriend tries on Sistar’s summer clothes. (original review)

9. Love Whisper (2017)

What a grower this turned out to be! (original review)

8. Memoria (2018)

A refined Japanese debut. (original review)

7. Time For The Moon Night (2018)

The beginning of a new era, without forgetting their past. (original review)

6. Glass Bead (2015)

An instant encapsulation of who GFriend would be. (full review)

5. MAGO (2020)

Disco bliss. Best disbandment song ever? (original review)

4. Me Gustas Tu (2015)

Iconic. How could anyone dislike this?

3. Fingertip (2017)

GFriend as synth warriors? YES, PLEASE! (original review)

2. Rough (2016)

My favorite GFriend song for a long while. Its chorus is the stuff of legends. (original review)

1. Navillera (2016)

When I say it’s the female “Chaser,” you know I don’t dish out that praise lightly. (original review)

19 thoughts on “Every GFRIEND Single Ranked: From Worst to Best”

  1. Oh wow I wasn’t expecting this! Great list, my personal favourites are Mago and Me Gustas Tu. Mago was one of my top songs of 2020 (it could well be the best disbandment song ever, you’re right), and somehow I even became re-obsessed with MGT in particular for a few months last year, landing it on my 2021 Spotify wrapped 😂

    Looking forward to more of this feature!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  2. I like every song on here except Wave. Gfriend really had such a killer singles catalog. Personally, I really liked Crossroads and it MIGHT crack my top 10 tbh. The trifecta of Rough, Navillera, and Fingertip is untouchable for me tho.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  5. Wasn’t expecting this, but I’m ready to see this for other groups now.

    Me gusta tu is my favorite GFriend song. I never really got navirella.

    Like

    Reply

  7. Rough and Navillera are definitely my favorite Gfriend songs too!!! The chorus of both those and the sheer emotion in them! I’m not much of a fan of Gfriend songs in general – it’s like you wrote once for another song, I can appreciate it but not necessarily enjoy it. Usually on my first listen I find the song sleepy. There are a few exceptions and these definitely turn out to be my favourite in the long run- Rough, Navillera and Mago are probably my most favorite from what I’ve heard! ❤️

    Like

    Reply

  8. GFRIEND are one of my 3rd gen girl group staples, and my favorites in here are Memoria, Me Gustas Tu (the staple of GFRD!), Fingertip – and I appreciate the entire album Fever is in, since it takes me back in time.
    Now, as a WIZONE and Lovelinus, I would carefully and kindly want both IZONE and Lovelyz in here. The latter probably is in the list, I suppose? And with the former, since they have 5 Korean titles from albums + 4 Japanese titles from albums + 5 miscellaneous singles (the ones from Universe….the Starship-Pepsi collab….then they did a weird AKB collab, as well as 2 remakes, one in English and one in Korean), I’d be pretty happy with only the album-included title tracks and/or pick & choose with the miscellaneous singles.
    Keeping my eye on this feature for sure; I saw some reader comments waiting for this!

    Like

    Reply

  11. You are underrating Summer Rain!

    Anyway, thanks for this feature, Nick. I still miss them dearly, and do I thank my lucky stars I splurged on tickets with my sister when they came to my home country.

    My ranking, if anyone was interested:

    18. Fever – The one real dud in GFriend’s singles discography, sadly.
    17. Fallin’ Light – Far from a bad song, but the victim of the law of diminishing returns.
    16. Flower – Sadly, I am just not the target audience for these sorts of salsa/tango songs.
    15. Memoria – I’ll admit ironically I often forget about this song. It’s a fine song, but Sunrise is a better example of this sort of thing imho.
    14. Sunny Summer – A little too saccharine for me most days, but a perfectly solid song.
    13. Crossroads – Mostly suffers from Labyrinth being right there. Nothing really wrong with the song though, but it’s not among their best.
    12. Time For The Moon Night – Not a bad song, but in the context of being a dramatic about-face after branching out a bit, it is a little disappointing.
    11. Wave – Their best “summer” song. (Excluding “Summer Rain” which isn’t really a summer song, lol.)
    10. Sunrise – I think of the middle era dramatic orchestral GFriend songs, this is their best.
    9. Apple – The “wee ooh wah wah wah wah” chorus didn’t age as well as I thought it would but the verses are still amazing.
    8. Love Whisper – Look, I love the squiggly synths on this one. Idk if that’s the right descriptor. But squiggly!
    7. Glass Bead – Is this Into The New World cosplay? Sure. Is it great anyway? Absolutely.
    6. Me Gustas Tu – Me gustas this song. Very much.
    5. Navillera – Instant shot of serotonin. Gotta love it.
    4. Summer Rain – Something about this song just tugs on the heartstrings. Also, Schumann is my favorite composer ever, so bonus points for the Dichterliebe quote.
    3. Mago – I regret never finishing my Ozzy Osbourne-style remix of this before they disbanded. Maybe I’ll finish it someday. What a way to go out, though.
    2. Fingertip – I really, really wish they’d been given a chance to pursue this sound further. What a banger.
    1. Rough – Legendary, iconic, perfect. This song is everything. Also, I’ve sorta taught myself the guitar solo to this!

    Also, the best disbandment song is either f(x) – “4 Walls” or miss A – “Only You”. “Mago” is up there though!

    Like

    Reply

  12. Good list! They have some pretty strong singles and easily had one of the strongest discographies in K-Pop (still do).

    My list would probably be:
    18. Wave
    17.Sunny Summer
    16. Memoria
    15. Fever
    14. Flower
    13. Sunrise
    12. Fallin’ Light
    11. Summer Rain
    10. Crossroads
    9. Time for the moon night
    8. Glass Bead
    7. Me Gustas Tu
    6. Fingertip
    5. Navillera
    4. Apple
    3. Love Whisper
    2. Rough
    1. Mago

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  13. Rough vs Navillera is one of those song match-ups where I really can’t decide between them. They’re both so similar, yet distinct in their own way. Rough has the catchier chorus, but Navillera has an even better instrumental.

    Like

    Reply

  14. I’ve finally gotten around to exploring the breadth of their discography – so this feature is timely! I’d say I agree with your list on the whole, though there’s really no incorrect order for that top 5.

    I hope they might be contenders for an A to Z spotlight someday: they probably have a good 20 or so incredible b-sides!

    Like

    Reply

  15. Ooh I’m already liking this feature better than the top 10s. Can’t wait for your NCT, SHINee, and 9muses singles ranking!

    Though their releases weren’t always consistent quality-wise (*cough* Fever *cough*), GFriend remains one of my favourite K-pop groups.

    Here’s how I’d rank their singles:
    1. Navillera – Chaser 2.0.
    2. Mago – THE peak of retro girl group K-pop. Also that is one gorgeous music video.
    3. Apple – Very much a Gain song, and I’m whipped for Gain.
    4. Rough – Peak Yuju, fricking love her vocals here.
    5. Me Gustas Tu – My introduction to GFriend, this song is unbelievably catchy.
    6. Time For The Moon Night – Peak Eunha (sorry Viviz). She sounds and looks really good here.
    7. Fingertip – The biggest GFriend grower for me.
    8. Sunny Summer – You cannot really go wrong with good ol summer songs (unless it’s tropical pop :().
    9. Glass Bead – ITNW-lite.
    10. Memoria
    11-16. Love Whisper, Sunrise, Summer Rain, Flower, Fallin’ Light, and Wave in whatever order lol.
    17. Crossroads – Mostly dislike this one because of the lore-heavy music video.
    18. Fever – Unfortunately GFriend also dipped their toes on the tropical shitshow.

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.