At the end of each month, I look back at my three favorite title tracks by K-pop artists. I take my own ratings into account, but there’s a bit of wiggle room as certain songs tend to grow or fade.
June 2023 Overall Thoughts
In the coming days, I’ll be sharing my top picks from the first half of 2023. So, I’ll wait to elaborate on my overall thoughts about the year. As far as June is concerned, I think it was a reasonably strong month… in the context of 2023.
Interpret that how you will, but one thing no one can argue about is the sheer quantity of material released in June. It’s been one of the busiest months on the blog, with forty-two song reviews alone. That doesn’t count J-pop, b-sides, album reviews or other types of posts.
June was also an unbalanced month, with many more boy group releases than girl groups. The opposite seemed to be true in May, so I guess it’s just the natural swing of the pendulum. Because of this, almost all of my highlights came from boy groups. I’m pretty happy with my top three picks, and I’d put B.I’s Die For Love at a close number four (if we can count it as an official title track/single).
To be honest, my own expectations made June less impressive than it could have been. My most anticipated releases of the month tended to underwhelm. SHINee’s album is solid, but far from their best. I’ve been unimpressed with the lead-up to EXO’s new album so far. And, I really expected we’d finally get word about that Infinite comeback we’ve all been waiting for! Songs by prominent fourth gen groups (ATEEZ, Stray Kids) also stumbled to various degrees.
Within these disappointments were some highlights. My top three picks all come from veteran performers — some having debuted over a decade ago! The year of second-gen reunions is truly upon us, and I hope this trend continues.
On the J-pop side of things, it was another strong month. I’m in love with all my top three songs and honestly don’t know quite how to rank them. Sexy Zone’s Chapter II was easily my most-played album of the month, and new songs from Sakurazaka46 and &TEAM also received a lot of plays.
Looking forward, it seems that July will be a very packed month. We’ve got many heavy-hitters scheduled to make comebacks, and I’m hopeful that — similar to 2022 – the summer season will kick the K-pop industry into gear.
Month Cumulative Rating: 7.9
(compiled by averaging the scores of every K-pop review from this month)
J-Pop Highlights
New & Noteworthy J-pop: Week One
New & Noteworthy J-pop: Week Two
New & Noteworthy J-pop: Week Three
New & Noteworthy J-pop: Week Four
TOP J-POP SONGS OF THE MONTH
2. Sexy Zone – Purple Rain (review)
2. Aina The End – Red:birthmark (review)
1. Mrs. Green Apple – Magic (review)
K-POP
Honorable Mentions
B.I – Die For Love (ft. Jessi) (review)
DKB – I Need Love (review)
EXO – Hear Me Out (review)
fromis_9 – #menow (review)
Hi-Fi Un!corn – Over The Rainbow (review)
Kim Jaehwan – Lucky! (ft. Bobby) (review)
Kim Sung Kyu – Small Talk (review)
Kiss Of Life – Countdown / Kitty Cat / Sugarcoat (review / review / review)
LUN8 – Wild Heart (review)
Ren – Ready To Move (review)
Stray Kids – S-Class (review)
Suzy – R.U.N (review)
The New Six – Kick It 4 Now (review)
Treasure (T5) – Move (review)
WEi – Overdrive (review)
Xodiac – Special Love (review)
8TURN – Excel (review)
This Month’s Risers and Fallers
This Month’s Global Pop Round-Up
TOP THREE SONGS
3. NCT Dream – Broken Melodies (review)
2. U-KISS – The Wonderful Escape (review)
1. SHINee – The Feeling (review)
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of May 2023
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of April 2023
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of March 2023
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of February 2023
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of January 2023
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
It was better. Here’s a few I really liked
SF5 – Move
EXO – Let Me In
fromis 8 – Attitude
Ren – Lullaby
UKiss – The Wonderful Escape
SHINee- Juice
Space Cowboy Pirates – Dune
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I love the SF9 reference for Move lol.
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Definitely a super strong month! Especially a great showcase collection by male groups!
Two of my ults – Ateez and SKZ – had cbs this month (Spicy and S-Class) and if I’m being honest while they had bonus points because of bias and great performances and delivering as groups… as songs go I would say there are so many other songs this month that went above them for me.
My faves in no particular order :
Xodiac Special Love (This is one of the most surprisingly good songs this year that I’m still stunned that a group like t
his executed such a sweet and catchy song so well ❤)
Lun8 Wild Heart (Low key my pick for best debut song of this year so far. And maybe even best debut bg. This song is insanely good!)
P1Harmony Jump (Catchy fun at its simplest form)
8Turn Excel (Is 8 a magic number? I find Lun8 and 8turn are both fantastic and interesting groups! 8Turn has these vibes from so many other groups and yet somehow they end up with something really cool and enjoyable!)
Treasure T5 Move (This will be a huge grower. I already know it. This has the makings of a lot of stuff I love to hear on my Spotify list)
Shinee The Feeling (Definitely beautiful. I have yet to hear the full album and I’ve been following your reviews so I already have it planned in mind which are the ones I’m going for first! 🙃)
U-kiss The Wonderful Escape (Bias + a super cool song! I really love their vocals and seeing they’re performing it too just made me go aaaaaaghhhhh! You should definitely check out the show performances too Nick! Like there’s just something so amazing seeing these old gen groups performing on today’s shows and breezily singing into their mics at max volume while still shooting those dazzling smiles at the screen and feeling the song 😂❤)
Honourable Mentions :
MCND Popstar (I love these kida too much lmao)
TNX Kick It 4 Now (Not as addictive as Love or Die for me but may grow)
Vav Designer (Vibessss….)
Yena Hate Rodrigo (Title so not cool but the song’s fun)
Wei Overdrive (Like all Wei songs this will probably grow on me by next year or so lol and I’ll be raving about it. Happened with Spray. Will happen with this)
Jpop : &Team Fireworks (Atp they’re surging past Enhypen for me lol. They have such good songs to vibe to. Also can an ‘&’ be considered close to an ‘8’ too? It seriously proves my magic number theory!)
I haven’t got time to listen to NCT Broken Melodies yet so that’s also on my list now along with a ton of pending bsides to catch up on! Thanks for the reviews as always Nick! 😄
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Pop Star is so good! Actually can be their breakout title track…. I just hope the upcoming title track would be better or I’m going to be really mad.
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My June is filled with veterans as well, from the other side of kpop = the soloists and popular at noraebang / karaoke side of kpop. I don’t think any of these were reviewed here as they aren’t the typical blog fare.
Jung Seung Hwan “Epilogue” is fly, also bonus points for the best key change this year. It’s right at 3:24, mid-line. ‘https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWp8KMYZzY0
Jung Seung Hwan “I will” is also good. Kim Sung Kyu’s new one is on my long list. Lim Young Woong “Grain of Sand” the most velvety baritone ever
Kassy “Crush on You”, also mighty fine key changes, just for me.
Jannabi “Pony” sounds like that old 80’s kpop album Yoo Jae Ha which is on the short list of “most influential Korean pop albums ever” combined with old Elton John.
Finally. Roy Kim providing his version of 90’s retro – this one sounds like it could have been a Faith Hill cross-over country hit some 25 years ago a la “This Kiss” or “Breathe”. I love his live singing right alongside his own backing track, it just lays right on top of it.
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Ahh yes. Jung Seung Hwan, Lim Young Woong, Jannabi, Roy Kim – some of my favorite people. And while these recent offerings might not be my favorite from their discographies, they are quite nice nonetheless!
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I feel like it’s been a while since I agreed this much with the top three. Though I would reorder it like this:
1. NCT DREAM – Broken Melodies
2. SHINee – The Feeling
3. U-KISS – Wonderful Escape
HM:
ATEEZ – BOUNCY (K-HOT CHILLI PEPPERS)
P1Harmony – Jump
&TEAM – Firework
T5 – Move
8TURN – Excel
Kang Daniel – SOS
B-sides:
SHINee – Identity, Sweet Misery, Like It, Satellite
B.I – The Island of Misfit Toys, Beautiful Life, Michelangelo
REN – Autofill
XODIAC – Midnight Sky
fromis_9 – Attitude, In the Mirror, Eye Contact
ATEEZ – This World
The New Six – 1000 Miles
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B.I’s Die for Love is really good and made me realize how much I missed his voice. To Die For is also a very solid album from top to bottom.
T5’s Move is also another standout. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think this was from another group. I really love the slick nature of the song and video, and I really wanna see where this subunit goes as Treasure rebrands.
Ateez’s Bouncy is just a fun song. It’s going into my summer playlist.
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1. &TEAM Firework (if this counts)
2. T5 Move (recency bias notwithstanding, this is really growing on me)
3. ATEEZ Bouncy (for performance alone)
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J-Pop really had a great month, love Purple Rain and Red:Birthmark so much.
For K-Pop, is this only the second time U-Kiss has made your top 3? Glad to see them finally get what they deserve, even if this is far from their best.
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Another great month for my playlist!
Xodiac’s “Special Love” was a MAY release for me. If I had to choose only 3 Title Tracks they would be:
1) Broken Memories- NCT Dream❤️
2) Wonderful Escape- UKiss
3) Kick It 4 Now- The New Six
Honorable Mentions:
Designer- VAV❤️
Jump- P1Harmony
Wild Heart – Lun8
LUVLUVLUV- GreatGuys
Solos:
Paradise- Jay❤️
Small Talk – SungKyu
Pony-Jannabi
Dive Into- Seungwoo
B-Sides:
Satellite- Shinee❤️
Like It- Shinee
Heartbeat Drum- P1Harmony
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FAVOURITE TITLE TRACKS OF THE MONTH
1. U-kiss – The wonderful escape
2. NCT Dream – Broken Melodies
3. Hi-Fi Un!corn – Over The Rainbow
4. Stray Kids – S-Class
5. Yena – Hate Rodrigo (this grew on me a lot!)
6. Laysha – Red Flower (my little discovery of the month!)
7. B.I – Die For Love
8. Xodiac – Special Love
B-SIDES (with or without MV)
I haven’t heard many this month but here we go…
1. SHINee – The Feeling
2. U-kiss – Party tonight
3. SHINee – Identity (and the rest of the album to be honest!)
4. Hi-Fi Un!corn – DoReMiFa-Soul
5. AleXa – Juliet (Retro Electro Mix)
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