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.
May 2023 Overall Thoughts
We’re not quite to the halfway point of the calendar year, so I’ll post my mid-year round-ups at the end of June as usual. But going by my eligibility period for year-end lists, 2023 is already half over. And honestly, I’ve found this year in K-pop to be awful so far. Apart from one or two songs, everything feels dull and short-lived and predictable. K-pop has been shifting directions for years now, and I’m just not thrilled where we’ve ended up. It breaks my heart to say that!
After a promising April, the month of May plunged right back into the doldrums. Despite a number of high-profile releases, I only found a small handful of songs I had any interest in replaying. The main culprit here is a lack of dynamic melody. The industry has become obsessed with chanting and posturing. It’s rare to hear an honest-to-goodness vocal hook these days, and if one pops up it’s usually just a small piece of an otherwise underwhelming song. Fair play to those who love this approach. It’s not for me. Everything’s become so vibey and feels focus-grouped to within an inch of its life.
Because of this, my song of the month heavily favors melody. It sticks out like a sore thumb amidst May’s other releases, and its accompanying album is the only one I’ve had any lasting interest in this month. Even so, this track is a shadow of the great classics it emulates. My second and third place choices are also songs I enjoy, but neither is “top ten of the year” (or even top twenty) material.
My hope is that this summer delivers a few K-pop classics. After all, most of my favorite songs of 2022 were released during the summer months. And with veteran groups like SHINee and (maybe) Infinite poised to make long-awaited comebacks, I could see 2023 making a much-needed shift in quality. But, it’s also dangerous to place all your hopes on one or two releases. I would rather feel excited about a vast swath of K-pop acts.
Because K-pop has been so disappointing for me, the majority of my May highlights come from Japan. J-pop has officially supplanted K-pop on my own playlists, so I’m going to cheat and post five songs instead of three this month. There was a four-way tie for second place, though I’m only taking into account songs I’ve already written about in a round-up or review. The past couple of days have seen great new material from Sakurazaka46 and Hey! Say! JUMP that could also break into the top rankings over time. I highly recommend keeping up with my weekly J-pop Round-up posts. Most of the coolest music is happened over there.
Well… sorry for the rant! These monthly round-ups are meant to be celebratory, but I have to be honest about how I’m feeling. I’m desperately hoping for some 9+ rated songs to re-ignite my excitement because at the moment it seems like every song I write about is in the 7’s or low 8’s.
Month Cumulative Rating: 7.7
(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
New & Noteworthy J-pop: Week Five
TOP J-POP SONGS OF THE MONTH
2. (tie) Bullet Train (Chotokkyu) – Call My Name
2. (tie) INI – Fanfare (review)
2. (tie) Kis-My-Ft2 – Sweet Melody (review)
2. (tie) ReLit – “Challenger” Theme (review)
1. Ryugujo – Mr.FORTUNE (review)
K-POP
Honorable Mentions
aespa – Welcome To MY World (review)
Aimers – Bubble (review)
BOYNEXTDOOR – But I Like You (review)
Dreamcatcher – BONVOYAGE (review)
ENHYPEN – Bite Me (review)
Hello Gloom – Eyes On Me (review)
LE SSERAFIM – Eve, Psyche & The Bluebeard’s Wife (review)
Max Changmin (TVXQ) & Ha Hyunwoo (Guckkasten) – Hybrid (review)
ONEUS – Erase Me (review)
VERIVERY – Crazy Like That (review)
This Month’s Risers and Fallers
This Month’s Global Pop Round-Up
TOP THREE SONGS
3. iKON – U (review)
2. aespa – Spicy (review)
1. The Wind – Island (review)
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
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of December 2022
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
Spicy has got to be one of my favorite songs of the year, probably in Top 3 for 2023.
It is so irresistible and I love the instrumental. It is getting better and grew on me tremendously.
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how has the month of mid, i mean may, given us at least one or two 7’s each day? whats going on?
because of this, i dont really have a top 3 for this month. much of what i’ve done is discover older music and listen to them. some highlights include:
1. the sound of arrows – voyage album (2011)
favorite song: nova & the shadow
2. namida wo nagasenai (album) – generations from exile tribe
favorite song: taiyou mo tsukimo
favorite b-side: togetherness
3. horizon – miyavi
4. metropolis – fairies
5. shalala – misato watanabe
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Voyage is suuuuch a good album. I was basically in the fetal position after hearing the Fear of Tigers remix of “There is Still Hope” for the first time.
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yeah, i’ve been looking at your old blog and listening to whatever was on there, which is how i discovered the album 😀
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Want to know why I don’t post here any more? No? Then please stop reading this post and move on to the next one. Thank you for taking the time to read this. Please have a wonderful day. 🙂
…
Still here? Okay, then. This page and the contents of its message are why. Every review. Every topical post. Every collated summation. All the same. K-pop now sucks. I’m so miserable. Why did things have to change; for the worse? Google search: How do I commit seppuku with a SHINee lightstick?
Every post is now about watching one sad reviewer slowly being digested in the belly of a Hallyu Sarlacc. You do realize that there are a lot of first time visitors reading these individual pages, right? That when they get here, they’ve just discovered a song from a group/genre/style that they’ve never experienced before and they are looking to learn more while also hearing the opinions of others. That they know nothing about what came before this new phenom in their life. Only that they are happy with what brought them to this site. What can they expect when they get here?
The Bias List: Review of X, by X. This sucks. There was once good music, but this isn’t it. Sorry, you arrived too late. The K-pop oasis is now a fetid puddle of poison surrounded by thorns and weeds. You should stop wasting time with this genre and like J-pop instead. Move along; there’s nothing to see here.
…or worse. Hey, I know you came here to learn more about K-pop, but can I interest you in a complete set of J-pop encyclopedias instead?
That’s like a restaurant that up until now served seafood, developed a following, then everyone shows up one day and the only thing on the menu is BBQ. It doesn’t matter if it’s the best damn BBQ on the planet. It’s not what people wanted when they showed up.
Stop dumping on K-pop while promoting J-pop. I’m not saying you shouldn’t post about J-pop. J-pop is awesome. There are many acts from Japan, China, Thailand, etc., that I truly love. So more genres covered is a good thing. Just don’t soil one of them by lauding a different one in the same post.
If you don’t like a K-pop title track, so be it. Trash it on its own merits. Don’t drag with the chains of the Ghost of K-pop Past. Don’t sweep it under the carpet while trying to shill a J-pop area rug. Just let the track shoot itself in the foot and move on to the next post. It’s easy. Here’s an example:
The Bias List: Review of X, by X. This sucks. The end. I may post about some of the other songs from this release, so keep an eye out for those.
See! That wasn’t too much, was it?
Look, I understand your dissatisfaction with recent K-pop releases; I share it. I’m coming up on my 15th anniversary with this genre and there have been way too many lulls for my liking. Some of them seemed bottomless and unrecoverable. Sometimes, I take a break. Other times, I try to change the way I approach the music.
Lately, I’ve accepted the fact that title tracks are not going to land well with me, but I will almost assuredly find some nuggets if I pan through the rest of the release. I’ve been sustaining myself on B-sides for the past year or so and I’m fine with that. You see, K-pop didn’t really disappear. It’s still there. It’s just hiding behind poor window dressing. You just need to accept that the item on display in the window is crap, but the stuff on the racks inside the store is really what you want. Maybe drop the stigma you have that the title track is the most important thing and the B-sides are the red-headed stepchildren of the release. For me, it’s the now the opposite.
I like you, Nick, truly; but I don’t recognize you any more.
P.S. Sorry, I know I’m not my usual jovial self. This has been building in me for quite some time. Pardon the shrapnel.
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With all due respect, it sounds like you just need to move on from this blog.
Based on past interactions, I know you feel strongly about this. But, your expectations of this blog don’t seem to line up with what I do here and no amount of chiding or lecturing is going to change that. Sorry to disappoint.
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Out of everything I wrote, the only thing you were able to glean from it was derision? Wow.. ..just.. ..wow. I guess I really don’t know you at all.
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what in the parasocial
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Honestly. I don’t know what to say. I love both guys (parasocially of course) but I don’t know… this is a very surprising comment and interaction
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Guilty as charged, me, here. Firmly still in the bargaining stage of grief.
I only bought 3 kpop songs this month: The two Dreamcatchers “Bon Voyage” and “Demian”, and Verivery “Crazy Like That”. I used to buy 3 almost every day or every other day.
You know what I did buy this month? Stuff for sonny boy upon request. The Cosmos theme, from the old Carl Sagan TV show. Some Bluey theme dance remix going around his class. Toto Africa. (sheesh) There is another thing going around his class of the opening two bars of Toto Africa on repeat for an hour.
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Wow that’s even worse than me! 😅
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damn xeno; in my lurking days i saw you comment here and there and you seemed cool — i am pretty disappointed at the vitriol in this post. all respect that you wanted to vent, but starting off the post with “this is why i don’t shop here anymore” is lowkey karen behavior (also not to pull the kpop stan number strat but… nick has 20 million site visits, if you leave then so be it)
nick’s posted about jpop for a long time — as of late it’s overtaken kpop in how much he likes it, so sure he posts about it more. has it affected how he’s been listening to the kpop releases? no! recent kpop releases are just not his cup of tea: it’s not jpop pushing it down the cliff (or so i believe). buried treasures still exist — they’re not red-haired stepchildren, he gives them a fair shot.
let the man breathe holy shit
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I love BBQ! Wouldn’t be disappointed at all.
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I’m not a big fan of the music released this month, especially the title tracks listed below, the one I liked the most is 8/10 for me, but I do love my list of b-sides.
TITLE TRACKS I LIKED
1. Spicy – Aespa
2. Bonvoyage – Dreamcatcher
3. Eyes on me – Hello Gloom
4. Unforgiven – Le Sserafim
TOP 5 B-SIDES (with or without MV)
1. Demian – Dreamcatcher
2. Unforgettable – Oneus
3. Welcome To MY World – Aespa
4. Thirsty – Aespa
5. No-Return (Into the unknown) – Le Sserafim
Honorable mentions:
– The rest of Aespa’s EP (very solid!)
– Allergy – (G)i-dle
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And if a single person discovers this song, which I missed last month, I will be very happy.
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Well, *I* just discovered it from you and it’s good! I love the vocals.
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YES!!!
And I just listened to The Wind’s EP and I liked it a lot, “Island” has just become my only 8.5 for title tracks of the month, it reminded me of CSR’s debut, promising!
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Oh good! Yeah, they definitely feel like CSR’s brothers.
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btw have u heard the highlight reel for the new fromis album it sounds great so far
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Sounds promising!
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May felt a bit hit or miss compared to a pretty strong April, however…what I DID like from May, I REALLY liked. I saw someone describe May overall as “mid” and I’d agree I think. Mostly because the release schedule REALLY seemed to slow down after the middle of the month with nothing much of note. A lot of what I liked this month wasn’t even the intended title tracks.
MAY 2023 TOP 5:
1. LE SSERAFIM – Eve, Psyche & The Bluebeard’s Wife
2. G-IDLE – Allergy
3. æspa (ft. nævis) – Welcome to MY World
4. MAX CHANGMIN X Ha Hyunwoo – HYBRID
5. Mighty Mouth (ft. EUNHA) – Slam Dunk
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
1. Dreamcatcher – BONVOYAGE
2. æspa – Spicy
3. LE SSERAFIM (ft. Nile Rogers) – Unforgiven
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Mighty Mouth is still around?! Wow, I’ll have to check out Slam Dunk.
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Again, I ask, where has all the good K-Pop been hiding this year. Most of my K-Pop listening this year has either been familiar favorites and/or Sweetune (I owe my love of Sweetune to this blog, if not for you I wouldn’t have discovered their greatness).
That said, I really, really like the Apocalypse: From Us mini (like was I ever not going to lol); I think it’s the strongest overall in the trilogy (I mean, okay, the first one has more highlights like Starlight and Beauty Full, but overall I think this one is more consistently strong). The title has grown on me in a big way, but so has Propose. I’m still mostly on team Demian, but I wouldn’t be upset if they picked Propose for their follow-up promotion because I’ve lowkey become obsessed with that song.
(Hell, even the perfunctory ballad is great, my favorite since Lullaby.)
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My fave title tracks from this month :
1. Vienx On My Way ❤ (Definitely my fave this month!!)
2. The Wind Island (It’s so feel good… It grew on me big time and I just wanna say the group are really good at this sound
3. Queencard (Fun! And it’s so singable even for noobs like me lol)
4. Dreamcatcher Bon Voyage
5. Oneus Erase Me (A new era for Oneus starts now I guess and I’ll be watching them with interest)
6. Verivery Crazy Like that (It isn’t crazy at all lol so it was honestly surprising)
7. Enhypen Bite Me (Hehehehheehehe seeing it their in the honorable mentions kinda made me giggle XD What can I say Enhypen’s songs kinda plateaued after their initial high – but the thing is they chose a damn good place to plateau so in one way or the other we still end up liking it a bit)
8. Aespa Spicy (a few parts really POP!)
9. Le Sserafim The Bluebeard song (I see it as a bside… but I’m a mess mess mess…. Hypnotic 💀)
10. Boynextdoor songs – I can’t differentiate one from the other atp but I will…. hopefully
Propose and Demian are the standout bsides I guess. I also liked Enhypen’s Chaconne and Karma ❤
And in other “kpop” I liked the two songs on Queendom Puzzle – Snap and Charismatic. My hopes are on Wooah!’s Nana and the H1-Key girls to shine ✨
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Thank you Nick for waking me up to your top J-pop this month—-Mr. FORTUNE is utterly fantastic (MV is sooo much fun as well) and now I’ll be checking out more of their stuff for sure. I noticed they also snuck a JoJo reference in there which is my current anime/manga obsession so 100+ points to Ryujugo for that.
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I think May was great and I can’t decide my top 3, so I stopped trying and here’s what I got:
Top:
Oneus – Erase me❤️
Verivery – Crazy like that
ATBO – Next to me❤️
Enhypen -Bite me
Honorables:
Ash Island – Wonder
Ikon – U
BtoB -Wind and Wish
CIX – Save Me, Kill Me
Donghyun -Blind
Joohoney – Freedom (grower)
HelloGloom- Eyes on me (grower)
Bsides:
The Wind – Sirius❤️
(TT was not for me)
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For this month, my most replayed songs are:
Dreamcatcher – BONVOYAGE
Dreamcatcher – Propose
iKON – Tantara
WOODZ – Drowning
CIX – Save me, Kill me
I literally only had these on repeat
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Also, this mashup is what I wanted ‘Bite Me’ to be
They ruin songs that have potential to be so great.
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This was not a great month for me, but weirdly, it’s all K-pop.
1. LeSerrafim – Eve, Bluebeard’s Wife, and Crystal Waters walk that f’ing duck
2. ENHYPEN – Sacrifice (Vampires eat me up)
3. VI’ENX – On My Way
4. VI’ENX – Brrr
5. The Wind – Island
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Also, still quite sour about the complete and dour wash the CIX ep was. Still hold out hope for them, though.
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And hey, I encountered this five dollars and a dream track trying to rack my memory for what I liked. Kind of raw, but the backing track scratches all my pop-house itches. I dig it!
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That was more musically interesting than many other tracks of the month, nice!
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I know. Even with the rawness, it grooved.
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I’m gonna have to thank you for the tip on VI’ENX. On My Way is very, very good, Brrr is nice too. Guess I’m keeping an eye on this group now!
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Oh, you’re welcome! Glad you liked it!
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No QUEENCARD but Aespa’s Spicy is your Top 2? Dude, your hate towards (G)I-DLE must be personal already.. I can’t even remember how spicy sounded because it’s that forgettable and boring. SM must be broke that they can’t hire some any European underground composers because HYBE is hoarding all of them already in their basement since all of their girls cant make their own music… they couldnt even sing live. That includes IVE also.
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Jesus Christ. How many accounts do you have?
Also, you’re really doing your girls no favors. Their music is irritating enough, the fans really don’t need to compound on the irritation.
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Sing it with me, I’m a kwinka, I’m a kwinka, I’m a kwinka.. you’ll feel better
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my top 3:
1. dreamcatcher – propose
2. gidle – lucid
3. le sserafim – eve, psyche
unsurprisingly, all of these are b sides. gidle became a b side only group for me since tomboy, and i really only stick around for minnie’s compositions. dreamcatcher usually delivers but bonvoyage didn’t click for me. i miss everglow.
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