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.
April 2023 Overall Thoughts
I’ve been complaining about K-pop a lot this year, but April was the first month that gave me some hope for 2023’s potential. It’s also the first month that delivered more than one 9+ rated track (if taking my risers and fallers into account). We definitely needed the boost!
My top three choices of April were vaguely competitive, and that’s more I can say about the rest of the year. I had a very close fourth place (Xikers’ Rockstar) and a number of solid honorable mentions. But, my top two choices have been on heavy rotation since release. There’s kind of a wall between them and the rest.
April ended in tragedy, with the untimely passing of Astro’s Moonbin. Deaths in the idol community have a distinct solemnity that ripples through the entire industry. As always, I hope agencies take this as a reminder that mental health needs to be their top priority. What’s happening to these young performers is absolutely heartbreaking.
April saw the end of Boys Planet, a lengthy series that I reluctantly recapped! I want to be optimistic about the group it spawned, but the program’s original songs don’t give me a ton of hope. It would be wonderful if ZEROBASEONE became one of the year’s most exciting rookies. My fingers are crossed!
As I’ve mentioned several times on Twitter, I need to know where some of my MVP K-pop producers have gone. Unsurprisingly, I’m missing Sweetune the most. It’s not a joke when I say we need them to “save” K-pop. Or at the very least, I need some of these new producers to study the greats and give us a taste of the greatness the industry was built upon.
J-pop wasn’t quite as strong this month, though my weekly feature of new and notable songs continues to chug along. I hope you’re all enjoying the spotlight and have found some treasures along the way. I love my top song on the month, but that’s no surprise. I tend to adore anything this group releases.
May feels like it’s going to be a busy month, and we’re heading into K-pop’s all-important summer period. Last year, the vast majority of my top ten EOY songs came from the summer season, so I hope for a repeat in 2023! At the very least, SHINee are slated for a return and you know that’s going to be good.
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
3. One Love One Heart – Kajouhonnou
2. Man With A Mission x Milet – Kizuna no Kiseki
1. Fantastics – Panorama Jet (review)
K-POP
Honorable Mentions
Agust D – People Pt.2 (ft. IU) (review)
Alice – Show Down (review)
DRIPPIN – Seven Sins (review)
EPEX – Sunshower (review)
Heize – Vingle Vingle (review)
iKON – Tantara (review)
Lee Chaeyeon – Knock (review)
Lee Gikwang – Predator (review)
Mark (NCT) – Golden Hour (review)
MUSTB – Royalty (review)
NCT DOJAEJUNG – Perfume (review)
ONEUS – Unforgettable (review)
Seventeen – Super (review)
Woodz – Journey (review)
Xikers – Rockstar (review)
This Month’s Risers and Fallers
This Month’s Global Pop Round-Up
TOP THREE SONGS
3. from20 – Bad Revenge (review)
2. Tempest – Dangerous (review)
1. IVE – I Am (review)
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
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of November 2022
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
golden hour easily my #1, because idk how to make eggs.
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That’s fair!
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I’m not sure how I came across this – did someone else mention it in the comments section? Wish I could remember. But this is my favorite J-pop release of the month. I don’t know anything the song or the artist, just that I’ve been enjoying it the last few weeks:
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I know neither is really in this blog’s niche, but I liked both Giuk (ONEWE) and Ha Hyunsang’s releases this month. Giuk has a very distinct style that matches his voice super nicely, and Hyunsang is just really, really good at sounding sad. There’s an uptempo(!!!) song on his album, though! Fabric of reality tore and everything. All of the songs on there also experimented with some synths instead of just having band instruments, and I think it worked out well.
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I agree this has been the best month music-wise this year so far – and hopefully that absolute avalanche of releases in May will deliver as well! I’m cautiously optimistic about Zerobaseone only because of Jelly Pop and also the really strong final lineup…we’ll see!
IVE’s I Am is definitely my top song of the month (and I didn’t comment on the risers/fallers post but like you Kitsch has grown on me enormously). I’ve also been looping Kep1er’s Back to the City a lot (why wasn’t it the title track???).
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My top faves would be : Ive I Am, Seventeen Super, Kepler Giddy, Xdinary Heroes Freakin Bad, Blitzers Macarena (How the tables flipped 💀) & Epex Sunshower.
HM : iKon Tantara, Xikers Rockstar (definitely loved it more than the other title). Tempest Dangerous and Drippin Seven sins need a few more listens I think.
Overall album Xdinary Heroes wins hands down for me. I think they’ve been the one group consistently giving great bsides for me with all their cbs.
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Weird month.
Anyway, here’s 5-ish.
Vanner – Prime Time
Blitzers – Tarantella
NCT CBX – Perfume
NCT CBX – Kiss
WayV – Phantom (Pierre Blache remix)
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Jeez, Macarena .
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around us entertainment (highlight’s company) is debuting a new boy group and just realesed a debut track that is PHENOMENAL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhX2VC_h6Dw
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I loved IVE’s Love Dive, After Like, and b-side My Satisfaction; and so I really wanted to love the new album, and looked forward to it immensely. Maybe that’s why I’m just not feeling the new songs, my expectations were too lofty? Every other month this year, I had one or two singles that I really came to love (beyOnd, OMG, Moonlight, Sweet Juice & Autopilot, Cupid, Strange Way To Love, Hold On Tight, JuJu Secret Lonely Night). This month, though, the only song I feel that way about is this b-side:
I do like IVE’s two singles, I just don’t put them at the same level as their best work; at least, not yet. I know me very well, though; I could end up eating my own words, lol. This is just how I feel now, and it’s why I seem to be the only one who thinks April’s been disappointing…
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April definitely felt like it picked up a lot more! My favs this month in no particular order:
-DND by Apink, not as strong as their BEP-produced title tracks in recent years but I get the biggest smile whenever I hear it. I wish for many girl groups to have their longevity and release music in their twelfth year!
-I Am by Ive, I really missed this massive, larger than life sound in k-pop! This is easily my favourite song from them, it just feels so majestic and grand.
-Knock by Lee Chae Yeon, the more I’ve listened to it the more I come to appreciate its quirks and charms. It’s full of energy and just plain fun.
-Lovestruck by Kep1er, the album and not Giddy (the song) purely because Back to the City was the best damn thing they’ve ever released in Korean (Together Forever you’ll always be famous.) Praying it gets a performance MV at least!
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Macarena -Blitzers
Sunshower – Epex
Iam – IVE
HM:Tantara (Ikon), Journey (Woodz)
✌🏻
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Nothing ever beats my reaction seeing the extremely cute thumbnail for a song called “Dangerous.” I love how they proclaim in the song, “Baby I’m so dangerous,” while looking like they’d cry after stepping on an ant. Not complaining at all, though, love Dangerous!
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I have downloaded a few for April, but have not listened much so will hold off ranking for now.
I am happy that this April brough a new release from Pitta aka Kang Hyung Ho of Forestella, and on that EP is “Universe” now available for the first time on US itunes. Self-composed too. Finally, I can and have downloaded it to my ipod to belt the shit out of it driving down the road.
=sharing=
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My list looks like this:
Top 3 Title Tracks:
1. ONEUS – Unforgettable
2. WOODZ – Journey
3. IVE – I AM
Top 3 B-sides:
1. SEVENTEEN – Dust
2. IVE – Shine With me
3. WOODZ – Drowning
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April finally delivered a near full month of great comebacks and even better music! I don’t want to complain about the year-to-date, but I really felt like 2023 was a very quiet year. I can’t complain in April, it was the first month where I actually fell behind in my listening schedule! I’ll do a top 5 for April, to hard to narrow things down this month.
Top 5 (Apr. 2023)
1. IVE – I AM
2. Xikers – ROCKSTAR
3. NCT DoJaeJung – Perfume
4. TEMPEST – Dangerous
5. SEVENTEEN – Super
Biggest Grower: NMIXX – Love Me Like This
Why is this song so FREAKIN catchy, it drives me mad…and I can’t help but love it.
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Surprisingly my top 3 this month is Ive’s kitsch & I am + Agust D’s haegeum. Mostly surprised by how much I love kitsch tbh
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I’ve listened to Back to the City more times than any human should. That’s the best song I’ve ever heard in my life. Everything else can fight for second. I like Suga, Ive, Seventeen, NCT DoJaeJung, and Tempest. Oh and Woodz. And I finally like an NMIXX song! I hated that I don’t like a single one of their songs. Paxxword is really good though and I like it a lot. I like My Gosh too a lot. My favorite of the month is easily Kep1er. I love their new EP so much.
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