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.
December 2022 Overall Thoughts
December is historically a very slow month in K-pop, but every once and awhile it will surprise us. 2022 was not one of those years. When it comes to new releases, I can’t remember a recent December as dry as this one. I wrote a grand total of thirteen K-pop reviews this month, and about a third of those were for holiday songs.
Because of this, my monthly round-up is largely a formality this time. I’m picking a top three as usual, but none of these songs have been a staple on my playlist and I’m unlikely to write about them again. In fact, I’ve barely listened to K-pop at all this month. I’ve been listening to much more J-pop. My top J-pop track of the month has been a particular standout. If you haven’t already, I urge you to check out the J-pop countdown I posted last week.
Taking a break like this is actually nice — especially at the end of the year. But just because I haven’t been listening to much K-pop doesn’t mean I haven’t been writing about it. My year-end list-a-palooza is a major undertaking and filled much of the blog these past few weeks. I’ve still got one more to go (my favorite dramas), but overall I’m happy to turn the page into 2023 and get back to a more sustainable workload.
Whether it ultimately bears out or not, I’m always filled with optimism as we head into January. What amazing K-pop songs are we going to hear this year?
Month Cumulative Rating: 7.8
(compiled by averaging the scores of every K-pop review from this month)
J-Pop Highlights
Klang Ruler – Wait A Minute (video)
Kis-My-Ft2 – Rebirth Stage (video)
Queen Bee – Violence (review)
&TEAM – Scent Of You (review)
8LOOM – Forever Or Never (review)
TOP J-POP SONG OF THE MONTH
One Love One Heart – Glory Dayz
C-POP
WayV – Phantom (review)
K-POP
Honorable Mentions
NewJeans – Ditto (review)
RM – Wild Flower / Still Life (review / review)
Shinhwa WDJ – Flash (review)
This Month’s Risers and Fallers (not published in December)
TOP THREE SONGS
3. Vernon – Black Eye (review)
2. Boys Planet – Here I Am (review)
1. ATEEZ – Halazia (review)
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of November 2022
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of October 2022
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of September 2022
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of August 2022
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of July 2022
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
Ditto probably gets an HM from me too because it got stuck in my head after the Andromeda performance… and not stuck in a good way either I guess lol. &Team Scent of You is really good too among the jpop set!
My top of December :
Ateez Halazia
WayV Phantom (I hope this counts lol)
Xeed Dreamland
Haha, exactly 3 this month! Also I’m really enjoying the SMTown stuff – The Cure and Hope from Kwangya just feel so good to my ears!! ❤
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Ditto would easily top my month, played it an ungodly amount of times and I only get more obsessed lol. The vocals are addictive, and the bass when put under the headphones is just satisfying to listen to.
For me, Halazia does not impress me as much as a first listened to funnily enough, it is definitely good, but I put Ateez’s other releases next to it I’m not so sure about it anymore. Probably I’d drop my rating from 9.5 to 8.75.
I’ve also dived into the boys planet hole and the song just gets better with every listen. I have a feeling it will steadily rise and become even better then the show actually starts airing. It’s peak will likely be in the finale and I won’t be able to move on from the show etc. I know I will hold it with 10 x more bias than an average kpop song due to what it represents, but it is fine. Survival shows be like that. Until now, when I hear into the I land come up in my play list, I sob uncontrollably lol.
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My 3 are Halazia, Ditto, and Wild Flower
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My favorites of this month have to be RM’s album, NewJeans’s “Ditto”, and ATEEZ’s “Halazia”.
On a side note, what are your thoughts on “The Cure” and SMTown’s winter album for this year? I thought the overall quality of the album was better than the one last year.
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I really like Good To Be Alive from the winter album, mostly because it sounds like something you could play year round.
Honestly, though… I’ve only listened to the album once through so I don’t remember much more than that.
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My top 3’s probably wild flower, halazia, ditto/here I am (v similar replayability rank imo)
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Did I buy any kpop in Dec22?
Ah, yes. I got the Super Junior new Christmas song, because ELF.
And Forestella released a new single “Utopia”, which sounds like an old prog rock meets disco Queen song. I wish they had sprung for real instruments for the opening fanfares.
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RM’s Wild Flower and NewJeans Ditto were in my top 3 last month. I loved both so much. My favorite song on RM’s project was Yun. Its so amazing. You can’t put Erykah Badu and RM on the same song talking about art and expect it not to be the greatest thing ever to exactly me. I loved the whole album so much. I think my third would be Minho’s Chase. I’m an easy target. Anyone from Shinee does a thing and I love it forever and I did this time too.
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