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.
August 2022 Overall Thoughts
Too often this year, my monthly round-ups have been… kind of a bummer. This month, we have a welcome shift in tone! I think August has easily been K-pop’s strongest month in 2022. Sure, the release schedule was kind of lopsided. But, the quality level has been consistently high. I finally have some serious contenders for my year-end top ten!
Apart from one very notable boy group release, August was especially strong for girl groups. It felt like a battle between high-profile acts, with Girls’ Generation, BLACKPINK, IVE and Twice all duking it out. Add the newly-debuted NewJeans and you’ve got a roster of songs that have taken hold of Korea’s streaming charts. And, us listeners turned out to be the victors because most of these songs have been very good.
Speaking of very good: as a long-time Golden Child supporter I’m delighted with their comeback. Their excellent title track and equally excellent album deserved more attention and promotion. As always, I’m here to spotlight the music for those who may need an extra push to further explore their discography.
August was so strong that I’m forced to relegate a few fantastic songs to “honorable mention” status. Some of these would’ve easily topped many weaker months in 2022. I want to give a special shout-out to Key’s Another Life, Twice’s Talk That Talk, from20’s Chemical and Tempest’s Can’t Stop Shining (which is already proving to be a grower). And on the J-pop side, I hope you’ve all checked out Fantastics’ retro-synth banger Summer Bike.
When it comes to my top three picks of August, spots two and three feel pretty equally matched to me. Depending on the day and mood, I might put one above the other. I’m sure you’ll be hearing about all three songs again at the end of the year. I think it’s my strongest “top three” since the spring of 2021.
As we head into September, my main question becomes: how do we build upon this momentum? I hope August is the start of something amazing and not just an enjoyable blip in an otherwise underwhelming year. Time will tell, but for now I’m more excited about K-pop than I have been in months.
September, please don’t make me eat my words…
Month Cumulative Rating: 8.0
(compiled by averaging the scores of every K-pop review from this month)
J-Pop Highlights
Fantastics – Summer Bike (review)
Hey! Say! JUMP – Fate Or Destiny (review)
Kis-My-Ft2 – Smokin’ Hot (review)
News – Triad (video)
SixTONES – Party People (review)
Snow Man – Juicy (review)
Johnny’s West – Hoshi no Ame (video)
TOP J-POP SONG OF THE MONTH
NIK – La Vida Loca (review)
K-POP
Honorable Mentions
Billlie – Ring Ma Bell (What A Wonderful World) (review)
CIX – 458 (review)
DKB – 24/7 (review)
from20 – Chemical (review)
Junny – Not About You (review)
Key – Another Life / Gasoline (review / review)
Lucy – Play (review)
Luminous – Engine (review)
ONF – Your Song (review)
Rocket Punch – Flash (review)
Tempest – Can’t Stop Shining (review)
Twice – Talk That Talk (review)
Wonho – Don’t Hesitate (review)
This Month’s Risers and Fallers
TOP THREE SONGS
3. IVE – After Like (review)
2. Girls’ Generation (SNSD) – Forever 1 (review)
1. Golden Child – Replay (review)
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of July 2022
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of June 2022
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of May 2022
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of April 2022
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of March 2022
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
Golcha, one of them, for the win. Replay? 3 6 5? Knocking on my Door? Why not all of them!
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I can’t disagree!
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A trio of girl group songs are the top 3 this month for me!
1. Talk That Talk
2. After Like
3. Forever 1
But honorable mention to Golden Child’s Replay and their mini album, both of which I enjoyed. (Nick your Golden Child promotion worked here too haha)
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I include b-sides, and have five, so here’s mine:
Jaehyunnnie – Forever Only
Golcha! – Replay
Almighty Key – Bound
DKBZQ! – Bubble
CIXy – Drown in Luv
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Also, I enjoyed SNSD’s You Better Run, and Koyote’s Go.
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Forever 1 has quickly dropped off my radar, but the b-side You Better Run is the real standout for me. IVE’s My Satisfaction, NewJeans’ Hurt (I prefer it to Cookie)… August continues the year-long trend for me, in which the b-sides are stronger than the singles (see also Polaroid Love, Starlight, In My World, Young Luv, My Bag, Le Voya9e, MVSK, Darari, Opening Sequence, WJSN’s Done, et al). [To clear up, NewJeans’ Hype Boy and Attention are brilliant, real growers, my favorite EP of the year, but they came out at the end of July.]
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By number of songs I enjoyed I would still say July wins for me (because I couldn’t choose a top 5 lol), but quality wise August totally rocked!
My top 4 faves :
Golcha Replay
Ive After Like
Twice Talk and Talk
Key Gasoline
Honorable mentions : Billie Ring Ma Bell, Pritti G Love Taker, Girl’s Generation Forever 1
Questionable but enjoyable : Blank2y Fuego, Tri. be Kiss
May grow : Tempest Can’t Stop Shining, Rocket Punch Flash
Going by my most listened songs this month though only After Like might make the list from August’s songs lol. Bcz this month I went on another old gen kpop hunt and I found some amazing songs that I loved (your old reviews & top 10 of groups helped Nick!! 😄😄) So my actual most listened songs are :
Cross Gene Black or White (I am obsessed with just this one song from them for some reason)
U-Kiss Neverland
U-Kiss Standing Still
Beast Fiction (I knew it was famous but I only heard it recently 😭)
Infinite Be Mine
SS501 Love Ya
Last time your old reviews helped me discover After School and SNSD for the first time and I love them now! This time I found U-Kiss who really really seemed to have made my type of music!! ❤❤
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U-Kiss have a criminally underrated discography!
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OMG, those are some of my favorite 2nd gen songs!
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My own top 3 would look like this:
3. Golden Child – Replay
2. IVE – After Like
1. Key – Another Life
Regarding honorable mentions, I’d include:
Billlie – Ring Ma Bell
Tempest – Can’t Stop Shining
Junny – Not About You (though Color Me is still his number one for me!)
Twice – Talk That Talk
DKB – 24/7
Youha – Last Dance (btw, Nick, what can you say about it?)
from20 – Chemical
Kino – Pose
Yena – Smartphone
Key – Gasoline
Unfortunately, Forever 1 and 458 fell down, as I found the first one’s centerpiece arrangement to be undercooked, and the latter got cloying quickly because of its repetitive hooks. As a result, they aren’t included in my honorable mentions list.
Now I hope that September won’t be disappointing!
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My top 3 this month is definitely
1. Replay – Golden Child
2. Another Life – Key
3. Talk that Talk – Twice
With honorable mentions to Ring Ma Bell, Gasoline, and Don’t Hesitate. I haven’t warmed to After Like yet but I have a feeling it’ll grow on me 🙂
This marks the month I’m finally aboard the Golden Child train – I don’t know why I have resisted up til now, but I have simply not been able to their latest mini.
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Better late than never!
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my top 3 of the month:
3. twice – talk that talk
2. golden child – replay
1. snsd – forever 1 (they’re my ults so whaddya expect?)
anyway FUCK YOU MBK FUCK YOU MBK FUCK YOU MBK FUCK YOU MBK FUCK YOU MBK FUCK YOU MBK FUCK YOU MBK FUCK YOU MBK FUCK YOU MBK FUCK YOU MBK FUCK YOU MBK FUCK YOU MBK FUCK YOU MBK FUCK YOU MBK FUCK YOU MBK FUCK YOU MBK FUCK YOU MBK FUCK YOU MBK FUCK YOU MBK FUCK YOU MBK FUCK YOU MBK FUCK YOU MBK FUCK YOU MBK FUCK YOU MBK FUCK YOU MBK FUCK YOU MBK FUCK YOU MBK FUCK YOU MBK FUCK YOU MBK
WHY DIDN’T YOU GIVE US THAT PROMISED DIA ALBUM????????????????
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Here’s to next month, hopefully they give the DIA girls even just the bare minimum farewell. SMH. I commented on the Can’t Stop review a few weeks ago, saying it’s one of the best 2017 under-the-radar songs (or similar).
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Well, this news came out today. Hope you caught it.
MBK doing the bare minimum
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There were truly too many amazing releases this month that it’s impossible for me to pick! A hidden gem not mentioned for me would be Youha’s newest song “Last Dance” that dropped on the 25th. And the album is really solid as well.
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Very different top 3 for me, but I can agree, this was quite a solid month! Btw Nick, how is your magic potion to make Bae Jaehoon like Replay coming along, I definitely could use some of it too!
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It worked! Maybe you need yours injected directly into the arm…
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My top 3:
1. SNSD – FOREVER 1
2. Golden Child – Replay
3. IVE – After LIKE
Honorable mentions:
JAY B – Rocking Chair
TVXQ! – UTSUROI
Rocket Punch – Moon Prism
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IVE ‘After LIKE’
SNSD ‘Forever 1’
Key ‘Another Life’
Honorable Mention
The Boyz ‘Timeless’ and ‘C.O.D.E’
Was a pretty good month, with many of my favourite groups releasing. Now just waiting for ONEUS in a few days. The teaser sounds so good so I’m super excited.
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Oh also, from20 ‘Chemical’ should be in the honorable mentions part
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August was a month that had a lot of good stuff, but nothing I’d consider a standout in other years, and a few things that were frustratingly close to greatness. “Forever 1” would’ve cracked my top 3 if my distaste for the vocal mixing didn’t keep me from listening to it more. I like “Ring Ma Bell” a lot but the chorus melody is just a teensy bit too repetitive for me to wholeheartedly love–despite this gripe of mine, it’s still my favorite Billlie title. “Replay” is a very good song but if I had my druthers there would be a few more vocal harmonies here and there.
My top 3 picks:
3. Twice – Talk That Talk
2. Golden Child – Replay
1. IVE – After Like
My top 2 picks were pretty clear; my third pick was a toss-up between “Talk That Talk” and from20’s “Chemical” and it really could have gone either way. I’m surprised by my top pick, given how seemingly negative/disappointed I was about the song at first. I still think a stronger centerpiece or vocal would’ve elevated it to legendary status, but it is an excellent song. “Replay” is also an excellent song and had a reasonable claim to the top spot, but I’ve caught myself humming “After Like” a lot lately so I think that was the deciding factor.
My actual favorite song of the month, though, has to be “Knocking On My Door”. It’s my absolute favorite song on a fantastic album, and a certified 10/10 as far as I’m concerned. It’s not as “impressive” as “Replay” and the melody isn’t really original but it’s sticky and the vocals are amazing. I just could not get enough of that song this month.
Also, Nick, perhaps it’s a bit late to ask but nothing on the ONF album was Buried Treasure-worthy?
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I probably could’ve written about Runaway (a solid 8.5), but it was a busy week preparing for KCON and it fell by the wayside.
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Ah that’s fair–I’m glad you at least seemed to have enjoyed KCON based on your writeup!
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Also, Knocking On My Door is sooooo good. I mean, I loved it from the start but it’s grown on me even more over the past few weeks. Have you seen the live performance?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtteMvIaVrQ
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I had not before you showed me, thanks for sharing! Yep, this is amazing. Love their vocals, love this song so much.
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On another note, given that Dreamcatcher is coming back in October (and that they have basically never disappointed me in my 4 years as a fan), I hope that September is good enough to tide me over until then, wahaha.
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I really enjoyed many of the songs that came out this month! Replay and Talk That Talk are my favorites out of the (very strong) selection we got.
Also have to mention Pink Venom just for how much of a grower it was. I went from hating it on release day to vibing along as soon as I saw the mv.
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This month is insane. Forever 1 is probably my song of the year already.
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1. Last Dance — Youha (what can I say, she hits all the buttons for me.)
2. Ring Ma Bell — Billlie (might be overanked right now because I just heard it 5 minutes ago)
3. Talk that Talk — Twice
===Hon. mentions===
Focus — Ha Sungwoon
Gasoline — Key (okay I don’t actually think this is GREAT over good, but he looks so good with glitter all over him that I had to include it here)
Light — Kwon Eunbi
Pink Venom — Blackpink
Smartphone — Yena (I liked it better than Smiley; sue me)
Strawberry Cake — Xdinary Heroes
takeoff — msftz
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Yes forever 1 & after like is the best.
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1. TWICE – Talk That Talk
2. Girls’ Generation – Forever 1
3. IVE – After Like
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August had a lot happening! Honourable mentions go to Hybe Boy by NewJeans, Smartphone by Yena, and After Like by Ive. My top three goes to:
3- Light by Kwon Eunbi (technically this was the theme song for an NFT project, yikes) but my god if this is not the biggest slay of her career! It takes the icy dance of Glitch and completely elevates it to an absolute club banger
1st equal- Forever 1 by SNSD and Talk That Talk by Twice! I found it impossible to choose between these two, they’re both simply extremely well crafted pop songs that showcase each group’s vocals and maturity in a really lovely way.
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