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.
March 2020 Overall Thoughts
I don’t know about you all, but my mind wasn’t exactly on K-pop this month. You might assume that two-and-a-half weeks of social distance/isolation would do wonders for online productivity, but that hasn’t really been the case. And the fact that the K-pop industry slowed down quite a bit this month meant less distraction from the tragedies and anxiety of the world. This site has been a good anchor for me during this time, but this has not been an easy month for anyone.
It seems silly to even discuss the quality of K-pop releases in the middle of a global pandemic, but I guess some sense of normalcy is important, right? With this in mind, I’ll be honest.
March was not particularly inspiring. In some ways, its slow stream of releases felt almost like December. Music shows went without audiences, promotions were altered or nonexistent, and I assume that many comebacks were simply postponed. My honorable mentions list is pretty slight, especially in this day and age where there’s often a glut of new releases each month.
With that said, I think my top three picks are all pretty strong. A lot of readers will likely be surprised by my favorite song of the month. It’s a polarizing choice, but its personal appeal has only grown as the month went on. It reminds me of the bonkers era of K-pop that I first fell in love with. To a lesser extent, the same could be said for the other two tracks as well.
Though it came out in late-February, I want to give a special shout-out to MCND’s Ice Age, which has become the biggest grower of the year for me. As the weeks have gone on, I’ve found myself completely won over by its playful stage performance and cheesy, over-the-top chorus. Songs released at the tail end of a month rarely get a fair shake when it comes to these round-ups. They just don’t have enough time to establish themselves. But, I’ve been listening to Ice Age quite a lot this March.
As someone who often prefers the material released by boy groups, 2020 has not really delivered in this regard. Granted, it’s been a crazy and unprecedented year so far, but most of the standout tracks have come from the girls. It’ll be interesting to see if this pattern continues as the months go on. Right now, the default sound for boy groups seems to be moody and dark. With all the chaos and fear sweeping through the world, I’d argue that we need the exact opposite when it comes to pop music.
Month Cumulative Rating: 7.3
(compiled by averaging the scores of every K-pop review from this month)
J-Pop (and C-Pop) Worth Your Time
Generations – Hira Hira
Kis-My-Ft2 – To Yours
Sandaime J Soul Brothers – Movin’ On (review)
The Rampage – Invisible Love (review)
Honorable Mentions
AleXa – Do Or Die (review)
Dongkiz – Lupin (review)
Kang Daniel – 2U (review)
ONEUS – A Song Written Easily (review)
Yezi – Home (review)
TOP THREE SONGS
3. NCT 127 – Kick It (review)
2. ITZY – Wannabe (review)
1. CRAXY – Aria (review)
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of February 2020
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of January 2020
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of December 2019
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of November 2019
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of October 2019
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
These three are my top 3 picks for March as well! I absolutely love both “Aria” and “Wannabe”, and “Kick It” turned out to be the biggest grower of the year for me so far (bass kick swingin like I’m Bruce Lee pow pow!).
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I’m happy to see that others are liking Aria! I kind of expected being raked over the coals for this choice, but I’ve happily been proven wrong (at least so far…)
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Mine is very different from yours actually:
1. A song written easily by oneus
2. Wannabe by ITZY
3. Magnolia by TOO
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Not too different! ONEUS were a close #4 for me. TOO’s track nearly made my honorable mentions. Could be a grower if you check back with me in a month’s time 🙂
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To be honest , I knew that you would love Ice Age
While I was hearing it , I was like “TheBiasList” would love this…..
and then I saw you rating it 7.5 but when you gave it a shout out I was over the top Happy
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Until a few days ago, I had Craxy “Aria” at the top of my list, if only because there was nothing else to put above it. The song actually has some good salient hooks to gnaw upon, and is back to the bonkers kpop style that I love.
BUT
A few days ago, my man Gaho released a double A side single that is AWESOME! I say double A side, because both songs on the release are A+. “A Song for You” and “Beautiful”. These are back to the octave busting classic Gaho style, with well crafted songwriting too.
Also on my list Oneus “A Song written easily”. I have Xydo “Betting” as honorable mention, because it gets a few demerits for the unnecessary rap verse. (Xydo is on Ravi’s label, I suppose rap verse is the boss’s requirement.)
Ballad of the month: Jung Seung Hwan “I am you”. Closely followed by Suho – Younha duet “For you Now”.
Obligatory Kyuhyun mention of the month “All Day Long” OST from some tv show.
East-meets-west of the month: Hwasa -Dua Lipa “Physical”. This song is great.
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I freaking love Physical. In fact, Dua Lipa’s new album is the first English-language pop album I’ve listened to in years. Not sold on the Hwasa version, though. The original is perfect as is.
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Never thought I’d hear this from you! What are your favorites from Future Nostalgia?
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I know, right? I’m kind of pinning my hopes on her being able to reignite the long-dormant pop scene in the States. We’ll see.
Beyond the singles, which are all excellent, my favorites are the title track and Love Again, which isn’t too big of a surprise given my longstanding admiration of producer Stuart Price.
The only tracks I don’t like are the last two, which are just bad and completely counter to the rest of the album’s sound imo. Ironically, one of them was co-written by Melanie Fontana and Michel Schulz (of TXT/BTS fame!).
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Another English retro themed album I would highly recommend is The Weeknd’s ‘After Hours’!
It’s got a ton of unique, smooth soundscapes that harken back to the 80’s in the best ways possible!
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Late comment, but thanks for recommending those tracks. I’d never found Dua Lipa’s music special before this and I would’ve never checked them out myself.
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Thank you for alerting me to Gaho releasing a 2nd track along with A Song For You, I wasn’t aware. I just listened and—yep, Gaho can do no wrong. PLT is goddamn underrated.
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1. Kick it – NCT 127
2. Wannabe – Itzy
3. A song for You – Gaho (didn’t expect a ballad to make my list)
maybe next month will be more packed, however I don’t expect anything
(btw Ice Age grew on me a lot, too!)
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I don’t think of “A Song for you” as a Korean ballad, but rather a mid-tempo pop song that happens to be in Korean.
Maybe if we keep mentioning Gaho enough, Nick will finally review him. I mean what else is being released to review these days anyway. Nick, there is also a live version, just Gaho and a microphone.
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If I had to list the top 3 based on the worthiness of each piece, then I agree with your picks. Based on my personal listening counts, the order would’ve been:
3. CRAXY – Aria
2. NCT 127 – Kick It
1. ITZY – WANNABE
There’s no doubt that “Aria” is bombastic and lush, but for me that actually works a little against it because it’s not the type of song I can listen to repeatedly. It’s like.. ..a main course that’s delicious, but so rich that eating too big a portion would result in an uncomfortable outcome; if that makes sense.
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This is a very accurate comparison. Hit the nail right on the head describing the nature of this song.
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I read a few of your K-pop posts on your blog. Interesting reads. 😀
P.S. Stan LOOΠΔ
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Aria eh, it have ambitions but i do admit it doesn’t have that much replay value since the pay-off for it’s unique verses is…..not that great.
Honorable Mentions for me this month, would be jackson’s “100 ways” i guess? He finally made a song that i decently liked.
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For me, it’s almost the same!
1. Yezi – Home
2. Itzy – Wannabe
3. Craxy – Aria
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Looks like Kick It finally did grow on me, thank goodness. It still needs a few more listens for sure, but it’s hard not to get addicted to that level of gung-ho energy.
I feel like the highs of this month were surprisingly high given the rest of the month. When I think of what March has had to offer, I can name maybe five songs total. There are more that I like, but the standouts are strong standouts and everything that isn’t firing on all cylinders is sort of pushed to the background. I imagine that has a fair bit to do with the bare-bones release schedule, though. Been a bit of an odd couple of weeks.
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For me it would be:
1. A song written easily – ONEUS
2. Wannabe – ITZY
3. Aria – Craxy
Honourable mentions would go to Kick It and Victon’s Howling
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Honestly, I was getting a bit bored of kpop and I’m glad you put Craxy’s aria at number one. I hadn’t heard of the group before so I never checked them out before, but they really relit my interest in kpop. The song reminds me of I got a boy and they have an extravagant video with great choreography. I really need Craxy to stick around and continue making such impactful music ( and music videos).
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I think our top songs of march haven’t been so different, considering two of my top 3 aren’t even in your honerable mentions lol.
1. obligatory ITZY – Wannabe
2. Ong Seongwu – Gravity
3. On Track – Stray Kids
To be fair, I didn’t expect the latter two tracks to be incredibly loved overall with neither being particuarly out there. I guess the first just happened to align with my taste and the second of course being by Stray Kids just ended up on my list anyway.
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