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.
January 2019 Overall Thoughts
Last year, January bucked expectations and became my favorite musical month of 2018. These past four weeks didn’t quite hit those same heights, but it was still a solid kick-off for 2019.
As usual, the release slate wasn’t as stacked as heavy-hitter months like July or November. However, January saw new material from many Bias List favorites. Astro and GFriend unveiled a full album each, and both were very strong. Seventeen proved yet again that they can take any genre and make it their own. Yet, all of these acts just missed out on my top three.
Instead, my top songs were delivered by newer groups with refreshing energy. It was a great month for debuts. 2019 seems poised to usher in a new generation of acts who will (hopefully) upend some of the stagnant trends we’ve been hearing over the past few years.
It was incredibly hard to rank my top songs, which led to a Bias List first. In three years of these monthly round-ups, I’ve never had a tie. But, I couldn’t justify leaving either of my “number three” tracks off the list. And if you’ve been following my reviews this month, you’ll probably be surprised by both entries. Never underestimate a K-pop grower!
Truthfully, there’s very little room between these four songs, and there were at least three or four additional releases that could have easily pushed themselves into the top rankings. That’s a testament to a month with no real standout, but plenty of 8.5/8.75-rated successes. Time will tell how things eventually sort themselves out. Looking back, two of my top ten K-pop singles of 2018 came from last January. I don’t see any of this month’s song’s threatening that position, but I do think there will be a handful that make it into the top 50.
Some exciting things seem to be on the horizon for February, so I remain cautiously optimistic (as always!).
Month Cumulative Rating: 7.7
(compiled by averaging the scores of every K-pop review from this month)
J-Pop (and C-Pop!) Worth Your Time
IZ*ONE – Suki to Iwasetai (review)
Pentagon – Cosmo (review)
Red Velvet – Sappy (review)
Snuper – Weekend Secret (review)
V6 – Super Powers (review)
WayV (NCT) – Dream Launch (review)
Honorable Mentions
Apink – %% (review)
Astro – All Night (review)
Cherry Bullet – Q&A (review)
CLC – No (review)
Favorite – Loca (review)
GFriend – Sunrise (review)
IMFACT – Only U (review)
NeonPunch – TicToc (review)
Seventeen – Home (review)
Shaun – Bad Habits (review)
TOP THREE SONGS
3. Cosmic Girls (WJSN) – La La Love (review) / ATEEZ – Say My Name (review)
2. ONEUS – Valkyrie (review)
1. VERIVERY – Ring Ring Ring (review)
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of December 2018
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of November 2018
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of October 2018
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of September 2018
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of August 2018
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
You came around to La La Love! I totally agree with you on the song down to the criticism of the verses but that chorus is everything.
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Also, so much YES to Verivery. I love that song. It’s my second favorite song of January (first being Dreamcatcher’s “Over the Sky”) and I knew you’d love it too.
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Glad to see the love for VERIVERY! I was beginning to think that I was the only one who liked this song.
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It’s totally the chorus. It makes up for almost every criticism I have.
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Confused how WJSN landed in the top 3 despite having at least a consistent .5-1 point review disparity between some of your others (SVT, CLC, Astro the list goes on)
I for sure thought you weren’t a massive fan of Lalalove. I actually disagreed with your initial review a bit but it’s faded way faster for me than most of their other songs.
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I definitely wasn’t a huge fan on the first day, and a lot of that was due to high expectations. But the album as a whole (which I think is very strong) helped me appreciate the song and it quickly grew in a way I wasn’t expecting. That seems to happen a lot with WJSN songs for me.
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VERIVERY Ring (x3) is mad addictive, it caught me off guard just letting youtube autoplay do it’s thing ( same thing happened with ONEUS – Valkyrie so much so I dunno if i like the song or if youtube is brainwashing me lol), tried to like WJSN la la love, and I like it better than when I first heard it but it didn’t kidnap my soul like dreams come true did lol. ( I didn’t even fancy DCT very much when I first heard it but when it grew on me, it GREW).On a shocking side for me , Gfriend’s Sunrise ending is so epic I think that is my lowkey fave of the mouth and CLC’s Show.
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“Bad Habits” by Shaun is really the jam of the month here, but “%%,” “No” and “Dream About U” by Nature were also easy favorites. Can’t say I can agree that there were no standouts, but there also wasn’t an instant “this is going to be my favorite song of the year” like there was in 2017.
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That’s probably a better way to put it. There were definitely some standouts, just nothing that felt like an instant classic to me.
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Hehe of your top 3 I like La La Love (not so much at first, but the chorus is great so it’s growing on me) but the other 2 were kind of a pass for me! MINSEO’s new song (2cm) with Paul Kim is great, and I also really loved Chilli off of SEVENTEEN’s album!
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