Top Three K-Pop Songs of November 2018

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.

November 2018 Overall Thoughts

November is always packed with comebacks, but rarely have we seen one so concentrated with big-name acts. EXO, Twice, Wanna One, Red Velvet, Mamamoo, BLACKPINK’s Jennie, NCT… the list goes on. Because of this, I can see why many fans would consider this to be one of the strongest months of the year. And, my cumulative rating seems to agree.

Yet, despite the constant stream of releases, nothing in November really stood out to me. In fact, it was the only month this year without a single title track rated nine or higher. In that way, it followed the general trend of 2018: lots of good tracks, but few outstanding ones.

More and more, my interest continues to shift away from big-name acts and towards newer/younger groups. With so much star power packed into the month, there wasn’t room for many of the rumored comebacks (Astro, ONF, ACE, etc) that I was looking forward to. Given this, I think my number one song of the month will surprise many. I certainly wouldn’t have predicted it!

To sum it up, I found this November to be solid but not spectacular. As I shift focus to my year-end countdowns (only a week or so to go!), I can’t help but look forward to next year. I’m certainly ready to turn a new page when it comes to many of 2018’s overused trends.

Month Cumulative Rating: 7.9

(compiled by averaging the scores of every k-pop review from this month)

J-Pop Worth Your Time

Taemin – Under My Skin (review)

Honorable Mentions

D-Crunch – Stealer (review)

Dongkiz – Nom (review)

EXID – I Love You (review)

Flavor (Fanatics) – Milkshake (review)

Gugudan – Not That Type (review)

Highlight – Loved (review)

HYO (Hyoyeon) – Punk Right Now (ft. 3LAU) (review)