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.
April 2022 Overall Thoughts
In a paradoxical trend, the average song rating on this blog has increased as my overall excitement with the K-pop industry has tempered. I was shocked when I saw April’s cumulative rating — especially since I don’t feel all that thrilled with the month’s releases.
I think what’s happening is my ratings are becoming less severe in both directions. So many songs exist in the 7.5-8.5 range. The overall quality of K-pop has become pretty consistent — almost frustratingly so. There aren’t many complete duds, but it’s harder to find a genuinely fantastic track.
Anyway… April trudged along similarly to the past few months. We had a lot of solid material, but few spectacular songs. Some industry legends made returns (Bigbang, PSY, Onew) and we saw a handful of debuts as well. But, the majority of April felt pretty inconsequential.
Then… a plot twist! Out of nowhere, favorites-of-the-blog Sweetune dropped their first new track in ages. It arrived with little fanfare and no real warning to end the month on an endorphin high. It was the kick in the butt I needed after feeling pretty disengaged from many of this year’s tracks. Hopefully this will become the first in a string of new Sweetune songs. But, I’ve learned not to get my hopes up when it comes to K-pop. Either way, this track easily took my top spot for the month.
Second place was a pretty easy decision as well, but third place proved much trickier. Some of my most favorite acts in the industry made an April return, but with music that wasn’t among their strongest. Does my fondness for their past work give them a pass? And what about that PSY track, with only a few hours under its belt? Is there any way to know how it will hold up in the long run?
(In other words, I’m not confident in my third place choice at all. Ask me again in a month.)
April saw a few growers. DKZ’s Cupid wormed its way onto my playlist thanks to that infectious chorus. GHOST9’s X-Ray also improved with time. But, there were also plenty of clunkers this month. I’m so exhausted by shouty boy group tracks and I’m really craving more robust melodies. I’m longing for the industry’s retro trend to dig its way out from subdued city pop to embrace the era’s more bombastic elements.
As down on 2022 as I’ve been, I have hope for the month of May. There are a few key comebacks I have my eye on. Some of my favorites are making a return, and I’m counting on them to finally kick the year into gear.
On the J-pop side, it was a pretty slow month. I love my top song, and I’ve had a lot of fun going back in time and writing about my favorite singles from Kis-My-Ft2. For those who are eager to see me gushing about music, be sure to check out some of these posts (Gravity, Tonight, We Never Give Up, Yes! I Scream, etc.).
Month Cumulative Rating: 8.0
(compiled by averaging the scores of every K-pop review from this month)
J-Pop Highlights
King & Prince – Odoruyoni Jinsei wo (video)
NiziU – ASOBO (review)
SawanoHiroyuki[nZk] – Outsiders (ft. Junki & Shou of JO1) (review)
TOP J-POP SONG OF THE MONTH
Naniwa Danshi – The Answer (review)
K-POP
Honorable Mentions
Bigbang – Still Life (review)
DKZ – Cupid (review)
GHOST9 – X-Ray (review)
IVE – Love Dive (review)
Jessi – Zoom (review)
Just B – RE=LOAD (review)
Kim Sungkyu – Savior (review)
Kwon Eunbi – Glitch (review)
Miyeon – Drive (review)
Monsta X – Love (review)
Moonbyul – C.I.T.T (Cheese in the Trap) (review)
Onew – Dice (review)
Suho – Hurdle (review)
Yoon Jisung – Bloom (review)
YOUNITE – 1 of 9 (review)
TOP THREE SONGS
3. PSY – That That (ft. Suga) (review)
2. Dreamcatcher – Maison (review)
1. RoaD-B – Nonstop (review)
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of March 2022
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of February 2022
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of January 2022
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of December 2021
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of November 2021
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
Ahh, I wish there was a way to give RoaD-B’s (re)debut more exposure! A track like that deserves so much more attention. Thanks for giving that song a very speedy(!) review, Nick!
I love the song when I first stumble upon it, and knowing Sweetune made me understand why. But uh… I won’t lie that I couldn’t remember the melody despite loving it whenever I listen to the debut… It’s ok, the song grew on me a lot more and I’m glad.
I’m quite excited for some of the upcoming comebacks for May! iKON and (especially) WOODZ.
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Shoutout to the fellow user on Twitter with their list titled ‘ultimate K-pop bias list’ who brought up RoaD-B’s song up. They were the MVP 😊
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I know, it didn’t show up on my feed or even on the usual kpop release sites I frequent.
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I know it’s a remake but PSY and Hwasa’s “Now” is my song of the year – did you check it out? It improves on an already great song with amazing production and backings and Hwasa’s great sultry voice
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Of course! I’ll be featuring a PSY buried treasure in the coming days (once I figure out which one I want to write about…)
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Here’s my own list of the best tracks released this month:
#1. “Blow” by Jackson Wang and “Hurdle” by Suho (9.5/10)
#2. “Drive” by Miyeon and “Nonstop” by RoaD-B (9.25/10)
#3. “Still Life” by Bigbang, “Dice” by Onew and DC’s “Maison” (9/10)
#4. “Cheese in the Trap” by Moonbyul (8.75/10)
#5. “Love Dive” by IVE and Eunbi’s “Glitch” (8.5/10)
Anyway, I can confirm April was really dull and frustrating. Especially regarding most of the boy group comebacks, the only thing I can say about ’em is just: my disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined.
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Oh, I made a mistake with Blow, sorry😅
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Close enough lmao
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Jackson’s Blow is imho his best solo release. Its full out leading man-style song, very well done. Sexy as hell too.
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My own top 3:
3. RoaD-B – Nonstop
2. IVE – Love Dive
1. Dreamcatcher – Maison
Of course Maison was gonna be my top pick. I’ve also been rather obsessed with Love Dive. That prechorus just gets under your skin, it’s so good. Nonstop is amazing too, tbh it was almost my second pick and maybe with time it could have a shot. I just wish the vocal mixing was less subdued, but man is it catchy! It lowkey reminds me of Bree Runway’s “Somebody Like You” which is also fantastic and was featured here.
Moonbyul – CITT is nice and comes in fourth, sure it’s a little lightweight but it’s fun and Moonbyul has always been my Mamamoo bias since day one so yeah.
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We have the exact same top 4!
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Looking back, April wasn’t all that bad. There’s a few solid tracks sprinkled throughout. Boy Groups continue to be operating at an all-time low (meant this in an exaggerated manner but it geniunely might be the truth). But all is alright elsewhere.
1. Kingdom – The Song of Dann (bside but got an MV this month)
2. Kwon Eunbi – Glitch
3.RoaD-B – Nonstop
HM: IVE – Love Dive, Onew – Dice, Dreamcatcher – Maison
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I have in some order RoadB “Nonstop”, Dreamcatcher “Maison”, and Kingdom “Song of Dann”.
Outside of kpop, I am really crushing on the new Florence+Machine “Free”
‘https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui8kUKuLBaU
Its got the retro thing going on, and yet is still wholly Florence.
Also Rammstein “Zick Zack”. Yanno how I like to go on about songs that have a point of view, that mean something, and are also good, and clever. This. Plus the song takes a full two minutes to get to the real chorus.
‘https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBTNyJ33LWI
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My top songs would be something like (no particular order):
Dreamcatcher – Maison
IVE – Love Dive
Kwon Eunbi – Glitch
RoaD-B – Nonstop
Love Dive has had a lot more staying power than I thought, and definitely more than Eleven did, which didn’t age so great for me. Still love Glitch and Maison, and Nonstop was a nice discovery that I would have never seen if not for your review, so thanks for that :). On the album side of things, Dreamcatcher’s album has dominated my month, its so good!
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1. Kwon Eunbi – Glitch
2. IVE – Love Dive
3. Monsta X – Love
I liked this month more than last. I feel like I’m a minority in really loving the new Monsta X ha.
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my top 3
3. hong jinyoung – viva la vida
2. dreamcatcher- maison
1. road-b – nonstop
anyway im gonna use this section to talk about my favorite show i watched this month, and the show is…
…
wait for it…
heartstopper
this show is quite possibly one of the best shows i watched on netflix, and is something that genuinely puts a smile on my face. its sweet without being saccharine, and dramatic without being moody.
onto the premise; its a show about this openly gay boy named charlie spring who meets this boy in his class, nick nelson. they eventually fall in love with each other, with nick realizing he’s bi, and start dating by the end of the season. it won’t be a surprise if it ends up as one of my top 10 shows of the year, and y’all need to watch it
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i skimmed this comment, saw “nick realizing he’s bi”, and was like “oH” before i realized you were talking about a show
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yeah we’re talking about a different nick here
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I’m in the middle of reading the original webcomic! It’s so adorable ahhh 😭 making me feel single af and wanting a boyfriend too 😔 I’ll watch the show after I finish reading, I haven’t watched something on Netflix in forever.
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i was already a huge fan of the comic before the show was announced and i had already finished it by the time it premiered
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Update: I have finished watching the show!! It was so cute omgg, can I have what they have 🥺😭. I was also really happy with how relatable it was… I watched with my sister, and it was nice to also kinda have her see what I’ve experienced. I’m not yet out to my parents…but hopefully I have the courage soon!
Also please can we get season 2 3 and 4 there’s enough material from the comics left that we could totally get those 😩 Netflix-don’t-cancel-good-shows challenge
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Random Thoughts:
Is it just me, or does Naniwa Danshi’s Answer’s vocal arrangement sound like it was made for AAA? I mean, I can feel the segments which Nissy would sing, the dramatic sing-talk rap was totally made for Sky-Hi, and so on.
Suga kills it in That That, it actually sounds like he is enjoying what he is doing for the first time in ages.
Nonstop gets better each listen, so much better than the other Sweetune song this year (that dumb Sanha solo)
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Wait… we got TWO Sweetune songs this month? I’m such a bad fan I didn’t even know….
Yeah, the Sanha song isn’t anything amazing but I’m still taking it!
Best of all… does this mean Sweetune are officially back in the game? I really don’t want to get my hopes up.
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Glad to introduce you to another Sweetune song!
I hope Sweetune is back. Minus Brave Sound, all classic K-Pop producers seem out of it, with the exception of JYP and YYJ to a certain extent.
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My favorites for this month :
DC Maison (Easily one of my fave gg cbs of this year so far and also probably my fave DC cb after Scream in recent times. The two wins is the cherry on top ❤)
Kingdom Promise Song of Dann (Oh man this is so beautiful! I already loved it after they sang it on their showcase but with this MV it gives twice the amount of feels!)
IVE Love Dive (Grower for sure! I especially love the fantasy like instrumental!/
Verivery Undercover (Like I mentioned in the review this song is so me 😂 So I absolutely love it!)
ILY Love In Bloom (This one feels so fun and nice! Ofc bside Azalea is what I ended up loving more but this one’s pretty good too – especially the rap parts!)
Road-B Nonstop (Yep! The song ia a banger. I don’t think I’m gonna watch that MV again lol. No need to really. Just listening to that audio gives me all the feels I need!)
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For those who are interest, the four members of 100% are re-debuting as Fave1, and are already teasing a re-debut rollout in Japan!
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Nick, not sure if you are aware of it since I don’t think I caught a review for this on your blog, but this isn’t the first Sweetune song of the year. Sanha of Astro had a solo Sweetune track called Hello (link here: https://youtu.be/sJv86RHFHzQ)
Also, out of curiosity, do you prefer Sweetune before or after some of the members left to form MonoTree?
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It’s a different Sanha, but yes I learned about it today 🙂
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mine would be
1) glitch-eunbi
2) wildside-rv (idk if the reason why i like this song sm is because its good or because its by rv 💀) (nvm this was released at may the album was april but who cares im gonna keep it at spot 2 anyways for actual april ranking it would be cupid second and hurdle third)
3) cupid-dkz
honorable mentions: maison, hurdle, love in bloom, love dive,ICHILLIN PLAY HIDE AND SEEK PLEASE CHECK THEM OUT YALL THEY DRANK THE BILLLIEFICATION POTION BEFORE THIS CB and kingdom song
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My top 3 would be:
1. (tie) GHOST9 – X-Ray (9/10) and RoadB – Nonstop (9.5/10)
Although Nonstop is without a doubt a better song I played the hell out of X-Ray and I prefer its sound more so I just put them both at first.
2. Dreamcatcher – Maison (8.75/10)
I recently took an interest into rock and Maison is definitely a track that I will play often
3. IVE – Love Dive (8.5/10)
I didn’t expect to like this one a lot and prefer it over Eleven. I love the verses and the chorus, which I found the second half underwhelming at first, is a huge grower for me.
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Detailed Scores
X-Ray:
Hooks – 9
Production – 8
Longevity – 9
Bias – 10
Nonstop:
Hooks – 10
Production – 9
Longevity – 9
Bias – 10
Maison:
Hooks – 9
Production – 9
Longevity – 8
Bias – 9
Love Dive:
Hooks – 9
Production – 8
Longevity – 9
Bias – 8
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Title tracks (5) no order
PSY and Yoongles – That That
DKZ – Cupid
Road-B – Nonstop
Kwon Eun Bi – Glitch
PSY and Suzy – Celeb (I consider them double title tracks.)
B-sides(5) no order
Sumo – Decanting
Onew – Sunshine
Purple Kiss – Pretty Psycho
E’Last – Shelter
Verivery – Coming Over
I had to struggle to get 5 enough A-sides, but had more than enough b-sides.
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My top three:
Dreamcatcher – Maison
Miyeon – Drive
Ive – Love Dive
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My faves this month:
1. Moonbyul – Cheese in the trap
2. RoaD-B – Nonstop
3. Sorn – Scorpio
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This month had so much potential and could’ve earned the right to deserve that culmative rating if the following songs were done right.
Kingdom’s Ascension should’ve had an outstanding refrain for its chorus.
JUST B’s Reload and GHOST9’s X-Ray should’ve had consistently melodic verses.
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Kpop’s current slump actually came at a really convenient time for me, as stuff in other parts of my life have been demanding a lot of attention. I am still *trying* to keep up with releases, but mostly that’s been adding stuff to my library to listen to later: my smart folder of tracks to be rated, sorted, or deleted is over 200 songs long.
So considering that a number of these will be deleted, my stats for April are: 122 additions to library (only 48 are rated so I’d guess up to half of the remainder will be deleted when I get the chance to go through them properly. This is way down from the volume I was adding in January or last year, but I also haven’t been on top of non-idol releases).
Only one five star song and it’s from last month (also last month’s only five star song): Jackson Wang “Blow”. Love it.
I’m gonna be lazy and rank the four star titles by plays:
1. Suho “Grey Suit”: This is a beautiful album and would probably rate higher if it were the kind of music I listened to during the day rather than just before bed.
2. Suho “Hurdle”
3. Dreamcatcher “Maison”: Not as good as “Scream” but good enough that I’m super excited to be seeing them live in July.
HM: Kang Daniel “Ready to Ride”: Probably bias topping this from three to four stars, but bias is allowed.
I haven’t rated any other titles over three stars, but have 17 unranked title tracks I need to review, including several I know or suspect I’ll like, including YOUNITE, PSY, Kwon Eunbi, DKZ, IVE, Jessi, and RoaD-B, so maybe some of them will end up on the list?
My big thing this month has been concerts: I’ll try and pop into the chat on Sunday to see if anyone else’s July is starting to look cramped! I’ve got tickets to Stray Kids and Dreamcatcher and am hoping for Golden Child too.
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My April picks are!
-Cheese in the Trap by Moonbyul, this is easily probably my favourite Mamamoo solo song and the pop-punk sound fits Moonbyul perfectly. The music video was a lot of fun and I’m so glad she got a chance to properly sing and show off her voice
-That That by Psy ft Suga, Psy knows his way around a solid pop song and this was a really fun return from him, with the rest of the album being fantastic
-D-Day by Wheein, another rock-oriented Mamamoo solo! I love Wheein’s voice and she sounded great here, I wish this song had been promoted more
-Zoom by Jessi, this is such a confident and sassy anthem and I especially love Jessi’s vocals in the prechorus. Hoping for more music from her soon, I can always count on Jessi for a bad bitch song
-Glitch by Kwon Eunbi, as an ex-dancer I am OBSESSED with this choreography, the voguing was done so well and this kind of icy dance music really suits Eunbi. I would have loved one final chorus after the breakdown at the end to tie it all together but this is simply a banger
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