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.
October 2022 Overall Thoughts
First off, I want to recognize Korea’s national period of mourning and hope that posting this feature doesn’t come across as insensitive. It’s certainly not meant to be taken that way. I’m someone who finds comfort in structure and routine, which is one of the reasons The Bias List has been updated daily for seven years — through good times and bad.
With that said, I’m going to very quickly say that this month is K-pop was pretty unremarkable and leave it at that. Now is not the time to focus on the negative — especially when a ho-hum months in K-pop releases pales in comparison to real tragedy. But, it’s worth noting that October was absolutely packed with music. I think it bore more title tracks than any other month this year. At last count, I wrote 42 (!) reviews — and that doesn’t even include buried treasures and other features.
My top three of October came together very easily. A relatively non-competitive roster of tracks led to a definitive ranking — at least for me. Only one of these songs was truly spectacular in my eyes, but I suppose one is better than none!
This isn’t to say there weren’t other highlights this month. Songs by The Boyz, Kingdom, LE SSERAFIM, TAN and Acid Angel from Asia all received repeated plays from me, and one or two might even find a place in my year-end countdown.
For the second month in a row, J-pop was pretty quiet. But, I’ve been listening to a lot of Exile Tribe releases (mostly Fantastics and The Rampage) lately. And somewhat related to J-pop, I’m currently watching nine (!) different J-dramas — all currently-airing. I think that’s a record for me. There’s a lot of good stuff out there this season!
Over the next few days, I plan to post some features spotlighting some of my favorite J-pop acts. Hopefully they’ll act as a good primer for those interested. I don’t write about J-pop nearly as much as I listen to it, and this seems like a good time to give some of these acts their flowers.
Looking forward to K-pop releases, it’s hard to know how the month of November will shape up. My DRIPPIN album is still waiting on pre-order and I’m looking forward to it very much. Kara’s making their long-awaited return at the end of the month (please, Sweetune… I beg you to participate!) and there are a few other upcoming comebacks with great potential. There are only a few weeks left to qualify for my year-end lists. As of now, I think I’ve got a solid seven tracks that could feature at the top of the list. That’s way less than usual, so here’s hoping for a late-year burst of excellence!
Month Cumulative Rating: 7.7
(compiled by averaging the scores of every K-pop review from this month)
J-Pop Highlights
Travis Japan – Just Dance! (review)
8LOOM – Be Your Flower (video)
TOP J-POP SONG OF THE MONTH
The Rampage – Tsunage Kizuna (review)
K-POP
Honorable Mentions
Acid Angel from Asia (tripleS) – Generation (review)
The Boyz x Raiden x T1 – Last Man Standing (review)
Dreamcatcher – Vision (review)
Jin (BTS) – The Astronaut (review)
Kihyun (Monsta X) – Youth (review)
Kingdom – Long Live The King (review)
Kwon Eunbi – Underwater (review)
LE SSERAFIM – Antifragile (review)
Lee Chaeyeon – Hush Rush (review)
Lee Chanhyuk (AKMU) – Panorama (review)
Mamamoo – 1,2,3 Eoi! (review)
Seulgi (Red Velvet) – 28 Reasons (review)
Stray Kids – Super Board (review)
TAN – Beautiful Lie (review)
This Month’s Risers and Fallers
TOP THREE SONGS
3. Rie (OnlyOneOf) – Because (review)
2. Treasure – Hello (review)
1. Alice – Dance On (review)
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of September 2022
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of August 2022
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of July 2022
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of June 2022
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of May 2022
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
Treasure definitely had my favorite EP of the month! It was all fun and uplifting.
Excited for the Jpop features! Not sure if they’re your favorites but I’ve always been interested to see a Top 10 title tracks of some of the legacy groups like AKB, Morning Musume, Perfume, Nogizaka or Keyakizaka/Sakurazaka from you, they have a good catalogue to pull from!
And speaking of Jpop, I’ve seen you write about the other Sakamichi groups, but do you know Hinatazaka? They’ve released a couple of tracks this year I think you’d be into (Boku Nanka and Tsuki to Hoshi ga Midnight) that are big on the melody.
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I don’t have much for this month. Even darling daughter has skipped this month’s Dreamcatcher in favor of their “Maison” from April of this year.
Instead I have been mining through music that somehow I missed in the recent past. Among them, this gem from Jeong Hong Il from Oct 2021. It is cathartic to belt the shit of this driving down the country road, not giving a care how loud the volume.
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1. Rie – because
2. Acid Angel from Asia – Generation
3. LE SSERAFIM – Antifragile/Kwon Eunbi – Underwater/Kihyun – Youth
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1. Case 143 – Stray Kids
2. Antifragile – LE SSERAFIM
3. Uh-Heung – DKZ/Dongkiz
those are the best releases for October (For me)
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My personal top 3 looks like this:
3. Raiden, The Boyz – Last Man Standing
2. Treasure – Hello
1. Rie – Because
And these three are actually THE ONLY title tracks released in October I really enjoyed.
Let’s hope that K-pop will be saved from underwhelming title tracks, noise music and other shit like this ASAP…
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10, no order, and I include b-sides and whatever I like.
Poison – Kingdom
Narkose – Meute (the world’s only techno marching band)
The Wagon – Subway Daydream (absolutely perfect 70s80s jangly power pop from a young Japanese band)
Pom Pom – Rocking Doll (late September, but I make my own rules, man)
Case 143 – Stray Kids
Anti-Fragile – Le SSERAFIM
Flash – UP10tion
GROOVE – Gwanjil Jo
Reach! – Ego Apartment
AB6IX – Sugarcoat
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My top for this month :
1. Kingdom Long Live the King (I have found my SOTY❤)
2. Treasure Hello
3. Up10tion What If Love
4. Le Sserafim Anti Fragile (Also bsides Impurities and No Celestial deserve special mention; I believe with this cb I’m officially into this group!)
5.
Among gg : Classy Tick Tock Boom/ AAA Generation / Alice Dance On (I liked Dance On but not too many performances available to enhance the experience and also… it’s so much like Weki Meki’s Siesta at some points that I end up humming that lol)
Among bg : Epex Hymn to Love (This grew on me way more than expected!) / ATBO Attitude (As expected, this song is such a breeze to hum and vibe to lol) / SKZ Case 143 / Wei Spray
Both DC Vision and Kepler We Fresh grew on me a little bit but not that much. Seulgi 28 reasons also grew on me – her performances were pretty neat!
Overall I thought this month was pretty good! And my top 4 for the month are definitely making my year end list, with the first three probably around the top 10 range!
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This year really has been the year of ggs, huh? They really dominated February, March, July, August (save for golcha), and had a really good showing here too. Or maybe the boy groups just kind of suck this year.
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Also wow, Mirae Drip N Drop had *quite* a precipitous fall…
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It dripped and…. dropped 😦
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1. Because–rie
2. Hello–Treasure
3. Antifragile–Le Sserafim
I’ve also had Give Me Your TMI on repeat all month. The prechoruses get me every time.
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For me…
1. 28 Reasons by Seulgi
2. ANTIFRAGILE by LESSERAFIM
3. Generation by tripleS AAA
Seulgi was my very first kpop bias when I got into this genre so seeing her official debut definitely made me a bit emotional because it finally arrived! As a wise poet (winterosy on youtube) said “This is the seulgiest thing seulgi has ever seulgied”.
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Got Antifragile, Hello, and Dance On for my 3. Thought the rest of the month was varying levels of garbage
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My Top 3 title tracks:
1. Treasure – Hello
2. Alice – Dance On
3. The Rose – Sour
My Top 3 B-sides:
1. Dreamcatcher – Fairytale
2. Kep1er – Dreams (could easily be Countdown too)
3. Treasure – VolKno (but could be any song from that fanstastic EP)
HUGE GROWERS: The first 2 songs were just ok to me, and I hated the other 2 when they came out but now I hum them all the time and I hate myself for it!
1. Acid Angel from Asia (tripleS) – Generation
2. JeA – Orange Drive
3. Kep1er – We Fresh
4. LE SSERAFIM – Antifragile
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My Top 3 Releases from October
Title Tracks
1. The Rose – ‘Sour’
2. JO YURI – ‘Loveable’
3. TEN – ‘Birthday’
B-sides
1. Dreamcatcher – ‘Fairytale’
2. JO YURI – ‘Blank’
3. The Rose – HEAL ( The whole album )
Not that many releases this month that lured me in to be honest.
Also, I deeply apologize for being so late. Changmin’s ‘Devil’ and ‘Fever’ are INCREDIBLE. I watched his live performances on repeat for hours. His stage presence and charisma is so captivating.
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Seulgi definitely won the month as a whole for me but there was a lot to like in general to me. If filling out my top 3 I think I would put her, Dreamcatcher and one of Class:y’s new songs actually? Both of them are charming in their own ways but what really won me over on both was the live vocal choreography practices –
The first time I heard Zealous I was certain that electric kazoo – or whatever it is – was more prominent in the music but realized that they use it the right amount and in general I think it was a nice pivot to have both a boisterous song and a more relaxed sophisticated one to showcase their range.
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I think I may have had the blues during October because my favorites were:
The Rose – Sour
Rie – Because
Chanhuyk – Panorama
Up10tion – What if love
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Antifragile is too damn catchy. It is like that song I will keep playing and humming to myself for months on end. Definitely a SOTY candidate for me!
I’ve also really enjoyed Treasure’s Hello (probably one of my fav bg releases of the year as well!) and Kingdom’s Long Live the King.
I feel like 28 reasons was slightly underdeveloped and did not age as gracefully as I imagined it would have.
CASE 143 is a lot of fun, but I don’t have a driving desire to replay it, so it is a miss for me.
All in all, perhaps not the best month, but I’m really happy with Antifragile, Hello and Long Live the King!
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A fairly strong month for groups I follow! My picks for October are,in no particular order:
-28 Reasons by Seulgi, this was an incredibly Seulgi-esque debut and a strong minialbum too (Los Angeles/Crown/Dead Man Runnin are So good)
-Illella by Mamamoo, they absolutely destroyed the performances of this and I like it more each time I relisten. Wish the mini was Longer but the other two songs are a lot of fun
-Nazababara and Sing Your Heart Out by Rolling Quartz, while not strictly K-pop I absolutely love this band and every song they put out is guaranteed to be rather fantastic. Still so cool to see an all female k-band, with great music too.
-Underwater by Kwon Eun Bi, just a really good pop song and I love her voice. Probably my favourite post-IZ*one artist out of all the other soloists and groups.
-Antifragile by Le Sserafim, this grew on me a lot! As a former ballet kid I love Kazuha and I think they’re heading in an exciting direction.
-The Astronaut by Jin, he has my favourite voice in BTS and this was a good exploration of what he can do as a solo artist
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