The Bias List is a K-pop blog that also covers a fair amount of J-pop. But just like most music fans, I enjoy tracks from all around the world. So, I thought I’d start a monthly round-up of some of the non-K-pop songs that have caught my ear. No ratings — just highlights!
February 2022 Edition // March 2022 Edition // April 2022 Edition // May 2022 Edition // June 2022 Edition // July 2022 Edition // August 2022 Edition // September 2022 Edition // October 2022 Edition // November 2022 Edition // January 2023 Edition // February 2023 // March 2023 // April 2023 // May 2023 // June 2023
Alok & Ava Max – Car Keys (Ayla)
I mentioned this during my ‘top pop songs of the year’ post at the beginning of the month, and it still bangs today.
Benjamin – Persikan perään
Hoida Mut is proving impossible to improve upon, but I’ll gladly take new Benjamin songs whenever he wants to release them.
Bess – Missio
Finland’s Bess returns with another hypnotic dance track.
Carly Rae Jepsen – Shy Boy
A slight, 70’s disco sidestep for Carly.
Hannah Diamond – Affirmations
I honestly can’t tell if this is supposed to be serious or tongue-in-cheek (that delivery on the spoken bridge!), but the production is absolutely phenomenal.
Jason Derulo – Glad U Came
Jason Derulo can always be counted on to deliver an uncomplicated pop bop.
Julia Alfrida – Like A Bass
I love the strings on this. What a great dance track!
Kim Petras – Revelations / uhoh
Kim Petras’ new album isn’t all killer, but it’s got a few big highlights.
Marcus & Martinus – 247365
The Melodifestivalon phenoms released this ultra-catchy follow-up. It reminds me of ATC’s early-2000’s hit Around The World.
Ninety One – Biz
I won’t pretend to be some expert on this Kazakh boy group, but they’re doing some pretty cool stuff.
Rain Radio x Joel Corry x Icona Pop – Desire
Icona Pop are scheduled to release their first album in years and this is a great warm-up for that.
Rosi – Huono Nainen
Something is in the water over there in Finland, especially when it comes to propulsive synth bangers like this.
Slayyyter – Miss Belladonna
Slayyyter’s upcoming album is slowly becoming one of my most-anticipated 2023 projects. This is another excellent track.
Troye Sivan – Rush
I haven’t really connected with much that Troye has put out before, but he upped the tempo considerably for this summer hit. Fair warning, the music video is NSFW.
will.i.am & Britney Spears – Mind Your Business
From my tweet the night this was released:
“Wow is this ‘so bad it’s good,’ or is it just… bad?
Against all my better instincts, I’m kinda leaning toward the former. I haven’t laughed this hard at (with?) a pop song in ages. It’s so ridiculous and tacky and weird.”
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
Haven’t listened to much new anything lately, but P-pop group Alanat’s Day and Night is old-school sweetness and Wienners Top Speed does the baffling and remarkable task of kind of being a Melt-Banana song if MB decided to go full on pop.
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Alamat, jeez.
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my favorites from Feed The Beast are uhoh, Claws, Castle in the Sky and King of Hearts. it’s a near-perfect album if only she removed Sex Talk, Thousand Pieces and Unholy, and replaced Alone with Alone 2.0, and also made all the songs longer than 2 minutes.
I enjoy Rush by Troye, I also haven’t really been a fan of his previous releases but I’m anticipating his upcoming album.
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I like the new Carly Rae song, so I hope this is a preview of what her next project with sound like. With the exception of Beach House, nothing from her last album stuck with me. I don’t know if that’s because the album wasn’t good or if her Emotion and Dedicated eras (including the Side B/EP projects she released for both) were just THAT great.
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Ooh Ninety One! I’ll admit I’m not as into their recent music as their retro phase 1-2 years ago, though Áperem Ai off their recent album’s pleasant. Suraqtar from last summer is one of my favorites! They really leaned into 80s synth-pop with it:
The will.i.am. Britney song made me laugh, but I got tired of it after three loops 😂 It really is bad but in a fun way, definitely reminds me of 2010 and Scream & Shout, though that one had a lot more to offer obviously.
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Youtube recommended me this one a little while back and I thought it was a lot of fun, especially with the video (which is NSFW): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIJlEcEBtWY
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Ooh, it is fun! Thanks for sharing
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Omg I came here to recommend the Slayyyter song and so happy to see she’s already on your radar! Her brand of maximalism is so consistent and very up your alley, the girl really knows how to write POP music that also experiments with structure (a perfect example is her song Troubled Paradise which has a middle-8/bridge that goes on for almost a whole minute)
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My coworker has been bumping the new will.i.am and Britney song since it came out and it has been both hilarious and agonizing to listen to.
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I’m still on the “hilarious” side of things. I’m shocked at how much I unabashedly enjoy it haha
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I listened to the leak of Carly’s upcoming album (she needs a new label two album cycles ago), and I think there’s more here than on The Loneliest Time that you’ll like. There’s one song in particular, which also happens to be my album highlight!
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Just wondering, but do you like any song from the Barbie soundtrack (besides dua lipa’s track)? I really enjoyed fifty fifty and ava max’s tracks among some.
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Yes! My favorites are:
Gayle
Ava Max
Sam Smith
Charli XCX
PinkPantheress
Nicki Minaj & Ice Spice
Lizzo
Haim
Dominic Fike
My longtime devotion to Janet Jackson’s Together Again makes it hard to listen to the Fifty Fifty track. They butchered that interpolation, imo.
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Thank you so much for your response!
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Ooh, Ninety One! They are easily the best Q-Pop group at the moment, and have some really good songs. While Greymiza and Jessica who read this site probably know much more on them, I’ve got a few recommendations of my own.
Mooz: Sentimental pop, small trop house influences, great melody.
Taboo: Heavy hip-hop with extremely political lyrics.
Darn: Weeknd-esque synthwave
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Mooz is one of my favorites! Darn too–I actually recommended it to Nick like a year ago on another pop music round up post 🤣 that also brought a bunch of Ninety One enjoyers out of the woodworks iirc
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So I went back to the original post (Feb 2022 Pop Round Up) + comments and turns out we replied to each other back then/talked about Mooz and Darn too LOL
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Hilariously, last time it was me, you, and Jessica, I guess we are just secretly waiting for Nick to stumble into a pile of Q-Pop and get addicted lol.
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Mind your pee mind your pee mind your pee mind your pee
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Poor Nick mentions Ninety One one! time! and the Eaglez are swamping his comment feeds with recommendations. Ah, well. I’ll go too:
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Haha, true we do that. Also, I love Blue, it basically acts as a sequel to Darn, which I also love lol!
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