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.
May 2025 Overall Thoughts
The other day, I commented on Twitter/X that K-pop was struggling to find great songs lately, which spawned replies from many people who obviously don’t read the blog saying that I should just “listen to more artists” (usually followed by a list of their favorite acts). The irony, of course, is that I listen to just about every artist. This got me thinking: would my feelings around the current K-pop landscape be different if I only followed the acts that I reliably love?
Years ago, K-pop was in a place where I could follow just about every artist and be quite satisfied with the vast majority of output. Since then, the industry has grown and there’s just a lot more (for lack of a better word) crap out there right now. Sifting through all this dreck for the occasional highlight obviously colors my overall opinion.
The thing is… there were some great highlights in May. I have about five groups I consider my core anchors to K-pop right now (regular readers could probably guess who they are!) and several of these made comebacks this month. RIIZE’s album was a definite highlight, even if its best songs weren’t promoted as title tracks. I liked BOYNEXTDOOR’s album too, and its title track has grown on me. There was even an unexpected highlight from a new artist at the end of the month.
Beyond this, May didn’t offer many surprises. Several big-name comebacks failed to live up to their potential (Seventeen, Jin) and though it’s always nice to hear from SHINee again their special anniversary single didn’t do much for me either. Many smaller acts released forgettable (or downright bad) material, dragging down May’s cumulative rating.
I agonized over my top three choices this month, not because there was a ton to choose from but because I felt like I was splitting hairs between the songs. Then, an unexpected highlight emerged out of leftfield during the last few days of the month, knocking a few contenders to close runner-up spots. Basically, I’ve got a handful of tracks that are various shades of “8.75” (yes there’s been some revision in rating), with one having the best chance of eventually moving up to a “9.”
Whenever I’m unsure how to rank music, I fall back to what I consider to be the most important element in a song: melody. My top spot goes to a song that boasts some of my favorite melodies of the year so far. I’m prepared to be charged with several counts of flagrant bias for this ranking, which is one of the reasons why I labored over it so intensely. But, it is what it is. I can’t deny which song I’m most excited to hear when it comes on shuffle. To make this month even more confusing, I ended up pairing two songs together for a tie in the second place slot because having them exist as polar opposites somehow makes each one more effective on its own. I really consider them two sides of the same coin. I’m ready for the complaints, loyal readers! Bring ’em on.
J-pop continues to frustrate me this year. I think I added about one or two songs to my library in May, making it almost impossible to pick a top three. I’m committed to keeping up with my weekly J-pop round-up series, but I won’t lie… it’s become a bit of a chore lately. Beyond a standout here and there, the music just isn’t hitting me at all.
Summer is often K-pop’s time to shine, though that wasn’t the case last year. However, June of 2024 was an extraordinarily strong month so I’m eager to see if that repeats this year. No teaser or announcement has me feeling overly confident at the moment, but that can always change. (Please change, I beg of you!)
Month Cumulative Rating: 7.7
(compiled by averaging the scores of every K-pop review from this month)
J-Pop Highlights
New & Noteworthy J-pop: Week One
New & Noteworthy J-pop: Week Two
New & Noteworthy J-pop: Week Three
New & Noteworthy J-pop: Week Four
New & Noteworthy J-pop: Week Five
TOP J-POP SONGS OF THE MONTH
3. Hinatazaka46 – Love Yourself!
2. BE:FIRST – Grit
1. Kento Nakajima – Hekireki
K-POP
Honorable Mentions
BOYNEXTDOOR – I Feel Good (review)
Chuu – Back In Town (review)
DAY6 – Maybe Tomorrow (review)
i-dle – Girlfriend / Good Thing (review / review)
Koi Kat – Wake Up Call (video)
Lim Sejun – Summer (review)
Red Velvet – Irene & Seulgi – Tilt (review)
SHINee – Poet | Artist (review)
TXT – Love Language (review)
This Month’s Risers and Fallers
This Month’s Global Pop Round-Up
TOP THREE SONGS
3. Fairy Mai – Light Please (review)
2. RIIZE – Bag Bad Back / Fly Up (review / review)
1. TWS – Lucky To Be Loved (review)
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of April 2025
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of March 2025
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of February 2025
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of January 2025
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of December 2024
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
Lucky to be loved seemed a little bit generic and weightless when I first listened to it but it’s actually not. It just gets better every time, I love it. Also I have to say that their choreography, styling and their MV on general are truly mesmerising. They also look really cute. Anyway. Does anybody know the name of their fanbase
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It’s called “42” (pronounced “Sai” as you’d pronounce “4” and “2” in Korean)
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Alright I’m gonna go learn their names now. It always starts like this
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Their variety content is incredibly entertaining and they have a TON of it.
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at this point in my kpop journey im only really excited for ive, h1key and aespa’s comebacks and if anything inbetween happens to be good, I’ll take it (then again, I’m also listening to far less music that I was in 2020 and 2022…. 2022 was one seriously good year for kpop).
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hi nick! here’s the chours leak of izna’s upcoming song ‘BEEP’. it sounds a bit repetitive but it seems like there’s a second chorus part. what do you think about it? https://youtu.be/9CmSyE_HnDA?si=r6-xmMheBZj3qTiD
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it’s not a leak when they officially released it
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this surely was a month in music. BOYNEXTDOOR and RIIZE dominated the month for me with amazing albums.
I agree with you about K-pop struggling to find great songs lately. all my favorite releases so far this year are from the new gen boy groups – BLUE PARADISE, PREZENT, ETERNALT, No Genre and ODYSSEY. the girls haven’t been really delivering it for me 😓 I hope aespa and Hearts2Hearts’ comebacks change that
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first good song of June just dropped https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Bc-hWqZxZ6I&si=-ruQpzEagx40BkWR
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It’s fun! I’m soooo curious what their debut Japanese single will sound like and who’s composing it. My suspicion is that it will be Plot Twist Version 4.0, which of course I will gladly lap up 😅
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it is BTS MONTH EVERYBODY KPOP WILL FINALLY BE SAVED BY THE SLAYAGE OF THE SEVEN BOYS
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I felt the caps to my soul
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Sigh, it was a… bland month.
My top 2 comebacks:
1. Light Please (Fairy Mai)
2. Girlfriend (i-dle)
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I feel exactly like you right now. I guess I’m hopeful but not enthusiastic about Summer Kpop.
BoyNextDoor saved the month with I Feel Good, the “Georgia” song, and a couple of bsides…I just find them so fun.
I wish Riize promoted Show Me Love…that was the only song I thought suited them.
Yutas’s Twisted Paradise was a highlight for me…zero promotions though🤯
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Just wanted to drop off Shin Jiyoon’s song ‘Did you love me?’ . I noticed you didn’t review it and think it might be up your alley? Or maybe it’s like Yukika’s earlier work for you in that it *should* be but isn’t for some reason. Either way!:
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Sounds great! I’m somehow missing all these indie releases…
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Where’s the daily 9+ rated song?
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Haha totally forgot. Thank you for confirming that people still follow those tweets 🙂
I’ll get one up soon.
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Yes, Nick you should listen to EVEN MORE KPOP.
I find kpop these years to be so workaday workshopped commercial me too following packaged trends that never die.
(Dare I say) back in the day, kpop was either homegrown in house written and produced so it was really quirky and different sounding from any other country’s sound. Or it was the leftover quirky ones from the Swedes and Danish producers that the other country’s didn’t want.
The funny thing is, I don’t think Korea is buying it either. There is such a disconnect from this stuff and what the Koreans actually buy and sing. QWER is the poster child from last year – Who is QWER? Woodz Drowning is still on the Digital chart, two years after its release. They have to have the “Global Kpop Chart” on Gaon Circle chart to list the ones the west thinks of as “kpop”. I troll through there every so often to get my carpool noraebang ballads.
Nick, I often think you should have a periodic “what’s going on in the Korean charts”, like how Rick Beato does a few each year for “Whats going on in Spotify”.
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Honorable Mentions
Lim Sejun – Summer
RIIZE – Fly Up
Kim Jaejoong – Rock Star
Koi Kat – Wake Up Call
3. The Wind – Hello Tomorrow
2. Jang Haneum – Shine
1. BoyNextDoor – I Feel Good
Month Cumulative Rating: 7.3
Despite a strong 1st place finish for BoyNextDoor – the honorable mentions were less impactful. May was a terrible month for me, to say the least. I hope June lives up to stronger expectations. June promises to see the return of some big names, but will that give them a good place when summer arrives?
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And… 45 songs released this month
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Seeing Nakajima Kento on here reminds me, Nick – did you watch Timelesz Project? I began watching when it first aired but kind of gave up halfway through, and the resulting group’s debut single didn’t do much for me sadly – which is a shame since I really liked Sexy Zone’s work. I’m glad Kenty is still putting out solo music at least!
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I did. As with most survival series, it would have been better if it was half as long. They stretched it out waaaaay too long to the point I didn’t really care about it much by the end.
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Do you listen to soloists? You didn’t like Baekhyun’s new album?
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“would my feelings around the current K-pop landscape be different if I only followed the acts that I reliably love?”
Probably, but even they won’t be a hit all the time! I feel like this year, and maybe last year, most of the music felt same-y. While I do like some of it, I just feel like my playlists don’t have much variety, and songs like Poet/Artist and Love Language add something different soundwise. I also enjoyed Bag Bad Back which is funny because that noisy, sing-talk boy group sound was never my favorite, but maybe it’s growing on me…
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P1harmony comeback with Duh and the highlighted b side pretty boy murmur saved this month for me
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