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 2025 Overall Thoughts
October started slow as Chuseok celebrations caused a week or so of inactivity, but the month picked up steam after that. In fact, I think I set a blog record on the 23rd with nine (!) separate reviews in one day. Thursdays (or Fridays depending on your time zone) have become one of the industry’s busiest release windows as big-name comebacks align with the release schedule of Western pop projects.
Despite a packed second half of October, the month didn’t quite deliver the way I had hoped. As with much of 2025, there were many solid/strong songs but very few knockouts. Some comebacks I had been looking forward to underwhelmed and there weren’t many surprises to make up for that.
Because of this, my top pick of the month absolutely cakewalked to number one. There really wasn’t any competition for me and I’m glad to see the song start to gain virality/popularity in Korea. It’s been rattling around my head for three weeks now and only gets better the more I hear it. The other two spots in my top three are filled by very different artists — one yet to officially debut and another who has made a huge breakthrough in their fourth year. Close runner ups would probably be &TEAM and Xdinary Heroes.
J-pop was pretty barren this month, at least when it came to fantastic singles. Because of this, two of my top three slots went to a single K-pop artist who released Japanese material. I don’t know what’s going on with J-pop this year but it’s gone from being one of my favorite music markets to a real slog. Everything just feels recycled and predictable.
We’ve got one more month before eligibility for my year-end countdown closes. November has some slack to cover and the release slate seems packed so far. I’ve started thinking about this year’s top ten in a nebulous way, but it’ll be interesting to see what happens when I finally sit down and think about it seriously in a few weeks. One thing’s for sure: 2025 has been a year of contrasts. In some ways, I’m more engaged in K-pop than ever before. In others, K-pop itself (ie: the music) has been largely disappointing.
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
TOP J-POP SONGS OF THE MONTH
3. NAQT VANE – Visions
2. TXT – Where Do You Go? (review)
1. TXT – Can’t Stop (review)
K-POP
Honorable Mentions
BABYMONSTER – We Go Up (review)
Close Your Eyes – SOB (with Imanbek) (review)
Hearts2Hearts – Focus (review)
HITGS – Happy (review)
Joochan – Rise & Shine (review)
Kim Lip – Can You Entertain? (review)
Kino – Dirty Boy (ft. Jamie & Uwa) (review)
LE SSERAFIM – Spaghetti (ft. J-Hope) (review)
MEOVV – Burning Up (review)
MiSO – Spotlight (review)
NEXZ – Beat-Boxer (review)
NMIXX – Spinnin’ On It (review)
Wonho – If You Wanna (review)
Xdinary Heroes – ICU / Lost And Found (review / review)
&TEAM – Back To Life (review)
This Month’s Risers and Fallers
This Week In K-pop: Week 1 / Week 2 / Week 3 / Week 4
This Month’s Global Pop Round-Up
TOP THREE SONGS
3. NMIXX – Blue Valentine (review)
2. AM8IC – Buzzin (review)
1. TWS – Overdrive (review)
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of September 2025
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of August 2025
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of July 2025
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of June 2025
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of May 2025
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
Blue Valentine is my number 1! That pre-chorus has already reached iconic status in my eyes!
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Also Overdrive sounds like “Cool” by the Jonas Brothers and it annoys me for some reason.
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I am crushing on the whole NMIXX album. Blue Valentine tops the list for me, easily.
The more I hear TWS “Overdrive”, the more I hear debut era SVT minus their characteristic voices.
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I have such an unpopular opinion about Seventeen’s vocal tones that I dare not even put it down in words 🫣
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Adding – released at the very top of this month is AxMxP album – another good kBand for those looking for that sound. Young kids too – the oldest is 20 and the maknae bassist is 15.
The album track “Love Poem” is my Key Change of the Year!
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I had to look it up – the main composer is Seo Yong Bae / RBW who has written, like, everything, like all or most of Gfriend’s greatest hits and lots more. Kim Jae Hwan “Snail” of his was in my top ten a few years ago – if you want to hear a song sound like it is “coming home” at every turn, “Snail” is for you. “Love Poem” here also sounds like it is coming home with every key change.
Good pedigree. No wonder I am drawn to it.
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How did I not discover this sooner?!
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Unexpectedly good month for me!
On the TOP:
NMixx – Blue Valentine
Tempest – In the Dark
DKB – Irony
HONORABLES::
Joochan – Rise & Shine
BND – Hollywood Action
Oneus – Fly to You
TWS – Overdrive
Kino – Dirty Boy & ClubSexCigarettes
OTHERS:
BamBam – Wondering
TXT – Where do we go?
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Blue Valentine, the earworm you are. The glorious ending twists and turns makes me want to press repeat automatically.
Very serious contender for SOTY (and AOTY of course).
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Overdrive still does nothing for me but I’m happy for you all who like it.
I’m behind on releases but so far I have:
1 – NMIXX – SPINNIN’ ON IT
2 – NEXZ – I’M HIM
3 – YEOSANG/ATEEZ – Legacy
I also liked:
Daylotus – SURA
H2H – FOCUS
NMIXX – Blue Valentine
Xdinary Heroes – ICU (the whole album is very good, much prefer it to Beautiful Mind)
xikers – SUPERPOWER
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Buzzin didn’t hit for me almost at all, so it is interesting to see it rated so highly.
Overdrive was excellent, so while that was no surprise, I think it deserves a spot in the top 3.
If it were up to me, I’d probably have Nmixx in all 3 top spots for this month, but I recognize my extreme bias, so if I had to pick only one it would be Blue Valentine.
Lately, I’m gravitating back to Spaghetti almost as much as Nmixx. This is so kpop coded in the best way. The “unnngghh” in the “Eat it up” sections and so many other parts are so much fun to ham it up to singing along in the car.
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