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.
February 2026 Overall Thoughts
I swear I try to find the silver lining whenever possible on this blog, but we have been stuck in such a K-pop rut since mid-November and each month that passes refuses to dig us out.
I could understand a slow December. Year-end shows take precedence and everyone’s busy with rehearsals and special stages. I could even understand a slow January… to an extent. Idols deserve breaks, after all. February is also notoriously slow thanks for music show cancellations due to the Lunar New Year holiday. If any one of these months had been severely underwhelming, I’d chalk it up to the usual winter doldrums in K-pop. However, the fact that more than three months have passed without a single highlight worries me and adds to my feeling that this has been the worst start to a K-pop year since I’ve been a fan.
Not only have music shows felt utterly barren (they’re still stuffed with ballads and random trot songs when they should be hosting multiple comebacks a week), but not a single song has rated above an 8.5 (B) on this blog since the middle of November. It’s been almost four months since we’ve had a “9” (A-) and almost five since I’ve rated something “9.25” (A) or higher. Worse yet, there’s been an increasing number of low-rated songs — music I wouldn’t even add to my playlist.
Most of the acts I find musically reliable in this generation of K-pop have yet to announce 2026 comebacks, which is a big reason these past few months have felt so barren. But even acts that are often quite strong (ZEROBASEONE, ATEEZ, WJSN, WOODZ) have returned with underwhelming material. Some barely scraped into my honorable mentions. Most didn’t even get that far.
For the third month in a row, I don’t see any of my top three picks ending up on a year-end list, though if 2026 continues to underwhelm the way it has so far (please, no!), I guess I’ll be forced to add them. All three of my top picks are absolutely solid. None have me excited in any meaningful way. But here’s the thing: all it takes is a small string of 8.75-9.25 rated tracks to get momentum started again. I know it’s going to happen. It’s just a matter of… when?
J-pop offered some decent tracks this month and I’m quite taken by my top pick (even though it’s not really a “single” in the classic sense). But really, my heart has been with European pop this month. We’re in the middle of Eurovision pre-selections, meaning the region has been quite busy when it comes to pop music. Nearly all of my 9+ rated songs so far this year have come from a European country. I wish we could get some of that energy back in K-pop!
Now that we’re heading into March and there’s no more forced hiatuses on the horizon, I expect that the release slate will pick up. There aren’t many upcoming releases that have me anticipating at the moment, but I’m eager to hear that one “9+” rated song that’s destined to break the doldrums. I have no idea who that song could come from at this point, but it has to come eventually!
Month Cumulative Rating: 7.5
(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. SUPER★DRAGON – Break Off
2. Takase Toya & Fumiya Sato – Please Miss Me
1. Produce 101 Japan – Shinsekai
K-POP
Honorable Mentions
ASC2NT – Still Rose (review)
Chaser – Invincible (review)
MADEIN – Super Obvious (review)
WJSN – Bloom Hour (review)
ZEROBASEONE – LOVEPOCALYPSE (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 OF FEBRUARY
3. Kim Sungkyu – Over It (review)
2. LAVIN – Junk Love (review)
1. IVE – Blackhole (review)
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of January 2026
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of December 2025
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of November 2025
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of October 2025
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of September 2025
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
Sigh, truly a shitty year. In retrospective, one year ago, in the last few days of Feb, we got songs like Blue, N.I.N, The Stranger, RE:SET… and here… truly depressing.
But anyways, the only Feb song I loved this year was Blackhole but I don’t see myself return much to it down the line.
But oh well, I’ve been through halfway of a SHINee discography marathon after months of procrastination and only knowing a few TTs and the entire of the Don’t Call Me album, I can’t believe I missed out on gems like Queen of New York, Hitchhiking, Jump and Destination and so on.
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Just heard the hi key highlight medley and it sounds like a continuation of their summer comeback! 😍
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(btw you typed top three songs of January instead of February in the post)
I already liked it but BLACKHOLE keeps growing on me, I’m curious if it’ll have the longevity that ELEVEN/LOVE DIVE/After LIKE/I AM did on me though.
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Thanks for catching that!
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I didn’t like KiiKii’s 404 when it came out but I’ll admit it’s grown on me over the month. Still Rose by ASC2NT (and actually their whole EP) has been enjoyable. But I agree it’s been another/otherwise relatively quiet month…calm before the storm in March…
Adjacent to kpop, I’ve had Lee Jiham’s (former ACE) new ballad album on rotation too. Always gonna be rooting for those guys.
Nick I’m curious if you’ve heard EJAE’s new song time after time? I’ll keep my eyes peeled for your March global pop roundup. Your A*Teens, EMMY, and MEEK recs from Feb were great, thank you for those.
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Could the 9+ song come from BTS?? No pressure…
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At this point, I’d be happy with an 8.5-8.75 rated song, regardless if it’s worthy of a spot in the top 50 at the end of the year.
Here’s to a better March
By this point last year, we already have If I love You, The Stranger, Blue, and NIN, that’s 4 of the top 20 from last year, just an FYI
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