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.
April 2026 Overall Thoughts
I’ve been doing this K-pop thing long enough to know that slumps come in cycles and eventually the industry churns out a flurry of great material again. Judging purely by April’s line-up of releases, I had a feeling this month would break the dire spell of underwhelming music we’ve been plagued with since December. Thankfully, I was right. The dam has burst, the drought is over and so on and so on.
This month delivered a fleet of highlights. It started a bit slow but only snowballed from there, kicking off (pun intended) with KickFlip and moving onto great songs by Xdinary Heroes, MODYSSEY, Close Your Eyes and UNCHILD before we hit April 27th, which was easily the best single day in K-pop for quite some time (at least for me). The trio of TWS, NEXZ and Xnghan&Xoul releasing during the same day reignited a thrill for K-pop I hadn’t felt in awhile.
This quality infiltrates my top three songs of the month. We’d gone 150+ days on this blog without a single song rated a “9” or above, and suddenly we have a handful. Yes, there are two more songs (Xdinary Heroes and Xnghan) that have crossed that threshold for me even if they haven’t been officially upgraded in a BIAS LIST post yet. That’s a marked shift from the past few months, where I’ve been placing strong-but-not-super-thrilling songs into the top three simply because I needed something to fill the space.
With April’s top three, things are so competitive that I’m not sure how it will eventually shake out. Spots 1-2 and 3-4 were pretty much even with each other, making them difficult to rank. I went back and forth (particularly with that third spot) and eventually realized no configuration felt quite right. So for the first time in years, I’m just going to call it a tie. When it came down to making my decision for first place, I had to rely on play count and… well… personal bias. Shocker, I know.
Unlike previous months this year, I have some optimism about where K-pop might be going as 2026 continues to unfold. It feels like we’ve slowly transitioned into a new set of musical trends. This month, a certain type of EDM established itself as the K-pop trend of 2026. I’m happy about this development as it means a higher tempo and more energy than the beigepop that came before it, but I really hope the industry learns that the best EDM-influenced K-pop boasts killer melodies, tons of drama and lasts over two minutes in length. Enough with the monotone speaking over a techno beat.
My hopes are also buoyed by an injection of rock and electro textures in many of these songs. I need the industry to use instrumentals by UNCHILD, Cortis, TWS, Xnghan and NEXZ as the template going forward. There’s so much potential here. (And yes, you read that right. Cortis received a positive mention on this blog!)
April’s MVP wasn’t necessarily an artist but an agency. I don’t know what’s in the water over at JYP Entertainment’s A&R teams, but they are consistently picking great songs this year. The fact that this month gave us highlights from KickFlip, XDinary Heroes and NEXZ within days of each other makes me very happy. I hope that good taste continues into ITZY’s comeback next month.
J-pop was also quite strong this month. I adore my top song and the second and third places are no slouch either. And though &TEAM’s comeback track was disappointing, it’s grown on me a bit and it boasts some great b-sides. Hopefully Fantastics’ Sunflower gets a music video eventually so I can celebrate it on next month’s post.
As far as blog news goes, I started an ambitious new feature this month called “A Career in Song Ratings.” It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for awhile but it took time for me to wrap my head around exactly how I wanted it to work. I’m thankful for the great response and will continue to post regularly for awhile before new posts eventually become a bit more sporadic.
Looking forward to May, there aren’t as many scheduled releases as I was excited for this month, but that tends to be the trend in K-pop: busier month followed by a less-busy month. There’s still plenty of potential for highlights and I’m particularly excited to see how the ZEROBASEONE / AND2BLE re-debuts go. Plus, personal fave Woollim Entertainment is finally dipping their toe back into music with the release of DRIPPIN’s first sub-unit. Hopefully this won’t be the last we hear from them!
Month Cumulative Rating: 7.6
(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. The Rampage – Black Tokyo
2. Official HIGE DANdism – Stardust
1. INI – All 4 U (review)
K-POP
Honorable Mentions
Close Your Eyes – Pose (review)
Cortis – REDRED (review)
CRAVITY – Awake (review)
DXMON – SSS (She’s Sweet & Sour) (review)
hrtz.wav – Nineteen (review)
Hwasa – So Cute (review)
KickFlip – Eye-Poppin’ (review)
Kino – Taxi (review)
Kiss Of Life – Who Is She // Don’t Mind Me (review // review)
Lee Chaeyeon – No Tears On The Dancefloor (review)
Lucy – All Ages (review)
MODYSSEY – Hook (review)
QWER – Ceremony (review)
Seventeen DxS – Feel Me (review)
TXT – Stick With You (review)
UNCHILD – UNCHILD (review)
Young Posse – We Don’t Go To Bed Tonight (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 MARCH
3 (tie). Xdinary Heroes – Voyager (review)
3 (tie). XngHan&Xoul – Glow (review)
2. NEXZ – Mmchk (review)
1. TWS – You, You (review)
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of March 2026
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of February 2026
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of January 2026
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of December 2025
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of November 2025
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
KPOP IS FUCKING BACK HELL YEAH! It’s been a solid month that began as okay, and slowly unveiled itself to the excellency that was 27th April lol.
Anyways, my top 3 are Xnghan, NEXZ and Close Your Eyes. I have yet to check the Xdinary Heroes one (it’s been over a year since I last tuned into them…) but oh well :p
LikeLike
And All 4 U is def my J-Pop highlight, man, I need to tune into J-Pop more often, it’s been so long
LikeLike
Ah yes, April brought an abundance of my beloved fifth gen boy groups, and May is promising the girl group stans out there a lot to look forward to. Off the top of my head we’ve got Le Sserafim, Aespa, Babymonster, Itzy, NMIXX, Billlie, and IOI.
Most of my faves decided to come back this month, which means I’ll now inevitably be left with a drought in May while I wait for RIIZE to come back in June. (unless some of these girl groups surprise me by unexpectedly releasing bangers)
My no. 1 pick was an obvious choice, but for the first time this year I struggled to decide my second and third favorite songs bc there were way too many good options! 😭 Like wdym I have to choose only three songs out of all this greatness?!
Honorable Mentions:
Cortis – REDRED
Cravity – Awake
Lucy – All Ages
MODYSSEY – Hook
NCT Wish – Sticky
NEXZ – Mmchk
TWS – You, You
UNCHILD – UNCHILD
Xdinary Heroes – Voyager
XngHan&Xoul – Glow
Top Three Songs of April
3. Close Your Eyes – Pose
2. NCT Wish – Ode to Love
1. KickFlip – Eye-Poppin’ – An easy win. Officially my second 9 of the year. ❤ ily KickFlip
You, You, Awake, REDRED, and Voyager were soooo close to making my top three 😭
Oh, and the last thing I need is another fifth gen boy group to stan, but I’m dangerously close to becoming a WeFlip.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thoroughly enjoyed majority of the releases this month. It was pretty hard to choose a top 3 this month and there were so many excellent releases, whether it was debuts or comebacks. Hoping May delivers, we have Itzy, Aespa, Le Sserafim, the first ZB1 comeback as OT5, NMIXX and the IOI reunion among others. Though I probably shouldn’t be too optimistic about it…
Anyhow, my top 3 would be
Eye-Poppin
You, You
Hook/Unchild(tie)
LikeLiked by 2 people
Also Nick, shouldn’t it be a 3-way for the third spot between Glow,Voyager and Eye-Poppin’?
And what are your thoughts on Red Red as of now?
LikeLike
Eye Poppin’ is nipping at their heels, for sure, but right now it’s not quite at the same level for me. Things could still change, though, especially since I’m seeing KickFlip in August and I’ll surely hear that song on repeat!
LikeLike
Oh, and my thoughts on REDRED are pretty much the same. It’s not the best thing ever, but it’s really fun and I love the music show performances.
LikeLike
3. Kickflip’s album
2. Crescendo – Nmixx
1.Mmchk – NEXZ
It takes a lot to beat any Nmixx release for me, but that NEXZ song is so fun! I’m typically partial to JYP, but they’ve been on an absolute tear beyond their normal quality.
LikeLiked by 2 people
LikeLike
Not sure if I have a number three but number two is KickFlip’s Eye-Poppin’ (even though I still like Twenty better) and number one is NEXZ’s Mmchk (maybe due to recency bias but that song is just so darn addictive). This is crazy for me because I’ve never had any JYP groups on my top lists.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have the new T.O.P album, the new AKMU album, and the new Forestella album, so my April was mighty fine.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Studio54 has been growing on me.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Lots of songs added this month. Lots of b-sides too, but here are the TT’s:
5. ILLIT – It’s Me
4. NCT WISH – Ode To Love
3. NCT WISH – Sticky
2. RESCENE – Runaway
1. KickFlip – Eye-Poppin’
J-pop
5. The Lethal Weapons – Let’s Go Hanafuda
4. DIALOGUE+ – Miracles Don’t Happen
3. f5ve – Wish
2. ME:I – Update ME
1. C&K – To Be
LikeLiked by 1 person
KickFlip and TWS have become my guys to follow this generation, so I’ve been riding high with both of them dropping releases this month.
Beyond that, Cortis’ REDRED has been a surprise big hit for me. The production and the boys’ performance of it has been so fun.
LikeLiked by 2 people
This month has been so good that I’ve actually struggled to catch up with all the amazing releases. I agree that JYP did not come to play and their output this month has been literally music to my ears!!!!
With that said, it is absolutely impossible to choose my 3 favorites songs this month, so I’ll cheat and make it a top 5:
Nexz – Mmchk⭐️
NCT Wish – Ode to Love⭐️
KickFlip – Eye Poppin’⭐️
Cravity – Awake⭐️
CYE – Pose⭐️
Honorables:
Dxmon – SSS
Keyvitup – Keyvitup
Modissey – Hook
HrtzWav – Nineteen
82Majors – Sign
XdinaryHeroes – Voyager
NMixx – Crescendo
TWS – YouYou
TxT – Stick With You
Cortis – RedRed
LeSserafim- Celebration
Kino – Taxi
Jay – Higher
XngHan – Glow
HuynSang – Odyssey
MonstaX – Heal
INI – All 4 U
LikeLiked by 1 person