There are a number of acts who have debuted in the past few decades and have dozens of song ratings on this blog. I thought it would be fun to lay these ratings out in chronological order, line-graph style, and take a macro view of their careers so far. Then, similar to my “Underrated K-pop” features, I can average their ratings into one mega-score and place them in a pantheon alongside other acts.
As always, this feature has some rules of its own. I’m including any “Song Review” ratings as part of this graph, including Japanese releases and collaborations with one other artist. I’m not including Buried Treasures or solo/sub-unit releases. For the ratings themselves, I’m using the most current number on this blog, so if a song was part of a “Risers and Fallers” or “Legendary Songs Inauguration” post, that’s the rating you’ll see displayed here. That means there will still be a few ratings here and there I find slightly inaccurate, but it’ll mostly reflect my up-to-date feelings.
Finally, these scores are completely subjective. Feel free to agree, disagree and argue (that’s part of the fun!), but know that this chart reflects the opinion of only one person (me).
Check out ZE:A’s placement on the ULTIMATE ARTIST RANKING page!
ZE:A: A Career In Song Ratings
The Breakdown
Highest Rated Songs
Lowest Rated Songs
Imperial Phases
Aftermath -> Breathe (2012-2014)
Slump Phases
None
Rating Average: 8.43
Overall Trendline:
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
The Ghost of Wind and Breathe are my favorite ZE:A songs.
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You don’t know how shocked I was when I learned Im si wan makes music, then shocked again when I learned he was in a Kpop group, then shocked for a third time when I learned he was in a group with Park hyung sik.
Listened to some of their songs since then, and Breathe is my favourite for sure.
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Please do 9muses next!
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And I am waiting Super Junior. Also tried finding an index to all these features to see if I missed Super Junior, but somehow Nick has not created one that I can find. Looking at the reviewed SuJulist, there are many singles from peak SuJu missing, so I guess he has to craft some numbers.
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Yasss ZEA. The first song “Ghost of the Wind” of the first kpop group I ever watched after bingeing on “The Moon Embracing the Sun” on Netflix many years ago. Doubtless the algorithms factored in Im Siwan.
Except for perhaps “Daily Daily” and certainly “Mazel Tov” which gets skips, my playlist of their singles gets frequent replay.
I am happy to see in particular “Step By Step” get a 9 here, because it is a guilty pleasure for me. It’s a counting song with a super straightforward melody and construction, but it is just done so well for that type of song. The sung harmonies are fantastic. (If you want to learn how to hear and sing harmony, practice on this song.)
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