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 LOONA’s placement on the ULTIMATE ARTIST RANKING page!
LOONA: A Career In Song Ratings
The Breakdown
Highest Rated Songs
Lowest Rated Songs
Imperial Phases
So What -> Star (2020)
Slump Phases
None
Rating Average: 7.95
Overall Trendline:
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
hey nick, will there be buried treasures for h2h and from20? I enjoyed their albums quite a lot! which where your favorite tracks?
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I considered doing a buried treasure for H2H. I really like the whole album. Ultimately, I just became too busy this week to do it! My favorite b-sides are heart emoji and 15-LOVE.
Unfortunately, I did not enjoy the from20 album.
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Yeah, it fits them well: a group with mostly average, inoffensive music, a couple of bangers but besides it, they are just sailing smoothly.
Also, the pic you chose has only 11 members (without Haseul), so it feels odd to see a group pic without her
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I loved that first EP they debuted with, it really set expectations high for me. I think they only ever met/surpassed that with Star, but a lot of their subunit and solo stuff while the group was still around was also good.
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I saw them mentioned a lot when I got into K-pop a couple years ago, so I was expecting something special. I didn’t find them that impressive.
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I’ve always been a bit baffled by their appeal tbh
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Did you also check out their pre-debut songs (the individual single releases and sub-unit EPs)? That is where a lot of the good songs were. It’s also a majority of the Loona discography (17/28 songs if I count correctly). “New” (the Yves single) is one of my very favorite k-pop songs and pretty much the foundation of her whole career.
I’m also vaguely curious about the decision not to include those songs in the average, although my recollection is Nick didn’t like them either so it probably wouldn’t help Loona’s rating much.
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As a rule I don’t include solo or sub-unit tracks in this feature, though that gets tricky with a group like LOONA (and even more so OnlyOneOf, imo).
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n actually im curious how would u rate each of the members solos now?
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Yes I did. I thought it was a cool idea to release solos first. Some were good. I like Girl Front, NEW and Heart Attack. Egoist and Favorite are alright. I just expected more given the hype.
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Fair enough–the hype around the group was pretty insane, so would be difficult to live up to in any case.
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ironically, they’re the group we’ll never hear their swan song from: Freesm
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while i like their tts fine (their predebut music is easily their best) honestly throughout their whole career as a full group loonas bsides r rlly what made them shine musically. in fact the ++ and # minis r some of my absolute fav kpop projects ever yet the tts r easily the weakest songs on them
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LOONA is one of my absolute favorite groups, especially with their pre-debut solos. Curiously, one of your highest rated songs is the one I like least: while I absolutely love the bridge in So What, I just can’t get me to appreciate the rest of the song, unfortunately, even after a few years have passed.
My personal favorites would be Butterfly, Hi High and Star. I also really like Flip That, it’s a shame the group disbanded after that, would’ve been interesting to see their direction from that.
Actually, if we consider Butterfly Effect a LOONA song (it was originally meant for them but only released years later as ARTMS b-side), that would take the crown for me.
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im super late to this and I was dreading this career in song ratings post because LOONA is my ultimate favorite group ever and I know theyre not as well liked in this blog. I still think they have a perfect discography, especially including the predebut stuff and honestly they mean so much to me. I really love how despite exploring different soundscapes, there is still that LOONA sound that you can note in each song (or maybe thats just us fans that could notice haha). Star might be my absolute favorite from them as a full group, and then Sattelite would be my favorite b-side.
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Their predebut and first year run was insane. Jaden Jeong might be a weirdo but he had a great taste and vision for LOONA. Admittedly though, after he left, I felt like things started getting a little bit more rough and the quality just wasn’t the same. But that was also around the same time I started having weird beef/envy with LOONA/Orbits (as an WJSN fan ok… everyone knows THAT war). So. Take what you will.
Funnily, you rank So What and Why Not as their highest but I never liked those songs. I disliked the switch to girl crush, particularly their take of girl crush (mega dance noise) and it was even worse with PTT. ARTMS music right now is def what I expected LOONA to have done. LOONA was an immaculate project but the core members were truly OEC (Jinsoul, Kimlip, Choerry) + Heejin + Yves + Chuu.
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