Feature

NCT U: A Career In Song Ratings

Posted on by 10 Comments

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).

*This is a weird one, since by definition “NCT U” can be any configuration of NCT members. However, there have been enough songs released under this label to deserve their own spot in the artist ranking.

Check out NCT U’s placement on the ULTIMATE ARTIST RANKING page!

NCT U: A Career In Song Ratings

The Breakdown

Highest Rated Songs

Without You

Lowest Rated Songs

Baggy Jeans

Imperial Phases

Boss -> Make A Wish (Birthday Song) (2018-2020)

Slump Phases

coNEXTion (Age Of Light) -> Marine Turtle (2022-2023)

Rating Average: 8.12

Overall Trendline:

10 thoughts on “NCT U: A Career In Song Ratings”

  2. Ooh, I was sure Boss would be in the 9s by now, considering you put it as a riser back in 2018 and your initial rating was a 8.75. But I guess it fall back again but an 8.75 isn’t bad! I’d prolly give it the same lol.

    I also was sure you’d count songs like Black on Black, Beautiful, Resonance and Golden Age as well, since you also counted TripleS’ full-group songs too in their analysis and I always see TripleS as being very similar to NCT U: a rotational group/unit with different new combinations out of 20+ members with occasional full-group releases

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    • But yeah, their best eras were definitely 2016-2020. Universe is also a banger but they never reached the potential of their best hits, especially when they haven’t utilized the potential of this unit’s concept too since 2023. It would be interesting to see the potential of more unit combos, especially with Wish now, but alas…

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  3. There were times back when I couldn’t tell all the NCT subgroups apart so I renamed all in my itunes to simply “NCT”. When this posting came up I immediately thought “so which subset was NCT U?”. Looking more, NCT U contained a whole gamish of lots of stuff, subgroups within subgroups.

    “Boss”. Naega something I’m the boss, Naega something I’m the player. That song, its beat, its vocal styling was highly influential in the shouty boy band gestalt. “Make a Wish” was bonkers, and made us all want to throw our earpieces out, then scoop them up to listen again.

    “Coming Home” “Without You” – the vocal line showcase.

    “Black on Black” is apparently officially attributed to NCT U, and everyone when whoa when the dance video came out, especially this very part here. https://youtu.be/tOpTQ3Fuf9s?t=95

    But my favorite ever from this subunit is the Taeyang + Ten sub-subunit duet on “Baby Don’t Stop”. Fun fact: It was also released in Thai. Ten, my hot honey, is a Ten.

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    • baby don’t stop is SOOOOOO good!!! i wish sm had taeten release more songs together because they work so well together

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