Rather than contain my “Risers and Fallers” feature to a single post in June, I’m going to share a bite-sized version at the end of each month. This will let me account for more songs and make a nice lead-in to the monthly round-up post.
I anticipate most of these ratings adjustments will be negligible: a 0.5 shift here, a 0.25 shift there. But, it’s a fun way to keep track of how my feelings on songs have changed over time – as well as which tracks currently have momentum on my playlist.
And remember, just because a song is marked as a “faller” doesn’t mean I hate it! Falling from a “9” to an “8.75” is no shame. 9+ rated songs occupy a totally different playlist in my music library, so I’m pretty particular about what qualifies. It’s a high bar.
This month’s feature covers the period from September 22nd to October 19th.
RISERS
ALLDAY PROJECT – Crash
Rating: 7.5 → 8
A2O Lite – Neon
Rating: 8.75 → 9
A2O Soul – Superstar
Rating: 8.75 → 9
BOYNEXTDOOR – Animal
Rating: 7.5 → 8.25 *Biggest Riser*
CRAVITY – Louder
Rating: 9 → 9.25
Flare U – Bloom
Rating: 7.75 → 8
KickFlip – Kick Off The Wall (ft. iann dior)
Rating: 8.75 → 9
KickFlip – Puzzle Piece
Rating: 8.25 → 8.5
MODYSSEY – Ridin’ (Can You Hear That)
Rating: 8.5 → 8.75
Nam Woohyun – Devil
Rating: 7.25 → 7.5
PLAVE – Star Trace
Rating: 8.25 → 8.5
Teen Top – Don’t Stop
Rating: 8 → 8.5
Xdinary Heroes – Obsessed With Youth
Rating: 8.5 → 9
FALLERS
Close Your Eyes – Drop That!
Rating: 7.25 → 7 *Biggest Faller*
ONEUS – Say Yes!
Rating: 9 → 8.75
Sung Hanbin – Undead
Rating: 9.25 → 9
And another 9-rated song from Xdinary Heroes this year! These guys are on a roll this year, I won’t be surprised if they ranked up high on the top artists list, they really deserve that lol.
Sucks that Undead fell even if it’s still a 9 (knowing how rarely songs that are initially rated 9.25 and above fell), I still prefer it over both A2O songs even if Neon is growing on me lately.
Also, funny how I was just playing Louder when I saw your notif for this post. It’s now a 9.5 for me and easily their best song of their career. Like Xdinary Heroes, it’s impressive seeing how Cravity are on a roll to.
And yeah, seeing CYE fall sucks, god Drop That! is such a disappointment. CYE, ily but never again
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Happy to see Ridin’ by MODYSSEY being a riser! The album is really solid, they’re a JYP grp after all. The Chinese ver. also sounds good and the lyrics are written by member Zihao to make it sound natural. Who would have thought a group from a 4 episode derivative survival show would release solid material like this?
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Honestly so happy because a lot of songs have been rising for me lately.
Max Changmin – All of my life: 8.5 → 9
Itzy – Motto: 8.5 → 9
Cravity – Louder: 8.25 → 8.5
A20 Lite – Neon: 8.75 —> 9
Open Your Eyes – Close Your Eyes: 8.5 → 8.75
Hanbin – Undead: 9.25 → 9.5(my 2nd favorite song of the year now)
Curious to see if anymore songs rise or fall in November 😁
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Motto is right up there for me too.
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The chorus does everything a chorus should do.
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Undead is a legit banger.
The entire album is pretty solid actually!
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Actually! My personal favorite EP of the year with bops like 3AM, Insidious, and Steal the Thunder 🙂
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ANIMAL😂…the performance elevates the song immensely, it’s a also a riser but it’s still hard for me to listen to it casually.
A few risers for me this month:
Tiot – 5 Hours in Pieces
CYE – Open Your Eyes
Hanbin – Undead
DailyDirection – Which Way
XHeroes a Obsessed with Youth
VO1D – My Youth
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Always love to see love for Undead
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I think my intuition that 2026 is following the same trend 2020 is is looking correct so far. Sure we don’t have a Criminal or a Goblin(Favorite Boys) or a La Di Da. But the fact that we’re getting most of the highlights in the fall definitely raises some eyebrows.
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Which, if precedent holds, bodes very well for early 2027 🤞
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And uh maybe not so well for late 2027 😭😭😭
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So great to see justice for ANIMAL! 😄 It’s still around an 8.75 for me as well.
I figured Undead would drop a bit for you. It’s still around an 8 for me.
My heart warmed a bit for Kick Off the Wall, but only just enough to add it to my playlist 7->7.5
My biggest riser was SUPERSTAR. I guess I couldn’t quite process it on first listen, cuz shortly after it went from an 8.25 to 9.5.
NCT WISH – poppop rose a lot for me. I realized I didn’t even have it on my playlist, cuz I didn’t like it at first, but now it’s 8.5.
And last but not least, KiiiKiii – Magic Pink Magic Hole Flip Phone 8.25->9
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Animal is a song where I can’t find many good parts no matter how hard I try to listen for them but I guess that’s just me.
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Nice to see a lot of 9 rated songs for October. At least you aren’t throwing a fit for the entire month this time, like a lot of months this year.
Risers: A2O Neon to a 9.5. Yeah this song is strong. It’s tanking repeated listens quite well.
A2O Superstar to 9.25 – sorry for calling this song the synthpop version of Choosin’ Texas Nick. It may have been offensive. The melodies for this song do stick.
Teen Top’s song is quite solid as well. It sounds slightly off but it’s a Eurovision banger. Also 8.5.
Also, Itzy’s Motto is probably also a 9.5 as well for me now. It won a Kpop songs rate, and had someone write a 10000-11000 word essay about the song and why they liked Itzy. It was quite charming and cool that someone was a dedicated fan of Itzy like that.
Fallers: None
Also, ATMOS will probably be your song of the year at this point. View is one of your highest rated songs of all time and ATMOS is View 2.0. It was only one of two songs which got rated an average above 8 in the rate mentioned earlier, alongside Itzy’s Motto which won the rate.
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Now I wanna see that essay and also despite popular opinion, I find Atmos way more interesting than View.
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There are many times that a sequel surpasses the original version.
Here is the original Reddit thread link containing the start of the comment, which goes through many replies. It starts from the commment “I like Itzy”.
https://www.reddit.com/r/kpoprates/comments/1wrl5oy/comment/pcf02ke/?context=3&utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
Here is a Google doc link for better formatting.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yoWWi-mBjYhlVwPW9Svs5fQ4Hqk8orAtHeObPxRSXCU/edit?usp=sharing
Credit to Zo for the essay.
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TYSM! This is great 😃
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same, I think of View as an amazing song of course, but to be one of top 20 best KPOP songs ever? nah..
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Couldn’t agree more. And aren’t you the one who said their favorite kpop song was Nothing Lasts Forever by Girl’s Day? Off the top of your head, what would be your top 5 favorite kpop songs?
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nick what do you think of r kelly, all the horrible things he did aside? i listened to a few of his songs and none of them do much for me, like they sound like typical r&b from that era, and i dont understand what made him so legendary back then before he was exposed
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I think his music was so popular because it was both seen as cool/”urban” and highly accessible since he did so many ballads/mid-tempos. I was never a huge fan, though there were some songs I liked. My favorite was probably “Gotham City,” which I doubt anyone else would ever pick. I was at the right age to be obsessed with the Batman & Robin soundtrack at the time. I still think it’s an awesome soundtrack, actually, regardless of the quality of the movie itself. That Smashing Pumpkins track is epic.
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guess his music sounds very dated to these gen z ears, says a lot when the only song from him my generation can name is i believe i can fly
same goes for chris brown, both him and r kelly are huge r&b artists who have done horrible things throughout their careers, and their music doesn’t do much for me (though at least chris brown has fine china and add me in)
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I’m curious how his Ignition (Remix) sounds to you. That was EVERYWHERE back when it came out and I always assumed it would be the one to transcend generations if not for the cancelling of him and his catalog.
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the song is okay, i wouldnt choose to listen to it but its fine for its time
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We are only 2 months away from 2027 now. My top KPOP album this year will certainly included SHINee’s Atmos, Lucy’s Childish, TWS’ No Tragedy, KickFlip’s First Kick, and Xdinary Heroes’ DEAD AND. its much harder to choose girlgroups album as there are not much standout projects with leading contender FROMIS 9’s Glow ME, LE SSERAFIM’s PUREFLOW and aespa’s LEMONADE. Let’s hope ILLIT & RESCENE new album could make a surprise.
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I’m honestly so excited for 2027 and Fire Escape from TWS is way more enjoyable than I thought it would be.
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With how severe the drought of KPOP summer in 2026 combined with mid-quality releases from big name artists like BTS & Blackpink, I sure wish that KPOP could pick up the slack in 2027 especially girlgroups but I’m not crossing my fingers just yet.
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GG album candidates for your (re)consideration:
KiiiKiii – WhyKiiiKiii
HEART OF WOMAN – Heart Byte : LEGACY
SeeYa – First, Again
ILLIT – MAMIHLAPINATAPAI
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My top album criteria took into account album cohesion (concept or genre) and overall quality of all tracks (less filler songs with above average B-sides). KiiiKiii and ILLIT had strong title tracks but their supporting B-sides were not up to par yet. I had listened to HEART OF WOMAN and SeeYa once before. Both were actually good and I might need more listening time to appreciate their materials. How I wish we were back to girlgroups’ renaissance golden era in 2022-2024 (in terms of song quality NOT the drama).
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boynextdoor is literally the kings of risers, i feel like they’ve had the most songs that started out not that well on this blog but then ended up getting better scores.
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It has definitely become a pattern 😅
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