In connection with my desire to fully keep up with the J-pop industry, I’m planning to do a weekly round-up of any new releases that have caught my ear. Some of these may have been covered on the blog already, but my hope is that this will become a one-stop shop for anyone interested in … Continue reading
It’s a bit bleak over here, ladies and gentlemen. Over the years there have been many times where I’ve been more enamored with the quality of J-pop’s output than K-pop, but 2025 is not one of those years. In fact, there are fewer highlights than I can ever remember at this time of the year … Continue reading
Similar to last year, 2025 so far has been a singles game rather than a series of excellent albums. I have even fewer on my list than I did this time last year, and only one of them is a full album — though that classification is getting murkier as time goes on. There are … Continue reading
This is a strange era for K-pop… at least when it comes to my own experience. On one hand, there are a handful of acts I feel more invested in than ever, which is the feeling everyone wants as a fan. In some ways, I’m more interested in K-pop than I have been in awhile, … Continue reading
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. June 2025 Overall Thoughts We’re now at the midpoint of 2025, which means I’ll be publishing … Continue reading
Thus far, TWS have stuck with a signature sound for their title tracks and utilized follow-up promotions to showcase a wider spectrum of styles. I like this approach, especially since we all know their particular brand of “boyhood pop” won’t remain the same forever. Their debut Japanese single further teases on the Plot Twist template, … Continue reading
At the end of each month, I compile my top three K-pop title tracks and list a ton of honorable mentions. In 2025, I thought I’d try something new and add a weekly feature to supplement my monthly round-up. Each Sunday, I’ll offer a compendium of the week’s new releases featured on the blog. And … Continue reading
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: … Continue reading
Leading up to the release of their second EP, Katseye have delivered contrasting charms. Gnarly and Gabriela led us from the bold to the boring, which makes me wonder if there’s a happy medium somewhere in the middle. New track Gameboy doesn’t aim to answer that wonder, choosing instead to echo popular trends for a … Continue reading
A K-pop act’s title track isn’t always the best song on their album, even if it’s the one most people will hear. Sometimes, b-sides deserve recognition too. In the singles-oriented world of K-pop, I want to spotlight some of these buried treasures and give them the props they deserve. It’s summertime OST season, with TWS … Continue reading
As time has gone on, any enthusiasm I mustered around ENHYPEN’s recent title track Bad Desire (With or Without You) has fizzled. The music just feels so undeveloped, trussed up with overly dramatic visuals that only serve to highlight how threadbare the actual sound is. This extends to their newest album, which is getting a … Continue reading
At the end of each month, I compile my top three K-pop title tracks and list a ton of honorable mentions. In 2025, I thought I’d try something new and add a weekly feature to supplement my monthly round-up. Each Sunday, I’ll offer a compendium of the week’s new releases featured on the blog. And … Continue reading
Here’s a little secret about the ratings on this blog, and it may seem counterintuitive. I rarely venture below a “6” on my overall scale, but any song that hits below this mark has a special place in my heart. In fact, I tend to “like” them more than many of the songs rated in … Continue reading
A K-pop act’s title track isn’t always the best song on their album, even if it’s the one most people will hear. Sometimes, b-sides deserve recognition too. In the singles-oriented world of K-pop, I want to spotlight some of these buried treasures and give them the props they deserve. When listening to ILLIT’s new mini … Continue reading
If NewJeans first popularized the subdued style of girl group pop/R&B that currently has a stranglehold on K-pop, ILLIT took that baton and added a chirpy, ‘beep beep boop’ type of chorus that has now become just as ubiquitous. Taken together, these trends have delivered a lethal blow to my own personal taste. To put … Continue reading
At the end of each month, I compile my top three K-pop title tracks and list a ton of honorable mentions. In 2025, I thought I’d try something new and add a weekly feature to supplement my monthly round-up. Each Sunday, I’ll offer a compendium of the week’s new releases featured on the blog. And … Continue reading
In connection with my desire to fully keep up with the J-pop industry, I’m planning to do a weekly round-up of any new releases that have caught my ear. Some of these may have been covered on the blog already, but my hope is that this will become a one-stop shop for anyone interested in … Continue reading
This is the month BTS fans have been waiting for, as all seven members will soon have returned from their military-imposed hiatus. New group music will undoubtedly be in the works, but prior to that the guys continue to chug along with solo projects. After a double shot of solo singles in March, J-Hope is … Continue reading
K-pop has been mired in early-2000s nostalgia for the past few years. In my opinion, the industry has often adopted the most boring musical trends of that era, but occasionally we’ll see a group hijack the iconic production style of Y2K superstar producers Timbaland and The Neptunes. For Seventeen’s newest album, they skipped the middleman … Continue reading
HYBE has made an aggressive push into the Japanese market over the past few years, both debuting their own J-pop groups and deploying their Korean acts with original material. The latest to join this push is LE SSERAFIM, who previously released Japanese-language versions of their Korean hits. Different marks their first original J-pop track and … Continue reading
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 