An absolute banger from Ravi and a great collab from Soyeon. The song doesn't take itself seriously and Ravi continues to impress with his Rock/Rap style of music. The former rapper of the 2.5 gen bg Vixx slowly but surely built one of the best solo discography in the history of former kpop stars. His labels are also highly trending, with GROOVL1N managing to sign Nafla in 2020 and his newly founded label The L1VE signing korean vocal powerhouses Ailee and Wheein in the beginning of this year. Soyeon continues to expand her great collab discography after featuring on Key (SHINee), Minhyuk (BTOB) and Hyoyeon songs. I can't wait to hear what those 2 artists can offer next year and what those labels will do in the future.
2. Younha - Stardust
After an almost 2 year hiatus, the fantastic voice Younha comes back with easily one of the best ballad in kpop history. After buzzing a little the RM featuring in the beginning of last year, the pandemic stopped her momentum but she is ready to take over the scene once again. The whole album is stunning, truly one of the best Korea released in the past few years, and you should absolutely try it.
You should absolutely listen to the folkloric Oort Cloud, a song to remember.
3. CNBLUE - Love Cut
This year was fantastic for Korean bands with amazing releases from The Rose and FT.Island to name a few but imo the best band song of the year has to go to CNBLUE's Love Cut. The song is very refreshing and CNBLUE was perfectly able to match their style with today's music style. The clip and music is really playful and fun and makes you want to stand up and dance. It's really amazing to see this group still able to take over the scene 12 years after their debut. They truly aged like wine !
4. Billlie - RING X RING
Reminds me of a lot of JPOP/Vocaloid type of music you can find in rythm games. A very cool song to debut with, I really like this audacity and I'm really looking forward to hear what they can release in the future. Their b-side flipp!ng a coin is also quite fun. They also look quite experienced for rookies, their stage presence is actually higher than most groups when they debut, though it might be bcz the choreo is really well made.
5. cignature - Boyfriend
I was actually very surprised no one talked about this song. Even though I feel like it's trending to release this kind of music, I think the song is really well made and except some weird choreography choices, I would say the song is absolutely perfect and easily one of the best release of the year. The group really outdid themselves with some weird previous comebacks. People really need to notice them, they are very talented.
I will also probably release my songs of the year post, for kpop and khiphop too. Also probably an introduction to SMTM