My favourtie KPop songs of 2021

 

Ugh... look at this peasant's shit taste. This asshole didn't even include my fucking song!

Another year, another subjective list! I decided not to assign numbers to song positions this year, because I constantly change my mind and shit. Hope my laptop won’t break after opening this post with shit ton of videos in it.

 

SOMI – DUMB DUMB

I don’t like the school teenage drama verses, but the unexpectedly darker chorus is a nice surprise, probably, because the start of the whistling melody in the chorus is similar to the chorus melody that I like from another song.

 

lIlBOI, Wonstein – Laser

Some may find this inoffensive groovy chill pop boring, but I don’t. Wonstein’s first verse along with lilboi’s parts in the chorus are catchy enough.

 

aespa – aenergy

While the verses are some usual cheesy SM talking-the-talk-but-not-walking-the-walk nonsense or let’s-show-off-our-slaves’-singing RnBullshit I don’t care about, the catchy stomping “We will rock you” style chorus made me forget about human pronunciation of the words like “energy” and “synergy” and engrave into my brain the pronunciation of these words in Kwangya dialect instead.

 

WOODZ – Chaser

Putting aside missed opportunity to call the song “Chazer”, this song has high replayability factor for me for some reason. Maybe it’s because I seem to forget how everything in this song sounds after his powerful desperate singing with gritty “Beat It”-esque electroguitar melody underneath in the chorus wipes everything from my brain.

 

BewhY – Maybe Yesterday

I can’t skip this song when it comes up in my playlist after catching a glimpse of that tense deep bass. The beat is fascinating. Its weirdness seems to cancel BewhY’s rap weirdness or something, haha. One of the braggadocios rappers, Khundi Panda, fits this beat well too. I can’t say the same about the last rapper, however.

 

No Brain X Ahn Ye-eun – I'm Flying

This black and white MV seems to have a decent ballad song like some other monochromatic MVs, for instance this one. I feel pumped by these boomers’ powerful rusty vocals when they scream their lungs out in the chorus. It’s notable that they don’t try to hog all of the limelight like a lot of ballad singers usually do. At some point, they actually let the instrumental shine.

 

 iKON – Why Why Why

iKON’s mid-tempo ballads were always aight, I think. This song is no exception. Guitar and vocal melodies are mostly good. Those heavy descending bits in the chorus are pretty cool too.

NCT 127 – Sticker

This song is definitely an odd stickuhhh made of meme flute and cool rock riff carrying it that even NCTzens don’t like, but I came to like for some reason.

Twice – Scandal

Prominent piano melody leaves quite lasting impression.

 

Miyavi – Hush Hush (Feat. Kang Daniel)

I’m still amazed at how the virtuoso Miyavi is able to make his guitar make the craziest and catchiest sounds.

 

OH MY GIRL – My doll

The weird chorus and eerie post-chorus plays on my heartstrings with interesting vocal filters and vocal performances.

 

Magic Girl – Magical Girl

While the natural sounding voices feel fresh and different, the main thing that attracted me to this song is those distinct guitar twangs or whatever they are called accompanied by a memorable melancholic whistling melody that started the song. I really like the type of funky guitar sound used in this song, makes me remember Sweetune and shit.

 

LEEBADA – Love Drug

Lee Bada seems to be good at making her songs RnBop instead of RnBullshit. Part of it I think lies in her peculiar vocals and another one – the songs she’s given have pleasant minimalistic verses and add a bit of additional elements into choruses for the emphasis effect that doesn’t overwhelm the listener.

 

PURPLE KISS – Zombie

Rap goes really well with funky rhythms. This is something that can be witnessed in Lee Hi’s “Red Lipstick” or this song and, thankfully, “Zombie’s” rap parts take some considerable chunks of the verses, which is the right choice.

 

LUNARSOLAR – DADADA

This song is in my list ‘cos of the cool underlying repeating metallic club bits during “DA DA RA DA” parts.

 

nafla  - run!

I liked this beat when it came out in 2019 and I like it now.

  

2PM – WITH ME AGAIN

Surprisingly, I don’t hate this semi-ballad and I am not even a “Hottest” (what a stupid funclub name). There are some boring elements like second verse and bridge, but that vocal melody with festive brass and leading whistling melody in the chorus help me enjoy this song.

 

(G)I-DLE – HWAA

What a beautiful chorus.

 

nafla – mobb tang

I always thought nafla and old school boom-bap beat is a match made in heaven. This song is no exception.

 

DPR LIVE – Yellow Cab

I got to resist, but, sweet Jesus, I can’t. I was minding my bidness, but couldn’t say not to this catchy punk pop that added layers as it went.

 

OnlyOneOf – libidO

I watched the MV so many times with my fujo gaze the song grew on me in the process. While the MV and scandalous for KPop standards dance is surely nice to look at, it’d be harder for this song to stick if it didn’t go for non-standard type of sekshi sound. OOO’s weird, abrasive and sensual at the same time approach feels refreshing. Also, that distorted rap is probably one of the coolest raps in KPop.

 

Epik High – Face ID

This could be the next “Born Hater” without Sik-K’s underwhelming chorus, but still a weaker “Born Hater 2.0” trumped over numerous dull rap songs this year, so I’d take it. Besides, I’m headcanoning the last Tablo part as the real chorus, so it’s all good.

 

Yaeji & OHHYUK – 29

Some may find this annoying, but I find this catchy as fuck. You can catch me repeating “I gotta go” over and over again, haha. Changing mood to soft jazzy one in the middle is not a deal breaker to me, quite the opposite. Those guitar twangs or whatever they are called are delightful.

 

Zion.T & Gen Hoshino – Nomad

I appreciate the melancholic, but not depressing mood of this song. Interesting how both of the singers add their own colour to their respective parts resulting in both halves of the song sound a bit different from each other even though the melodies are the same. Hoshino’s verse and Zion.T’s chorus make a good combo.

 

Giriboy – There's No Tomorrow

Wow, Giriboy bothered to take it seriously for once, ha, and he even opted for the boom bap-ish beat and decided to invite rappers that I like to listen to. I knew nafla fit old school boom bap beats, but didn’t know lilboi is not too shabby with this kind of beat in mind too. On top of that, I like how every rapper introduces their own chorus.

 

Oh Chill – SHOULD BE BETTER

I feel like I’m mentally playing Blizzard’s “Rock n’ Roll Racing” game when I hear this song. That game had catchy rock songs, this song shares similar fun energy with those songs.

 

Twenny Weeks – camper

I seem to enjoy club H&M Hip-Pop like this. I think certain kind of rap goes well with this kind of music as demonstrated here. The first rapper fits better than the second rapper.

 

DO HAN SE – TAKE OVER

I like the peculiar snappy aura here. It seems like everything: the beat, his brisk cocky rap, cool long hair, dancing drag queens, breakdown having vibes from the old work of the lil imp G.R.boy, white horse former belonging to the troll Gackt – tries to annoy conservative people or something, haha.

 

JO1 – Born To Be Wild

Apparently, this group is Japanese, but by the way everything sounds and looks, I thought it was a KPop boy band releasing a track in Japanese. It’s even produced by Koreans, so I’ll count it as KPop, haha.

This is basically a better version of Golcha’s “Burn It”. “Burn It” had memorable chorus and meh tropical feeling. While the flows of this song such as shitty rap interference don’t take too much away from the song’s overall catchy funk pop energy.

 

HEARTCORE – 60 BPM

Swervy is so cool, she invented her own genre called Drip-Hop. This genre geared towards the koolest kids on the block with the coolest drip is distinguished by its G.R.Boy-esque gaming beats being calm until they are not, which is a sonic representation of unpredictable nature of fashion world. I wish I was as dope as Swervy, man.

 

TXT – 0X1=LOVESONG (I Know I Love You)

Even though, the verses are a bit bland, I prefer this rock sound over TXT’s and TXT’s brother group’s other rock-influenced efforts. The great epic and dramatic drum beat chorus with desperate singing on top and Seori’s, whose voice I stupidly mistook for BTS’ Jimin, contribution completely repays for verses’ blandness.

 

ENHYPEN – Drunk-Dazed

This is one of the first songs of 2021 that I listened on repeat right after I’ve first encountered it. Promising first verse kept hooking me up and the chorus with cool tense club beat underneath followed by catchy post-chorus didn’t let me go till the end of the song.

 

Shinee – Heart Attack

This song’s highlight is a vocally loud chorus in good ol’ Shinee fashion with catchy synth and toon-toon-toon melody underneath. The after-chorus parts where they sing in turns is especially cool at the end. This kind of post-chorus fun is better than pace-breaking trap rap parts put into songs just for the sake of putting rappers in center for X amount of time when groups perform on stage or something.

 

BDC – MOON RIDER

This song has nice memorable vocal melody in the chorus. Orchestra adding some drama weight is very welcomed. One of the notable things is that the second verse is a pleasant sing-songy rap and the song doesn’t break the pace for it.

 

EPEX – Do 4 Me

Epex shadow legends prove that youthful aegyo pop doesn’t always need to be too sugary. Lively, but not screaming route is also a choice. Props for type of KPop singing that doesn’t annoy me.

 

Ciipher – Blind

This youthful and energetic song is powered up by cool electro guitar in the chorus. Notable to me how they do the all right things with rap parts – not having trap in the middle that would slow down the song and concluding the song with another rap while the amped up music goes on in the background.

 Rocket Punch – Ring Ring

The “Take on Me”-ish, but not really, melody is so addicting in this retro synth pop.

DPR IAN – Welcome To The Show

This song was written to play on everyone’s heartstrings, it seems. It worked on mine.

 

WONHO – LOSE

Who could have thought that being kicked out of Monsta X was the best thing to happen to Wonho? He doesn’t have to split paychecks with his groupmates anymore and on top of that keeps surprising everyone with quality songs. “Lose” is another great example.

Wonho and “Lose” share something – they both built themselves gradually. Like Wonho who started from smaller weights and added more to his gym routine to achieve great results, “Lose” too started from intriguing guitar melody and added more weight to build tension, first introducing subdued fast-paced instrumental and ending with orchestra strings, which too led to great results.

 

KEEMBO – INSIDE

I always loved guitar in dope ass Sweetune tracks. I can experience splendid Sweetune guitar work yet again in this rich like a 100% cacao chocolate song.

 

LOONA – HULA HOOP

This is a diabetes inducing obnoxious aegyo pop and I’m loving every moment of it. I’m a sad fuck and listening to this song makes me feel so happy.

 

SHINee – Don't Call Me

At first I was put off by the “Don’t call me” bit, but I changed my mind when that vocally loud chorus in good ol’ SHINee fashion came. Cathartic tango breakdown further solidified the song for me.

 

IU – LILAC

At first I was neutral about “Lilac”, but IU’s velvet vocals gradually won me over.

 

Silica Gel – Hibernation

I truly feel like I’m hibernating in a space capsule in a retro movie and this is the OST that is playing in the background with its disorientating drum beat and otherworldly retro chorus while I’m listening to this song.

 

NCT 127 – Love On The Floor

Those ascending squeaky baby-making bed sounds over the cool tense beat are so good I’m willing to forgive Mark misgendering life by calling life a bastard instead of a bitch and not getting more of Johnny’s ultra-sekshi “On the floor” one-liners after the first chorus.

 

NCT 127 – Dreamer

This whole cheesy hopeful song is basically a choir wholesomeness, something SM is good at making.

 

Jannabi – Bluebird, Spread your wings!

This Disney-like track is so magical, holy shit. It’s not just a song. It’s a whole fucking experience. The whole album is pretty cool in that vein.

 

TWICE (JEONGYEON,MINA,TZUYU) – 1, 3, 2

Trad flute-like bit along with deep pulsating bass beat underneath and calm singing building into desperate emotional singing in the chorus mixes into a great package.

 

Dreamcatcher – New Days

When I first heard this song, I thought to myself, ‘’Holy shit, the intro melody sounds like a damn good JRock anime opening!’ Paradoxically, when the song goes softer in the intro, first verse and Dami’s rap part I think it’s the best. Usually I’m not the biggest fan of her rap parts, but this one was her best.

 

Meaningful Stone – Dancing in the rain

I like this kind of melancholic rock. I also like her boyish almost raw vocals, it adds some charm. Cannot also not mention how her almost getting run by a car in the MV reminded me of the famous scene in Trainspotting.

 PARK JIHOON – Gallery

This dry groovy pop’s high funky orchestra really works its magic on me.

Slica Gel – Desert Eagle

This song feels so epic. The chorus plays on my heartstrings with the vocals and accelerating drum beat.

 

Sam Kim – These Walls

Wow, this song is RnBop and not RnBullshit. I fuck with its pleasant bass, descending acoustic guitar melody and honey vocals. Semi-acapela ending leaves wholesome impression with great theme “No this frame don’t hold me. It don’t control me. I take over instead”.

 

Don Malik – Not an ambition

The beat reminds me of a Jamaican-esque version of soulful “From Paju To Seoul” beat which I also like. His rap sounds really catchy at the start when the beat kicks in. Organ with sax adds some interesting romantic vibes at the end.

 

NCT 127 – Breakfast

I like how cheeky piano and trumpets are peeking out from time to time, which creates this interesting juxtaposition between their frivolous vibes and leading beat’s heavy vibes. I nut in my pants when they become more prominent when the song ends with Mark’s “No breakfast emojis” line. SM knows that concluding songs with free reining trumpets is a chad move.

 LEE SEUNG YOON – Unspoken

The sand paper voiced lead singer’s about-to-cream-his-pants buoyant energy is channeling through this festive college pop rock. The ending of the song starting from the moment when violins and drum beats start to play faster is a sonic representation of him fapping faster and when they slow down it’s a sonic representation of him busting a nut. Fapping is fun so is this song.

Jackson Wang – LMLY

I think this is the best song to come out of last year’s continued 80s craze. The melodies are so sentimentally wholesome, holy shit.

 

SLEEPY – GRANDEUR

I don’t get why “Grandeur” producers chose to make a heavy autotuned bs for the first half. I think this kind of shitty beat ruins the message of Sleepy’s lyrics when he raps over it. It almost like TShit entertainment curse keeps following Sleepy and Yongguk for them to get shit on yet again.

While I don’t know why this unfortunate set of events keep happening to Sleepy and Yongguk, what I do know is the second beat is dope. It’s oozing this simple-times-with-homies vibes and fits DinDin’s and Mommyson’s honest lyrics. Mommyson’s storytelling in particular was dope.

 

Youthlim – Copycat

It’s a bummer I still can’t seem to find audio version of this song. I loved the chorus guitar melody so much when I first heard it that I tried to search for the studio/mp3/m4a/flac version of the song. To no avail, not even the official sources like genie or the band’s YouTube channel seem to have it at the time of writing this post. However, the fact that my lazy ass even attempted to go to such great lengths for this song shows how hooked I was. The song gets even better when the lead vocalist unleashes his emotions (before the cool instrumental breakdown and in the end before the guitar melody, which I love so much, finishes the song).

I don’t find any parts of the song weak, all parts are dope from start to finish. Hope to listen to the recorded version too if it ever comes out in the future.

 

ONEUS – LUNA

The first time I heard “Luna” I had goosebumps all over my skin out of sheer excitement. As I was intrigued by a beautiful semi-slow trad verse, I didn’t expect to be punched right in the kokoro by those vocal exclamations over a fast-paced retro cyber beat. When the quick synth spikes emphasized those vocal bits, I was just creaming my pants, man.

The only downside, however, is the Mino sounding rap shoe-horned in the middle for whatever reason. It gets done over with pretty fast to get back to the great chorus, most probably, because the producers know it’s the part that people really want.

 

PENTAGON – DO or NOT

While many KPop boy bands opted for melancholic pop rock this year, Pentagon said, ‘So what? I don’t care!’, and chose happy wholesome sound instead. I think it was the right choice. The chorus makes me feel so pumped, holy shit. It also seems like they read my “Shine” review and added more parts where they sing together, haha.