best of BlackoutZone's Best of 2020 | FINISHED

[Navyofbadgals]

Safety Net a bit of a classic I fear

 

[BlackoutZone]

Spoiler

 

23 hours ago, diogozsz said:

Love Me Land way too low  I liked it way more than All The Time and I was obsessed with ATM back then

They are kinda = for me, but I'm one of the few people who hugely favor Don't Worry Bout Me anyway  

23 hours ago, Moonlightbae said:

I absolutely love all of these 

great update even tho some of these might be too low, but we’ll see when the rest is revealed 

Tbh everything that makes the list is superb, some would be higher on some other day for sure  

23 hours ago, mokitsu said:

don't really care for any of these. hit different is OK, a vibe, but i hope there's better material

I'm sure there is, but we are off to a good start

23 hours ago, Psycho said:

Love Me Land is superior to her other droplets 

 

Don't know/like the others

Sad it won't lead to any album anyway  

23 hours ago, Post Malone said:

When you dragged Ty's pop features a while ago only for him to bounce BACK with a 1-2 punch

 

Yeah clown came back to bite, he is not even lucky to be on great songs lately, he is simply improving them  

23 hours ago, dreamofyou said:

love me land the taste. also i feel like im the only one not fussed on safety net, everyone praises it where i kinda hate dislike it and prefer nasty, my hair, off the table...

off the table is good, the other too are fan faves, but I hate them, positions is a polarizing album anyway so it's normal!

22 hours ago, dangerousalex said:

zara, sza, ariana 

Girls snapped!

22 hours ago, ikiru said:

loving the k-pop list so far! stay tonight really didn't age well but it's still a great song!

Glad I'm not the only one who feels like this  

22 hours ago, jpow said:

til that AURORA isn't a k-pop group  I've never listened to her before, just seen the name and assumed  

FF Aurora is a Norwegian indie pop girl, her music is very ambient art pop synthpop with a lot of nature focused themes. Her voice is really enchanting, she is like a magical creature from some old tales and that's how her music feels too Really recommend her project Infections of a Different Kind (Step 1)

22 hours ago, Madame X said:

exist for love is probably the only aurora song i ever liked, lol.  its got a very 60s gg sound

 

positions DOES NOT SUCK!

Reall? Yeah that's exactly how it feels, but I've been really sold on Aurora since Infections of a Different Kind era

 

If you say so 

21 hours ago, KasioKas said:

Love me land is a cute bop, I don't listen to her alot but really liked this song

It's super catchy and has huge replay value so no wonder!

20 hours ago, austinsuxx said:

all good songs except i genuinely don't remember how safety net goes...

The drag kii

20 hours ago, Blue Rose said:

Hit Different is such a catchy tune. T$ snapped on the chorus.

I dont know why I stopped listening to Zara. I used to be her biggest stan on atrl

Well that's surely interesting, cause her debut era couldn't be more bland, but she was serving cute bops and had this pop girl x factor so I get it!

20 hours ago, Mr. Blue_Shirt said:

Love Me Land, Hit Different & Safety Net  Ariana gets her own The Distance but Mariah's is lowkey better nnn

 

Also Ty has been working with these pop girls lately  Secure the bag sis

THE DISTANCE sweetie 

Right? I'm surprised, but he is serving

19 hours ago, Delta said:

Love Me Land is one of my favorite songs from Zara Larsson 

AS it should be!

15 hours ago, Hug said:

Love MAGO and Stay Tonight, as well as Love Me Land. I had a genuine obsession with LML for a minute.

 

Agree with positions only having 2-3 highlights as well. <3

Yeah I think LML is so low, because my obsession was huge but faded quickly

14 hours ago, MusicLoverDude said:

Naked and safety net

 

Love Me Land is cute too

Pop girls highlights of 2020  

13 hours ago, potent said:

Aurora is amazing, I didn’t listen to Exist for Love as much as her stuff last year, but it is still a great song

 

AIMBH is the first Leon song I listened to and I liked it!

Glad to see some AURORA stanning, cause the girl is such an outsider on ATRL, I agree that her older stuff was better, but I'm still anticipating what she brings next.

The whole LEON album is in this vibe, sometimes more simplistic, sometimes more up tempo!

12 hours ago, elvenOCEAN said:

safety net is truly among the best on the album. 

Aurora's song doesn't come close to some of her earlier material, notably Queendom or Churchyard.

Finally some AURORA stanning [2] I agree that Step 1 stuff is her little opus magnum for now, but EFL is new for her and I like that

11 hours ago, Staryu said:

Naked and Safety Net  

 

Best songs of their respective albums  

10 hours ago, Remmy said:

Albums~ Future Nostalgia, Plastic Hearts, Strangers / Lovers, Cape God, SAWAYAMA, Ungodly Hour, In a Dream, What's Your Pleasure?, Petals for Armor AHHHH so many incredible 2020 highlights here! Then adding After Hours, good to know, Apart, Brightest Blue & folklore on top of that... Probably gonna listen to RAYE's project tomorrow before I wrap up my lists.
HMs~ Tucked younger women is cute, I agree the EP is just there, although it's definitely better than 'new skin', which only has 2 standouts.
Top 50~ Impact is kinda cute. I think Bend Over Backwards was one of my favorites from that Lennon album Love Me Land And It Breaks My Heart A discography highlight yup!

 

Ready to see what else is on the way

Oh wow you know so much of my list, great taste and definitely check out RAYE, cause she will have a track on my main list too  

Will be perched for your list now  

10 hours ago, Legend E said:

leon's album was so close to being good but it got boring towards the end   i like your choice tho

I sort of agree, but Die for You carries the latter part for me, so the highlights distribution on the record is fair  

9 hours ago, Tom Vercetti said:

Safety net (and Ty Dolla features in general) is a popular one here it seems. Speaking of Ty, Hit Different is alright. I think it's standalone material though, but won't be surprised if it ends up on SZA's next album. 

I think positions is so polarizing (usually shifting to the negative side) that everyone has different highlights. I liked safety net mostly perhaps, because of great Ty addition? He is really surprising me lately.

6 hours ago, Ewan Chaos said:

Don't care TOO much for the songs in this update but I'll specifically say I was actually quite happy with that LEON album after the disappointing album she put out last (?) year.

You didn't like her self titled? It was fairly short and maybe didn't have enough stand outs, but I liked it a lot - You & I was on my list last year!

4 hours ago, Navyofbadgals said:

Safety Net a bit of a classic I fear

 

A good think to come out of positions era  

 

 

The amount of comments lord! Thank you so much everyone

Today I'm dropping another batch of the Kpop list today, enjoy

[BlackoutZone]

 

 

Considering the amount of stuff NCT dropped this year it might be a bit surprising that Reload ended up being the only project I sort of liked, nothing else sticked, not even titles. Thankfully dream team saved it and served soliod mini with Ridin'  being the best banger and rightful title.

 

 

 

LOONA my fave gg so expect more entries even though this might be their weakest year so far. So What is being trash left and right and I know this damn song would not be there if any other group release it is... but it's LOONA so hello x Also the bridge is actually a career highlight so I'm placing it here thanks to that. Give it up for Girl of the Month everyone!

 

 

 

APRIL already stuck in 2018 with one of the best kpop singles in recent years, Oh! My Mistake. This year's mini is an another collapse and I'm bitter, cause it seems to be heavily overlooked. All b-sides on Da Capo are great, but You.zip is my favorite, maybe on some other day Oops I'm Sorry could take its place. Definitely listen to the whole mini if you haven't.

 

 

 

Another artist everyone is just sleeping on, because she is a massive flop. Forever thankful Spotify suggested me her 2018 track Caffeine once and I dived into her (not large so far) discography. She serves great vintage dance pop/electropop tracks with hints of citypop and r&b. Just is her only release this year and I love it, but Caffeine remains untopped.

 

 

 

Another group that jumped on a very visible trend this year and therefore dropped a career highlight   Travel mini was cute though I definitely didn't love the title which should have been this great pre-release single Dingga. Catchy as **** disco pop banger and probably the first MAMAMOO release I really love. There seems to be more buzz around Hwa Sa's solo material this year (or Refund Sisters nn), but they don't do it to me.

[Blue Rose]

30 minutes ago, BlackoutZone said:

Well that's surely interesting, cause her debut era couldn't be more bland, but she was serving cute bops and had this pop girl x factor so I get it!

drag me

but in my defense, I was talking about her first EPs. The Lush Life era. So Good was a letdown 

Edited December 5, 2020 by Blue Rose

[Blue Rose]

Sunmi coming for #1 yup yup

[mokitsu]

kinda expected it to be 127 when you said only one NCT release caught your attention this year nn. i don't know dream so let me listen to it.

 

so what.... well the video was cute but with the 0.3 seconds of screentime JesusSoul got i can safely say it's their worst title!

 

 

just is so good   too lowkey to be on my list, but it's a cute chill bop.

i quite like the travel ep, but AYA is AWFUL !!!!!!!! dingga is much better, but their bsides are my favorite output of theirs this year. hwa sa's mini is cute too, despite being all over the place.

 

[Psycho]

So What

 

[1998tweety]

Ridin' is a mega bop, nice to see someone stanning it. I agree nothing has topped Caffeine (idk if she ever will to be honest), but at least her output is good. Dingga def should've been the title track instead of Aya, the EP as a whole was just okay to me, but MMM have a really good discography so I'm sure they'll pull out something good for their next comeback (maybe go back to their old style? Would like to hear another Piano Man tbh...).

[madonnas]

eyedi!  she's so good ugh, wheres the mini or album, we've only gotten singles at this point.

[Enigmanotta]

Miss AURORA deserved to be higher with this instant classic! I'll be waiting to see which Allie, Kylie and YUKIKA songs you selected for your top.

 

[Tremor Christ]

Hit Different is one of the best R&B songs in recent memory. I fear many will 'get' that song in 5 years.

[Hug]

Omg Eyedi really does deserve to have more attention. Also found her through Caffeine which is such an excellent song!

[TheWayWeWere]

omg, so nice to see LML here  it's actually my favorite out of her droplets, especially thanks to AMAZING MV

Hit Different is great, I love classic r&b vibes. Very excited about her album

Positions (album) is actually a grower  y'all better stop dragging it  

[perpetual novice]

I'm still very behind on kpop, most of what I've heard so far has sounded pretty basic and production heavy like the early 2010s era of pop, maybe I haven't heard the good stuff?

[BlackoutZone]

2 minutes ago, perpetual novice said:

I'm still very behind on kpop, most of what I've heard so far has sounded pretty basic and production heavy like the early 2010s era of pop, maybe I haven't heard the good stuff?

Tbh I don't want to spoil my list, but some years ago I was a blind kpop hater too and I just needed to find something that would interest me and once I finally did a step by step dived in. So I totally know what you mean, cause no shade, but BLACKPINK or BTS are far from Kpop's best offerings

Here are a few examples of tracks that I think are really great and definitely unique in kpop, not loud and overproduced by slick and with substance:

Spoiler

 

SUNMI is overall synthpop excellence and I have a lot of friends who don't listen to KPOP yet happen to listen to her stuff! Noir is one of my favorite songs from her and the video definitely adds a lot to it since it's not just dancing with cute visuals  

 

 

 

This is such a well crafted future house bop, if you enjoy Chromatica production I think you could enjoy this? It's pretty minimalistic, but strikes just enough and builds till the end. For a 5 year old track, still sounds fresh!

 

 

This is more fairy a K-R&B track! The production is also minimal, but the harmonies and beautiful melody carry it so delicately.

 

I have to say that I was also first getting into K-pop by trying english versions of songs (cause sometimes they exist!):

 

This is an english version of a song of the same title and honestly one of the first Kpop track I was obsessed with  

 It's LITERALLY a rip off of Grimes Art Angels, it would fit perfectly on the album and I guess that's why I love it so much

 

 

While we are at LOONA - this song is pretty universally loved too, this time it's a massive synthpop bop, but the production is just next level

 

And finally a song that got me into Kpop and set LOONA in stone as my favorite group  It's again dance pop/synthpop with some contemporary rnb touch and that kind of production shines in Kpop like no other.

 

No need to listen to them all ofc, but you can choose what could suit you best by the descriptions and try.

[K$Ellie]

the Leon song wasn't my fave from her album, should have included Crazy/Stupid or Seventeen instead

Love Me Land was a potential 11/10 until the chorus  same with Hit Different, Ty sounds horrible on it

safety net kinda overrated for me  Ridin' kinda shite, should have included Love Again or 7 Days

Kinda agree on So What but I love it now  You, Just and Dingga are all just cute for me

 

On 12/4/2020 at 3:12 PM, BlackoutZone said:

The way you know it's Apple and not Crossroads  

Yeah I'm slowly losing hopes for Chunghas albu, but we will see

Crossroads is very cute but yeah there's no comparison

[perpetual novice]

1 hour ago, BlackoutZone said:

Tbh I don't want to spoil my list, but some years ago I was a blind kpop hater too and I just needed to find something that would interest me and once I finally did a step by step dived in. So I totally know what you mean, cause no shade, but BLACKPINK or BTS are far from Kpop's best offerings

Here are a few examples of tracks that I think are really great and definitely unique in kpop, not loud and overproduced by slick and with substance:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

SUNMI is overall synthpop excellence and I have a lot of friends who don't listen to KPOP yet happen to listen to her stuff! Noir is one of my favorite songs from her and the video definitely adds a lot to it since it's not just dancing with cute visuals  

 

 

 

This is such a well crafted future house bop, if you enjoy Chromatica production I think you could enjoy this? It's pretty minimalistic, but strikes just enough and builds till the end. For a 5 year old track, still sounds fresh!

 

 

This is more fairy a K-R&B track! The production is also minimal, but the harmonies and beautiful melody carry it so delicately.

 

I have to say that I was also first getting into K-pop by trying english versions of songs (cause sometimes they exist!):

 

This is an english version of a song of the same title and honestly one of the first Kpop track I was obsessed with  

 It's LITERALLY a rip off of Grimes Art Angels, it would fit perfectly on the album and I guess that's why I love it so much

 

 

While we are at LOONA - this song is pretty universally loved too, this time it's a massive synthpop bop, but the production is just next level

 

And finally a song that got me into Kpop and set LOONA in stone as my favorite group  It's again dance pop/synthpop with some contemporary rnb touch and that kind of production shines in Kpop like no other.

 

No need to listen to them all ofc, but you can choose what could suit you best by the descriptions and try.

Thanks  I’ll definitely check some out, I feel left out on the kpop train so far!

[Ava Max]

So What

[khalyan]

2 hours ago, BlackoutZone said:

Tbh I don't want to spoil my list, but some years ago I was a blind kpop hater too and I just needed to find something that would interest me and once I finally did a step by step dived in. So I totally know what you mean, cause no shade, but BLACKPINK or BTS are far from Kpop's best offerings

Here are a few examples of tracks that I think are really great and definitely unique in kpop, not loud and overproduced by slick and with substance:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

SUNMI is overall synthpop excellence and I have a lot of friends who don't listen to KPOP yet happen to listen to her stuff! Noir is one of my favorite songs from her and the video definitely adds a lot to it since it's not just dancing with cute visuals  

 

 

 

This is such a well crafted future house bop, if you enjoy Chromatica production I think you could enjoy this? It's pretty minimalistic, but strikes just enough and builds till the end. For a 5 year old track, still sounds fresh!

 

 

This is more fairy a K-R&B track! The production is also minimal, but the harmonies and beautiful melody carry it so delicately.

 

I have to say that I was also first getting into K-pop by trying english versions of songs (cause sometimes they exist!):

 

This is an english version of a song of the same title and honestly one of the first Kpop track I was obsessed with  

 It's LITERALLY a rip off of Grimes Art Angels, it would fit perfectly on the album and I guess that's why I love it so much

 

 

While we are at LOONA - this song is pretty universally loved too, this time it's a massive synthpop bop, but the production is just next level

 

And finally a song that got me into Kpop and set LOONA in stone as my favorite group  It's again dance pop/synthpop with some contemporary rnb touch and that kind of production shines in Kpop like no other.

 

No need to listen to them all ofc, but you can choose what could suit you best by the descriptions and try.

I really liked the first two songs you have here  

[Legend E]

NO MORE K-POP

[Pink Matter]

Playing catch up:

I have no choice but to stan Impact  

safety net grew on me and Hit Different is so addictive  I need the album Solana!

Great gowns to all of the K-Pop placements

[Kevin2803]

LÉON & Zara 

 

safety net 

 

[Lazuli]

so what is SUCh a bop ugh

[Delta]

It seems like I have new discoveries to take care of 

[BlackoutZone]

11 hours ago, jpow said:

I really liked the first two songs you have here  

Thanks for checking out!

SUNMI is generally serving mature well produced synth-k-pop so I definitely recommend her EP Warning, she also comes from a group called Wonder Girls which released one of the most loved and acclaimed Kpop albums in 2015 - REBOOT, it's extremely retro 80s dance pop and a very interesting listen

 

4 Walls is a classic, I believe it was the first Kpop group track that got reviewed (and acclaimed) bu Pitchfork   and so was the whole album of the same title. The album itself aged a bit and f(x) have better ones (Pink Tape / Red Light), but as a fun fact I will add that it has one of Carly's Emotion outtakes on it and I truly love it to this day: