Kingie Posted December 17, 2017 Posted December 17, 2017 (edited) So like....I've been gone from this site for months or whatever and I'm not really part of the community anymore BUT god knows I won't miss a chance to ramble about myself and receive validation for my opinions from strangers on the internet so here I am! I tried to hold off a bit longer for some late releases that might mess things up but **** it who cares, the lists are already shoddily constructed as it is. Only concrete list for now is same as last year's Top 25 Kpop Songs + 16 Honourable Mentions, but if I actually finish on time this year, I might actually plonk a smaller less thought out group of western songs I liked this year. Also haven't paid as much attention to the **** songs this year so no definite worst of list for now, but I might rag on some songs I hated somewhere if I find the time. And if you made it through all that bull**** without clicking away, one FINAL thing of note is that last year's Best Of host has been replaced this year by the legendary LGBTQIA+ icon Gemma Collins, who anyone who followed me on my exodus to Twitter will know now fills a similar ideological function in my life as the recently deceased Amber once did. Edited January 13, 2018 by Kingie
Kingie Posted December 17, 2017 Author Posted December 17, 2017 (edited) This will start like tomorrow if I don't forget about it already but first I just wanted to make some comments on last year's list, a year on! Also have to say that this was an AMAZING year for k-pop, definitely the best for me since it's peak ended circa 2NE1 releasing that bunch of **** standalone digital singles. I struggled to make this list immensely, and tons of songs that were in my top 10 at various points throughout the year ended up low down on the final list or omitted all together. Cheer Up would not make my honourable mentions now. I'd probably put Aing by Oh My Girl in it's place. I also have no clue how Hyolyn snatched her mention. I'd exchange Galaxy for The Rain, it's similar but slightly less boring which gave it some longevity. Similarily, on the main list Sting would be swapped out for Crying. Purple Lips would somehow fight its way to the main list, and Ear Attack 2 and Vivid would become hon. mentions Rough would be on the main list, and HIGH. It took me long enough but I actually played that song more this year than any song released in 2017 that wasn't in the top two of the upcoming list. Find Me by Hyosung would also fight it's way high up on the main list after I finally accepted its brilliance. Dreamer by Uhm Junghwa would get an honourable mention. Unfortunately it came too late for last year's list, and too early for this year's. With You and Aju Nice aren't that bad, actually. Fiestaloca IS but there's worse that could've took it's place in retrospect. 11:11 and One Of These Nights not making the main worst of list was some sort of christmas miracle Boy groups did A LOT better this year. Compared to last year's grand total of two nods from me, with the highest ranking at #21, expect a few more bgs to get credit and to a higher degree. Edited December 17, 2017 by Kingie
Kingie Posted December 22, 2017 Author Posted December 22, 2017 (edited) dd at this shockingly attracting no attention, well it's a good job I enjoy talking about myself regardless! I postponed this in light of the recent tragedy, but in line with my own personal approach to grief which I've discussed, I think it's best not to dwell on the negative for too long, and willingly suspend happy moments. So this is starting now, once I stop being lazy and get on with the write-ups! Also I've ditched honourable mentions and I'm just straight up posting this as (an also extended in length) Top 50 K-Pop Songs, because that's actually how it was written both this year and last year, and then devaluing the rank of some songs just to pretend to be tidy or streamlined isn't worth the effort. Edited December 22, 2017 by Kingie
Kingie Posted December 22, 2017 Author Posted December 22, 2017 50. SNSD - All Night Cool 80s production and the fact that it's danceable made this surprisingly pleasant for 2017 Girls Generation standards. Lion Heart is still better though! 49. DIA - Good Night A perfect follow up to Mr Potter in terms of proving that MBK can take terrible trends and turn them into good DIA songs. Shame Can't Stop was a fluke. 48. GFriend - Love Whisper The fourth best APink song ever! 47. EXO - Power A throwback to how kpop sounded a few years ago and very rocking. They also looked beyond sexy as a unit this year so I found myself watching their MVs and live stages more which made me pay more attention to the songs. 46. Choerry (LOONA, Odd Eye Circle) - Love Cherry Motion Very well written and gorgeous production. Almost redeems the other two lackluster Odd Eye Circle solos if those ****ty breakdowns weren't hamfistedly shoved in. 45. MOMOLAND - Wonderful Love Nice and anthemic, stood out from a lot of other songs this year by just doing it's own thing. Also cashing in on my indie cred and saying I stanned hard for this and Jooe before she became a meme! 44. NCT 127 - Cherry Bomb Was very shocked by this upon release as I was expecting something corny like Fire Truck. This song goes HARD, and finally makes me see potential in this confused project boygroup. 43. Lee Hyori - Black Good god it took her decades but Lee Hyori finally released not only her first song that was worth a damn, but also the incredibly difficult feat of putting out a somewhat decent k-pop album! The bluesy rock stuff and yolo-electronic elements probably wouldn't impress me on their own but are stunning when worked together. 42. Yezi - Anck Su Namum Ahhh Yezi makes the best music when's feeling like a ****! If her company continue to **** her about we might get the best female rap album ever next year. 41. NCT Dream - My First & Last This was the best NCT song this year though. I'm a sucker for instrumentals nabbing from old school hip-hop, and this was basically a good version of all the early Shinee stuff. Ok there we go, I'll post some more tomorrow. I think I'll keep doing 10 a day, but I'm also rewriting this all up on twitter too, so who knows if I can stay organised! xxx
Annabel Posted December 22, 2017 Posted December 22, 2017 First 10 already kicking off with taste I’m also waiting for Yezi to give us the album we deserve omg
Kingie Posted December 23, 2017 Author Posted December 23, 2017 23 hours ago, Annabel said: First 10 already kicking off with taste I’m also waiting for Yezi to give us the album we deserve omg Yezi girl we're waiting.... Cute avi btw!
Kingie Posted December 24, 2017 Author Posted December 24, 2017 hello loyal fan here we go again... 40. IU - Last Night Story The whole 70s sonic aesthetic (idk the word) is so well done I was genuinely shocked when I found out the original song was some **** new jack swing thing and not something like what T-ARA did with Do You Know Me?. Also the only good Flower Bookmark song ever. 39. Uhm Junghwa - Ending Credit This was kinda the year of older female soloists surprisingly releasing their best songs so late into their careers. Luv the pathos here, and it's honestly just nice to have an overly gay-pandering artist in k-pop, there's so few compared to the west unless we really dig into subtext and dog-whistle stuff. 38. Loona 1/3 - Love & Live This year's best Lovelyz song. Cool moody synthpop, Odd Eye Circle akgaes were too dumb to look past the concept. 37. April - April Story Ooh the song that made me stan! SO good. Melancholic and disco-y with a lush chorus. Quite a few things with this sound get released by girlgroups every year but i don't know, not many stick with me like this did. 36. CLC - Hobgoblin Just a good party song! We all know this was a recycled 4Minute concept in every way but at least it was recycled from Crazy-era and not What's Your Name. 35. Melody Day - Kiss On The Lips Yeah this was what Why So Lonely should've been. 34. Yves (LOONA) - New The best LOONA solo yet! Idk there's a ton of 80s riffing songs in my list this year so that's probably the main appeal here, but this has the polish and budget we've come to expect from LOONA at this point so that probably edges it out above the others. 33. April - Yes Sir So here's another 80s song, AND another April song! Probably one of the few kpop songs where the verses are vastly superior to the chorus without the chorus being utter ****. Yena and Rachel carry an April for song for once with their whisper vocals, they REAALLY push the sad longing vibe well. 32. ELRIS - Pow Pow I didn't get the appeal of this one at first, because for some reason I kept trying to hear it as some electro thing due to the Sweetune production credit and the robotic intro, but once I appreciated it for what it is it veeeeeeery gradually grew on me. Both relentlessly catchy and fun and rocking without being saccharine. 31. AOA - Excuse Me Need more Kylie Minogue rip-offs in K-pop! Probably one of Brave Brother's technically best PRODUCTIONS (along with Sleepless Night), even if it's not his BEST song, if ya feel me? Choa kinda carried this :(
jose168 Posted December 25, 2017 Posted December 25, 2017 first of all Excuse GOD is 30 spots too low
Cristhian Posted December 25, 2017 Posted December 25, 2017 wow at Yes Sir being here- what a bop. Mayday was my favorite April song from this year though New got really boring after the third listen.
Xalric Posted December 25, 2017 Posted December 25, 2017 Did I read that Fiestaloca is a bad song? Give the song to a vocally capable group, and it will become a BOP. Sometimes it's not the song that is bad but the group
Antunes Posted December 26, 2017 Posted December 26, 2017 On 24/12/2017 at 11:27 PM, Kingie said: hello loyal fan here we go again... 40. IU - Last Night Story The whole 70s sonic aesthetic (idk the word) is so well done I was genuinely shocked when I found out the original song was some **** new jack swing thing and not something like what T-ARA did with Do You Know Me?. Also the only good Flower Bookmark song ever. 39. Uhm Junghwa - Ending Credit This was kinda the year of older female soloists surprisingly releasing their best songs so late into their careers. Luv the pathos here, and it's honestly just nice to have an overly gay-pandering artist in k-pop, there's so few compared to the west unless we really dig into subtext and dog-whistle stuff. 38. Loona 1/3 - Love & Live This year's best Lovelyz song. Cool moody synthpop, Odd Eye Circle akgaes were too dumb to look past the concept. 37. April - April Story Ooh the song that made me stan! SO good. Melancholic and disco-y with a lush chorus. Quite a few things with this sound get released by girlgroups every year but i don't know, not many stick with me like this did. 36. CLC - Hobgoblin Just a good party song! We all know this was a recycled 4Minute concept in every way but at least it was recycled from Crazy-era and not What's Your Name. 35. Melody Day - Kiss On The Lips Yeah this was what Why So Lonely should've been. 34. Yves (LOONA) - New The best LOONA solo yet! Idk there's a ton of 80s riffing songs in my list this year so that's probably the main appeal here, but this has the polish and budget we've come to expect from LOONA at this point so that probably edges it out above the others. 33. April - Yes Sir So here's another 80s song, AND another April song! Probably one of the few kpop songs where the verses are vastly superior to the chorus without the chorus being utter ****. Yena and Rachel carry an April for song for once with their whisper vocals, they REAALLY push the sad longing vibe well. 32. ELRIS - Pow Pow I didn't get the appeal of this one at first, because for some reason I kept trying to hear it as some electro thing due to the Sweetune production credit and the robotic intro, but once I appreciated it for what it is it veeeeeeery gradually grew on me. Both relentlessly catchy and fun and rocking without being saccharine. 31. AOA - Excuse Me Need more Kylie Minogue rip-offs in K-pop! Probably one of Brave Brother's technically best PRODUCTIONS (along with Sleepless Night), even if it's not his BEST song, if ya feel me? Choa kinda carried this :( Taste but how did all this flawless songs not even make top 20... I'm lowkey scared for what's to come
Vilppu Posted December 26, 2017 Posted December 26, 2017 Re: your post in my thread, everything you posted on twitter after his death honestly helped me a lot, it was so selfless and genuine, unlike most other things I've seen, I'm really beyond grateful. For some reason I thought Kiss on the Lips was like at least 3 years old already xjvdhsjddhhsj but yes, what a song. I spent most of the year a bitter Loona anti, mostly because of how much I detested - and still do - everything OEC-related but Yves made me warm up a bit to them again, overall still probably prefer Vivid though. Nice to see Yes Sir too, my second fave b-side from them this year, right after Just As We Are, and singlehandedly saved the Mayday release for me. Everything else I at least like, except for Hobgoblin which was kinda noise to me.
Kingie Posted December 30, 2017 Author Posted December 30, 2017 On 25/12/2017 at 0:07 AM, jose168 said: first of all Excuse GOD is 30 spots too low Love it but I'd be lying if I didn't say that a lot of songs high up my list (both this year and last year) fare better just because they were released more recently. On 25/12/2017 at 2:46 AM, Cristhian said: wow at Yes Sir being here- what a bop. Mayday was my favorite April song from this year though New got really boring after the third listen. Glad someone else likes Yes Sir! Mayday was kinda not only my least fave song by April this year though, but their song I like the least out of everything they've released sdhdsds On 25/12/2017 at 3:13 AM, Xalric said: Did I read that Fiestaloca is a bad song? Give the song to a vocally capable group, and it will become a BOP. Sometimes it's not the song that is bad but the group imo it has nothing to do with vocals, it's just a poorly written/produced song. trashy dance can be fun sometimes but it didn't work this time On 26/12/2017 at 1:49 PM, Antunes said: Taste but how did all this flawless songs not even make top 20... I'm lowkey scared for what's to come I don't think my top songs are exactly controversial...but I don't expect them to be ranking too high on anybody's else's list either On 26/12/2017 at 10:06 PM, Vilppu said: Re: your post in my thread, everything you posted on twitter after his death honestly helped me a lot, it was so selfless and genuine, unlike most other things I've seen, I'm really beyond grateful. For some reason I thought Kiss on the Lips was like at least 3 years old already xjvdhsjddhhsj but yes, what a song. I spent most of the year a bitter Loona anti, mostly because of how much I detested - and still do - everything OEC-related but Yves made me warm up a bit to them again, overall still probably prefer Vivid though. Nice to see Yes Sir too, my second fave b-side from them this year, right after Just As We Are, and singlehandedly saved the Mayday release for me. Everything else I at least like, except for Hobgoblin which was kinda noise to me. Yeah I def agree with KOTL, I honestly hadn't listened to it for months until I revisited this year's releases to make this list. I think it suffered from being such a summery song being released so early in the year. RIGHT there with you on both the Loona (though Vivid just lost the edge) and April (though JAWA just lost the edge too) opinions though! I see what you mean with Hobgoblin, though I view it as a refined example of that type of song - it's never too headache inducing, knows exactly when to quiet things down and create a build, and it's just a cool dance song.
Kingie Posted January 1, 2018 Author Posted January 1, 2018 Being more organised than last year kinda went right down the drain but oh well 30. Twice - Signal Kinda weird how polarising Twice became with all their releases this year, considering they were actually pretty committed to straightforward catchy pop tunes rather than their previous noisy cluster-**** sound. Rap break in this **** but the retro synths on the rest of it are GORGEOUS. 29. Top Secret - Mind Control Tried super hard to resist this for a while because I thought the tropical house refrain was godawful, and to be honest it still kinda is but that chorus is EVERYTHING. So sunny, buoyant, and the call and response and mindless "mindmindmindmindmindmind CONTROL" chants are super fun. 28. T-ARA - My Love This random OST just another great surprise and part of their revival this year. Sounds like a b-side from early in their career, but like almost Absolute First Album good, not Temptastic. Qri comes through the vocals too as usual. 27. Hyoyeon ft San E i guess - Wannabe I was literally the only person to like this this year but I don't care. When the teasers dropped I was anxious and on first listen was honestly kinda disappointed, but when it dwelled on me this was ABSOLUTELY what I wanted from a Hyoyeon release, especially compared to last year's (still great but not this great) early 00s Britney rip off. Hyoyeon's attempts to be real hep hap may be corny, but I really really love her raspy husky voice and it's a lot more fun than hearing her melodyne'd vocals. I love the production too; the electronic clicks and beeps just sound awesome, and that blues chorus that comes out of nowhere probably wouldn't interest me had anyone else been at the helm, but Hyoyeon has the perfect lack of vocal talent that keeps it rocking without descending into dull showboat madness. 26. Blah Blah - Good Job And this gets the award for this year's best debut from a nugu girlgroup that we'll probably never hear from again! Honestly I was so caught off guard when I heard this as I expected it to be another slinky sexy disposable song that these kinda groups throw out, but it's so much more. This song is so well written, it just keeps building and building throughout, until that bridge when everything stops and then we return for that final chorus. The whispered vocals, the heavy breathing and screams buried underneath those ominous alarmy synths, this song is SO sinister and I love it. 25. Miso - KKPP An upgraded retool of the admittedly quite dull in retrospect Canvas by 4Minute shows if there was any doubt about it, H Bros are determined to make Miso the second coming of Hyuna, to the extent that they didn't even wait 7 years this time before dropping the backup dancers. 24. Odd Eye Circle (LOONA) - Loonatic Despite all my abuse and shade thrown at the worst LOONA sub-unit thus far, they somehow veered off track for this release and created something surprisingly left field, ending up with the best overall LOONA track so far. All the complaints about the mixing on this being **** or whatever were dumb, that's part of the intentional dream-pop/shoegaze thing that they're going for! Grimes kinda wishes she had this on her last album. 23. Shannon Williams - HELLO Shannon Williams continues to be the most entertaining mess as a person but I thought Why Why would remain a fluke as her only good musical contribution to K-pop. MBK proved me wrong however by yet again making the best use of her extra-ass vocals: slapping them onto a lighter-waving chorus without sacrificing the beat, and creating some awesome twinkling pretty verses. 22. Weki Meki - Fantastic Basically a Crayon Pop song. Confusing how the same person who commissioned this at Fantagio was responsible for the trend-chasing and musically confused "I Don't Like Your Girlfriend". 21. Twice - Likey I hated this on first listen. Begrudgingly bopped on second listen. After having the song repeating in my head enough times over the following week to warrant a THIRD listen, I had to accept that I did in fact likey likey.
Kingie Posted January 13, 2018 Author Posted January 13, 2018 sdhdhfdf so completely forgot about this!! but it's nearly over so we're just going info dump. Sorry for sporadic tiny/nowrite-ups even though you think they'd be more important for top 20! i'm lazy!! 20. Gugudan - A Girl Like Me 19. Got7 - My Swagger their best song! 18. Snuper - Back:Hug 2017 was the year Snuper became a PSB concept group and I lived for it! 17. IU - Jam Jam 16. EXID - DDD good mix of accidentally-out-there-sound-via-trend-hopping and their dedication to old fashioned pop choruses 15. Hwang Insun - Hwang Ya 14. Nada - Trippin' 13. T-ARA - What's My Name Trendy bull**** is mitigated by constant beat and nice melodic pathos 12. Snuper - The Star of Stars told you I lived for it! 11. Will You Go Out With Me? their (second) best song! 10. Twice - KNOCK KNOCK 9. Laboum - Only U those background "doobadoos" push it over the edge from Hwi Hwi 8. April - Take My Hand 7. 9Muses - Remember 6. ACE - Cactus 5. Teen Top - Call Me 4. Sonamoo - I (Knew It) never thought i'd like a Sonamoo song at all, let alone this much 3. Junho (2PM) - Instant Love 2. Wa$$up - Color TV 1. BP Rania - Beep Beep Beep Absolute First Album style excellence! Further notes: - Worst K-pop song of the year was Red Flavour by Red Velvet. Garbage of the highest degree. - Best Western Song of the year shockingly managed to be Anywhere by Rita Ora. Other songs worth mentioning: Camila Cabello - Havana, Carly Rae Jepsen - Cut to The Feeling, Charli XCX - Babygirl, Hannah Jane Lewis - Raincheck, Kelela - LMK & Mollie King - Hair Down Thank you for the small audience who checked this out, sorry for the mess, and who knows if I'll ever do this again LMAO.
Vilppu Posted January 13, 2018 Posted January 13, 2018 Justice for Qri's Diamonds. This is a great top 20, I like everything except for got7 and Nada (messy but not in a good way) a lot, really happy my favourite soloist got to #3, I personally preferred Ice Cream by a little bit but pretty much everything he did this year was 10/10 to me. Beep x3 is an interesting #1 choice, not a bad one though, at some point it stopped being ridiculous to me and became, like, almost Style level good. And while I used to be team Hwi hwi all the way for the longest, Only U might indeed be just a little bit better. Very true @ Red Flavour which played a huge part in getting me to unstan and LMK/CTTF/Babygirl also.
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