Best New Music: April 2026

A ranking and review of the best new K-pop, J-pop, and P-pop!

View the Substack version of this piece here!

#20: Hinatazaka46, “Kind of love” 
People who listen to “Kind of love” are in for a VERY good time! There is a head-spinning amount of sounds, yet none are too superfluous or monotonous. A rapid BPM rate carries the Latin foundation forward, topped with layers of classic J-pop flair and rock and orchestral elements that quickly come and go. The fast and rhythmic vocals keep up with the piano at an impressive clip, and the harmonies between group factions are staggered in a momentum-sustaining way. Completing the relentless rousing are some bongo taps and extra piano notes here and there. The hoopla makes the relatively dialed-down latter half of the bridge extra impactful, when instruments stop racing each other and gradually re-enter. But as showy as “Kind of love” is, there is sweet sincerity at its core. The group overtly questions if this is love and talks about the “dopamine screaming” inside of them! They fear the overwhelming force of this new-to-them sensation (“I know I’ll be haunted by a bittersweet ache”), touch on the fact that “love” and “caring” are quite similar (“The reason I’ve become so gentle / Is that I found myself empathizing with a pain I recognize all too well”), and express the desire to tamp down crush-related nerves by preparing “step by step” to confess (“But this feels like… a car in a right-turn lane forcing its way into heavy traffic / Unless I signal… you’ll never know how I feel”)! If any song topic deserves to be represented by a spirited and splashy soundscape, it is falling in love for the first time, and that “about to burst” intensity warrants the excesses of “Kind of love”!

#19: ASH ISLAND, BURN PART.2
BURN PART.2 serves up succinct satisfaction. Across four tracks, this cross-genre singer/rapper says what he feels needs to be said, nothing more, nothing less. He picks up where he left off with the last track on BURN PART.1, “FIRE,” by beginning BURN PART.2 with “WATER.” Both songs describe a romantic flame as an essential life source, but “FIRE” is directed at his love interest, and he asks for help consciously keeping their flame alive no matter the risks. In “WATER,” ASH ISLAND talks to himself, trying to convince himself that post-breakup pain is temporary (“‘This too shall pass,’ I whisper [to] myself again today”). He tries to enjoy his newfound freedom during the next few songs. “Butterfly” and “Nah Nah” are about his desire to be entirely his own person, rather than someone motivated by fleeting trends (“Price tags everywhere… Stuck on Instagram / People in a box,” he laments in “Butterfly”) or someone driven to change due to haters’ reprimands (“They talk too much… I need to stop for a minute,” he tells himself on “Nah Nah”). But he concludes back at square one, singing about how empty life still feels given a lover’s absence. It is meaningful that the last track, “The Answer That Never Came,” is the EP’s sole non-collaboration. After singing about speaking for himself, ASH ISLAND fully does, which is bittersweet, since no one is there to answer his lingering questions about why exactly the breakup happened.

#18: ifeye, As if

As if sticks to the “love on the brain” theme that makes it a treat for both the eyes and ears! A light pink machine that prints out “Love Complaints” includes a warning: “Please watch over this dizzying, hazy feeling so it doesn’t end as a fleeting dream.” The ifeye members spend the “Hazy (Daisy)” music video doing just that, “watching over” that feeling and channeling it through dance moves and heart-shaped props. They perform a cute dance routine in a pretty garden, pink and purple-streaked skies behind them, while wearing spring-perfect dresses. They hold that “hazy feeling” close in the less-picturesque settings, too. They ride a heart-printed subway, go to a boxing ring with heart-shaped corners, and more. They even project the glowing feeling onto a literally glowing orb, Cupid-esque bows and arrows, and emojis that pop up above couples’ heads “IRL”! The album itself holds the same light and fluttery feeling of being in love, with upbeat sounds and vocals that hint at the coexistence of excited apprehension. 

#17: Ha Hyun Sang, New Boat
New Boat is a clear and chronological telling of Ha Hyun Sang’s recent journey. He recalls what his life has been like in recent years, and his lived experiences and seasoned voice keep the story out of the realm of the generic and forgettable. He talks about his journey using an array of approaches, from a rock ballad (“Playback”) to an acoustic-guitar-led number (“biscuit”) to one with a city-pop-esque foundation (“Tiny dance”). Neat details accentuate each chapter: the higher-key jumps in a song about how “[a]ll [he] thought [he] kneeeew” is gone in “love letter,” the instrumental portion in “+++” that offers time for the “What’s left is behind us” message to sink in, the quickened pace of “Odyssey” as he makes a “SET ME FREE!” command, the distant echo as he re-embarks on a journey in “New Boat”... Lyrically, the most humorous is “biscuit,” when he takes a “snack break” to curb his fatigue, and when collaborator SUMIN says the best line on the entire album to summarize how daily life feels: “The tea is getting cold / And everything’s on fire”!

#16: QWER, CEREMONY
CEREMONY dives headfirst into the “Isekai” sub-genre of fantasy manga and anime. The term refers to stories about going to an alternative world, and in the case of this J-rock-inspired Korean band, that is one where up is down and down is up. They are the ones winning the marathon by stopping to buy bracelets from a young entrepreneur! They are the groomsmen, developing facial hair and giant muscles, despite being dressed as brides! The groom is dressed as a bride too, and he enjoys a fancy tea cup and pearl-adorned front-door decor. “ISEKAI WORLD” is filled with countless other opposites from reality. Here, their small pet rock is a giant, sentient being; an abandoned truck is their mode of dimension-crossing transportation; a summoning circle is not to conjure up ghosts but their wildest dreams! Most importantly, a “special occasion” is an ordinary one, so it makes sense why they treat the world as their wedding venue and dress accordingly! 

Although this group has sung about an “upside-down” world before (most overtly in “FAKE IDOL,” which has a music video in which haters become fans and insults are taken as compliments), they have excitingly expanded the bounds of their world of whimsy! CEREMONY provides a suitable soundtrack for this world, with triumphant tracks about embracing the strange and the surprising. They finish strong with “PIONEER,” which has a thoughtful nod to their 2025 song “Blue Whale.” “PIONEER” references a “blue wave rising” that offers courage and a sense of strength in numbers; “Blue Whale” reassures that “You’re not alone” and shares their hope: “May we live [in] this wide world without fear.”

#15: Satoshi Hayashibe, Koibumi
These songs are poignant poems that cherish how love provides the strength to carry on, a power that Satoshi Hayashibe thinks so highly of that he cannot bring himself to do anything but praise it. His moments of wistfulness and regret are ones for which he blames himself; love is portrayed as always a savior, never a culprit. The real culprit is the unforgiving passage of time, which is what he sings about with palpable pain in “Boukyou no Waltz” and in “Boukyaku no Tango.” Although the latter sounds more cheerful, it shares the regret captured in the former: “If only I had realized back then just how deeply I loved you.” In “Boukyou no Waltz,” he sighs, “I left it all behind… By the time that truth dawned on me, I was utterly alone.” Fittingly, the title track is the one that makes his vow explicit: he will continue “writing these love letters” even if they “can no longer reach” their subject. He sings about his love-letter-writing compulsion most poetically in “Boukyaku no Tango”: “Love may be formless, but memories are like paintings.” That formless yet vivid nature of romantic recollections is brought to life with often-subtle yet significant shifts throughout the album, like opting for a spoken-word monologue in “Koibumi;” repeating “Because you are by my side” several times to end “Ai ni aisarete;” and referencing birds carrying his love letters in “Boukyou no Waltz” and again in “My Song My Love.” Sometimes, though, the best part of a song is not in the details, but in the broad strokes, like when he observes this in “Doushite tsutaeyou”: “You're [the one] who taught me that happiness isn't about acquiring something, but about needing nothing.”

#14: Park Hyo Shin, A & E
This album gets its title from the Latin character “æ,” and when Park Hyo Shin sings about a lover being the “A” to his “E,” he is expressing the desire to be their own individuals yet also each other’s “other half.” He sings about the letter “O” for a similar reason, describing the ideal relationship as providing a sense of wholeness where dividing lines are obsolete. This care and concern behind his romantic commentary is conveyed throughout the rest of the album, too, not to mention through the corresponding videos. “AE” and “Any Love” prioritize slice-of-life snippets from outsiders’ perspectives that are moments of wholeness and contentment to insiders. True love stories are special and singular secrets, and Park Hyo Shin respectfully recognizes the mere snapshots of those stories that he is able to witness.

Living with an open heart and mind does not come without its troubles. In “Cover My Wounds,” he solemnly sings about bottling up his feelings, while allowing for a moment of levity by describing past romantic gestures as such: “[when] breaking the ice, I fall down… till I can’t fall anymore”! Yet he holds firm in his belief that doing it all for love is valuable: “When the winter rain has ceased, you and I will bloom once again,” and “If there is any reason to keep on living / Love is right here,” he sings in “Any Love.” “Look at me, bathing in a miracle / Hit me like I wanted it to,” he cheers in “Miracle.” “May you weep freely for the things you hold dear,” he includes in his “Prayer.” “Prayer” is a ballad that is just as stirring as the choral interlude, “Sogno Stellare.” It is about a “[s]ummer night” when dreamers are “united in prayer,” speaking to lovers’ cosmic connections that require music to explain, because words on their own are insufficient. Park Hyo Shin provides that kind of music, knocking it out of the park the most with his soaring vocals on “Stellar Night.”

#13: BINI, Signals
With casual confidence and a mix of energy and ease, BINI stay in their aesthetic and musical sweet spots. Signals is fronted by the sugariest of the pristine pop songs. Then, the group smoothly glides into an adjacent lane, adding a touch of hyper-pop to “Honey Honey” and a more mature tone to “Tic Tac Toe” (although they also stay playful in the latter, chanting in unison “K-I-S-S-I-N-G, one for you and one for me”). After another smooth lane shift into a more retro spot with “Sugar Rush,” they end with the instrumental that sticks out the most, “Step Back” - suiting the moment of “stepping back” to see how far they’ve come! And while each song is the epitome of BINI in one way or another, the epitome of BINI in every way is “Blush,” with silky-smooth voices, a sticky hook, and a music video that projects the members’ internal glows outwards. Sparks periodically emit from their fingertips and fall like raindrops into a glimmering pond, to gorgeous effect! When they are not by that pond and shimmying in outfits with fabric textures that accentuate every move, they shine within a bright, tropical color palette. Sealing this single with a kiss are a couple of hints at plot twists, including a mermaid-like presence in the second half of the video and a more high-tech scenario in a brief opening scene. The Signals EP says it all, while the “Blush” music video shows it all: BINI have fully blossomed! 

#12: cosmosy, “Silence ~ body & soul ~”
These supernatural characters are not just ones with their surroundings; they are their surroundings, and the entire universe is their canvas! One member appears as if made of the starry skies, with a celestial silhouette that ripples as if her hair is blowing in the wind. Flowers and other decor bloom out of their lips and fingers. And they have simultaneous surface-level and more substantive character transformations, from trading one jewel-encrusted accessory for another to sprouting new devil horns! Like how the platforms for cosmosy’s transformations and the acts of those transformations often appear as one and the same, fight scenes and dance routines converge. Yet there are juxtapositions, and they are visually striking ones, especially when a member wearing pastel blue engages in combat-resembling choreography with a partner dressed in black. Other dance/fight scenes include changing partners in the blink of an eye - the same speed at which a small rainbow of light becomes a much larger beam, reflecting off of cosmosy’s magical amulet and showing that besides stunts and dance moves, lines are drawn connecting lighting and props. All of the video’s components cooperate to make for a mesmerizing marvel, and it elevates the song tenfold. Demure voices glide on house-beat-driven synths in a way that could sound forgettable but is instead trance-like. They hypnotically sing about the need to leave a relationship: “Falling for you was my big mistake… Take me to the rooftop, just let me fly.” They express a yearning to turn off their busy minds and be overtaken by music instead: “Leave me where the music’s loud enough to breathe… don’t speak.” The music stays on the same page as the video; as they ask for permission to “fly away,” they fluidly change identities and surroundings.

The contrast of quiet voices and a loud presence sums up cosmosy’s appeal. They are relatable yet supernatural, with a “fantasy-characters-next-door” demeanor! The parallels between “Silence ~ body & soul ~” and the “Lucky=One” music video compound that characterization. Underlying both videos is the question of who cosmosy really are and how much of the action is in their heads. In both videos, there is an anticlimactic ending following a confetti blast, raising questions as to what was really worth celebrating and what “true accomplishments” have been achieved. Also in both, there are “commercials” between scenes, raising questions as to whether cosmosy are more committed to the role of marketers or of true superheroes. Much remains unclear about cosmosy’s musical universe, but what is clear is this group has a one-of-a-kind story worth watching!

#11: LUCY, Childish
LUCY have sung about their inner children before - after all, their first full-length album was called Childhood! - but Childish hits differently, being the first album release since all of the members completed mandated military service. But as much as “adulthood” has a different ring to it post-enlistment, they remain hung up on the same concerns of years prior. Fortunately, the music attests to this. Childish sounds like classic LUCY, with well-made mixes of jovial and more serious instrumentals and with vocals that shift accordingly. Partly as a preference and partly an inevitability, the members still carry parts of childhood with them. “PLAY,” a music video corresponding to Childhood, was about consciously, successfully resurrecting an inner child, hosting a birthday party for a young boy and being reminded of how much joy can come from something so seemingly simple and short-lived. Now, in “All Ages,” they take their inner children on a trip, reliving good childhood memories in ways that leave them feeling animated - not to mention literally being animated!

LUCY’s desire to keep the past close at hand is reiterated through the tracklist, which includes songs from several past EPs alongside five new songs. Some of the new ones would fit right in on older LUCY projects, like “Sprout,” on which they share their evergreen wish: “May we all bloom into the flowers we’ve always longed to be;” “All Ages,” on which they humorously emote disgust, surprise, and everything in between that comes with learning adulthood is not “rated G;” and “blah-blah-blah,” which compares feeling dizzy over a crush with feeling like one is on “a roller coaster” even just when sitting on a couch! The other two are “Porch Light,” which shows a matured worldview and is about why people put up with life’s turbulence in the first place: the people who make anywhere feel like home; and “Chameleon,” which pairs their age-old concerns about simultaneously wanting to blend in and stand out with a new-to-them fusion-funk sound.  

Stay tuned to find out the Top Ten!