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A ranking and review of the top 100! A Few Clarifications
#100: COOING, DREAMER In DREAMER, reality checks and anecdotes from dreams commingle, as COOING sings mellifluously about someone she would be better off leaving in the past. “Even knowing it’s a lie, I fall for it again and again,” she admits in “half-moon,” a song about being blinded by the moon’s bright light and therefore not seeing a relationship clearly. Now that she is single again, she can see better but feels like a piece of her is gone. She sings about the same mix of relief and grief post-breakup in “PSYCHO,” admitting she “just call[ed] it ‘love’ to ease [her] mind.” She further recognizes that she has been “living the lies” in “Masquerade,” which is about her “entire life [having been] lost” behind veils of deception. The “PSYCHO” music video speaks to her ambivalence... Read more here! #99: Daiki Ueno, Kawaritai The sounds in Kawaritai change, but the message does not, as Daiki Ueno sings self-written thank-yous to life’s mysteries and surprises. … When listening to the tracks in order, listeners hear a theme song for each step in the process of change. Daiki Ueno sets out to embrace it (“Yoake o zutto matteru”), determines the right time to do so (“dodo”), watches his environment change as he internally does (“Sepia” and “Shiawase”), watches the ripple effect of people around him changing (“Aozora”), and animatedly prepares for his next chance to change (“Kawaritai”). Read more here! #98: Soraru, Solve the dream After taking listeners down paths with sonic detours and symbols that serve as landmarks, the journey ends with “Solve the dream,” which has this summative line: “A single guidepost / Is what connects two people.” He expresses sorrow at the impermanence of his memories’ specifics, while deciding he will be “Gathering up the fragments of a dream” and revisiting those “guideposts” to try retracing his steps and recreating precious moments. Solve the dream is both a promise and a quest, and the mission’s vast implications get the artful depictions they deserve. Read more here! #97: Danny Koo, Danny Sings This jazz album is an absolute delight! It centers love and optimism in both sound and style, and it stays danceable but in changing forms, sometimes sway-worthy and slow-dance-ready (like “1st Step” and “My Secret”) and other times euphoric and primed for tap dancing (like “Who Cares”)! Danny Koo is both a violin and vocal virtuoso, and while he has gotten the former title more often than the latter, this album makes his worthiness of the latter title evident, especially through ballads like “Will You Be My Home.” However, the best songs are “Who Cares,” which has the strongest live-musical energy, and “Another Day,” for epitomizing the album’s theme of ordinary memories turning extraordinary thanks to finding luck in love! #96: AHOF, WHO WE ARE There is welcome nuance in AHOF’s depictions of starting a new journey. The theme is cautious optimism, and they use star metaphors to represent both feeling small and insignificant and shining bright. In “The Little Star,” they interpolate the classic children’s song “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” and sing about being just a “single dot” in the sky. This opening track puts their inexperience and self-doubt front and center, and it stays there through the rest of the mini-album. A fear of being forgotten and of never making it big lingers, even as they try to focus on the “dream seen through a faint crack” (“The Little Star”), the “Fragments that [want] to glow” (“Incompleted”), and the ability to mark “the beginning of a new story” (“AHOF”). The songs are made with care and intent, pairing these conflicted lyrics with soft instrumentals and apprehensive, periodically hushed voices. The music videos are just as multidimensional… Read more here! #95: Grizzly, Flower Shop4 These songs form one overarching musical metaphor. Whether favoring a band-style sound (like in “An Ordinary Day (haru)”), fast pop-rock (“Shooting Star”), or a rock ballad (“Endless Summer”), Grizzly sticks to the passing seasons as his primary topic. He tends to his memories with the kind of gingerness that gardeners employ when tending to their plants. He treats memories as frail enough to blow in the wind and finds contentment in knowing they will fly back towards him eventually, since the seasons are cyclical. He characterizes wind as the vehicle for moving memories and analogizes springtime to the success of that memory-handling process. … Flower Shop4 tells a sweet story about making a house a home in ways that come as naturally as breathing. Read more here! #94: CHEEZE, It just happened CHEEZE sings about getting butterflies in her stomach over a crush, daydreams about days with her lover, and grows flustered about making a move. … She spends less time telling a love story and more time describing a pre-relationship phase, when strong thoughts and feelings are there but corresponding actions are not! Her self-harmonizing and frequent “Mmm”s make it sound like she is daydreaming out loud. … It just happened is a lovable ode to love itself, and it humbly emphasizes the mental preparation that comes before expressing it! Read more here! #93: CHEN, Arcadia CHEN knows how to use his voice as the most effective instrument possible, and Arcadia speaks to that skill in a focused way. The big and bold sound of “Broken Party” makes a welcome return in the song “Arcadia.” The other songs are just as effective, conveying the heaviness of an all-encompassing, wistful type of loss. While “Help Me (Somebody 2 Love)” is the best B-side from an instrumental standpoint, “In My Life” is the best from a vocal one; CHEN handles its pitch changes seamlessly. Also, while the pop-rock songs are a worthwhile testament to his range, a return to his acclaimed balladry is always welcome, which Arcadia also delivers! Arcadia also benefits from other characteristics that would make an album duller if it came from a less-adept artist: zero features and a corresponding music video that is essentially just a performance video. #92: N.Flying, Everlasting Everlasting is an aptly-titled anniversary release, marking a decade with N.Flying. Loyal fans will love this present, which is anthemic in a wide range of ways and a reminder that not every artist needs to swing for the fences. N.Flying’s longevity is in part due to knowing what they are best at, and Everlasting delivers it in spades. Pop music formulas and rock-ballad stylings coexist, as do moments of levity next to dramatic and OST-worthy numbers. The lovely lyrics often involve constellation-related, floral, and ocean-themed analogies. The group sings about staying on their journey far into the future, and fortunate reassurance of this goal comes the most from “Born To Be,” which could easily fit on an old-school N.Flying album. Another standout is the title track, for its Brit-pop inspiration that sounds natural for them, rather than try-hard. #91: MONSTA X, THE X A key theme of THE X is how earned the group’s confidence is; their much-deserved self-hype is not just excusable but feels necessary! Someone has to tout MONSTA X’s artistry; it might as well be them! And although them putting aside the supernatural storytelling of the past might disappoint some fans, it does add a valuable yin to the past eras’ yang. It speaks to their fearlessness with re-branding and flexible interpretations of one’s inner “MONSTA”! Plus, there are still plenty of MONSTA X-isms throughout the album! They are still hands-on with composing, producing, and writing, and the only song without any member contributions (“N the Front”) still sounds made for them, in terms of both lyrics (they start out confidently declaring, “Game change, switch it up”) and sound (a return to their hip-hop roots). Read more here! #90: SUPER★DRAGON, SUPER X SUPER X is a zesty mix of EDM, pop, rock, and rap, and those ingredients never present themselves in isolation. Brand-new songs and pre-release singles alike bring the heat: EDM bangers like “Hallucination of Love” and “Downforce,” the relatively abrasive “Dark Heroes,” the rock song “Omaejanai,” the sudden tropical twist that is “Good Times & Tan Lines,” the rugged-voiced “DOG,” and more. The group also keeps people guessing with interludes that are mere chaos agents, rather than chapter introductions or conclusions. With the sounds of texting, a phone buzzing, sirens, screeching brakes, beeping, and more, the only clear message consistency is “Ready or not, here we come, and you’ll never know from which direction!” #89: U-KNOW, I-KNOW U-KNOW once again wears many hats while exploring his ongoing fictional musical world, which draws heavily from The Matrix and Inception. He continues to treat the space-time continuum as his putty, a pliable material that he bends, breaks, repairs, and moves at will. The ways he does this do not get tedious, and his thematic consistency does not come with genre consistency. The electro-pop “Set In Stone” asserts U-KNOW’s control over what happens (“I’ll set in stone… The future I’ll build… I’ll keep it going”). The EDM rush that is “Stretch” treats life as “just a game” and something to “stretch” to one’s liking. On the quieter and slower “Let You Go,” U-KNOW encourages people to improvise their futures, letting a force stronger than gravity pull them higher as they reach for the sky (“Follow that pull… Don’t keep yourself trapped here”). Synth-pop songs focus on picking the future’s details - its “spotlights” (“Spotlight2”), its “main characters” (“Leader,” “Premium”), and its plot twists (“[M]y everyday now / Is getting farther from the standard of normal,” he sings in “Take-off (26)”). As for the companion videos, they are in a peculiar loop and routinely interrupted by U-KNOW himself. His intermittent interference adds to the sense that I-KNOW is one big tease. The joke is supposed to be on “U,” because only his character is allowed to “KNOW” what’s really going on in his multiverse-turned-playground! #88: CRAVITY, Dare to Crave Dare to Crave has CRAVITY’s staples in spades, including soaring harmonies, a mix of softer synth-pop and more rock-inspired and assertive pop songs, and personal writing and composing credits. However, as indicated by the cracked egg on the album cover, this era marks the dawn of a new day for CRAVITY, too. This is the group’s first time splitting into subunits, for a foot-tapping good time (“Straight Up to Heaven”), a punk-inspired jam (“Stadium”), and some unexpected maturity (“Marionette”). The more classically CRAVITY songs are smartly before and after these subunit tracks, taking listeners into and out of familiar territory without requiring any convincing first that the listening experience will be worth it for fans. An additional way that CRAVITY “dare to crave” to take their sound to the next level: asking “Why not?” more often than “Why?,” when it comes to tonal exploration and instrumental layering. #87: P1Harmony, EX “EX” finds countless ways to use that expression, from singing about “you” deserving romantic “EXploration” without “EXplanation;” to emphasizing “End of story, period, no EXclamation;” to using words like “next” and “text”! “Dancing Queen” describes the downright-delirious joy of being with a lover without any “playing it cool” pretense; they sing about the room feeling like it won’t stop spinning and the sensation of being under a spell. In “Stupid Brain,” they complain about wanting to turn their brains off for a day, and the orchestral accompaniment adds a comical bit of drama to their time spent wishing for the opposite! “Night Of My Life” sounds like they finally have turned their brains off and are ready to let loose! Little details, like the briefness and acceleration of the pre-chorus and sudden auto-tune tweaks, add to the sense of urgency they have to let the fun fully commence. Lastly, the Spanish version of “EX” is a natural follow-up to the Latin-inspired and ironically-titled “SAD SONG”! It is a nice touch to start and end with songs directly addressed to “you;” like the live event and album linkage, this choice creates a sense of connection between P1Harmony’s music and the listeners. It’s no wonder that their fan base keeps growing! Read more here! #86: ZEROBASEONE, BLUE PARADISE As a BLUE PARADISE preview video puts it, “Blue shadows my face, but I let it in. Sad and beautiful, blue becomes a piece of life.” The BLUE PARADISE era dutifully channels this “beauty in blueness” theme. In “BLUE,” ZEROBASEONE sing about feeling blue via up-tempo synth-pop. Songs about being “Out of Love,” wanting to “Step Back” from a relationship, and feeling like a relationship is “Cruel” and a “Devil Game” are also delivered with pep in their steps! And with “Doctor! Doctor!,” they keep things light with lyrics like “It’s an L-O-V-Emergency”! They prioritize playfulness in countless other ways… Read more here! #85: ONEWE, WE : Dream Chaser WE : Dream Chaser involves the same themes as Planet Nine : ISOTROPY without being derivative. … The songs are about the elusive nature of memories and the desperation to preserve them. Much like trying to recall a dream’s vivid details upon awakening, catching memories is seen as always beyond one’s reach. The futile pursuit is likened to the fanciful thinking of storybooks, which explains ONEWE’s many Alice in Wonderland references. … While Planet Nine : ISOTROPY and WE : Dream Chaser weave common threads, the latter album does so in more intricate ways, incorporating new analogies into the band’s expanding embroidery. Read more here! #84: ONEWE, MAZE : AD ASTRA Whether singing a brassy and funky jam like “MAZE,” playing around with reverb in “UFO,” pairing ballad-ready voices with a faster-than-expected tempo in “Lucky 12” and “Trace,” or raising and lowering the volume throughout the tale of turbulence that is “Beyond the Storm,” they find many ways to communicate. Zooming out more, the album gets its points across effectively by making a routine out of rising action; it stays hopeful-sounding and anticipatory until the end. What the action rises towards stays ambiguous on purpose, as they describe memories and presences as fading, fleeting, and slipping away. This is not new for ONEWE, nor is celestial lyricism, but what is new is how they apply those terms. Exhibit A is the “MAZE” music video… Read more here! #83: KARDI, When The Lights Out When The Lights Out is a rapturous adventure! Instrumental mergers and meltdowns alike keep listeners on their toes, and the times they sing the same lyric again and again (“We’re living in the mosh pit!” and “The time is now” are both repeated lines) ensure people hear KARDI’s confident commands to make the craziest things about life the motivation to party through it! KARDI’s messages range from self-aware commentary about music’s magnetic power (from “TOKKEBI-BULL”: “Bewitched by a vicious song / No one can turn back”) to a reminder people are stronger than they think (from “Wipilapilore”: “You can deny the bruise, be blind to your blue… But I can see your own light, and it will carry you through”). The sonic zigzags and the exuberance with which they both tout their knack for making intoxicating music and offer sincere consolation make each song its own extreme experience. #82: Mei Semones, Animaru Animaru is relentlessly quirky. Each song is associated with an animal, and one of them is a fictional, multi-colored creature that can best be described as an avant-garde mouse! The animal theme lends itself to imaginative lyrics, and while there are some of those, Mei Semones often speaks plainly instead, while keeping the sound anything but. … The best overall arrangement is in “Donguri,” but the most impactful song is the final one, “Sasayaku Sakebu.” Its title translates to “Whisper Shout,” which matches the personality-related distance between its choruses and verses. Some of her last words are “I will yell, this is my melody / It means something / It’s all I have.” It is a blunt yet thought-provoking note to end on, a matter-of-fact statement that concludes an unpredictable sonic journey. Read more here! #81: UVERworld, EPIPHANY These one-of-a-kind, rollicking romps come in many flavors, and the ingredients are often swapped mid-song. “WINGS ever” gives the best examples of that real-time trading. The most humorously observant song is “MMH (EPIPHANY ver.)” (“Surviving myself, distorting as I go”). It also has the most inventive saxophone use, while the best harmonica use is in the eclectic “NO MAP.” When not headbang-worthy or jump-worthy, these songs are still just plain interesting, making the lack of lyrics in songs like “JUMP” excusable! On the other hand, some songs do have more substance: “If…Hello” is about trusting that brighter days will come, and “WINGS ever” is about making peace with life’s unpredictability. But commentary cedes a lot of ground to instrumental frivolity, and the album is better off for it! #80: ANGIE, Caramel Eyes Caramel Eyes tells a straightforward story, despite the tracklist not being chronological. Pre-released singles and new songs alike follow ANGIE’s evolution from describing what she loves and loathes in relationships to deciding she might just be better off single! She tends to keep things low-to-mid-tempo, often sings in an ASMR-friendly fashion, and goes from sultry to sentimental and back again with smoothness and softness. The dreamy and hazy qualities to her sound are bookended by “Intro: Huh?” and “Outro: One Day.” The intro features wind and echoing voices, and the outro is sonically compatible yet a counter to the intro’s listlessness. As cohesive as Caramel Eyes is, though, the best parts are the most sassy and energetic interruptions: “CRYCRYCRY” and “The way U hate it”! #79: Ahn Dayoung, WHERE IS MY FRIEND? WHERE IS MY FRIEND?, like Finnegan’s Wake, is not a story about dreams as they are conventionally perceived. Instead, dreams are “collapsing,” “despairing,” and something from which people “cannot wake.” In other words, some dreams are secretly nightmares by another name. The reverse might also be true, and Ahn Dayoung’s belief in that is expressed throughout an album about a lifetime spent searching. … WHERE IS MY FRIEND? ambitiously emulates both structural and thematic characteristics of Finnegan’s Wake, traits that have made the novel, like life itself, so revered yet difficult to comprehend. Read more here! #78: Julia Peng, Incompletely Fully Grown Julia Peng treats her voice like the adaptable instrument it is. It reverberates, gets amplified, retreats, changes keys, and plays ping-pong with instruments throughout this album. There is variety in instruments besides her voice, too, and piano ballads (“Unfairness,” “Attachment,” “When I Fall in Love,” “Every Way of Love”) come before and after livelier offerings (like “I’m Lucky Enough” and “Hide and Seek”). All the while, she assesses her past with good-faith efforts and good-natured self-deprecation. Read more here! #77: CHUNG HA, Alivio Named after the Spanish word for “relief,” Alivio is aptly cathartic. With dance-pop, house music, R&B, and even orchestral influences, CHUNG HA keeps the basic topic - stress relief - interesting and versatile. The songs that ought to be fan favorites are the sassier ones, “Even Steven (Happy Ending)” and “Salty”! The latter is a retro gem on which CHUNG HA harmonizes well with SUNMI, and it also stands out for its self-awareness. They show how to live both vulnerably and confidently, admitting to crying while describing it as just their eyes “getting salty”! Other revealing moments throughout Alivio show CHUNG HA’s conscious efforts to remind both herself and others to keep their chins up. Alivio acknowledges that becoming less self-critical (and therefore less stressed) is harder than it seems, so the album is less of a command and more of a permission structure. Reiterating the permission to let loose is the final track, “Still a Rose,” which reminds people they are worthy of blooming even as they grow “thorns” and even if others try to “cut” their “stems.” #76: SEULGI, Accidentally On Purpose Accidentally On Purpose uses familiar imagery to tell a unique villain origin story. The unmistakably Batgirl-inspired getup and logo, plus the villains’ lair in which the teaser trailer is set, are attention-grabbers, but they are just the tip of this story’s iceberg, as demonstrated by the “Baby, Not Baby” music video. … The B-sides also show attempts to distance herself from the person who rebels and how those attempts can fail. … SEULGI’s attempts to sever parts of herself can only go so far, keeping her humanity intact. Beneath her wild antics is a hurt person whose pursuit of validation leads to “the dark side,” and while Accidentally On Purpose explores the concept of duality, it also digs deeper and considers why people become compelled to differentiate parts of themselves in the first place. Read more here! Stay tuned for the rest of the countdown! View the Substack version of this piece here!
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