The Best Of The Best

The Top K-pop Songs: 30 To 21

The Best Of The Best, from a shoulder to cry on in the dark to a friend to pull you onto the dance floor to a bubblegum explosion of love. (See 50 to 41 here)(See 40 to 31 here) (See 20 to 11 here) (See 10 to 1 here)

#30: Voyage by Kim Sejeong

Voyage is a pre-release, but it was the first song I’d heard of Sejeong’s, and what a place to start! It’s probably her best title, taking her clear, bright voice and pairing it with a bubbly, nostalgic track that pulls from Celtic folk with its sprightly fiddle, earthy drums, and twinkling piano. It’s an honest-to-goodness gem, and soon became one of my favorite k-pop tracks, even though I had no idea who Sejeong was. It feels so warm and delightful, taking the sense of community that Celtic folk should impart and adding a distinctly k-pop twist. And I love that high note just before the last chorus.

#29: Go Away by 2NE1

As in-your-face as the title of Go Away is, the song itself is even more over the top. It’s a classic anthemic pop song, meant to be scream-sung into a hairbrush when you’re sixteen years old and going through your first break-up. It reminded me so much of BLACKPINK’s Lovesick Girls or Little Mix’s Shout Out To My Ex, albeit harsher around the edges and driven by stronger EDM. And just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, the deceptively simple bridge kicks in, followed by the final chorus that just knocks you off your feet with its power. It’s a great song, and adding to that, the six and a half minute long music video is just spectacular in its drama. Plus seeing CL drive a racecar in a leather jacket is never a bad thing. And I’m always here to see a girl gang take a piece of shit man down a few pegs. You’d better believe I was cheering.

#28: Black by Lee Hyori

Black journeys into an often unexplored genre in k-pop: country. With a spaghetti western guitar, hoofstep-like percussion, and even a few hints of harmonica, Hyori’s confidence is on full display as she sings about how dyeing her black hair and wearing contacts was like denying a part of herself. It’s both a great song and a powerful statement in an industry that creeps further away from its roots every day. And I’m not usually a fan of an empty chorus but I think that the slight anti-drop works well in this kind of track. Besides that, I genuinely loved seeing her drive through the West, adopt a dog, and live happily on a little farm. I’m glad she achieved something like that in real life too.

#27: Together by Yesung

While it may sound like your average ballad, Together is a song that Yesung wrote for his beloved dog, Melo, about how he named her and watched her grow up, but will also watch her pass on, since she lives on “a different track of time” from him. There are so many fantastic lyrics in here, but perhaps the most quietly heartbreaking are the lines “I remember our first meeting, rubbing our little white feet together…you were born after me and became an adult first…your time goes faster than mine, but please, take your time.” I think we both cried, and I think that that was the moment I decided to do this review.

#26: Paldongangsan by BTS

Look, one of my majors is linguistics, so it’s no surprise I went wild at Paldongangsan. It’s about the different dialects of Korean (which originate from different places there) and the stereotypes associated with each one, and it ends with Namjoon yelling at the rest of them to stop ragging on each other for their dialects and be accepting because it’s all the same language anyway. It was actually the first BTS song I heard, about two years ago (barring Dynamite, of course), because an Army friend of mine recommended it to me. I’ve never heard a song like it before (or since for that matter) and it’s remained on my Top 25 K-pop songs playlist ever since.

#25: Revenge by (G)I-DLE

(Coming Soon)

#24: Catallena by Orange Caramel

How to describe and / or explain Catallena? Well, that’s impossible, frankly, because it’s a song that at its core, shouldn’t work. It’s an overwhelming bubblegum explosion, incredibly kitschy and campy, and is so openly queer that I’m honestly shocked it survived censorship. Perhaps they thought that it was less sapphic due to the crossdressing? Who knows. The music video is also utterly bizarre and features sensual eating of sushi, mermaids, and some of the strangest makeup I’ve seen in a k-pop video. And yet it manages to be downright addictive, like it took everything that worked from Orange Caramel’s past singles and threw them at the wall with a glitter cannon. In short, it’s glorious, and you should check it out, if not for the quality than for the laughs. 

#23: Circles by SEVENTEEN

Circles has always been one of my favorite tracks of Seventeen’s, since I saw their performance of it on Dingo’s Tipsy Live years back and really found myself moved by how close they are and how they comforted each other. I’m in the habit now of listening to it whenever I have a pain flare up, and it never fails to make me feel better. Hearing it again now only makes me love it more, and I actually went to rewatch the tipsy live.

#22: Wonderland (No.9) by ATEEZ

Wonderland, like many excellent k-pop tracks, feels like it arrives rather than starts, and though its mostly-English intro is utterly nonsensical, this song is too good not to win me over. At first, you’ll think it’s bound for an anti-drop, and it almost has one, but then it drags itself back from the brink and shuttles forward, managing to combine EDM, a marching band, and a deranged sea shanty together into a concoction so crazy that it works. And that bridge? Gets me pumped every time. I will say that I prefer the Symphony No.9 Version from their “The World: Epilogue” version, which really elevates it.

#21: FAM by Stray Kids

FAM is really one-of-a-kind, being a track all eight members of Stray Kids wrote about each other’s quirks and how close they are. Is it the most unique in terms of song itself? No, it’s a fairly standard hip-hop track. But it gives room for Stray Kids real strength, which is great lyrics.  Including lines like “we fall in love with the way his eyes fold as he smiles” about I.N. or “every night, you can see the stars in his constellation of freckles” about Felix or “sometimes he’s a weirdo, but he dances like Jagger” about Lee Know, it’s so personal and so clearly full of love that it’s impossible not to love it back.

(If you’d like the playlist for these songs, click here.)