Hey everybody, remember K-pop, the music? Sorry about the layoff, but I was busy with pleasuring myself to the 2024 World Series Champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
Anyway, thankfully 2024 in K-pop is coming to a rather slow close this year (in terms of quality) and I didn’t miss all that much.
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PURPLE KISS – “ON MY BIKE”
After their Into Violet debut and Hide & Seek comeback, I really thought they could be the next big thing. I liked “Sweet Juice” as well, but they’ve seemingly lost their identity — conceptually and melodically — in the past three years, leading to flagging sales despite talented and charming members. Frustrating.
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Visionary Vision (tripleS) – “Hit The Floor”
As a decomposing corpse, 90s hip-hop is something near and dear to me, so I like to see it done well and modernized. Unfortunately, while the initial hook of the chorus provides the vibes I’m looking for, the rest of it is mostly messy for the sake of it.
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Jaehyun (NCT) – “Unconditional”
An imperfect comp, but he sorta feels like an idol trying to ape THAMA, which isn’t a bad idea. But I do think when you start in that direction, the throwaway-pop cringe songwriting becomes a lot more relevant. I hope he gets it right because his voice is pretty well-suited for this, IMO.
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BABYMONSTER – “CLIK CLAK”
Sometimes I find it hard to take Korean hip-hop artists seriously, but similar tacks are even more bizarre from idols. Most importantly, this is also just sorta boring, honestly.
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STAYC – “GPT”
I went into the chorus thinking that if it was a knock-out then they’d have a great one here, but it ends up just sorta … there. I dunno, it’s fine, I guess, but that’s about my only impression.
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G-DRAGON – “POWER”
Glad he’s back and glad this is a pre-release.
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BABYMONSTER – “DRIP”
Normally, YG Entertainment releases at least have like quality catchphrases to compensate for the lack of melody, and I’m not sure why they’re not helping BM out here. Still, the production is intriguing, if not feeling outdated, so probably their best yet.
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Kep1er – “TIPI-TAP”
Okay, so with their careers on the line, they delivered an absolute banger. Now that it’s saved … well, there’s this, I guess.
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TXT – “Over The Moon”
Feels like it’s always on the verge of launching into something great but never quite gets there. The production doesn’t really go anywhere (made harder by the length) and there’s no real element/hook that I was able to latch onto.
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IVE & David Guetta – “Supernova Love”
David Guetta taking Ryuichi Sakamoto’s Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence melody and doing this with it is a choice.
Catching up and David Guetta making Ryuichi Sakamoto sound vaguely like AI should be punishable by death.
— Asian Junkie (@asianjunkiecom) November 13, 2024——
NCT DREAM – “When I’m With You”
Kinda feels like SHINee-lite without the knockout chorus, which honestly isn’t a bad place to be. Vibe-able and a potential playlist addition, honestly. Not sure if that says more about 2024 in K-pop or what, but still.
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ENHYPEN – “No Doubt”
Sorta feels like Jay Park-lite, but adding vocal effects that I hate and without any of his “intimate” showmanship to sell it.
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ATEEZ – “Ice On My Teeth”
I feel like ATEEZ are veteran enough that they should be beyond what seems like a concept for bratty girl/boy groups that I would ignore. Are grills even something trendy to co-opt at this point?
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Jin (BTS) – “Running Wild”
His other single, “I’ll Be There”, is an example of a upbeat and polished song that’s within his vocal range and thus is a fun little jaunt as a result. With this … I feel like he should fight whoever told him this chorus would be fine.
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If you think I missed a song, makeup whatever narrative fits best: 1) I hate it and didn’t bother. 2) I just missed it in all the releases while catching up. 3) I love it and it’ll be reviewed in 2026.
English (US) · 