tagged by dear friend sani (@baarish) go check out her list here! and also please feel free to tag me for your lists if you are doing something similar!!! love favorite/best of lists (prev lists from me: 2016, 2015)
pattern for this year would be that majority of these releases are from later in the year because i didnāt really listen to much korean music until few months ago outside of the usual girl group releases lolĀ
from top left: in the endless zanhyang we are - inevitability under consecutive coincidence ; shin hae gyeong - my reversible reaction ; NCT 127 - cherry bomb ; uhm jung hwa - the cloud dreams of the nine ; red velvet - perfect velvet ; loona odd eye circle - mix & match ; jeon ki sung - tune in my frequency ; 75A - 75A ; dear cloud - my dear, my lover
all this is available on spotify because iāve completely stopped downloading music in 2017 lmao so please go check it out if you use spotify! little blurbs about the albums below the cut
tagged by dear friend sani (@baarish) go check out her list here! and also please feel free to tag me for your lists if you are doing something similar!!! love favorite/best of lists (prev lists from me: 2016, 2015)
pattern for this year would be that majority of these releases are from later in the year because i didnāt really listen to much korean music until few months ago outside of the usual girl group releases lolĀ
from top left: in the endless zanhyang we are - inevitability under consecutive coincidence ; shin hae gyeong - my reversible reaction ; NCT 127 - cherry bomb ; uhm jung hwa - the cloud dreams of the nine ; red velvet - perfect velvet ; loona odd eye circle - mix & match ; jeon ki sung - tune in my frequency ; 75A - 75A ; dear cloud - my dear, my lover
all this is available on spotify because iāve completely stopped downloading music in 2017 lmao so please go check it out if you use spotify! little blurbs about the albums below the cut
in the endless zanhyang we are - inevitability under consecutive coincidence
ok pretentious af band name aside this album is so beautifulā¦ really dreamy sounds and the vocalist has such a pretty airy voice that fits the atmosphere of the album so perfectlyā¦ the whole album flows really well from one song to another and the way the entire work progresses is so beautiful! āand so it goesā iād say is my favorite song on this album and āhomeā is one of the best instrumentals iāve heard in a while, so chilling. if you are into post rock / shoegaze this is definitely an album to check out.
shin hae gyeong - my reversible reactionĀ
when you initially thought it would be another typical korean male singer-songwriter bullshit but it turns out to be something so fucking type??? this is so right up my alley!!! the way the songs on this album just suddenly HITS you (listen to āeverything to meā and you will understand what i mean) is so refreshing. thereās nothing to throw away on this album, itās fantastic.
NCT 127 - cherry bomb
lmao the SM ho in me got such a kick out of this album, no lie. but honestly i just love mark SO MUCH god heās something else. ācherry bombā has some of my favorite lyrics of the year (me, crying in the club: iām the biggest hit, iām the biggest hit on this stageā¦) and honestly āwhiplashā.... the fuckingā¦ audacityā¦ i still feel targeted
uhm jung hwa - the cloud dream of the nine
QUEEN! honestly i was kinda bummed that her initial mini (?) was released at the tail end of 2016 and it didnāt feel fair adding it to best of 2016 lists because it was released so late in the year, but lo and behold she dropped the full album in dec ā17 which included all the gems from the previous pre-release, including the iconic diva song of the YEAR ādreamerā!!! the second half of this album slays though do not sleep on this oneā¦ āphotographerā featuring actress jung ryeo won is phenom, as well as her latest title track āending creditā. honestly such a solid album from the true icon of kpopā¦ we are seriously blessed
red velvet - perfect velvet
not only is āpeakabooā the song and music video of the year this whole album is so wonderfully crafted!!! the way they placed ālookā, another stellar track, right after āpeakabooā (the intro of the year y/y?) was so strategic, SM i applaud you once again and give you all my moneyā¦ i also love āi justā and āperfect 10ā, the latter which is like peak velvet song imo
loona odd eye circle - mix & match
i cannot believe loona hasnāt debuted yet but i also cannot wait until they debut with all the members and rewrite the history of kpop because damn they havenāt even officially debuted yet but this is the quality theyāre bringing, wow! The two MV tracks are pretty af but my personal favorite is āloonaticā which is a dream of a songā¦ itās like listening to grimes but guilt-freeā¦ love itā¦ kim lip is my girl tell her i love her
jeon ki sung - tune in my frequency
this is such a sweet throwback album and damn itās so deadly catchy. itās a perfect mix of 80ās electronic with old school korean sentimentality (āpsychometry - oā). if thereās one song you NEED to listen to on this album though, it would be the collab with wedance, āturning facesā. JAM! a hundred clapping emojis! the mastermind behind jeon ki sung is jokkarlos - perhaps the most well known from fronting the iconic band bulnabang star sausage club, which i was OBSESSED with back in my early korean indie days, so although i wasnāt alive in the 80ās, this is still hella throwbackā¦ anyway itās so good if you are into this kind of shit
75A - 75A
witchy album of the year!!! this album is mesmerizingā¦ feminist ARTā¦ words cannot describeā¦ how PHYSICAL this album is, itās so great, so sensual!! honestly the way this album came to be and how vocally feminist the artist (oyo) is, it deserves all the praise. this album was also produced by graye (not to be confused with gray lmao) who brings it to this album, the sounds on this are so killer!!! āman ray systemā is a jam but my ultimate favorite is āfake diamondā this is A+ shit
dear cloud - my dear, my lover
iāve been a long-time fan of dear cloud so i was pleasantly surprised when i learned that they released an album in november. it immediately had me hooked, because it felt like coming home after years to something so intimately familiar. i also revisited this album quite a bit after jonghyunās news, and found it really comforting while i was trying to cope with the news in my own way. beside the standout ābeside youā, āsorryā and ābye dear byeā also get me really emotional. i think the magic of dear cloudās music, which iāve found with all their albums so far, including this one, is that itās music that heals, no matter how sad the melodies and the lyrics might be.
a bunch of honorable mentions: taemin - move ; jonghyun - story op. 2 ; gonne choi - nomad syndrome ; we are the night - calm myself down ; sowall - favorite ; seventeen - AL1Ā
germansingergirl
stormborns
turnnoffyourmind
amandla
origamiaround
andulkaphoto
discoholicmusic
