One month down already 🥳
The best part of January is how fast it flies by despite it being a longer month. I don’t think I even have any new groups or soloist on here. I just include debuts in the title to keep things consistent, lol. I do have some honorable mentions:
Kim Yohan – Dessert
- A tune but not an earworm for me to really listen to frequently
Wanna One – Beautiful (Part.3)
- It’s fine. I like the sincerity of it. I wish we could have gotten a faster paced b-side with this one.
DRIPPIN – Switch & Delusion
- I didn’t care for “Villain” that much. But “Switch” and “Delusion” slap. Overall, the mini album was ight.
I don’t really have anything else to say in this intro, so let’s get into it!
woo!ah! – Catch the Stars
I’m so excited I loved this song. I’ve been rooting for woo!ah! since I did the review for “I Don’t Miss U”. This is such a fun, upbeat song. I love it.
Shout out to them for giving us a summer bop in the middle of winter. My favorite scenes were them dancing in the varsity jackets. I love a good choreo focus in a music video. Can’t wait for more from them.
fromis_9 – Midnight Guest
I just fooking love this album. I already know it’s gonna be on my fave 2022 album list. I listened to the album first before checking out the music video.
I was surprised “DM” was the title. It’s good, but I would have chosen “Hush Hush” or “Escape Room” but they are a little bit slower than “DM”. So I get it. Those two are my faves btw.
My favorite group look in “DM” music video is the all white outfits in the thumbnail. They’re so cute, and I love the trend of furry clothing items coming back. I think that’s part of the 00s nostalgia. Totally here for it.
WOOZI – Ruby
I thought I was ready for Woozi solo music 🤡 🤡 🤡 It was NOTHING like I expected. It’s just soooo good. I love the rock elements. I loveeeee the way the music video was shot.
The styling is 10/10. My favorite look of course was the red suit at the beginning and then the black and white suit that appears later on.
I was waiting for the Korean to kick in, but it never did. It was all in English. Now I want a full album. I’m hooked. I need to check out the band versions.
ENHYPEN – Blessed Cursed & Polaroid Love
I like this song. It’s different from their previous releases, for sure. But I also haven’t had much desire to listen to it. I’m actually more excited about “Polaroid Love”.
There’s a band version that just released a few days ago that’s fantastic. So chose your version I guess. I feel like “Polaroid Love” is also a summer song, released in the winter.
Anyway, back to “Blessed-Cursed”. I hate some styling in the music video.
But I do love the throwbacks to the new millennium visuals, like a ton of music videos from the late 90s going into the 2000s have. Again, I’m 100% here for the 00s nostalgia.
Literally my childhood. If I was older at the time, I totally would have taken advantage of more of the clothing choices like low rise bell boot cut jeans, halter tops, and bright pastels.
Oh and glitter, tons and tons of glitter and Victoria’s Secret. I mean I kinda did, but now I have a little more money to dress the way I want, lmao.
I still love Enha, this release was a little meh for me in hindsight. But I’m ready for more music from them.
WJSN Chocome – Super Yuppers
The way being blonde for Dayoung and Ahin (Momoland). I’m OBESSSED with “Super Yuppers”. I’m waiting for all the live stages to be complete before doing a fashion analysis, retrospective, thing. Don’t worry.
I see them, and I’m living for alllll of it. WJSN usually make amazing music. Even the meh songs are still good. So my expectations for Chocome’s comeback were actually exceeded. I expected it to be good, but they soared past good.
The song is perfect. I love the high energy. The b-side “Sweetie” is just as phenomenal. Somebody had to save Kpop and WJSN Chocome answer the call and overdelivered.
OnlyOneOf – ultimate bliss
This is going to be one of my most listened to songs of the year. I’m calling it now. I can’t listen to this song once without it being stuck in my head for the rest of the day. And then I gotta listen to it again. It’s a vicious cycle.
I didn’t care for “skinz” but the rest of Instinct, Pt.2 is flawless. So…idk what happened here. I recommend every other song off this album except for “skinz” lololol.
It’s not NCT127 “Sticker” bad. It’s just not the best of OOO. Which I guess is still pretty decent.
VICTON – Chronograph
I wasn’t expecting to like “Chronograph”. Victon’s music is just a little too inconsistent for my liking. But I enjoyed “Chronograph” more than I thought I would.
I don’t like Do Hanse’s rap. I feel like it throws off the flow and feels like a different song. But I can get past that.
I like the styling. I prefer the black outfits over the blue ones, but both work fine for the video. “Want Me” is a good one too. I miss Seungwoo.
Moonbyul – Lunatic
I almost didn’t put this song on here. I didn’t really like the lu lu lu na nana lunatic and the blur blur blur parts in the chorus. But again, I got pased that. I really love the other parts of the song more.
I love Moonbyul’s Triple H sickly makeup and red hair in “Lunatic” music video. I changed my mind on including this song after I listened to the 6equence album.
This is another one that’s already on my fave album of the year list. I love these like midtempo chill songs.
Somehow I missed “Shutdown” featuring Seori. Sooooooo good. I think I completed my December list by the time “Shutdown” was released.
“For Me” and “ddu ddu ddu” are my other faves. This one’s gonna be on repeat. It’s also made me consider doing a deeper dive into her solo stuff.
“Love & Hate” is still my favorite song of hers, but I haven’t really listened to her non Mamamoo releases. Gotta change that.
GEMINI – Mon Amour
I’m still on a Gemini kick. I think I opened up Spotify and saw he released a new song and listened to it immediately.
I made a note to include it on this list, but that was it. It’s just another great song from him. Kinda chill, but you can still sway to it.
ATEEZ – Don’t Stop
Soooooo sooooo gooooood. I love this song. I’m usual love or hate Universe songs, but this was a win for me. I love the music video. I’m going to watch it repetitively. Everyone looks amazing.
The song is just different enough from your “typical” Ateez song, but not completely jarring and has you thinking it was meant for a different group. That’s my complaint with most of the Universe songs.
They don’t fit the sound/vibe of the groups they’re giving these songs too. Ateez managed to doge that bullet. I just saw them in concert, but I miss them already. I’m sooo excited for what they’ve got for us in 2022.
What were some of y’alls releases for January? I always feel like I’m not going to have a super long list and once I dig back through I realize there were more gems than I remembered. I hope y’all enjoyed this post. Idk who’s next.
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Until next post,
Take care!
Ash🎧