My Fave GFRIEND Songs

Intro

I always say these are long overdue. But in the case of GFRIEND, I think it’s more of the stars and planets aligning at the right time. I’ve always been more of a casual Buddy. That fandom name always cracked me up. Straight fan-zoning 😂. But one of my friends has been a Buddy from the beginning, and her love of the group ended up rubbing on to me.

So let’s start with a bit of background on the group. GFRIEND is a six-member group consisting of leader, vocalist, and visual Sowon. Lead dancer, vocalist, center, and face of the group, Yerin. Lead vocalist and my birthday twin, Eunha, main vocalist Yuju, main dancer, vocalist, and center SinB, and vocalist and maknae Umji. They debuted on January 16th, 2015 with “Glass Bead” from their mini album, Season of Glass, and I’m just putting together that’s why they named their anniversary album Season of Memories.

I’ll include that in the album review, I totally missed that in the QT article about the prerelease song under the same name. You can read that here. TDLR, I’m excited and I love it.

Getting back on track, Source Music, their label, became a subsidiary of enemy number in Kpop, HYBE Labels in July 2019. And on May 22, 2021, the group disbanded, and the members left the agency.

I remember when this came out and being shocked because how well-received Walpurgis Night was (minus the WW2 controversy stuff 😬 but that was more of an international Kpop fan issue, not so much controversial in Korea from my understanding). But this was around the time that HYBE was getting ready to debut new girl groups and buying many smaller labels. I think they were trimming the fat on groups/members they didn’t really want when they acquired all these labels. They also bought PLEDIS Entertainment, home to SEVENTEEN, fromis_9, TWS, and NU’EST around this time as well. And we learned NU’EST would be disbanding a few months before GFRIEND would. A few of the NU’EST members renewed contracts under HYBE, but most of the members left the label.

When the girls aren’t doing GFRIEND activities, Sowon as moved on to acting under OUI Entertainment, Yerin and Yuju went the solo music route, although I’m not really sure what labels they’re under currently. Yerin was under Sublime, but that didn’t work out, and once that contract was up, she left. Kang Daniel’s KONNECT didn’t work out either due to financial issues, so Yuju along with everyone else under the label left.

And our remaining members, SinB, Eunha, and Umji make up VIVIZ, who I’ve talked about extensively on ATK. I have so much love for VIVIZ. My top three favorite members from GFRIEND are here. When it comes to following their career from start to present. I’d say I’m actually a bigger fan of VIVIZ than GFRIEND. I’ve been up and down in interest in GFRIEND, but VIVIZ has only dipped a little. I didn’t care for VOYAGE that much. But loving 4 out of 5 eps they’ve released is a great record, imo. I need to get physical copies. Same with my fave GFRIEND albums. Something I’ve had on the back burner for a while.

This is one of the few groups where I don’t think I’ll be making a part 2 on this. I’ll likely just amend this article after Season of Memories releases because I’m not sure how active GFRIEND will be after this album. But hey, if this brings a Renaissance for the group, I’d love to come back and make more parts to this. But for now, let’s get into the tunes. I think I have these in order of release. And perusal, you’ll know my fave of faves as we go through the list.

Season of Glass

Glass Bead

A classic. Their sound is so specific and from the beginning they knew exactly what they were going for. They haven’t deviated from it either, much. Pretty much all of their songs sound the same, in a good way. You know a GFRIEND song in the wild, even if you don’t know the group. Them, Lovelyz (who I followed a bit more closely during this time), and Oh My Girl all were doing the cute school girl concept around the same time. And at first glance, it’s easy to label them as copy and paste of each other. But eventually, we started to see more of a shift in different directions.

GFRIEND has this slightly loud, in your face approach to their sound. They don’t really do boring ballads. They have such a sweet, fun sound and energy to their music. You can pick any song of theirs, and you’re going to have a good time with it.

“Glass Bead” is lowkey one of the best debut songs when it comes to showing the identity of a group and preparing you for what’s to come. It had to be on this list.

Flower Bud

Me Gustas Tu

Now, when “Glass Bead” initially released I remembered that I liked it. But not as much as “Me Gustas Tu”. I think the title being in Spanish caught my attention.

I instantly preferred it over “Glass Bead”. Even though it’s not really that different. Other than, they jump immediately to the chorus, which I love. It’s so catchy. I think that’s what it boils down to for me. “Me Gustas Tu” is catchier to me over “Glass Bead”.

SNOWFLAKE

However, neither song is “Rough”. “Rough” was the song that made me officially a casual GFRIEND fan. SNOWFLAKE was the first album of theirs that I adored.

GFRIEND has always had a bit of a Japanese Anime Intro vibe to it, and this is the perfect example of that sound. Same with “Navillera”, but I’ll gush about that one soon.

Trust

My favorite midtempo, ballad from GFRIEND. I recently rediscovered it for this article while I was on my GFRIEND binge. Here’s the studio version of it as well. I never know which I should link, the official account gets the ad revenue, I suppose. But it’s nice to break things up with a live performance as well.

I brought up this song in my Quick Thoughts on “Season of Memories” article. I would like another song or two like this one.

Oh, I also remember during this era I really liked this album art and the styling of this era. They really leaned into the dark academia vibes with this.

LOL

NAVILLERA

One of my favorite GFRIEND title tracks to this day. A strong number two. It’s soooo good. Loud and catchy. We get the chorus quickly, it’s a bit fast-paced. A sugar rush in audio form. I remember being obsessed with GFRIEND this era. I was completely hooked and on the GFRIEND train.

I remember when I first heard LOL I loved it. Now I don’t love it nearly as much, but it is good to have on and walk away from it. It’s a no skip album.

THE AWAKENING

FINGERTIP

My favorite GFRIEND title track, and I hate this didn’t do better domestically. This should have been EVERYWHERE. I love the synths and 80s sound mixed with GFRIEND’s loud, cutesy vibe.

The styling is cute. I loved that they tried a slightly more mature look for this music video. The world wasn’t ready for this hit.

Hear The Wind Sing

My favorite GFRIEND b-side. Arguably my favorite GFRIEND song. Because even when I wasn’t really listening to them, I would have this song in rotation. Sometimes this was the only GFRIEND song I was listening to.

There’s something so refreshing and healing about “Hear The Wind Sing“. From the first couple of seconds of the song, you can tell it’s different from their previous songs. This era to me is the shift from cute school girl concept to cute but mature concepts. I think of Apink as an example of a group growing with the concept.

If there’s one song I’d recommend to anyone new to the group, it’s gonna be this one, for sure. It’s so different from their earlier sound, but it fits in great with what’s to come.

Time for the Moon Night

Time for the Moon Night

You know, I just said “Navillera” is a strong number two for my favorite title tracks. But I think it’s tied with “Time for the Moon Night.

I love the choreography for this song. My favorite that they have. Although I wasn’t crazy about this album. But the notes, especially towards the end of this song with Yuju is spectacular. 11/10 song. I need everyone to experience it.

Sunny Summer

Sunny Summer

My third/fourth favorite title track. Second favorite album of theirs. This was another album where I listened to it constantly when it dropped, then I stopped listening to it for a while. However, coming back to it now, it still holds up. “Sweety” and “Love In The Air” are my two favorite b-sides off the album.

“Sunny Summer” is totally for you if you enjoy bright summer songs like Red Velvet’s “Red Flavor”. If you love that, you’ll completely love this one. Add it to your playlist, stat.

Time for us

Sunrise

I forgot how good this song is. I haven’t heard it in a while, and it’s time to change that, for real. The styling, again, is flawless. I used to follow their stylist’s Instagram, where they would post the girl’s outfits. Their clothes have always been cute. But they got better the further along in their career.

FEVER SEASON

Hope

I love this one because GFRIEND dabbled a little into the retro sound, but now they’re fully in it. I rediscovered this one while working on my list for this article. I haven’t listened to it much in the past, but I’ll be listening to it much more going forward. I’m obsessed with her 🥰.

I really like the Korean version of “Flower” they recorded for this album, too. Highly recommend that one from FEVER SEASON.

LABYRINTH

Crossroads

We’re getting closer to disbandment era, and it’s pissing me off because the music just keeps getting better and better every comeback 😭.

I forgot how dramatic the video for “Crossroads” is, omg, stop fighting!! 😫. Yuju’s voice on this track is craazy. I love when she’s just belting out on the track.

Dreamcatcher

LABYRINTH is another phenomenal album. The only songs from it that I don’t really listen to are “Labyrinth” and “From Me” but it’s more personal taste. Highly recommend this album. It’s a no skip. “Dreamcatcher” is my favorite b-side. It’s a slower paced song like “Trust” but the harmony and vocals are angelic.

Walpurgis Night

GRWM

I’ve talked about “Mago” and Walpurgis Night a bit on here. But “Mago” isn’t a song I go back to much when it comes to GFRIEND title tracks.

However, “GRWM” (get ready with me) is a BANGER. Another album I used to listen to a lot upon release and have fallen off of. But I’m ready to come back to it and “GRWM”.

I love the party vibes with it. Walpurgis Night is a German celebration (apparently, I am not German in any shape or form, lol) so having songs like this work great with the concept. And every girl has music they listen to while they’re getting ready for a night out or special occasion to get hyped for it. “Better Me” (my favorite song when the album first dropped, still love it) and “Three Of Cups” are two other b-sides I considered for this list, but I wanted to keep things a little short. So honorable mention for them.

Season of Memories

Season of Memories

I’ve talked extensively about “Season of Memories” and this upcoming era (as of writing) in my last article. It’s quickly become one of my favorite GFRIEND songs. I’m so happy to see them all again. Their Studio Choom performance was great. I hated the camera work, it made me a bit dizy watching it. The camera work for MCountdown is much better. Studio Choom felt like they had it on 1.7x speed or something, hated that.

I’m anticipating I’ll be adding more to this article in a few weeks, so you’ll have to check back in and see how this article actually ends, lol. But meanwhile, these are my favorite GFRIEND songs. The ones I think are great starting points for getting familiar with the girls’ music and hopefully brings you into the fandom as well.

Alriiight, another Fave Songs down. Shout out to Kprofiles for having GFRIEND’s member profile up for me to reference to make sure I had that timeline correct for. I think next I’ll be covering Kep1er’s TIPI-TAP that I missed last year. Then I think the next Fave Songs is on GOT7. I’ve had the list ready for a few weeks, but I have so much content I gotta shuffle through that I want to mention for it. I’m anticipating that article to be at least 3k words. Easy. I have soooo much to say about GOT7, lol.

And we got 9Muses article on the way too. AHHHHH I’ve been dying to talk about my girls on here! I’ll start with the anniversary article then I’ll have a Fave Songs on them at some point between now and July when my favorite album of theirs, 9MUSES S/S EDITION has its 10 anniversary. I’m ecstatic about writing for ATK this year. There’s so much nostalgia, but great new music on the way too.

But what is your favorite GFRIEND song? Who’s your favorite member? Tell me everything in the comments! Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Threads, & BlueSky. I’ll see ya next article.

Take care!

Ash💫❄️ (it’s snowing today in Atlanta as I’ve been working on this and as a nod to GFRIEND’s album of the same name 😉)