Crawling into my second decade as a Korean music listener feels, well, a lot like I expected, actually. The signs were there from as early as 2017 that as I got older, I would likely float away from the scene’s glitzier offerings and gravitate more towards the R&B side, where the production is often just as good but the vocal talent shines through more and the moods vary more widely. This is still unquestionably a K-Pop list first and foremost, but you may notice the soloist-to-group ratio increase and the overall energy mellow a little this year.
It’s just as well, because among other garbage news 2023 gave us a record-time collapse of the most promising girl group in years – Fifty-Fifty went from viral worldwide hit to Barbie movie soundtrack to contract lawsuit to 75% member exodus in well under a year. Not that there wasn’t plenty to enjoy at the forefront of mainstream K-Pop this year, but the increasing brutality of the business is making it more difficult to invest in newer groups over time.
To reflect my growing appreciation for the less mainstream corners of the industry, I’ve decided to relax my decade-long rule that songs have to be accompanied by music videos in order to count for this list; but if they don’t have one, then they need to be the lead track off their respective album or EP.
As always, only songs with Korean lyrics count, but you should still definitely check out Le Sserafim’s Japanese song Choices, Jungkook’s all-English effort Standing Next to You, Riot Games’ Baekhyun-backed PARANOIA, æspa’s remix-friendly Better Things, and everything Forestella released this year.
Put on your good headphones, turn off those pesky auto-captions (if you want), and let’s step into the groove.
-◊-◊-◊-◊-
VR BEST OF 2023 DISCLAIMER
This list represents my opinion only. I am not asserting any kind of superiority or self-importance by presenting it as I have. My opinion is not fact. If you agree with me 100%, go buy a lottery ticket. Respectful disagreement is most welcome.
-◊-◊-◊-◊-
15. What’s Happening – Min Kyoung Song
We start a little bit spicy in 2023. “This isn’t K-Pop!” you may cry, “It’s clearly a traditional Korean trot song!” Well firstly, over eleven years into this hobby I kinda find all the melting genre lines to be almost pointless; secondly, this isn’t even the first time I’ve included trot stuff on this list; and most importantly, that chorus breakdown is just full-steam modern K-Pop anyway. The trot strings in the background may as well be stylistic window dressing by the time the full EDM sound wall hits, and the combo goes surprisingly hard. There’s even some simple point choreography at the chorus, and because Min Kyoung Song doesn’t have much else to hide behind in her field, you get uncommonly powerful vocals to go with your filthy drops. Give it a go.
14. Boogie Man – LUCY
We transition from a trot song to a band that includes among its ranks an honest-to-goodness violinist unafraid to show off; Lucy’s Boogie Man is a touch of Halloween on Christmas for you. K-Pop bands are usually a bit hit-and-miss for me, but Korean band songs I’ve enjoyed have historically had the kind of bouncy rhythm that Boogie Man provides. But there is oh so much more to enjoy on top of that rhythm: the funky guitar lick after each chorus, the Persona 5-esque violin response after the chorus call, the two separate incidents of headphone-trick knocking, the full violin solo bit, the ghostly wails in the back. No one is going to accuse the creepy music video of being low-effort either; top effort from the Lucy lads.
13. Ponytail – Yugyeom
An early 2023 ditty that stayed on my list pretty much all year, ex-GOT7 maknae Yugyeom taps into his crooning side on top of an impeccably-produced AOMG Gray track featuring an infectious woodwind flurry and a generous amount of trumpet to create Ponytail. The now-26-year-old taps into his falsetto well without overextending physically or stylistically, sailing on the beat as he negotiates very minimal turbulence, and the result is a song that loops with incredible ease. Sik-K’s featuring rap is also absolutely hysterical, both in the lyrical choices and the heavy yet somehow non-committal degree of vocal tuning he goes with.
12. Bridal Shower – jerd
One of the only net positives I’ve seen concerning controversial AI tools in media is the ease with which cash-strapped artists can throw together basic animations and create something counting as a music video. You can see one such example here, where my most-listened Korean track of the year (according to Apple Music) sees a lo-fi R&B specialist make one of the clearest audio statements about a career direction you’re ever likely to hear: after pumping your ears with the kind of big, gradually-unwrapping sound she has produced so well for years, right around the song’s midpoint jerd transitions into a full-on EDM dance beat, dropping the vocals almost entirely to give listeners a taste of the DJ work she spent much of 2023 developing. I’d gladly take more of it.
11. Vroom Vroom – Tempest
K-Pop is an industry famous for taking sonic inspiration from the west and cranking it up as far as it’ll go, but for some reason it took until 2023 for someone to take the hint that it might be worth having a crack at the sound of the early Fast & the Furious movies. Tempest had a good year, also gifting listeners with the funky early-SHINee-styled Dangerous, but Vroom Vroom went from hilarious to unironically fantastic for me in the time it took for that opening bell-ringer of a bar to drop. The fabulously silly moments keep showing up throughout – I can’t get enough of “speed it up to gear shix-shix-shix-shix” – but Vroom Vroom also balances early-2010s noise-pop with clever layer restraint so effectively that it gets me head-bopping every time I hear it. I don’t even care that there’s barely any real singing outside the bridge – that one meaty high-note will do me when the rest of this song goes so hard.
10. How U Feel? – BUMKEY
Who had “noted Korean smooth boy Bumkey does a brassy mental health pep talk” on their 2023 bingo card? I sure didn’t, but I’m mighty pleased the guy managed to pull this one out of nowhere. One of the best instant mood-lifters I’ve heard in years, Bumkey sets about on his stubborn positivity train How U Feel? by melding a sticky choral sample, some understated trumpet and a couple of K-hip-hop buddies together in a way that sounds spectacularly effortless. This one got some serious playtime in my headphones from the moment I first heard it – which happened to be on a crisp morning while I was literally exploring an entirely unfamiliar part of an urban Sydney suburb. It was, as Bumkey eloquently puts it, “time for some fresh air” (which I misheard as “fresh shit” until I sat down to write this), and that was a good day.
9. Super Shy – NewJeans
How to appreciate NewJeans’ Super Shy in four steps:
- Hear it once, think it’s alright but maybe a bit repetitive and a tad empty-sounding, and move on;
- Hear it later on in public, mishear the lyrics as entirely English (thus not eligible for a list anyway) and put your hipster guard down;
- Hear it a bunch more as it breaks into the mainstream, start to dig the rhythm, the ‘chill synth’, and especially the chopped-up final 30 seconds;
- Realise one day that it actually includes a bunch of Korean lyrics – Oops, this song is actually eligible and what do you know, it’s on the list now.
8. Perfume – NCT DOJAEJUNG
2023 was perhaps the busiest year ever for all things NCT; just about every sub-unit of the sprawling mega-group had a comeback release, and a soloist or two did their own thing along the way. Yet for me the best of the bunch this year came from a brand-new arrangement of members focusing on vocals above all else: Doyoung, Jaehyun and Jungwoo bring all the smoothness of a chill NCT 127 B-side (yes, they do exist, and they’re usually pretty good) to Perfume, a song that reminds you of its heritage via a deliciously weighty bass guitar sample, a bit of chant flavouring in the chorus and a brief detour into trap, but otherwise keeps things buttery-smooth; the next gorgeous harmony is never more than a few beats away. Let’s hope this experiment lasts longer than most from the NCT stable.
7. Beat It – from20
Y’all still like big booming ‘80s synth? Well I sure do (probably always will), and from20 – the artist formerly known as Raehwan from Bigstar – was there to give it to us all in 2023 (Come to think of it, I don’t remember a single Bigstar song, but this isn’t the only solo member to bring out a song I enjoy, even if the last one released a decade ago). Spring-loaded verse arrangements, thunderous sonic decoration, a cheeky tactical falsetto, some warbling bridge goodness, a decently uninhibited application of cyber flourishes, and plenty of respect for the low frequencies add up to a killer track as far as I’m concerned. From20 was a busy lad this year too, so if you enjoy this be sure to check out fellow synth-pounder Bad Revenge.
6. Let Me Be – Kisum feat. Boi B
Longtime relaxed-rap merchant Kisum returns to this list for the first time in years with a shockingly good standalone single out of the blue. It’s no secret why I like this one: show me a decent whistle hook in a K-Pop song and I’ll show you straight to this page. But this particular whistle has a western stand-off vibe that really suits the acidic nature of the song’s lyrics and takes it to another level, especially alongside the most clearly exasperated chorus line I’ve heard in a very long time. The song is evidently aware of what makes it work, as the opening stanza of the second verse sees the whistle twist back on itself in the background, and the finale drops almost everything else out of the mix. The surprise of the year.
5. Screen Time – Epik High feat. Hoshi
This one isn’t rocket science either: Epik High has always excelled at producing beats with bounce, but the group usually reserves the best ones for B-sides on their often-amazing albums. Screen Time at last promotes one such beat to the title track position, garnishes it with a sprinkle of tasteful piano, brings in the mightily impressive young soloist Hoshi – of Seventeen (and K-Pop Best of 2022) fame – to take point on the chorus and the sudden-strings bridge, then leaves Tablo and Mithra Jin to rap a series of endlessly, exhaustingly relatable bars in the spaces between. This is a top-shelf Epik High song, and also my favourite music video on the 2023 countdown – one watch will probably do a good enough job of explaining why.
4. Seoul (Such a Beautiful City) – H1-Key
You ever love a song long before the vocals even come in? Honestly, H1-Key could be singing about absolutely anything on this track and it would still land right here – that full, melodic synth backing is just pure dynamite. Every time it shifts up or down I can’t help but grin like an idiot, and the subtle retro-sci-fi beeps that join it only make the song sound even better. But H1-Key aren’t singing about absolutely anything; they’re singing about Seoul as if they were in a tourism ad, and they’re singing pretty bloody well. As someone who hasn’t been over there for just long enough to allow nostalgia to develop, I won’t pretend that doesn’t help my appreciation for the song.
3. Sweet Juice – Purple Kiss
Hoo boy, I really wish this song was called anything else (apparently it nearly was), as I did not need a flashback to the “sexy concept” days of 2013-14 when watching K-Pop videos was a minefield of borderline-pervey cringe. Luckily the music video plays out nothing like my greatest fears (I just watched it for the first time as I write this), because Sweet Juice is the best girl group song of 2023 and it honestly isn’t even close. There isn’t a single production misstep on deck here: the relentlessly sultry beat is nigh-on perfect, the echoing vocals in the backing track are deployed with laser-precision, the ascending piano harmonises properly with the vocals, and every time those dramatic strings flare up it’s just pop song magic. The chorus lives by a downward note slide that somehow doesn’t sound awful, and hey, it turns out there’s also some really cool group-interactive choreography. Purple Kiss have made plenty of good songs over the last few years, but this one may live on as their opus.
2. Love Eventually – Samuel Seo
There’s no music video available for this one, but this live performance comes impressively close to the sound of the studio version (and starts with an instantly-endearing ad-lib), so here we are. And what a song Love Eventually is; the perfect showcase for Samuel Seo’s always-stunning vocal prowess that stopped me dead in my tracks on first listen, and continues to give me pause every time I hear it. That first moment when the light drum pattern comes in and Seo holds the note as if to push the track through the first set of bars? Incredible. The structure of the chorus, where the central question ends on a high note but the end plummets downward? Wonderful. The endless gentle rotation of that piano chord in the distant back of the track, arranged by the man himself? Spectacular.
1. One and Only – Boynextdoor
May I present the exact kind of song that makes it all worth it for me. Co-written by the multi-talented Zico – clearly in “let’s just have fun with it” mode – One and Only has given Boynextdoor the strongest debut since Blackpink first whistled their way into the spotlight seven years ago. And I for one do not care if they ever make a song better than this, because bright boy group concepts have rarely ever hit this well in the history of K-Pop. It’s well-documented on this site that I adore gimmicky layer-peeling songs that err on the side of “less is more” in the mix, and One and Only is a whip-smart example of the immense positives within that approach: the track is rarely playing around with more than just two or three fun sounds at a time; and the way each one sharply drops out to make room for the next keeps the whole track feeling crisp and energetic as an infectiously charming ode to youthful restlessness. That left-field half-falsetto “ooh-wa” at the end of the chorus is majestic, and K-Pop “na-na-na’s” haven’t been this strong since – dare I say it – Pentagon’s Shine. Wow.
If you wish to listen to this entire countdown as an audio playlist (apparently my shortest ever, at just 47 minutes end-to-end), here it is on Apple Music.
-◊-◊-◊-◊-
Honorable Mentions
–Your City – Jung Yong Hwa
Listen: Here
This one just fell off the main list at the last revision, but it’s a bop: tasty vocals dancing around a karaoke-ready chorus on a bed mad up of restrained pop-rock guitar alongside yet another pitch-perfect whistle loop. Great stuff.
–Kick-Start – ICHILLIN’
Listen: Here
If the Mission Impossible theme got 90% of the way to a summer party but took a detour to sink a few brews with Sum 41 in a mainstream kinda mood, you’d get ICHILLIN’s Kick-Start. This song is an absolute riot, and perfect for the hot Aussie months at the time of writing.
–Love War – Yena feat. BE’O
Listen: Here
Last year’s list-topper returned in the middle of 2023 to drop one of the strangest fake-diss tracks I’ve ever heard, but luckily she had also brought this wonderfully smooth jam to enjoy all the way back in January.
–DIE 4 YOU – Dean
Listen: Here
What’s that? Dean brought out a new song this year? You know the rules; it has to show up here. The man doesn’t miss.
–Golden Hour – Mark
Listen: Here
“I’ve got a really big problem / I don’t know how to make eggs / but that I do not stress / Cause I’ve never been hungry.” That’s the lyrical verve you get to enjoy while listening to one of NCT’s best talent draws, and there’s a killer bouncing beat to go with it.
—Yellow Circle – Chae Soobin & Jo Yuri
Listen: Here
Remember the old days of K-Pop, when some of the best songs around were just blatant ads? Turns out those days never left, but you don’t have to enjoy the watery taste of Lipton tea to enjoy this sucker punch of an ear worm.
–stardust – Yunsae
Listen: Here
We’re still waiting for one of the best producers in all of K-Pop to get her big breakout moment, but in the meantime Yunsae gave us this buzzy, headphone-filling good time in 2023.
–Heart – Dawn
Listen: Here
Featuring a producer credit from Leez of Dreamcatcher, ATEEZ and Trendz fame – and paired with exactly the kind of melodramatic music video you’d expect from Dawn – Heart thankfully does not squander its excellent thumping, uh, heart with fancy experimental audio; it’s just a confident, steady tune worth listening to.
–Mysterious – Nicole
Listen: Here
So apparently Kara didn’t just come back for a quick nostalgia grab last year, but at least some of the members want to stay around and make more music? I am completely OK with this, especially if it means more of this throwback sound and gimmicky melody.
–Macarena – Blitzers
Listen: HERE
I don’t care what you think you know, this song is not what you’re expecting – and you are not ready for that chorus.
Vagrant Rant 