Following a largely male-dominated 2024 double countdown, 2025 sees a return to our regularly scheduled programming: a predominantly female K-Pop mini-album top five, and a roughly even gender split on the full album side. The EPs are typically big on beats but otherwise nearly impossible to throw a thematic lasso around; as for the LPs, you could say this year’s commonality is successors: there are zero debuts involved, and I found at least something worth saying for each entry about how the artist’s previous work reflects on the newer effort.

Language restrictions are a bit looser for me when it comes to Korean albums than singles, but entire LPs with vanishingly small amount of Korean lyricism – or none at all – still introduce too many questions about western pop lines, so I don’t tend to include them. But I will shout out Kandis’ Playground and Yerin Baek’s Flash and Core, which are both great fun.

1-3 tracks = not eligible

4-7 tracks = mini album

8+ tracks = full album

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VR BEST OF 2025 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. Nobody ever agrees with me 100%. Respectful disagreement is most welcome.

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MINI-ALBUMS
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5. Rich Man – aespa

Another year of K-Pop, another SM Entertainment album way better than its missed-opportunity title track would seem to foreshadow. Like many of those examples, said title track is made a little better by its connection to the wide variety of B-sides that follow, although they are definitely still the real stars. In particular Count On Me, the song that kicks off the mini’s less spicy second half, is a smooth winner that’d fit into any vocals-forward playlist, and follow-up Angel #48 adds a garage beat to keep the silk moving. I am also a big fan of warbly first-change rap/chant vehicle Drift, however, because a whistle chorus is somehow still my biggest pop weakness after all these years. Makes that questionable treatment of the famous Cher quote go down just a tad easier.

4. Beat It Up – NCT Dream

Another busy year for the Dream lads saw multiple album releases hit the shelves and streamers, but while there’s nothing on Beat It Up that quite hits the skyward heights of the DREAM TEAM B-side from their Back To The Future album, I find the former to be a more consistent listen overall. The EP features a soft centre with crunchy bookends: the title up top and Tempo / Tricky at the end are all about brash beats, and Tempo in particular is a real rollicking head-bopper. Meanwhile Rush combines both sides of NCT Dream’s dual identity, sliding an airy dove-spawning title drop between bassy rap verses; Cold Coffee leans more on the euphoric production but gets there with an understated EDM buzz, and Butterflies serves up a reliable SM ballad – albeit in the middle of an EP rather than as a closer.

3. Love Virus Pt.1 – Heize

One of K-R&B’s most reliable exponents returned in 2025 with a smooth 20-minute mood piece that gives you real value for your cafe time or Sunday drive. Opener / title Love Virus calls in Monsta X’s I.M. of all people to add more flavour to a tasty guitar riff partnering multiple percussion styles, and it works fabulously. Last Taxi provides that trademark almost-vocaloid vocal production that seems to come so naturally to Heize, with ample vocal contrast provided by relaxed BtoB alum Lee Chang-Sub. Centrepiece All Because of You brings back the cleaner vocals and promotes flowing piano to the prime accompaniment slot before the crooner’s vocals go all the way to the front of the mix on the intimate You Made Me. The Last Hello initiates full K-Drama OST mode, and then comes the kicker: a stunningly beautiful and fully instrumental guitar piece performed by zai.ro, perfectly titled Forget me not until you die. I can’t think of another instance of a Korean music album that closes this way, but it puts a crazy-effective bow on the album and really elevates it above the crowd.

2. Chaotic & Confused – Jeon Somi

One of two ex-IOI stars to make this year’s album roll, Jeon Somi’s Chaotic & Confused delivers her best work since 2019’s devious ear worm Birthday thanks to an irrepressible mix of upbeat influences underscoring lyrics with a certain cold-light-of-day tinge to them. Somi has never been afraid of airing her inner struggles through music, but this collection of sonic wrappers really keeps the listener on their toes, with very little opportunity to sit and reflect until the whole thing is over. The central track, which shares the EP’s title (but isn’t the “title track”; nice awkward K-Pop nomenclature there), is a quality example of production matching songwriting, as it makes handbrake turns between stitched-together elements and dresses the first half of its chorus in verse tropes. Elsewhere, Somi amplifies bass guitar and synth on opener Escapade, croons wistfully over a hip-hop beat at the close via DELU, and rescues a potentially deflating Sean Kingston refrain by applying a haunting sliced-up house affect on MV track CLOSER.

1. Air – Yeji

Mini-albums that barely qualify by track number tend to have a bit of a disadvantage on this list, because when you swing small you invite the possibility that an underwhelming song may break your momentum way easier than otherwise. But if all four of your tracks are title-worthy bops? Different story. The debut EP from Itzy leader Yeji happens to be one of those rare examples, and it has already carved a solo identity that stands clear of her group’s (often successful) hip-hop gimmickry. Bright and catchy pure pop energy seems to be the priority here, and it is well-and-truly achieved across the track list.

Title and opener Air is heavily synth-backed with the best kind of repetitive refrain; Invasion turns up the 1980s vibe – and, funnily enough – pumps in the air, with sharp guitar and a sticky pitched-up pre-chorus; Can’t Slow Me, No brings in that light middle-eastern flavour that convinced me NCT 127’s Regular was my 2018 song of the year; and as for 258, well, it just should have been the lead track. It’s one of the most straightforward, confident, and catchy productions I’ve heard in K-Pop for a long time, complete with the good kind of “ah-ah”s and a nailed-on key change.

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Honourable Mentions

–Dear LIFE – An Shinae

Another four-tracker, albeit one with much less production muscle behind it, which arguably makes its quality all the more impressive. The eponymous piano ballad that closes proceedings casts an emotional shadow over the rest of the EP, but features by K-R&B legends Ann One and Crush absolutely do not hurt.

–VCF – ALL(H)OURS

“Vibe Check Failed” declares the sub-heading of ALL(H)OURS’ fourth mini-album, as the track list proves that statement a bald-faced lie; VCF packages a retro-electronic instrumental intro with this year’s podium-sitting title track Ready 2 Rumble, then throws in a bit of vibey new jack swing via Do It and finishes with a pair of wildly different sub-unit tunes.

–The X – Monsta X

Six tracks of noisy value from the X boys starts with melody-light slapper Do What I Want, rolls through title track N the Front, which brings in a bit of a nice vocal line, then splices in a dramatic synth flare on EP stand-out Savior before winding things down somewhat with the more relaxed but still toe-tapping trio Tuscan Leather / Catch Me Now / Fire & Ice.

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FULL ALBUMS
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5. Ten: The Story Goes On – Twice

Man, I am still a sucker for a gimmicky album concept after all these years, and Twice’s celebratory “special album” marks an incredible decade for the eminent third-gen girl group superpower by presenting no more – and indeed no less – than ten tracks. The kicker, of course, is that each of these tracks bar the opener is a solo venture focusing on one of the group’s nine members; that’s right, it’s BTS’ peak album Wings but even more committed (for better or worse), and while I doubt too many future concert anthems will come out of Ten, the sheer aural variety on show among the individual songs is something to behold.

A tossed salad of English and Korean lyrics with multiple producer credits ends up with a hit rate that should not be a surprise to me by now, but somehow still is; this group just works way more often than they don’t, even when they’re apart. It’s hard to go past Mina’s bassy grit-and-air Stone Cold as the most ear-catching production, but other highlights include the early-2000s influences of Sana’s Decaffeinated and yet another rare but successful K-Pop bluegrass experiment: Jeongyeon’s Fix a Drink. Chaeyeong’s creepy-EDM track In My Room also sounds like an Advance Wars: Days of Ruin theme, which lines up with her off-beat solo efforts pretty well, so there’s that.

4. Hunter – Key

Current form seems to suggest that SHINee’s most theatrical member has found his niche: after 2022’s excellent Gasoline (and its Killer repackage) established the soloist’s affection for operatic 1980s synth camp, Hunter brings plenty of that LP’s dark sci-fi flavour along for the ride and tries to evolve it, mixing the vibes in with Broadway-ready ambition and some more straightforward pop sensibilities to create a more balanced – if a bit less immediately magnetic – full-lengther.

Key doesn’t play around with too many structural shake-ups at the top of the album, hitting the listener with the title track, then Trap and Strange, which form a first act of sorts that is all about thick, low-register synthesiser baths and brief falsetto trips. Then comes the julienned refrain of Want Another and the more traditional pop of No Way! and Infatuation, which lay the track for a final stretch that touches on Key’s public identity and ambitions: GLAM and Lavender Love may as well be screaming from the rooftop set of a lavish stage production. Seulgi also shows up for a bit of fun on Perfect Error, so that’s fun.

3. Alivio – Chung Ha

A redemption story half a decade in the making, Alivio finally gives born pop star Chung Ha an LP worthy of her talents – and appropriate for her vocal range – after one of the most disappointing whiffs on a cool concept in Korean music history. 2021’s gargantuan, meandering Querencia presented a virtual four-disc structure that sadly amounted to very little, and the following year’s more restrained but ultimately unfulfilled Bare&Rare, Pt.1 didn’t move the needle much more. But a few years and one label change later Chung Ha has found a production team that understands what works for her.

Jay Park’s More Vision provides a mix of sanitised house beats and vague pop-punk that target late ’90s / early-2000s nostalgia with equal effectiveness, using a roughly even split of English and Korean lyricism to cauterise the dual-pronged approach. Sunmi’s pitch-perfect appearance on rolling first-changer Salty is the sole feature on an otherwise confident lone track flow light on that occasionally nasal BoA-esque delivery and heavy on that stellar head voice, centred by triple-EDM-threat Loyal / Stress / Beat of My Heart. These are the main reasons to show up for Alivio if you’re all about the dance floor vibe, but the final act is also a treat if you like a bit of guitar lick drama: the lead lyric of Even Steven is utterly disarming in its filter-free catharsis.

2. What Have We Done – pH-1

Three years after his much-celebrated last LP effort, But For Now Leave Me Alone, talented K-Hip-Hop artist/producer pH-1 returns to the arena with a noticeably different follow-up. What Have We Done is considerably less morose than Alone, and any anguish the guy still wants to air is presented as part of a more balanced package. There are more upbeat – dare I say even catchy – songs on this one, but it doesn’t skimp on the low-key fare either, and a veritable who’s who of featuring artists show up thick and fast to bolster the piece with added variety. The result is a potential marker of the evolution of pH-1’s influence within an industry where the walls between hip-hop, R&B, EDM, and pop are famously thin.

The beats are immediately noticeable as more welcoming from track 2, the laconic jam Party Ppl, and the percussion firms up on funky lIlBOI guest vehicle Keep It On the Low into the cocky My B and hilarious nerd anthem Baka. After that the energy lowers a little, but comes right back with a flurry of woodwind on Gosha and quick piano on 54321 – which perhaps features NMIXX leader Haewon as a square-up from pH-1’s recent production work with the group. Thama and aiai show up next, which means an ultra-smooth mini-block, but then it’s finally time for low-tempo introspection. Covered in Rain definitely hits that spot, but album closer Soak in Blue is perhaps an all-timer for pH-1, opening up a sinkhole of strings beneath unassuming piano whenever he drops the title. It’s 2017 offonoff-level good.

1. Stella II – Stella Jang

Stella Jang’s work has always been easy to like, but despite a loose approach to random singles her album rate hasn’t exactly been prolific: the trilingual talent magnet last put out an LP, the appropriately-named Stella I, all the way back in 2020. But if she just needed the time to make sure a full album was worth the slowed standalone output, well then it is mission accomplished here. I knew this one was my album of the year the first time I listened all the way through, and it has become my most-played of 2025 since; much like Stella I, it’s perfect background music in almost any room, but becomes an alternately inspiring, rejuvenating and straight-up tear-building vibe when played through headphones with intent.

Whether she’s keeping the backing small but the questions big (What Makes You?), scatting over that trademark down-to-earth lyrical detail (Names & Sames), brazenly flaunting millennial nostalgia (Walkman), evoking downbeat Andrew Lloyd-Webber with a surprise electric guitar solo in the tail (I Love To Sing), espousing wistfully resolute idioms in the face of regret (Land of What Might Have Been), serenading in French with a simple acoustic guitar (Un Beau Jour De Pluie), or surgically assembling the most impressive cinematic track build – and best overall B-side – of the year (An Unexpected Journey), Stella’s sequel hits even harder than the first effort, and I just hope the success of that cooking time doesn’t mean “Stella III” arrives in 2030.

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Honourable Mentions

–EVE: ROMANCE – Bibi

Bibi’s full-length follow-up to 2022’s seminal Lowlife Princess: Noir is really just over an EP’s worth of new material, but the singles and neglected B-sides from 2023 / 2024 that the bold soloist weaves into the tracklist of EVE: ROMANCE aren’t just dumped at the end; they’re weaved between the new stuff to match energy levels and provide a remarkably smooth listening experience. It’s a rare move in a wider industry that still seems to treat album craft with disinterest more often than not.

–Assemble25 – tripleS

The group that launched a thousand “la”s – and members – reunited this year for another powerful LP boasting all kinds of production tricks and experimental melodies. The instrumental opener really hypes up their fantastic lead single Are You Alive, but other spiced-up highlights include the harmoniously full staccato dive on Firework Diary, the drum & bass backing of Too Hot, the treated-accapella bed under Friend Zone, and the wonderful mileage gained from a single guitar bar on Love Child.

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Oh, hello from down here. The 2025 edition of my K-Sides Collection playlist is live HERE for your perusal on Apple Music, created as always from twenty of the year’s best Korean music B-sides plus one bonus track that was hard to put elsewhere. It’s got a bit of a stronger ballad flavour than the last couple of years, but also plenty of bass to balance that out.