The gateway drug to Wren is definitely the gentle afrobeat sensuousness of "Call Me", but the entire album is actually quite lovely. A dash of this and that, from flamenco to a touch of electro/fonk, trap skitters over citypop adjacent retro, are all produced with a very light touch. Fuzzy metallic sub bass weaves through warm classical guitar, synths blossom into petite glitches or chiptune style adlibs, and everything is delicately arranged over a skeleton of sweet balladry with Wren's agile, buoyant vocals threading the fabric together. The album is a delight to steep in. 

I just miss him.

The rap version of "Eve" with Jurin of XG completes a whole you didn't know you were missing. Bibi is totally unnecessary. On the total opposite spectrum to getting it like boom swings the bubbly and  sweet, "Perfect Night" energy of Le Sserafim's brand marketing release with Overwatch. Both inexorably earwormy.

"I'm a mess mess mess mess mess mess mess" 

An elegantly constructed, dexterously composed jam that luxuriates in the hand-over-heart pop-lock stutter of Omarion's "Touch". I really cannot express how much I love this song. 

Another sophisticated bit of b-side magic that manages to wield delicate uncertainty and persuasive mettle at the same time. 

Simple, classic, effective. When the verse takes the pulse quickening leap... "Don't you go falling in love"...  Much prefered to the campy, kitschy rock-teen bluntness of their other releases. 

Lush and swoony.

Good God. "Bouncy" is the kind of ridiculous tomfoolery that sparks my joy with bullet time drops, bombast and flappy flappy choreo. However, top position on the testosterone ranking this year went to the more serious and controlled "Crazy Form", which inspired a surprising (to myself) passion for the songwriting of all things. Throughout, the phonetic pleasure and lyrical quirks of Kor-english delivers the most satisfying chewy sonic goodness. The bassline of "Crazy Form" is a restless and sinuous thing, and as soon as the snake-charming mesmer begins, there's only a moment of breath before San declares with the slow certainty of a book boyfriend drawing a sword, "Ninety-two-four, kick that drum: MY EGO in this SHOW."  That chorus swaggers into rap with simmering intensity, a hype storm which revs the prechorus into a literal shriek, "You KNOW I'm FIRE!" This is the Ateez state of battle readiness.

Tomorrow X Together - "Do it Like That" (Jersey Club Remix)

Below are some songs that I grew to love more because of her choreo.

New Jeans dropped an unprecedented NON-STOP string of releases that fully embraced unpretentiously throwback pop - structurally modest but sonically interesting, nostalgic 90's styling washed through the digital age, youthful and accessible. Wholly effortless and intimate - two words that don't typically describe the big/brash/pomo world of kpop. StayC might have felt like the crest of that decade long Halyu wave, but New Jeans virtually wiped the kpop sonic slate clean, like the refreshing morning after a storm. There is no bad New Jeans song thus far (and into 2023 with "OMG").

JT "Senorita" vibes

A cavernous space where weeping violins meet DBSK style vocal phrasing, and light knifes through the drowning darkness. 

An arpeggiated siren song of thready piano over sounding depth bass, at slow-jam slow-burn mode. Between glissandos of temptation and the repetitive lull of the chorus, an extended temporal glitch that fulminates into an assertion of dominance... "come, Come, COME, COME WITH ME." Edging that "Ultimate Bliss"

Bubbly arcade robot stricken with a fatal error stands in as apt songwriting metaphor for an inability to deal with overwhelming adolescent feels.

Appreciate all the Stray Kids flourish - goofy antics, sonic hijincks, and hard carry energy - on what is essentially an anti-confessional for a guy trying to stay cool at love, yet failing miserably.

The trio side project stood out for sounding exactly like nothing else all year and not exactly like anything in the past either. I wish it had gotten more play because this bounce deserved it. Giant rubber bass, 8 bit snips, whistles, and bullets ricochet loosely around rap that deceptively feints yet lands with super sharp jabs. This type of casual aggression is all BDE, with a hard C.

It has been a long time since I've committed seriously to any particular fandom, but TXT decisively owned that empty hole in my heart with rock inflected, yet unabashedly pop, adolescent angst in The Chaos Chapter, a monster follow-up to last year's excellent Minisode 1: Blue Hour. "LO$ER=LO♡ER" (check out their fun office live)" only cemented that MOA status. Then came "Magic", the English language jam that "Dynamite" can only aspire to. Sorry, Army, don't hate me. BigHit/Hybe sidestepped the rapper assignment in favor of a straight vocal lineup for TXT, an extremely curious move by industry standards at this point and one that utterly contradicts the success of BTS. Only the future will tell if that works in their favor, but for now that means we get unusual TXT b-sides like "Anti-Romantic", or not quite rappy "Frost" metal, and... I mean: 

"1234567. You make me feel like 11"
More than a just little hint of f(x)'s "Rum pum pum pum" dominates this snake charmer of a confessional song that luxuriates in a bullet time pysche out before climaxing into the seductive Girl's Generation style power chorus and "Genie" call back. If you don't feel triumph at 11, the problem is you, not Ive.

I cried.

The best singer anime has to offer on Demon Hunter OST. See the accompanying Japanese tradition version below.

First, see the original masterpiece, and then, ride the remix below. 

JaydaG - "Both of Us"
BENEE ft. Gus Dapperton - "Supalonely"

Prime track, "Blue Hour", came from maknae Big Hit group out-shining BTS's Dynamite and all the other groups that played the disco-pop card in 2020 including SF9 b-side "Into the Night".

Baekyhun's unique timbre gets the perfect solo vehicle in his groovy distillation of EXO's best r&b mood. Album, Delight, begins with effervescent "Candy" and cumulates into a modest but wholly satisfying example of SM craftsmanship. One of the best albums of the year.