End of Month List: June 2021
We are now halfway done with the year! My mid-year recaps will arrive soon. To ease the flow, songs released on June 30th will be counted for July.
That said, June was an interesting month. K-Pop artists, especially those with rock as a genre, dominated. Anything K-Rock, idol or not, was at least decent this month, with several 9 or higher scores. The bands ONEWE, Lucy, and N.Flying were all favorites. The whole albums were solid, not only the title tracks.
At the same time, girl groups finally had some redemption, with Pink Fantasy and Brave Girls providing some much-needed quality to Korea's female 2021 line-up. Even if the biggest name Korean comebacks were only good at best, there was enough quality that worrying was not needed.
Unfortunately, this quality was not international. Unlike May, this month was anything but balanced. J-Pop seemed to have taken the month off, while Europe worked hard to make me think the last few month's quality was just a fluke. Hopefully, July will pick things up. Unfortunately, the Olympics start next month, so we might see a major slow down in new releases for a while.
Some of the months biggest growers were EXO Don't Fight the Feeling, WEi's Bye Bye Bye, and Monsta X's Gambler. The last one in particular nearly made it into the list of the top songs for the month.
Honorable Mentions:
2PM - Make It
A.C.E - Higher
Brave Girls - Chi Mat Ba Ram
Coldplay - Higher
EXO - Runaway, Don't Fight the Feeling
GHOST9 - Up All Night
Lucy - I Got U, One by One, Buddy, Wonder
Monsta X - Gambler
NCT 127 X Amoeba Culture - Save
Produce 101 Japan Season 2 - Shadow (Slip Inside)
Twice - Alcohol-Free
UP10TION - Spin Off
WEi - Bye Bye Bye
Yonezu Kenshi - Pale Blue
Bands deserved all the praise! Yay.
ReplyDeleteWas it a little too obvious I was all for the bands this month? Oops lol.
DeleteRock is the new trend now, I see. Rock really defined June, from TXT, to the nuances in Monsta X, to bands and many idol groups that exhibited high quality songs. As always an amazing list and deserved! Flashback was the #1 I didn't expect coming... I may need to hear that.
ReplyDeleteSummer is starting off quite well in fact pretty great compared to the last few years. Debuts were more balanced I mean they weren't really any aside from LIGHTSUM and JUST B. Looking forward to many more songs in July!
Yeah, this was a great month for K-Rock. However, some of my bias for the style could explain the list.
DeleteFlashback is, to me, a weaker Korean cousin to Higedan's Laughter. I really love it, but I am not sure if you will to.
Indeed summer has started out excellently. I hope the quality continues.