Ranking July 2022 Kpop Releases
So, this isn’t every song that came out in July, it’s title tracks for artists that I’m interested in. The reality is that I have a bunch of stuff going on and I can’t listen to everything, let alone rank it all every month, but this was a format I wanted to try out, so let me know what you think. If you do want a ranking of literally every release, there are people doing that out there as well. If a song is not listed here, it doesn’t mean I wouldn’t necessarily like it, but that I haven’t given it enough listens to confidently rank due to it being an artist I don’t follow as much as these others. Lastly, boy group fans that usually get nothing from my articles, this one's for you. Without further ado, let’s go go go!
11. Viviz- Loveade
I thought this was a fun song on first listen, nice summer energy. The reality is that it fell off for me immediately and I’ve already removed it from all my playlists, so this one didn’t stick at all.
10. Chungha- Sparkling
This one left very little impact on me, but I do find it amusing to send it to Twilight fans with the only context being “what Edward says to Bella.”
9. Purple Kiss- Nerdy
There are things here that I really like, and things that just don’t quite click for me at the same time. Yuki specifically is always a win as far as I’m concerned, but the vibes just don’t quick suit me on a personal level, and I don’t think this showcases PurKi’s talent as well as some of their other songs do.
8. Stayc- Beautiful Monster
I love BEP songs almost without fail, but something about the instrumental on the chorus just does not work for me at all. That said, the rest of the song does work, and when they did it non-instrumental for Showterview with Sunmi I actually liked it a lot more. Big standout here is using J just to sing, and I think that’s a big win.
7. Itzy- Sneakers
It’s a song about putting your sneakers on, that’s quite the idea, but it totally works. It’s catchy, fun, and unusually approachable for an Itzy song, being quite normal. You can take the normalness as an upside or a downside, but it does lend to potentially having more longevity compared to their other songs which sometimes lose that as the uniqueness wears off.
6. Ateez- Guerilla
This song is intense and dramatic, which I always think is a good thing in kpop, a genre that thrives on excitement. There’s a ton of power and aggression here too that I really appreciate, it seems like we should be getting more of that, but I feel that most groups wouldn’t be able to pull it off as well. This is a cool evolution of the Ateez sound that blends some of the new sound with the energy from their Treasure tracks and that dramatic aggression.
5. WJSN- Last Sequence
A solid release, but not exactly what I’m looking for from WJSN as an Ujung. It’s tricky when you have a signature sound, because you want to grow and evolve, so I respect and enjoy the music, I’m just more of a fan of the ethereal sound. I do love Dawon across this whole song specifically though, she feels at the best she’s been since As You Wish, and Dawon at her best is one of the best vocals to listen to in the history of kpop.
4. MCND- #MOOD
MCND having fun hip hop vibes is something I really love, it’s unique and enjoyable, and they are great at it. There was this little gap where they were putting out much safer music that sounded more like what every other boy group, and it made them feel lost. Now we’re back to hip hop, we’re back to high energy, and it is fantastic. I also want to shout out the director and editor on the m/v who clearly had a blast and had some pretty cool edits and satisfying VFX.
3. Aespa- Girls
Aespa has been so good, and Girls is right on track to maintain that. It’s crazy to me that this isn’t even their best song this year and it's a really solid Aespa brand girlcrush banger. The choreo is a little goofy in the chorus, but, honestly, I’m pro-goofy choreo. Kpop is fun, so goofy choreo doesn’t hurt for me, if anything it’s a bit of an enhancer when a song feels otherwise too serious.
2. Super Junior- Mango
Mango slaps, there’s no way around it. This song has that old school sound that you expect from SuJu with modern levels of production, and what you get from combining those two things is something catchy that stands out from everything else released these days. It was only a matter of time until we got such a good Super Junior song since they’ve been having regular comebacks, we just needed them to hit the right sound.
1. Apink Chobom- Copycat
This song is so catchy, and has a quirkiness that isn’t quite Orange Caramel levels of cheek, but does evoke those same happy feelings. The chorus especially is insanely catchy and I find myself humming along every time the song plays. I honestly can’t believe Apink manages to have a good release every year still after all this time, they just work as a group. Plus, they join Super Junior as the oldest groups on this list, and look at that, they’re at the top. As an older kpop fan, happy to see the old guard maintaining this level of quality.
