The culmination of everything wrong with SM this year. The overrealiance on LDN Noise or the prevalence on dull EDM House tracks from other writers that most of their acts this year have been releasing, leading to no difference between an f(x), Shinee or Taeyeon release. There is nothing remotely exciting or special about this song, the members themselves have no unique contribution to the song and tensions within the group have clearly reached an all-time high to the point that they couldn't get everyone in the same room long enough to film a 3 minute music video. The worst part of it all is that most MeUs stood for it, just like they did with 4 Walls, and even if people saw this as a more generic version of that song, they're still not seeing it as the disgrace it is to their previous discography.
4. Lee Hi - Breathe
I'm really struggling to say much about this one beyond how much it irritates me. Precisely because once again, there's barely anything in this song. This dull piano ballad is made even worse than the others because of the focus on Lee Hi's vocals, which are probably mostly a studio construction anyway. This got a ton of Adele comparisons, and even though those people meant that as a good thing, I couldn't think of a better original shady comment myself.
3. JeA - Bad Girl
I stomached my fave member Miryo's lukewarm hip-hop efforts (her current solo standout being a Dean production makes me feel a bit sick), I tried to defend Gain's underwhelming (but still good!) release but I just could not get behind this. Even Brown Eyed Girls' ballads aren't this boring and empty, what happened?
2. Eunji (APink) ft. Hareem - Hopefully Sky -
At least Only One didn't have a ****ing harmonica in it.
which brings us to....
1. Amber - Borders
Do you know how hard it is to be a genuine Amber stan? She's a corny laughing stock a lot of the time whose contributions to f(x)'s songs were either the worst part of the songs, or she was submitting boring singer-songwriter **** herself. BUT, she's my fave member of f(x) anyway since Sulli left. Why? Her goofy personality is fun because you can tell she's actually stuck in that 2012 "rawr" mindset amidst a crowd of PR-controlled robot k-pop idols, and her status as a foreigner in Korea allows her to be a lot more outspoken about certain things than others are allowed to be, and I enjoy her dialogue on her gender expression and the reality of life as an idol. Let's be real, everybody know it's likely Amber is gay and all anybody's waiting on is word from herself. So, Amber taking those themes of being an outsider and channelling them into something could've ended up amazing (for me at least, after all I'm one of the few people to really, genuinely enjoy Shake That Brass) but instead all I got was some Halsey-ish thing where Amber embarrassed herself with her rap over a terrible beat (though at least it's genuine to most K-hip hop). She should just stick to guilty pleasure bops in the future.
Fiestar have become a group I've known for consistently releasing quality ever since 2014's One More (one of my very first K-pop releases if anybody asked), but they really hit a peak with this one. The production budget, both visually and sonically, definitely seems to have raised and it's resulted in this spellbounding, faux-artsy masterpiece. 2016 was a great year for them but this was definitely the winner thanks to the amazing synths which create a great dingy, dungeon soundscape from the first note.
4. Tiffany - I Just Wanna Dance
I tried my hardest to not like this, I really did, but it's just TOO good to act petty. The way we all cackled when it was announced Stiff of all people was releasing about dancing, but little did we know we were being played the whole time. Without sounding too pretentious, this was a really good subversion of a dance song. Another slow burner, it's all about the mood and a continuous build that never really peaks but works amazingly for repeat listens, and Tiffany's normally irritating vocals work great here as (for most of the song) she keeps within her range and lets the stellar burbles and clicks of the instrumental work their magic.
3 . DIA - Mr Potter
I thought On The Road from earlier this year was their worst effort yet, and I thought these girls would continue to not impress me as they stuck to the schoolgirl concept which really didn't suit them. Thank god they ditched that, despite it bringing them their biggest success, and came out which this amazing song with a concept that deserved to go viral, and made me STAN down. People stupidly accused them of ripping Twice off with this sound, ignoring the fact that DIA were the original pioneers of this "color-pop" trend back with last year's amazing My Friend's Boyfriend, which was released on their album a whole month before Twice debuted and much better than any take since unlike DIA returned to one-up themselves.
2. GirlsGirls - GirlsGirls
I think it was pretty obvious to a lot of people that this was gonna place highly on my list. This group of mini Hyunas should do a great job at filling a 4 Minute shaped hole in the industry (provided we ignore the bump in the road of last comeback Juicy Secret) provided they take all the great things about this and make it a core part of the group's sound. The trashy verses and cheap, trend-hopping concept of this fulfilled the desire I had this year for messy pop but that chorus is genuinely stunning. The harmonies are simultaneously creepy and gorgeous and I've never heard anything that sounded like this before; my closest reference is the soundtrack to a Buffy the Vampire Slayer video game.
which brings us to....
1. D.holic - Color Me Rad
Once this was released, it was going to be pretty much impossible for anything else coming out this year to top it for me. This was just love from first listen, and as my also most played song this year it never really got old. Their company have writers with great taste; after spending 2015 rectifying the lack of good music from f(x) with some nice left-field pop, they used their sole comeback this year to make up for the T-ARA drought. A stomping, massive banger with a chorus beat that hits like a hammer, yet simmering, building verses that give a moment of pause but never kill the momentum, I can't disagree with the comparisons to Number 9/Sugar Free. Objectively, I think Chewy is still this group's best, but thinking just with my heart this is their masterpiece. It still adds some of the quirk from their previous releases (cowbells in an EDM song??), but streamlines everything into a non-stop raving BOP that is relentlessly catchy. This had to be the most frustrating case this year of people sleeping on a song from nugus that they would've never shut up about had it came from an SM group.
dddd ambers solo music is sooo CORNY. but true i love her, she's so animated and lovable. And she has STARPOWER, more than anyone else in fx. Breathe was a cute lil bop tho. Lemme listen to your best top 5 of since i seem to know more of your worst of
I low-key expected Borders to be your no. 1 in the best selection
Great top 5 with the exception of Mr. Potter. Mirror was my no. 1 and I agree with your comment, GG is that bop and D.Holic did a pretty good job at making us forget Tiamo exists
ssfdgfhg I saw All Mine at #5 and was gonna comment how it gets too much hate from the thread and how I like it, but then I saw Amber at #1 and thought it was a troll list only to scroll back up and see "kpop worst 24 songs"