December and 2022 are over so I’m giving my quick takes on all of the debuts and comebacks we got from K-Pop the past month!
I’m only sharing the debuts and comebacks I actually paid attention to and not every single one that happened in the month. So if a favorite artist of yours isn’t in here, tell me about them in a comment and I’ll check them out!
Debuts
Dream land by XEED
It’s fine. Nothing was very standout or noteworthy in my opinion.
Comebacks
Wild Flower by RM
This is the most stunning video I have ever seen from any artist ever. And the song is equally gorgeous, as well as emotional, even heartbreaking, and so intelligent. Youjeen’s voice is perfection and RM is really a poet with a beautiful soul that he is willing to bare to us.
Blue Moon by NiziU
Their opening outfits made me think of the Beauxbatons from Harry Potter. And that’s the only interesting thought I had the whole video. It’s just not my preferred style and I don’t like the group enough to be invested in a ballad.
All About You by The Boyz
Like with NiziU, it’s just not my preferred style and I don’t like the group enough to be invested in a ballad. I do like it a little more than NiziU’s since it had more of a relaxed vibe versus a full ballad feeling.
Beautiful Christmas by Red Velvet x aespa
A fun and festive song never hurt anyone, and it feels like I’d be too harsh to really deeply critique it. The most critique I’d give it is that the choreography is cheesy and boring. But the song is only meant for one time of the year and not to be overly serious, so can I really blame them for simple dancing?
Chase by Minho
So I watched the video following Beautiful Christmas and wow the tone shift gave me whiplash. I kind of like the song, but don’t know if I’d go out of my way to listen to it again. The video though was pretty intriguing, and supposedly Minho directed it himself so good for him.
Candy by NCT Dream
I don’t like this at all. It feels childish and like it should be on a kid’s album. I know that Dream is supposed to be the youthful unit of NCT but this is going too far for me.
Ditto by NewJeans
Maybe I’m too cynical, but I don’t like the double music video with the long intro/outro. It honestly makes me not care for the song, even though that is perfectly fine and fitting for NewJeans. I think if you took the intro out of side A, that would be the best version.
Diamonds by Bugvel
This is actually J-Pop and showed up in my YouTube recommendations. While I don’t think it is perfect, but I did enjoy it more than many K-Pop comebacks lately.
Black Eye by Vernon
It feels like something is missing, particularly in the instrumental. I want to have more of an edge. If it’s going to imitate emo, it needs to really go for it. I do like the chorus and outro lyrics wise.
Phantom by WayV
I’ll admit that, after RM, this was my anticipated release of the month. And I was a little let down I guess. I wanted the chorus to go harder. It didn’t have as much impact as I wanted. Visually, however, the video and concept are perfect. That level of drama needed to be in the chorus.
Halazia by Ateez
Ateez really brought it. They have the unique ability to adapt their concept into a lot of different music styles and visuals. It has familiarity, so you can’t deny it is Ateez, but it is also fresh for them. They don’t feel formulaic, and I love that.
What new music have you been enjoying this month, K-pop or not? Tell me about it with a comment!
I enjoyed the “Beautiful Christmas” collab when I ran across it. i noted the same thing you did, namely that the dancing was very simple. But i also had the thought that it’s just a Christmas video that seemed like it was more for funsies than anything, so I also can’t blame them for not going super-hard at it.
Twice’s Tzuyu did a cover of a Christmas song I’d never heard of before (Christmas without You) that was ok. I went and found the original afterward and it was better, but ain’t that usually the way such things go? oddly, the original video was only 4 days older than Tzuyu’s so my 1st thought was that the kpop folks jumped right on that, but in looking at the comments of the original, it appears that the song was actually released 2 years ago, just hadn’t had a video made for it until this year.
Itzy’s “Snowy” wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t good enough for me to remember more than I saw it either.
Wengie isn’t kpop, but her past videos seem to be inspired by kpop, at least. This was her Christmas offering this year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8U_tn9QqEGI
So far as non-Christmas song releases… I can’t think of any that I saw, mostly I’ve been reading this month instead of watching YT vids, and what little kpop I’ve watched has been more or less all watching reactors on Kara’s “When I Move” comeback or their “Killing Voice” medley. And I figured out that it’s Seungyeon who I’ve seen as an actress in the show “About Time” where I found her to be far more attractive than the lead so I was wishing the roles were reversed when I watched it, which was why I’d looked her up and thus knew that Kara had disbanded some time ago….. 😉