2026 still has 3 months left so I’m giving it the benefit of the doubt because something good might be released since then but this year has left me largely underwhelmed. A lot of comebacks that I paid attention to this year were either underwhelming or I didn’t like them. I’m classifying 2026 as one of my least favorite years in kpop since I joined along with 2021 and 2023
When it comes to my ult groups,Blackpink’s and lesserafim’s comebacks largely disappointed me. Blackpink’s deadline wasn’t bad but it was very underwhelming compared to all their previous releases and lacked replay-abillity and lesserafim experienced such a big musical and conceptual decline that I lost interest and dropped them. Pureflow is easily their worst release and their only album that not a single track made it to my playlist and MNN was nothing special and not enough to rekindle my interest.
Ive’s revive + was decent but the only standout track for me was bang bang. Rest of the album was good but not memorable. Aespa’s lemonade was a decent step up from armaggedon and had way better b-sides albeit not as explosive lead singles. It still reflects their difficulty to make a cohesive project but much less than armaggedon. I liked it enough to add some tracks to my playlist. Nmixx’s heavy senerade was really underwhelming compared to blue valentine but I’m cutting nmixx some slack here because topping blue valentine as an album is extremely hard.
The only standout releases for me this year are kiiikiii’s whykiiikiiii ep and lisa’s sawadika. Whykiiikiii is one of the best and most well made bodies of work I’ve ever seen coming from a 5th gen grp,truly a phenomenal album. Lisa’s sawadika has blown my mind and it’s been on repeat since its release. As for Blackpink’s solo music,I loved heaven from half of jennie’s ep since my cd isn’t coming till November but didn’t really care for new trick and click
As for groups outside of my stanlist:
Yena’s catch catch and h2h’s rude were decent. Didn’t like the lemon tang ep at all.
I loved cortis’ acai and redred,they’re my guilty pleasure tracks but I don’t listen to them as much anymore
Illit’s it’s me is their worst title track,really liked paw paw tho and I hope their next cb leans into that sound
Katseye’s wild is no different than BC. I sometimes revisit hootie fruity since it’s also a guilty pleasure for me,but not the rest of the ep
Tuide’s debut was cute but less interesting than I expected.
I thought IBM was horrible but I don’t think I am the target audience for that song so it makes sense.
Babymonster’s music is not good. I didn’t like choom or SHIT. They are very talented and charismatic but their music is outdated
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