![\"From](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Best-Kpop-Albums-of-2026-so-far-billboard-1800.jpg\")
<\/p>\nFrom BTS’ chart-dominating ARIRANG to standouts from SHINee, AKMU, Yves, NMIXX and more, see which album takes the No. 1 spot.<\/p>\n
\t7\/20\/2026\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tFrom left: SHINee, ATEEZ, NMIXX, Yves<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSM Entertainment; KQ Entertainment; Bang kyuhyeong; PAIX PER MIL<\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n \t\tEspa\u00f1ol\t<\/p>\n \t<\/a><\/p>\n \n\tAt the halfway point of 2026, albums from the K-pop scene have rewritten history for new chart records while also delivering projects to expand the scope of Korea\u2019s music scene. <\/p>\n \n\tSince the start of the year, it feels like there has not been a month without a major blockbuster release or highly anticipated comebacks where artists stepped up to high stakes put upon them. While BTS<\/a>\u2018 ARIRANG spent multiple weeks at No. 1 atop the Billboard 200<\/a> (and set several new sales records while at it), the larger context behind the group\u2019s full-length return showed the importance of an artist creatively pushing themselves and not falling back to what worked in past victories. Artists who scored breakout years in 2025, including NMIXX<\/a>, Yves, WOODZ, idntt, XLOV and XngHan&Xoul, all ensured their next releases would not disappoint as fresh rookies like LNGSHOT<\/a> and HEART OF WOMAN didn\u2019t hold back with bold projects to earn themselves a place in the K-pop conversation.<\/p>\n \n\tPerhaps more than ever in past years\u2019 lists, K-pop showed the different ways it\u2019s expanding, with independent acts like AKMU<\/a>, can\u2019t be blue, Yves and Balming Tiger<\/a> as well as K-pop mainstays all making their marks in major ways without sacrificing any artistic integrity. Some acts blending their style into the larger K-pop world (can\u2019t be blue collaborated with XngHan and Stray Kids<\/a> member HAN this year as PLAVE<\/a> enlisted singer SOLE for their first release with a feature), looking outward to expand a message (Yves enlisted Lolo Zoua\u00ef and Lexie Liu as collaborators her EP) or doing it fully on their own (AKMU, Balming Tiger and Billlie all crafted ambitious, full-length projects without any guest features).<\/p>\n \n\tSpanning girl groups and boy bands to rock acts and soloists, these are the albums from the larger K-pop industry that have resonated and stayed with our staff the most in 2026 so far.<\/p>\n \tITZY, Motto<\/p>\n \n\tHitting their all-important seventh year together this year, ITZY released Motto in June delivering top-notch group songs like the title track<\/a> and \u201cGlitch,\u201d while each member recorded her own solo song for unexpected genre explorations like Lia\u2019s pop-rock crossover cut \u201cAsylum,\u201d Chaeryeong\u2019s sultry jazz-R&B-pop hybrid \u201cUndefined\u201d or \u201cPocket\u201d letting Yeji dive into Latin-pop. Here\u2019s to the next seven years being even greater. \u2014JEFF BENJAMIN<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tLNGSHOT, SHOT CALLERS<\/p>\n \n\tLNGSHOT, the first boy group from Jay Park\u2019s MORE VISION, introduced its taste and production instincts through a mixtape before translating that underground, self-made image into a more accessible K-pop form on debut EP SHOT CALLERS. \u201cBackseat\u201d sets classic boom bap against hard 808 bass. \u201cMoonwalkin\u2019\u201d<\/a> pairs an addictive guitar riff with a sleek pop-trap rhythm, while \u201cFaceTime\u201d reworks old-school R&B through stacked harmonies and flamboyant ad-libs. Together, the tracks make room for several possible versions of the group. A debut from a hip-hop boy group should carry both the ambition of a decisive shot and the unsteady pressure of artists who are not finished yet. SHOT CALLERS is less LNGSHOT\u2019s final answer than the first move in a game they now intend to control. \u2013 BILLBOARD KOREA<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tIRENE, Biggest Fan \u2013 The 1st Album<\/p>\n \n\tAfter more than a decade at the center of Red Velvet\u2019s singular color and texture, IRENE uses her first solo full-length album to consider self-belief, forgiveness, comfort, spontaneity and the courage to stop avoiding herself. The record moves through R&B, pop, dance-pop, house, retro pop and rock, but every genre settles into the same muted shade inside her cool, controlled voice. \u201cBest Believe\u201d<\/a> combines mature, dreamlike synths with a hip-hop rhythm. Warm band-pop track \u201cLove Can Make A Way\u201d lets her past self comfort the person she is now. On \u201cBlack Halo,\u201d cold keys and effects push against gospel harmonies as false hope is finally abandoned. For someone who has stood at the center of one of K-pop\u2019s most vividly colored groups, choosing tones this understated without losing her presence is no small achievement.\u00a0\u2013 Billboard Korea<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tALL(H)OURS, NO DOUBT<\/p>\n \n\tThere is NO DOUBT in our minds that ALL(H)OURS should be proud of their March EP that showcases a remarkable amount of range in six tracks. Lead single \u201cDEAD MAN WALKING\u201d<\/a> mixes ominous synth production and grim lyricism with dance beats and catchy chants, while \u201cPiece of Me\u201d delivers haunting harmonies. The group halve themselves into units with members Youmin, Xayden, Masami and Hyunbin going for warbling hip-hop and R&B on \u201cCause I\u2019m Insane\u201d while \u201c7 o\u2019clock\u201d lets Kunho, Youmin, Minje and ON:N take on a refreshing rock melodies, before it all closes with the sweet midtempo \u201cMy Spring, My Light, My Breath.\u201d From near horror-pop to breezy bops, ALL(H)OURS is proving they can also handle all genres. \u2013J.B.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tBilllie, the collective soul and unconscious: chapter two<\/p>\n \n\tBilllie have never had much interest in the safe route, and their first full-length album is a whole record built on the harder, weirder path. Released in May, chapter two began its rollout in January with the cool-jazz buzz single \u201ccloud palace\u201d while the fierce single \u201cWORK\u201d<\/a> plays like a New Age anthem that queer communities quickly embraced, including a cosign from RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race star Denali. Across a sprawl of house, garage, jazz and Y2K experimentation, Billlie keep chasing sounds most of their peers wouldn\u2019t risk as proof that four years in, their appetite for creative experimentation is still their sharpest asset. \u2013 J.B.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \taespa, LEMONADE \u2013 The 2nd Album<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\taespa\u2019s distinction lies in how they pull pop\u2019s darkest, hardest corners \u2014 spaces girl-group pop is often assumed to avoid \u2014 into their own territory. Their second full-length album, LEMONADE, officially opens a new season of the group\u2019s mythology. The title track, also featured on our Best K-Pop Songs of 2026 (So Far) list<\/a>, makes sourness physical, rushing through the body like a roller coaster. The album widens that world by bringing G-DRAGON, Ty Dolla $ign and, on an alternate version of \u201cLEMONADE,\u201d Becky G into the frame. Once enclosed within a private virtual universe, the four members now occupy the center of a pop platform broad enough to absorb different genres, generations and markets. \u201cWDA,\u201d<\/a> featuring G-DRAGON, turns madness and horror into grand synth bass and an uncannily familiar hook. On the electronic dance track \u201cSwitchblade,\u201d Ty Dolla $ign joins aespa as transformation and adaptation are sharpened into a blade. LEMONADE trades aespa\u2019s signature metallic tang for an acidic bite without losing the tension and aggression that made their sound so addictive in the first place. \u2013 Billboard Korea<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tI.O.I, 3rd Mini Album [I.O.I: LOOP]<\/p>\n \n\tReuniting for a 10th-anniversary comeback years in the making, I.O.I had impossibly large heels to fill \u2014 few debuts remain as era-defining as theirs with their premiere season of Produce 101 truly solidifying the survival shows as a K-pop industry standard. LOOP doesn\u2019t try to recreate 2016 so much as show how far its members have traveled since. With Jeon Somi, Yeonjung and Chung Ha all taking writing credits alongside a producer bench that includes KPop Demon Hunters producers KUSH, IDO and Dominsuk, the mini album trades the explosive charm of their past saccharine singles for something more grown and bittersweet. Melancholy synth-pop lead single \u201cSuddenly,\u201d<\/a> co-written by Somi, doesn\u2019t reach for a bombastic homecoming; instead, it reaches for honesty and reminds everyone exactly why they fell for I.O.I in the first place. \u2013 J.B.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tPLAVE, Caligo Pt.2<\/p>\n \n\tIf Caligo Pt.1 brought darkness and buried history fully into PLAVE\u2019s world, Pt.2 accepts them and moves forward, completing both the climax of a long narrative and the epilogue that opens the next. If virtual images and elaborate technology form PLAVE\u2019s exterior, \u201cBlossom Parade\u201d removes even the instruments and leaves only five voices. It answers questions about the authenticity of a virtual group in the simplest possible language: singing. \u201cBorn Savage,\u201d<\/a> by contrast, uses industrial and alternative rock with hard choreography to expand what a virtual body can do in performance. SOLE\u2019s warm voice turns \u201cHMPH!\u201d into an inviting R&B and hip-hop pause from the density of the larger mythology. By moving between a cappella, R&B, industrial rock and new jack swing, Caligo Pt.2 confirms that PLAVE is no longer a group praised for making good music despite being virtual. Its composition, vocals and storytelling stand without that qualification. \u2013 Billboard Korea<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tXngHan&Xoul, Glow \u2013 The 1st Mini Album<\/p>\n \n\tXngHan&Xoul is an artist brand centered on Seunghan, with different Xoul collaborators and dancers entering in place of a fixed group. On the project\u2019s first mini album, Glow, he breaks electronic music\u2019s radiance into shades of house, disco and Afrobeats. Rather than standing still with hurt, he keeps the body moving through it. In that sense, the album recalls Troye Sivan or Robyn: music that finds release when sorrow leaves the body as sweat and tears on a dance floor. \u201cWishlist\u201d <\/a>uses funky guitar and warm tone to build midtempo Afrobeats pop, while the dreamlike opening and supple rhythm of \u201cLovin\u2019 On Me\u201d turn self-love into a physical reflex instead of a grand declaration. Glow never loses electronic dance music as its center, but its frame remains open enough for new collaborators to move through it. It is an effective introduction to the XngHan&Xoul structure and a golden first impression of the chapter Seunghan is beginning to write. \u2013 Billboard Korea<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tATEEZ, GOLDEN HOUR : Part. 4<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tReleased in February, ATEEZ\u2019s 13th mini album begins with the mysterious, shadowed trap R&B of \u201cGhost,\u201d then fires into the near-limitless charge of \u201cAdrenaline,\u201d<\/a> the EDM title track that moves like a fuel-loaded truck at full speed. \u201cNASA\u201d follows with the ease and confidence that have become signatures of the group\u2019s hip-hop. Yet GOLDEN HOUR : Part.4 does not end in heat. It softens into \u201cOn The Road,\u201d a lyrical pop letter to the ATINY who have walked beside ATEEZ for seven years, and the fan song \u201cChoose.\u201d The eight members still generate a formidable current alone and as one team, but this time their power is not spent saving an enormous fictional world. They step back and look toward the people who kept watch from beside the stage and beyond its lights. If ATEEZ\u2019s golden hour once burned molten crimson, this album catches the stranger colors that surface as the heat falls into dusk.\u00a0\u2013 Billboard Korea<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tHEART OF WOMAN, Heart Byte : LEGACY<\/p>\n \n\tIt\u2019s a bold, almost reckless move for a brand-new girl group to debut with a full-length album, but HEART OF WOMAN answer with gem after gem across Heart Byte : LEGACY. Mixing \u201990s new jack swing and \u201900s Spanish-guitar elements, main single \u201cLost in Proof\u201d acts as an easy gateway to get into the bubblegum-pop rush of \u201cTold U So\u201d that is as effervescent as it is sticky. Cuts like \u201cTEA\u201d and \u201c($..$)\u201d pare the beats back to spotlight some of the best harmony-heavy group vocals of any debut this year.<\/p>\n \n\tBut if you\u2019re pressed for time, press play on the way-too-short of a stunner \u201cSkit.exe\u201d<\/a> that crystallizes H.O.W. serving R&B girl group as much as K-pop act, closer to Danity Kane or early Destiny\u2019s Child than the latest batch of new-generation girl groups. LEGACY boasts a striking amount of identity to arrive with on a debut LP and here\u2019s to hoping they keep driving down that ambitious lane. \u2013 J.B.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tSHOWNU X HYUNGWON of MONSTA X, THE UNSEEN<\/p>\n \n\tMONSTA X is often characterized by masculinity and explosive performances. Within that spectrum, the sensitivity and quiet weight of SHOWNU and HYUNGWON, and the constant shift of balance between them, have always been compelling. The pleading chorus of \u201cDo You Love Me\u201d<\/a> repeats the same question until love gives up an answer. \u201cSuperstitious\u201d joins refreshing vocals to vintage soul, while \u201cAccelerator\u201d rides a dream-pop sheen over a U.K. garage groove. Together, these songs reveal a form of masculinity that MONSTA X rarely has room to foreground. The softness previously glimpsed away from the stage now meets some of contemporary pop\u2019s most current sounds without friction. Sensitivity does not oppose strength here. It gives that strength breadth and depth. LOVE ME leaves MONSTA X\u2019s power intact while widening the space in which it can exist. \u2013 Billboard Korea<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tXdinary Heroes, DEAD AND<\/p>\n \n\tOn DEAD AND, a title that turns an ending into a continuation, Xdinary Heroes handles rock\u2019s many textures with growing command. The band preserves the moral ambiguity, elaborate lore and comic-book immersion of its world, but its own musical identity now cuts through more clearly. Across the seven tracks, all six members appear in the writing and composition credits. Traces of Korean, Japanese and British rock traditions flicker through the record, while the group\u2019s characteristically dreamlike vocals bind punk rock, hybrid metal and vintage rock balladry into one space. \u201cHurt So Good,\u201d \u201cKTM\u201d and \u201cX room\u201d<\/a> hold their energy under pressure before releasing it, each arriving at catharsis through a different temperature and grain. The album does not simply line up genres. It shows how many colors can live inside what Xdinary Heroes already does best. True to its title, DEAD AND proves that this is a band capable of beginning another sentence at the point where one appears to end. \u2013 Billboard Korea<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tKiiiKiii, Delulu Pack<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cStart laughing \/ Start dreaming.\u201d That short line from \u201cDelulu\u201d explains the engine inside Delulu Pack. KiiiKiii, responsible for one of the first half of the year\u2019s finest K-pop songs with \u201c404 (New Era),\u201d<\/a> captures the daily instincts of a post-internet generation caught between relentless concept competition and a sound cycle that replaces itself by the week. The group reaches for images and music from before its members were born, then translates them into a language native to the present. The strategy extends from lyrics, visuals and styling into U.K. garage, disco, hip-hop and retro pop. Arranged by LDN Noise, \u201c404 (New Era)\u201d plants garage swing inside U.K. house and pulls the force of classic club pop into KiiiKiii\u2019s world. \u201cDelulu\u201d<\/a> drains the tension from dreamy disco without letting it turn dated or obvious. \u201cDizzy\u201d lowers the temperature further with relaxed mid-low vocals and a minimal hip-hop groove. Nothing is forced into hard focus. The voices remain loose and the sound slightly blurred, yet that haze renders their generation with unusual clarity. \u2013 Billboard Korea<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tidntt, <yesweare><\/p>\n \n\tidntt is intriguing before a note is played. Its system combines something of NCT\u2019s expanding unit structure with the collective identity that allows Balming Tiger\u2019s separate individuals to gather under one name. Three units are planned to arrive in sequence before 24 members finally meet as one group, binding 24 distinct selves into a shared identity. introduces the eight-member second unit yesw8are and brings idntt\u2019s revealed lineup to 15. The unit track \u201cYes We Are\u201d<\/a> folds crunk&B and house into a raw industrial-dance pulse, using repetition to pull eight voices into formation. \u201cPretty Boy Swag\u201d begins with gospel-like vocal runs, then sets rhythmic hip-hop bass and brass against an immaculate, urban cool. Its bridge turns distance into lift: \u201cWe came a long way \/ But we got a long way to go \/ I don\u2019t know how we gonna get there \/ But we gon\u2019 get there.\u201d Industrial texture, polished pop and the loose confidence of 2000s hip-hop support something more interesting than empty swagger. This is young pride made possible by knowing exactly how far remains to go. \u2013 Billboard Korea<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tTAEYONG, WYLD \u2013 The 1st Album<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tWithin the enormous NCT universe, TAEYONG has long been the member who keeps his bearings when the machinery around him turns volatile. On his first full-length album, WYLD, heavy bass, marching percussion, dubstep and hyperpop lock together beneath a voice that slips freely between singing and rap. The experimental hip-hop title track bares its teeth first. \u201cI\u2019m a Dancing Cactus\u201d<\/a> sets 1980s synths and garage drums against the comic contradiction \u201cNo logic at all \/ For perfect energy.\u201d The alternative R&B of \u201cMermaid\u201d recasts the fans who waited for him as beautiful mythic beings, while \u201cRun\u201d closes the record with claps and overdriven guitar. TAEYONG moves through it all like a wolf patrolling every edge of its territory. \u201cI just do what I want, what I feel drawn to make,\u201d he said in an interview with Billboard in May<\/a>, and that need for free movement runs through the album. Wildness is most compelling in the tension between aggression and the knowledge of restraint. WYLD leaves that tension taut, pointing toward whatever TAEYONG does next. \u2013 Billboard Korea<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tBTS, ARIRANG<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tFor an album built to represent South Korea, it\u2019s only fitting that BTS\u2019 feverishly anticipated return rewrote the record books for Korean acts along the way. ARIRANG debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 641,000 equivalent album units, the biggest week for any group\u2019s album since the chart began counting by album units in December 2014, and BTS\u2019 seventh U.S. No. 1. Its 208,000 in vinyl marked the largest vinyl sales week for a group in the modern Luminate era. \u201cSWIM\u201d<\/a> launched atop the Billboard Hot 100 as nearly every ARIRANG track flooded the chart with the album going on to reign at No. 1 for three straight weeks, making BTS the first group to manage that feat since Mumford & Sons in 2012.<\/p>\n \n\tBut the numbers are only half the story. BTS pulled it off not by going back to any tried-and-true formulas, but by chasing new sounds and dream collaborators \u2014 Diplo, Mike Will Made-It, Tame Impala\u2019s Kevin Parker, El Guincho, Ryan Tedder, Flume \u2014 to build a record that reps Korea to its core while sounding made for the entire planet. \u2013 J.B.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tYves, NAIL<\/p>\n \n\tAs expected for one of Korea\u2019s most entrancing alternative pop stars, Yves NAILs it on her fourth EP. The LOONA alum keeps refining the experimental but accessible alt-pop that\u2019s become her signature. Opener \u201cIt\u201d softly welcomes you in as she examines her personal ascent (\u201cHow many more times are they gonna call my name? \/ Nothing will stay the same \/ Now leave it all behind, higher, higher, higher up\u201d) as part of the album\u2019s larger death-to-rebirth arc.<\/p>\n \n\tFrom there NAIL keeps shifting languages and registers, sliding from an all-English opener into the hypnotic deep house of \u201cHALO\u201d and the bilingual sprawl beyond, with Yves straddling the line as one of K-pop\u2019s most exciting provocateurs. Producer ioah shapes all five tracks, and her collaborators \u2014 Lolo Zoua\u00ef on the hip-hop-leaning title cut<\/a>, Lexie Liu on the hyperpop rush \u201cBreak It\u201d \u2014 are every bit as willing to get weird. Writing on nearly everything and serving as sole lyricist on both bookend cuts, Yves proves she\u2019s steering her work from start to finish. \u2013 J.B.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tWOODZ, Archive. 1<\/p>\n \n\tWOODZ spent over a decade grinding in the K-pop scene before the biggest break of his career arrived almost by accident when \u201cDrowning,\u201d a cut from his excellent 2023 EP OO-Li<\/a>, climbed the Korean charts while the singer-songwriter was away serving his mandatory military enlistment. Discharged in July 2025 with the song still a chart force, he reintroduced himself with \u201cCINEMA,\u201d a balance of hard-rock crunch with soft, introspective turns for one of the year\u2019s most expressive vocal performances<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\tBut on his first full-length album, WOODZ proves \u201cDrowning\u201d and \u201cCINEMA\u201d were no flukes with Archive. 1 boasting a sprawling, 17-track statement that sounds more akin to \u201990s experimental rock than WOODZ\u2019s boy-band idol origins. Opening tracks \u201c00:30\u201d and the explicit \u201cSuper Lazy\u201d<\/a> kick things off by blending breakbeat electronic and rock elements, followed by a country-rock style that makes you want to dance on \u201cDayfly\u201d before \u201cThe Spark\u201d struts forward on wah-wah swagger. Other standouts include the fully English \u201cBloodline\u201d as his most quintessential rock cut yet, a riff-heavy ode to living and breathing rock n\u2019 roll, while \u201cDowntown\u201d trades heaviness for a groovier, open-road \u201970s strut that would make AC\/DC grin. Across all of it, WOODZ leans harder into rock and crossover-ready English than ever, cementing himself as one of this generation\u2019s most restless, genre-fluid soloists. Hopefully Archive. 2 is coming sooner rather than later. \u2013 J.B.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tXLOV, I, God<\/p>\n \n\tXLOV\u2019s second EP begins with the confidence of a group claiming its own divinity, then runs on grooving bass, hard rhythm and dance tracks whose lines already seem drawn for the stage. \u201cTHE RULES\u201d uses a jazz-based opening and repeated structural turns to create a sensual, cinematic pull before feeding directly into \u201cSERVE,\u201d<\/a> a title track that moves across several dance idioms. WUMUTI and RUI\u2019s \u201cExtancy\u201d welds tech house to hyperpop, while HYUN and HARU\u2019s \u201cHIPS\u201d brings bass, punch drums and spring-loaded synths closer to the members\u2019 individual energies. After all that breathless motion, \u201cMasterpiece,\u201d the final original track before the instrumental, reaches the album\u2019s conclusion: its light EDM-pop bounce carries the idea that every flaw is another piece of the self\u2019s finished artwork. The wounded, incomplete figure at the album\u2019s center finally arrives at a divinity of its own. Perfection, for XLOV, is not the absence of defects. It is the confidence to claim them. \u2013 J.B.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tcan\u2019t be blue, Prussian Blue<\/p>\n \n\tPrussian blue, one of the earliest widely used modern synthetic pigments, was prized for the depth and intensity of its color. The melancholy of the five-piece band can\u2019t be blue carries the same saturation. Across five tracks moving between pop rock and R&B, the band traces what follows the end of love: regret, attachment, obsession, self-justification and final collapse. Even the urban nonchalance of \u201cBlack Tesla,\u201d featuring XngHan<\/a>, cannot conceal the damage for long. \u201cI couldn\u2019t let you go, so I held on\/ Blame me if you need to. What else could I do?\u201d the song asks.<\/p>\n \n\tBy the closing track, \u201cWaiting,\u201d that studied detachment has run out of strength. During its final 50 seconds, piano, guitar and strings arrive together, breaking down and dissolving the emotional shape the record has worked so hard to preserve. This is not a breakup story built from a band\u2019s raw bravado, youthful panic or seasonal brightness. Depression itself is the material. Prussian Blue is as deep and saturated as the color whose name it borrows. \u2013 Billboard Korea<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tSHINee, Atmos \u2013 The 6th Mini Album<\/p>\n \n\tSHINee\u2019s sixth mini album arrived in June on the group\u2019s 18th anniversary with a house-driven title track<\/a> kicking things off, sounding like another classic single for the long-running group. The disco-lacquered \u201cHours\u201d delivers a similar uplift, followed by the surging synth-pop of \u201cPossibility\u201d that never loses a sense of hope thanks in large part to the members\u2019 impactful falsetto runs.<\/p>\n \n\tBut if the first half of Atmos is all about carrying the light and embodying its title, the last three tracks offer darker shades. \u201cAnti Believer\u201d opens on a hard electro pulse with a near-drone chant on the chorus (\u201cWho made me an anti believer? Hate that I\u2019m an anti believer\u201d) even as the harmonies stay precisely layered. \u201cStill Raining\u201d and \u201cThousand Miles Away\u201d lean further into the dark without ever letting go of the thread of hope, all proving how nearly two decades (and a generation of trends) later, SHINee still sounds like no one else, and refuses to deliver just one tone or color. \u2013 J.B.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tNMIXX, Heavy Serenade<\/p>\n \n\tNMIXX walked in with a lot to live up to: \u201cBlue Valentine\u201d was Billboard\u2018s No. 1 K-Pop Song of the Year in 2025<\/a>, and its parent full-length landed at No. 2 on the albums list<\/a>. Luckily, Heavy Serenade doesn\u2019t just clear that bar but raises it.<\/p>\n \n\tThe EP opens on the eerie, start-stop experimentalism of \u201cCrescendo,\u201d pre-released via its music video on April 28 ahead of the EP\u2019s May 11 drop, a first taste engineered to signal the group was up to something strange but special again. The title track<\/a> surges into emotional electro rock-pop with all six voices pushed to the front, and proves another sure-footed smash. But the quiet standout is \u201cDifferent Girl\u201d \u2014 notable first because it\u2019s the very first lyric Bae has ever written with her nervy songwriting marking the EP\u2019s boldest emotional swing. A song of pure fascination, NMIXX sing pointedly at a \u201cher,\u201d where the object of desire and the self begin to blur with an unresolved openness around the lyrics (\u201cWho can deny her? Different girl\u2026\/ So, I fell in love, different girl\u201d) that makes the song linger beyond its pulsating trap-pop sound. \u2013 J.B.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tBalming Tiger, Gongbu<\/p>\n \n\tBalming Tiger\u2019s second album opens with \u201cStretching,\u201d a 54-second soundscape built from percussion. From there, Gongbu feels less like a K-pop arena than the video-art wing of a contemporary museum. \u201cMadengyaeho\u201d summons something close to a folk chant. \u201cCha Cha Cha\u201d bends the memory of Korean popular song, while \u201cGojingamrae\u201d<\/a> takes its name from a four-character idiom. Around these distinctly Korean materials, the collective moves freely through folk, alt-pop, funk, rock, dance-pop and hip-hop. Martin Scorsese\u2019s dictum, quoted by Bong Joon Ho \u2014 \u201cThe most personal is the most creative\u201d \u2014 finds fresh proof here.<\/p>\n \n\tFrom the \u201cRecruiting\u201d interlude to the jagged running times, the album\u2019s posture could be summarized as anti-hook, anti-SEO, anti-viral and anti-dance challenge. It stands at a sharp distance from the global habit of dismissing Korean music as cookie-cutter. Balming Tiger gathers musicians, filmmakers and producers who also maintain individual careers. By positioning themselves at K-pop\u2019s farthest edge, they expand what its art can contain. \u201cUntil I barely know who I am\/ Until I know everything and still know nothing,\u201d they sing on \u201cIt\u2019s the Night.\u201d Gongbu does not hurry toward an answer. It keeps doubting, testing and studying itself. That unfinished education carries Balming Tiger somewhere intensely personal and unexpectedly vast. \u2013 Billboard Korea<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tAKMU, FLOWERING<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThere are things you can only know by leaving,\u201d AKMU sing on the opening track of their fourth full-length studio album, their first since SAILING nearly seven years ago. The liner notes describe FLOWERING as \u201cthe place reached at the end of the voyage,\u201d and \u201cParadise of Rumors\u201d<\/a> opens that destination with quiet beauty, where pain and healing live side by side. Folk rock and chamber pop form the bedrock, with jazz-pop, acoustic and country textures worked into the grain. Electric, bass and acoustic guitars trade places. Recorder, piano, double bass and saxophone move in and out like tides, controlling the album\u2019s speed and depth. Lee Chanhyuk, who wrote and composed every track and served as executive producer, leaves small noises, wavering pitch and the scrape of instruments in the frame. Lee Suhyun\u2019s clear, plainspoken voice rises from it like a wildflower alone in an untouched blue field.<\/p>\n \n\tAfter winning K-pop Star 2, the siblings entered YG Entertainment at a time when BIGBANG, 2NE1 and Lee Hi were at commercial peaks. For more than a decade, they held their place as pop\u2019s eccentric, quick-witted and technically pristine sibling duo. Now they step back from the polished surface around them, and from the weight of being called geniuses. The innocence of \u201cSunshine Bless You\u201d and the close observation of \u201cTent\u201d and \u201cPaid with Bugs\u201d remain, but FLOWERING is less polished than earlier AKMU and more honest for it. Twelve years into their career, they allow themselves to appear imperfect, unfinished and therefore fully dimensional. That growth \u2014 and the nerve it takes to show it \u2014 is what makes FLOWERING one of the first half of the year\u2019s best albums. \u2013 Billboard Korea<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n \t<\/p>\n \t<\/a><\/p>\n Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tThe Daily\t\t<\/p>\n A daily briefing on what matters in the music industry<\/p>\n \t\tBy providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use<\/a> and our Privacy Policy<\/a>.\n
![\"aespa\"](\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-billboard-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: SM Entertainment\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Supplied\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: BIGHIT MUSIC AND NETFLIX\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tSign Up<\/a><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\tWe use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. \/\/ This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From BTS’ chart-dominating ARIRANG to standouts from SHINee, AKMU, Yves, NMIXX and more, see which album takes the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[264],"tags":[54066,18,117,4813,13676,19,17,337,5],"class_list":["post-595786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-billboard-korea","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-genre-kpop","tag-global","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music","tag-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116954751214400073","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}