Songs/artists you were pleasantly surprised with this year?

[strawberry🍓]

This thread was inspired by this reddit post that someone made and posted today, so I thought why not do the same thing here.

Feel free to add commentary to yours as well if you like!

Here’s mine:

• rocket punch (flash): I really enjoyed listening to both songs they’ve released this year - Chiquita & Flash - but Flash takes the win for me. The part at the beginning gives me the early 2000 vibes for some reason, and just pretty much the whole song also gives me a bit of that early 3rd gen vibe to it I guess. This song is by far one of the most underrated and underappreciated releases that I think deserves so much recognition!
• Txt (good boy gone bad): Ngl I didn’t start listening to this song until I heard the chorus of it from somewhere and I thought “wow this is actually really good”, and then I found out that it was this song. So i decided to give it a listen - when I first heard it, I knew I was really gonna like it. This song has the 2nd gen vibes to it, and the chorus is really fun to listen to. I was actually really impressed by the fact that TXT released this kind of song because in comparison to their past title tracks I’ve listened to (from Crown to Blue Hour era) I just didn’t care about their new releases after that until this one.
• Fifty fifty (debut): hands down the best debut of all time in 2022!!! And for those that have not checked them out yet, then you’re missing out! : P Seriously, I can literally brag about this group’s debut release all day!! they’re by far one of the only Kpop groups I know that have released a song that has those chill/relaxing, r&b and dreamy vibes to it. And I’m so glad that they didn’t go on the same route as every other group out there. Their other songs Lovin Me & Tell Me are also a 10/10!!!! Most underrated group of all time, with Higher being their most underrated debut of all time in 2022!!
• Class:y (tick tick boom, and some b sides): I absolutely enjoyed listening to Tick Tick Boom - the whole song itself is really addictive and fun to listen to. In comparison to Zealous, this song (TTB) is much more laid back - and it complements each of the girls voices so well! Some of their other b-sides that I really enjoyed are Same Same Different, Divin’ to you, Super Cool (I can also say a lot about this one), and Tell me one more time.
• IVE (Love Dive): extremely catchy, addictive and fun to listen to at wherever we are basically. I absolutely love this song better than Eleven (which was released last year). I can literally imagine listening to this song whilst going on a long-distance car trip during the sunset - like driving through an area where no other cars or no one else walking past is around. This gem deserved to get the public recognition it needed, and it also deserved to be titled the SOTY as it should!!

This is by far how much I can only write today. So I’m gonna be working on the rest of the other ones that I have on my list later on.
For some of them, I might just do a bit of the commentary like I did for 5 of the above. Whereas for the others, I will not need to add commentary to it since the list is already quite long and it’s gonna be a lot of work to do so yeah.

 

[yunaing]

Girls - aespa: Ironic coz everyone else seems to hate this song. But I didn’t like Savage and I stopped liking Next Level so I wasn’t expecting much from it. But damn it’s a bop
Shut Down - Blackpink: Same story as aespa, last title track of theirs I consider liked is AIIYL. I wasn’t expecting anything from this so was very pleasantly surprised. I just think it sounds more unique compared to all their last title tracks
La Luna - Ichillin’: It’s a B-Side but shouldn’t be. All their other music is kinda meh bar Got’ya but this is like a top 5 song for me it’s just GORGEOUS
The entire Op.22 Y-Waltz : In Major album by Jo Yuri: I went from giving no shits about Yuri to giving all my shits about Yuri this album was incredible though I’m still so mad that Round and Around is only an intro and not a full song
DITTO - NewJeans: I really didn’t like 3/4 of their debut songs so I really wasn’t expecting anything out of this song. But it’s actually surprisingly nice and their voices sound really good. I hope this is the start of good feelings about this group

 

[sanasideup]

for me, it was good boy gone bad and thursday's child has far to go by txt. i rly enjoy both of those songs, and i normally don't like txt at all.

 

[LostInTheDream]

Fifty Fifty's "Lovin Me". I wouldn't expect such a mature sounding song from a debut album.
Le Sserafim was overall pleasantly surprising because I thought the concept would be very vain and girl crush from the teaser.
I didn't think The Rose would make another album so that album was a surprise.
Yena's concept was pleasantly surprising

 

[Yeosang's chicken]

Oneus-no diggity I was very surprised because I never really liked oneus's songs but I love this one
TxT-lonely boy I was very surprised because I didnt listen to this song until recently because I thought I wouldnt like it
New Jeans-Cookie Even though the song has bad meaning, I still like the song, its very catchy and Ive been listening to New Jeans more
(G)I-dle Changes This is my new favorite song, I havent really heard a Lot of their songs, but now I have since I listened to Changes and I love the group

 

[avi ☆]

fifty fifty - i physically can’t stop listening to fifty fifty’s debut album. higher, lovin’ me, tell me UGHHH THEY WERE SO GOOD. not the biggest fan of log in, but it was still crazy that they had that much talent to put into their debut album at their age!
newjeans - LOVE. that’s all i need to say. LOVE <3
ive - i don’t think i even need to explain because ive was on a whole other LEVEL this year. love dive, eleven, after like, my satisfaction, take it, royal. all masterpieces!
woo!ah! - catch the stars has to be one of my favorite songs of all time! i also loved pit-a-pat! rollercoaster and love thing are the cutest songs 🥹
le sserafim - NO SKIP DISCOGRAPHY. every song slapped hard.
fromis_9 - i loved dm and stay this way! sea of moonlight was not that bad too, pretty good! the b-sides on midnight guest were just akmdksjdjjdjdj i loved them!
stray kids - guys, this is self explanatory. i mean, have you listened to oddinary and maxxident?? THEY’RE SO GOOD.
twice - celebrate has GOT to be one of my fav Japanese releases, and between 1&2 is def one of my fav albums from them. all the songs were no-skip!
eunbi - her title tracks and most b-sides were absolutely amazing. glitch and underwater were both really high on my top played songs!

 

[1fool4you]

one and only - p1harmony
i just listened to this song like a week ago, but im so in love with this song (no, im not being biased i actually like the song)

scream - sf9
extremely catchy, and fun to listen to on a sunny day.

ditto - newjeans
the intro is literally so ethereal. i love this song and everything abt it.

nxde, tomboy - g-idle
these are probably one of my favorite songs from g-idle. its giving baddie vibes so much, and i absolutely love songs like these.

run2u - stayc
i cant express in words how much i love this song so im gonna do this:
dheuiragjfevhbjcfuveIbieqncvierhqfcuqERWAHUHUEBQFCA

the astronaut - jin
i thought the song was gonna be a flop when i heard he was making this. i did not expect it to be this good.

typa girl - blackpink
again, the baddie concept

these are the ones i can think off the top of my head but im pretty suree theres more

 

[MintChocoChaewon]

ditto-newjeans:i hardcore thought they couldn't do any better than their debut, and they did, one of my fav song of all time

nxde, tomboy: I was shocked when I heard a group that released hwaa, senorita, and oh my god released this masterpiece, i love it all lot.

rollercoaster- woo!ah: at first, i wasn't the biggest fan but this song has rlly grown on me

tick tick boom- classy: i heard shut down from youtube shorts a couple times but never really liked it all that much that I would check out the group. but when i heard this, I was so amazed i made a whole profile post saying i wanted to stan them because of this song. a masterpiece.

maxident's album- skz: i was scared when I saw the love concept, because what if they flop at it? honestly, i was fine with them sticking what they did best, loud music. but this album is my 2nd fav album by skz <3 i love it so much

le sserafim: this would determine if they were my ult group, and guess what they are, because this album slaps so hard

 

[strawberry🍓]

Skyle (bye bye bye)
underrated bop and it’s so addictive

IRRIS (bye bye & stay with me)
underrated bops and I love the chill/relaxing chills from these songs

DRIPPIN (GAME, their whole recent comeback album)
GAME is such a good song and it’s even better than ZERO. And their whole recent album is top tier.

Xdinary heroes (ghost)
really enjoyed it and been playing it on loop

E’last (shelter, let me free, nightmare)
I could play Shelter on loop all day

Nature (I’m done)
way better than Limbo

TripleS (their whole album)
Especially generation and Charla rly loving the Y2K vibes they went for.

Limelight (their whole album)
Their title track fully caught my attention, and their b side tracks are just equally as good!! Their whole album is full of underrated bops.

 

[Mikasa Ackerman]

Blackpink (Shut Down) - Pink Venom is overall not my cup of tea and I didn't know why it has that enormous amount of fans. I was a BLINK until last year when they released hylt, but then I was very disappointed with ice cream release. I thought the same might happen this year when they said they would release two title tracks. Pink Venom sounds very disturbing to me (no hate), but when I listened to Shut Down bro that's on a whole new level! The violin intro, reflections from their previous mvs, and the confident lyrics made me consider whether I should start stanning them. Even the bsides slap so hard!
LE SSERAFIM (anti-fragile) - Again with LE SSERAFIM I didn't like their debut song. The chorus sounds addictive, but it was quite annoying. Anti-fragile changed my thinking surprisingly. I love the choreography and the melody.
Enhypen (shout out) - There was a time when I just didn't listen to or stan any kpop boy group except for Svt and Trsr, but one day I came across the mashup of Enhypen's shout-out and Taylor Swift's Black Space on Tiktok and was obsessed, I still am! It made me stan Enhypen again.

These are the only ones I can think of right now. If I remember more, I'll write them here.