A new year is upon us, which means it’s time to look back on our favorite K-pop albums from last year. Here, writers Chloe and Lucia discuss their picks for the best full-length albums from 2024!
Chloe: 2024 has certainly been an interesting year. When deciding on what to include in my list, I noticed a continued lack of emphasis on the album as its own form, as K-pop (and the pop music industry more generally) continues to reward chart-topping, viral singles above all else. Even as the industry pushes artists in this direction, several utilized the album format to strengthen their musical identities this year, whether through experimentation or honing in on a specific genre or style to create a solid, cohesive sound. Most of my picks for the best full-length albums of 2024 fall into one of those two categories, sometimes both. Lucia, how did you go about choosing your picks?
Lucia: I also noticed the trend you’re talking about; many of the releases I enjoyed this year were single releases that were ineligible for this category. However, there were still enough solid albums this year that I struggled a great deal with my final decisions. The choices I ended up selecting made it on my list because they push forward either K-pop as a whole or the artist’s career.
Take, for example, Aespa. SM Entertainment’s youngest girl group debuted in 2020, but still hadn’t released a full album—until this year. Armageddon shows us Aespa cultivated into their best form, which took them three years to attain. Since the release of the offbeat yet bold and immediately iconic “Supernova” MV, Aespa’s popularity has taken off. “Supernova” has amassed almost 236 million streams on Spotify and 159 million views on YouTube to become one of their top five tracks on either app.
Though many (including you, Chloe!) criticize the full album for lacking a consistent sound, I would argue that these ten songs mark Aespa’s confident start in a new direction. Over the last couple of years, the extended break periods between releases and the Aespa members’ clear unhappiness with their creative concept stunted their progress. With this album, SM Entertainment is saying they’re finally ready to invest in Aespa and give them access to greater opportunities — some that are only obtainable now with a fuller discography. I for one am fully here for the more dimensional identities Aespa can embody in this album, from the rocker girls head banging through “Live My Life” to the beach babes dreamily asking to be taken to “Bahama.” To me, Armageddon, with sounds some argue stray from Aespa’s core identity, ironically gives Aespa a foundation to become more than just the AI girls with techno and EDM beats, and that’s why it’s one of my picks.
Chloe: The qualities that drew you to Armageddon as your top pick, namely its experimentative and foundational nature, are largely the same reasons I chose RM’s Right Place, Wrong Person as my top full-length album from this year. While RM’s first LP, Indigo, is arguably a foundational work that Right Place, Wrong Person blossoms from and expands on, especially in terms of its introspective lyrics and nature, the latter is also “foundational” in its commitment to its unabashed uniqueness and willingness to explore fresh musical terrain. Right Place, Wrong Person is by no means cohesive in its sound—RM traverses and blends jazz, traditional hip hop, indie rock, and more—but that’s what makes it work, as it reflects the artist’s ambition to find his identity, both musical and personal, in the broader world.
Some of my favorite aspects of Right Place, Wrong Person can also be found in its production, which is complex, cool, and soulful, while varying from track to track to emphasize the themes of exploration and confusion that anchor the entire album and RM’s state of mind throughout it. There’s the start-stop rhythms and angsty funk instrumentals of “Domodachi,” featuring British artist Little Simz, the uneasy but atmospheric guitars and basslines throughout “Heaven,” and the mysterious electro-bass and tense bongo-based rhythms that explode into a heavy electric rock guitar toward the end of standout track “Nuts.” Right Place, Wrong Person certainly isn’t the easiest of listens for the average K-pop or BTS fan, but it undoubtedly seals RM’s legacy as a progressive and evolutionary force in his field, which is why I selected it as one of the best of the year.
NCT Dream also does a lot of evolving in Dreamscape. What drew you to this album in particular?
Lucia: The evolution factor definitely played a large part! Since their debut, NCT Dream have been characterized by a very distinct sound that elevates pop music into more experimental subgenres with 808s, synths, and electronics. The “experimental” aspect gradually became more pronounced once most of the group reached adulthood and shed their wholesome boyish concept (which NCT Wish seems to have adopted). Their music, and most notably their lyrics, has now progressed even further to encapsulate the group’s entry into the early to mid-20s—notoriously the most difficult period of life.
NCT Dream’s early 2024 mini album, Dream()scape (pronounced “dream escape” and not to be confused with the late 2024 release Dreamscape), resonated because of songs like “Unknown” and “Breathing,” which speak directly of the uncertainty both the group and its largely same-aged fanbase face as they pass the honeymoon phase of adulthood. Though I still have both on repeat, Dreamscape is the superior work from my perspective. It’s the much-needed light at the other end of the tunnel after the helpless hopelessness of Dream()scape.
Multiple members played a key role in its development. Haechan penned all of the lyrics for “Best of Me” and “Flying Kiss,” while Mark wrote “i hate fruits” in its entirety. These three tracks describe perhaps the best part of the early 20s: the feeling of being completely swept up in love. Despite the sappiness of the first half of the album, the power of Dreamscape lies in its ability to cater to the tastes of a wider audience with its greater diversity in sound; the sweetness of “i hate fruits” is followed by the angry pulsing of “No Escape,” in which Haechan declares, “Fruits of happiness that once felt like I had everything, yeah / The moment I believed it was mine, it turned into bubbles.” “You,” with its dreamy synths and heavenly vocal runs in the final chorus, is a clear stand out. It’s obvious the group worked hard to give us this well-rounded and well-sung album, and for me, it paid off.
Speaking of seven boys and synths… I was really happy to see Enhypen’s Romance: Untold on your list, particularly since it’s one of my runner ups (along with their special album, Memorabilia). Tell me more about your choice!
Chloe: Yes, talk about synths galore! I always think of K-pop (at least in recent years) as a synth-heavy musical force, albeit at times one that can feel trite and overdone. When I first listened to Romance: Untold, however, I was immediately struck by how addictive, easy, and special the synths used throughout the album are. Whereas synths in K-pop are more commonly used to back sung melodic hooks, the synths in Romance: Untold are the hooks themselves. When I find myself with a track like title “XO” or standout b-side “Brought the Heat Back” stuck in my head, it’s usually the synths over the lyrics themselves that I find myself humming along to, which speaks to Romance’s prowess in truly making the instrumentals the star of the show.
With Romance: Untold’s synths also come its supreme cohesiveness, both musically and thematically. The album’s synths first and foremost create its air of addictive, earwormy funk and story of diving headfirst into an equally addictive, tantalizing love. On top of that, the LP is also one of the group’s most thematically consistent yet, building off their prowess in this respect with last year’s Blood mini album series. Each track in Romance builds on the previous, as Enhypen find themselves further entangled in the throes of lust and love with lyrics to match the music’s palpable entrenchment in “romance” itself.
Speaking of romance (as well as heartbreak), I was excited to see Rosé’s Rosie make it into your list of top albums! What drew you to this release?
Lucia: Well, Rosie is an extremely important album for a variety of reasons. First, it’s the first full-length album to come out of the Blackpink girls’ solo careers. Its lead single, “APT.”, marked collaborator Bruno Mars’s first music show win and Rosé’s first daesang for Song of the Year at the Asia Artist Awards. Additionally, Rosé herself played a significant role in writing every song on the album, which is entirely in English (minus, of course, the “apateu” chant in “APT.”).
This album’s success is largely organic. Since the onset of the pandemic, K-pop has shifted to utilizing methods like soulless big name collaborations, half-hearted TikTok dance trends, and obvious SEO keywords to achieve popularity on Western platforms, namely Billboard and YouTube. Although she says this album was made with her blood and tears, Rosé has achieved what K-pop so eagerly seeks, and without half as much desperation.
A large part of what makes Rosie work is its authenticity. Rosie is a vulnerable album; Rosé reveals things about a past relationship that she’s never mentioned before. Her choice to title the album after a nickname only her friends and family use creates the illusion that she’s letting listeners into her inner circle for a peek into her closely guarded life. The lyrics, which are sung with Rosé’s genuine hurt (“I’d do anything to make you want me,” she begs in “number one girl”), speak to specific experiences that typically aren’t written about or discussed in K-pop. Through the album, Rosé channels the Western music world’s latest, greatest women artists—like Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter—to appeal to Western audiences in a way that K-pop has failed to do in the past. As someone who’s been a K-pop fan for over a decade, I adore the experimental, eccentric, and loud visuals and sounds that have become characteristic of K-pop, but I also think Rosé’s album demonstrates what K-pop’s success in Western markets would actually look like.
TripleS, on the other hand, really embraces that experimental side of K-pop. What did you like about their latest album, Assemble24?
Chloe: I would say it’s exactly that. Since TripleS’s debut, I’ve been consistently impressed with their willingness to experiment and break out of the typical K-pop mold. I lend a lot of this to their “decentralized” group structure, as their company Modhaus calls it, in which the members rotate between participating in the full group, sub-units, and solo projects, as well as their leadership by former LOONA creative director Jaden Jeong. TripleS’s unique group size also makes Assemble24 all the more impressive, with this being the first full-length album featuring all 24 members in the group. Even with their sheer size (about four to five times the size of the average K-pop group), TripleS manage to avoid most of the pitfalls and cliches of K-pop, and large groups especially, in Assemble24.
For one, the album is wide-ranging yet cohesive, fresh yet familiar, and complex yet easy to listen to. There’s the anthemic sound of title track “Girls Never Die,” Afrobeats-inspired “White Soul Sneakers,” and dazzling R&B track “Chiyu.” Each track also has a big, enveloping sound, in large part due to the sheer number of members in the group, but also due to the several layers of complex production and instrumentation wrapped into each song. And, even though Assemble24 explores a myriad of genres and musical influences, each track manages to flow into the next, again cushioned by the size of the group, but also the members’ chameleon-like vocals and the thematic motifs (confidence, power) that carry throughout the lyrics. Overall, I found this album to be a promising sign of what the future for young girl groups, large groups, and K-pop as a whole looks like, and it’s safe to say that Assemble24 had me extremely excited for what may be to come.
Even as the industry continues to lean into the power and value of viral, chart-topping singles, 2024 still offered quite the selection of solid full-length K-pop albums releases. We can’t wait to see what’s in store for 2025!
(Instagram, YouTube [1][2][3][4]. Lyrics via Genius, YouTube. Image via The Black Label.)
