November 2025 Wrap-Up: Happy Burstday To You
By the time you read this, there will be less than a month left in 2025, which is crazy because it feels like January was simultaneously two months ago and also eighteen years ago.
First up, we have the debuts. Technically one of these that I covered was in fact posted in December, but I am counting it because it was a November debut, though not for a group. The group I covered was AM8IC, a boy group made up entirely of Chinese members that is based in South Korea and debuting in South Korea in K-Pop. I wanted to be very specific about this. The only other group I can think of that's this interesting in terms of demographics, starting location, and target audience is 1verse, which also doesn't have a South Korean in the group. Anyway, they debuted this month. And for the solo debut that I covered, that would be Jungwoo of NCT, right before his impending military enlistment. This means that all three members of the NCT subunit DoJaeJung will be in the military within the week and will have debuted as soloists.
The others I did not were RiRi (a female duo), IVNIT (female virtual group), four tripleS subunits (Moon, Neptune, Sun, Zenith), UX1 (subunit of U-KISS), and NPC (subunit of BLITZERS). So we got a lot of subunits debuting this month (which is relatively good as that means we are technically slowing down on the debuts). Which is desired.
Songs I was looking forward to:
- U-Know: Is this the second month in a row he's been in this section? Yes. In my defense...he's U-Know
- XLOV: This group has my attention
- NewBeat: Even when I don't super vibe with a song style normally, for some reason, I find theirs to be catchy as all get out. This does also mean that I am looking for them to show off the same vocal quality in their title tracks that we got with their older brother group, A.C.E
- Close Your Eyes: This is such a good group. They're getting some acknowledgement of how good they sound, but I need more acknowledgement for them
- Baekho: Have all of his solo stuff been hit and miss for me? Yes. But I am nothing if not loyal, and I will continue to hope that I like his songs
- ITZY: I hesitate to like them too much because I am well aware that girl groups I like disband or go on a long hiatus, but that really don't stop me from tentatively wanting to look forward to them. Especially with how much I love Gold and Girls Will Be Girls
- Moonbyul (MAMAMOO): This is my girl.
- Stray Kids: Again, this can be kind of hit or miss for the title tracks. When I like them, though, I really like the title tracks
- Eunwoo: This is actually one of the last things I expected from him while he's enlisted, though this is a very pleasant surprise
- Big Ocean: These are my dudes. I love them. And I think this is a Christmas song, which is even better
- BE BOYS: YES MY DUDE HAKSEONG. Ahem. I'm fine.
- NOWZ: Look, I decided before they even debuted that I'd love them. I love them even when I am not overly fond of the title track and I always look forward to their releases because even if I don't like their title track, I usually adore one or more of the b-sides
We actually had a decent range of winners in the music shows and one obvious heartbreak in the form of The Show being cancelled. It is so much harder for the rookies and the smaller groups now. Well. If you read any of the links below, you're going to get my thoughts on the matter. But I've started including other stages to try to compensate for that.
Now it's time for my favorite segment. where I get to ramble about the songs I added to my faves of 2025 playlist (available for your perusal in the Junk Drawer) this month. This only gets the title tracks. Sadly, I don't mention the b-sides as much, although you should definitely take a look at the b-sides on some of these albums because they are fire.
Top Releases of the Month:
- NOWZ "HomeRUN": Y'all. I predicted this one correctly that by the end of the review I'd be adding it to that playlist. But I'm really not kidding about the Yoon/Siyun bridge. That thing is a masterpiece.
- RIIZE "Fame": The music video is super cool and I absolutely love Eunseok in this one.
- BE BOYS "Earth and Moon": There's never a dull moment in this song. Keeps you on your toes. It's just fantastic.
- Rocky (ASTRO) "Forever and Ever": This song is so soft and fluffy, he's so smiley through the whole thing, and it's just such a sweet song. I love it. I really do.
- Eunwoo (ASTRO) "SATURDAY PREACHER": That music video alone would have earned a spot here.
- Stray Kids "Do It": As I said. When I like the Stray Kids title tracks, and I don't have to let them sit for a bit before that happens, I really like them.
- Kyuhyun (Super Junior) "Like Our First Snow": He's got such an incredible voice, and the song is seriously so sad.
- ALLDAY PROJECT "ONE MORE TIME": This was a showcase of vocals that I was not expecting. I had hopes for certain things, which I didn't get, but it doesn't change that the song is just so good.
- Moonbyul (MAMAMOO) "S.O.S": I haven't posted the review for it, but just so you know, I love this song. Her voice is gorgeous and the style is perfect for her. It's fully front-woman of a band. She's incredible.
Full list of the November reviews: here
Reviews for other months:
- LE SSERAFIM (feat. J-Hope (BTS)) "SPAGHETTI" (October 2025)
- EPITHYMiA "Turn Up" (March 2025)
- &TEAM "Back to Life" (October 2025)
- Lee Chanwon "오늘은 왠지 (Maybe Today)" (October 2025
- Wonho (Monsta X) "If You Wanna" (October 2025)
- DKZ "Replay My Anthem" (October 2025)
- WEi "Home" (October 2025)
Once again, I say, that if you haven't taken a listen to EPITHYMiA, I highly recommend you do it. They've got an album coming out in December.
I did drop the post destined to house the Christmas collection of songs for the year already, so if that's something you're looking for, you can find that post in the December 2025 Reviews page or by using this link here. But this way you have access to it already before the December wrap-up, and you know it's there so you can check on it occasionally. As soon as I find the relevant songs, I drop them there.
I dropped a single Greatest Hits post in November, which I picked specifically because I wanted to share something bright and fun given that we've begun awards season and that's really a stressful time for groups and fans alike. Back in 2013, the girl group Crayon Pop dropped a song that swept so virally that Lady Gaga invited them to perform it at one of her concerts. So, I present to you the delightful song that is Bar Bar Bar.
I also only did one Battle of the B-Sides post, but this one I wanted it to be a little bit spookier. It just kept taking a lot longer than I anticipated. I asked for some spooky posts, and chose this one because of what else was happening this month for Purple Kiss and I wanted to honor them a little bit because I'm genuinely sad about it and hoping that they will get picked up by another company. I hope you enjoy Love Is Dead.
If you'd like to add a song for me to cover, please drop a comment or use The Form to submit it. And if you've got a title track that's close to being two years old, you can still submit it and I'll hold onto it until it hits two.
This year, I decided to do award show posts. The hub can be found here, but the posts for the KGMAs Day 1 and Day 2 can be found at those links specifically.
That's it for the month! I've started the 2025 Wrap-Up so that hopefully I can get that one to you shortly after the year ends.
Oh, and I'd just like to say that the music related video that I watched the most in 2025, according to YouTube, is Junhee's cover of Your Idol. I also just learned that Kevin dropped a Your Idol cover as well and I suddenly desperately need the two of them to pick up three more and do a full cover as well.
Honorable Mentions:
- Seventeen "Eyes on you": I've decided that this is actually an amazing concert song and every time I hear it, I remember how high the members' energy is when they do this one. Also, the song itself is fun to sing your heart out for.
- ATEEZ "BOUNCY (K-HOT CHILLI PEPPERS)": Two years ago, the thought of this being a top listen would have astounded me. Two years later, I love listening to it. It's not one of my top five ATEEZ songs, but it being this high on the non-review related songs list that I was listening to doesn't surprise me.
- Taemin (SHINee) "Shadow": I'm also going to add the official audio. This is definitely a holdover from the Halloween season, which is fine by me because as far as I'm concerned, this is the height of "Taemin as a concept" songs. I absolutely love this song and the choreography is phenomenal.
- BTS "Danger": It occurs to me that I've never actually seen the music video for this song. But I continue my trend of apparently preferring their much older songs than their newer ones.
- xikers "ROCKSTAR": This is one of my favorite choreographies of theirs and is the reason why every time I see the word "rockstar" connected to K-Pop, my brain automatically just goes "Feelin' like a rockstar". The combination of the sound of the words with the rhythm just hits me the exact right way.
- Lovelyz "Rewind": This is a gorgeous song, ladies, gents, and multiforms. Everything about this song is practically perfect. The vocals, the instrumental, everything. I love this song. It's so pretty.
- H.O.T. "Outside Castle (The Castle Outsiders)": Every once in a while, I get a hankering for listening to first gen K-Pop, and apparently this time it was for this song. In my defense, all it took was the first fifteen seconds of a five-and-a-half minute song and I wanted it tattooed on my brain permanently. They did not have to go this hard for their final album, but they did, and here we are. (And they use sign language as part of their choreography at the end, which makes this song triply cool).
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