Tag: NCT WISH

[Album Review] poppop (2nd Mini Album) – NCT WISH

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NCT WISH’s 2nd mini album, poppop, is next up for an album review on my blog. Released in April last year, it features 6 songs, including the title track, which shares the mini album’s name (poppop). It also follows their 1st mini-album, Steady, released in 2024, which I haven’t reviewed yet. Time for that album review will come, so don’t worry!

Anyhow, poppop (the mini album) has a decent mix of songs – all are likeable, but there were some that were much stronger than the lead single, and honestly, would have made for a better lead single. poppop (the single) did grow on me slightly since I reviewed it, but not enough to bump its own rating up.

Since poppop, the group returned later in 2025 with their 3rd mini album, COLOR, which I will get around to reviewing as well. NCT WISH will also be making a comeback later this month, so keep an eye out for that release as well! But in the meantime, here are my thoughts on the mini album.

poppop album cover

1. poppop (Title Track) – Click here for my full review of poppop. (7/10).

2. Melt Inside My Pocket – I really like the awesome blend of EDM, rock and pop in Melt Inside My Pocket. This mix, while it sounds like it would be clash-prone, worked really well to form a really dynamic backing. The start felt reminiscent of TVXQ’s epic Red Sun. As for NCT WISH, they sounded awesome. YUSHI and JAEHEE were particularly awesome when it came to the bridge, and I am also very fond of the opening line to the chorus (has me coming back time and time again). The only thing I want more of is some grit in their vocals work better into the backing. (9/10)

3. Design – Design feels like more a standard track to me. I don’t remember Design garnering the same attention as Melt Inside My Pocket when it was first released, and while listening to Design to write this review, I don’t feel too much of it. That being said, I do appreciate their vocal work and rapping in the song, and I enjoyed the slight early 00s tinge to the instrumental, which makes it a neat follow-through from the previous song. (7/10)

4. 1000 – NCT WISH takes on R&B in 1000, with a mellow approach initially before turning to an upbeat chorus. These changes in flow and momentum feel true to themselves. I also liked how NCT WISH managed the flow of 1000, with the members moving between smooth vocals and some punchy rapping. There was also a pleasant melody to the chorus, which made the song appealing. (8/10)

5. Silly Dance – For a song titled Silly Dance, I wish the group had embraced more of a quirky side. The version of Silly Dance they do give is more of a pleasant pop song, and it is honestly a pretty decent listen. I enjoyed the harmonies in the chorus, which give Silly Dance that pleasantness I had mentioned. The melodies also had a nice sing-along approach, which I totally tapped into. JAEHEE’s high note was spectacular, and I liked how the “Oh baby dance, I wanna dance, Oh baby silly dance” line at the end was shared amongst some of the members in a dynamic way. (9/10)

6. Still 3PM (만약 네가 4시에 온다면) – Closing out the mini-album is this dreamy R&B pop number (leaning more heavily into the pop side). I really liked the production of this track – there were a lot of layers, and I enjoyed them all. The members sound fantastic throughout Still 3PM, with the track putting their best foot forward in the vocal and rapping department. The melodies also give the track such a vibrantly pleasant vibe that brings a smile to your face. A very appealing track to end off the mini-album. (10/10)

Overall Album Rating – 8.3/10

NCT WISH’s teaser image for poppop

[Special] Top 30 Songs and Artists of 2025

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Earlier this week, I announced the Winners of the 2025 KPOPREVIEWED Awards, which were mostly decided by you throughout December 2025 and January 2026.

In that post, I also announced the Best Overall Song of 2025 (Stray Kids’ CEREMONY) and Best Overall Artist of 2025 (Red Velvet – IRENE & SEULGI). Alongside this announcement, I also promised to post the Top 30 songs and artists of 2025, and this is it!

Remember that the Best Overall Song and Artist of 2025 were decided by 50% your fan votes and 50% of my Weekly KPOP Charts that I post (roughly) each Sunday.

So without further delay, I present to you the Top 30 songs and artists of 2025!

Top 30 Artists of 2025

Pos.Artist
1Red Velvet – IRENE & SEULGI
2DAYOUNG
3NMIXX
4CHUNG HA
5Hearts2Hearts
6BOYNEXTDOOR
7TWS
8MONSTA X
9YEJI (ITZY)
10KIIRAS
11LE SSERAFIM
12MARK (NCT)
13IRENE (Red Velvet)
14ZEROBASEONE
15Stray Kids
16ENHYPEN
17NCT DREAM
18ALLDAY PROJECT
19TEN (NCT)
20TXT
21ITZY
22JENNIE (BLACKPINK)
23DAY6
24G-DRAGON (BIGBANG)
25j-hope (BTS)
26CHAEYOUNG (TWICE)
27KATSEYE
28TWICE
29aespa
30AHOF

Top 30 Songs of 2025

Pos.Song
1CEREMONY – Stray Kids
2body – DAYOUNG
3Blue Valentine – NMIXX
4Air – YEJI (ITZY)
5Love Language – TXT
6ICONIK – ZEROBASEONE
7Bad Desire (With or Without You) – ENHYPEN
8Good Thing – i-dle
9Hollywood Action – BOYNEXTDOOR
10In Your Fantasy – ATEEZ
11STUNNER – TEN (NCT)
121999 – MARK (NCT)
13PYTHON – GOT7
14I Feel Good – BOYNEXTDOOR
15Countdown! – TWS
16HANDS UP – MEOVV
17THIS IS FOR – TWICE
18FOCUS – Hearts2Hearts
19DROP TOP – MEOVV
20poppop – NCT WISH
21The Stranger – ONF
22THUNDER – SEVENTEEN
23Beautiful Strangers – TXT
24LIKE YOU BETTER – fromis_9
25XOXZ – IVE
26Lemon Drop – ATEEZ
27BLUE – ZEROBASEONE
28TILT – Red Velvet – IRENE & SEULGI
29INSIDE OUT – DAY6
30SPAGHETTI – LE SSERAFIM ft. j-hope (BTS)

[Review] COLOR – NCT WISH

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At the start of last month, NCT WISH made their second comeback of the year with the mini-album COLOR, led by the title track of the same name. In the lead-up to the release of COLOR, NCT WISH also pre-released the single SURF and released a music video for the side track BABY BLUE. I will definitely review SURF in the future, but I haven’t made up my mind regarding BABY BLUE yet. Their last comeback was poppop from earlier in the year.

Following my review of poppop, I am happy to report that it really grew on me. I hope that will be the case for COLOR. Similar to my initial comments on poppop, I find this new song to be an okay release. As such, I am not overly excited about it. But no matter how many times I have listened to the song since its release, I find it hard to see myself ever being excited about it. This is probably why this review has taken over a month to write. Some positive aspects of COLOR contribute to the song’s likeness. The clangy, synth, and percussive instrumentation give COLOR impact and help deliver some punches alongside the melodies/hooks. At the same time, the members’ delivery, layering and energy add life and an upbeat quality to the song. The “Bring out the colour” hook was also catchy. However, I feel that something holds back the dynamic potential of COLOR. Going back and forth over the song, I think the combination of the above made COLOR a little too hefty for my liking. If the producers had found a way to loosen up the song, making it feel lighter, I think this could have made COLOR more dynamic and appealing. I also wish the melodies were a little more grabbing.

The music video for COLOR is quite colourful, but it is done in a way that feels natural and tasteful. The colourful aspects aren’t in your face, but you can tell they are there. I really appreciated that. I also liked the art gallery theme in the music video; that part of the video was very fun. Energy-wise, the music video also felt youthful, ideal for NCT WISH’s appeal. It was great, overall.

As for the performance, I thought it looked good. The footwork and handwork during the chorus add complexity, and I liked the subtle intensity of the moves that accompany the song’s “Bring out the colour” hooks. Both definitely looked cool. Overall, I felt the routine matched with the hefty nature of the music, and the intensity adds some interesting dynamics to the performance.

Song – 7/10
Music Video – 8/10
Performance – 8.5/10
Overall Rating – 7.6/10

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[Review] poppop – NCT WISH

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Continuing with the supposed SM Entertainment theme is my review of poppop, NCT WISH’s latest single from their new mini-album of the same name. It follows after Dunkshot and Steady from their 1st mini-album, Steady (all of which I have yet to review).

I found poppop to be an okay song. There were aspects that I didn’t enjoy, while there were parts that I liked. The chorus appears to be the most decisive part of poppop, and I completely get why. Launching right into rapping was very unexpected, and the vocal processing applied to the members’ shouty rapping voices in the chorus made the centrepiece feel obnoxious. But this choice of vocal processing was more widespread than just in the chorus, and made most of the other rapping sequences throughout poppop feel subpar. But not all rapping in poppop was disappointing. I don’t feel the same way about poppop‘s final chorus, where all the members do their shouty rap to close out the song. This part felt dynamic, and the vocal processing was less prominent than in earlier parts. I also liked the monotonous “pop, pop, pop” hook in the song, which followed the choruses. This just added a slight deep tone to the song, which offset the bright and bubbly tone of the rest of poppop. The vocal parts in the song were also a strong aspect, but better melodies would have enhanced the song’s quality. And while not as affected, they didn’t escape the vocal processing mentioned, and certain parts still sounded off.

The music video shows SION making a move on someone he has a crush on via message. However, after spending time with the other members of his group, he is almost late for the date. He makes it in time, with the other members running after him and wishing him luck. It’s a cute video, and NCT WISH does a good job of showcasing their youthful charm in the video. Talking about charms, the bubbly charms that appear throughout the video, and to SION once he gets confirmation that the other person is interested, contributed to the cuteness aspect of the music video. Though the scene associated with the second half of the bridge took an odd turn, with what I can assume was (but probably isn’t) the members sacrificing one of the charms for a successful date.

The performance for this comeback was quite good. Again, I enjoyed the “pop, pop, pop” move that accompanies the song’s hook, and I also liked the routine that closed out the song. The end is where the routine really picks up and really puts NCT WISH’s skills and talents on par with the rest of NCT for me.

Song – 7/10
Music Video – 8/10
Performance – 8.5/10
Overall Rating – 7.6/10

[Review] WISH – NCT WISH

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This is another review for a newly debuted group: NCT WISH, the final subunit of NCT. They are officially the designated Japanese unit of NCT (like how WayV is the designated Chinese unit of the broader group) but have been active in South Korea (where they are co-managed by SM Entertainment) and Japan (where they are co-managed by AVEX TRAX). The six-member unit, consisting of Sion, Riku, Yushi, Jaehee, Ryo, and Sakuya, made its debut in February of this year with the single WISH. I will return in the near future to review their more recent single Songbird.

Despite being from one of KPOP’s biggest companies, the main reason why I hadn’t reviewed NCT WISH’s debut single, WISH, before today was that I never really connected with the song. Five months later, I feel the same way about it. Don’t get me wrong – WISH isn’t a bad song. It just needs to be better in some departments. WISH is a buoyant dance track with a youthful tone, which suits the group’s current charms and stage in their careers. To complement the WISH‘s youthful tone, it remained light all throughout (for a dance track), which sets it apart from other NCT releases (which nowadays tend to be heavier in both tone and punch). I enjoyed the combination of synths and piano/keyboard in the background, particularly in the pre-chorus, as it had a calmness to it. I also feel there is a bit of funk and groove to the instrumental in the chorus, which was a good direction for WISH to head in. However, I think the producers of WISH missed an opportunity here to capitalise on the funk/groovy elements. This could have made the song go ‘further’, adding definition and colour to the song to make it more memorable. Another element that I thought was particularly weak was the melodies, which have implications on their vocals and rapping. The melodies in the verses were bland, and this resulted in the song downplaying NCT WISH members’ individuality. When the members sang together in the choruses and during the shoutier chants like “Future is in my hands…“, the group had a better hold of my attention. But this was short-lived for one reason or another.

Music videos for the Japanese and Korean versions of WISH were released simultaneously. Both videos contained a mixture of the same and different scenes to tell the same story. If you knew about it, this would have made watching both refreshing. In both music videos, the members of NCT WISH act as not-so-great Cupids. They fall from the sky, inadvertently making an arguing couple fall for each other once again. When they intentionally try to pair a couple up, the two music videos tell you they aren’t great at their jobs. In the Japanese version, one of the members stole a guy who was gifting his partner flowers and positioned him in front of another lady in hopes of encouraging the potential couple to make a move on each other. This ultimately failed when the partner caught her guy on his knee later on, causing them to fight. At the end of the Japanese video, one of the members intentionally shoots his love bullet at a dog. The dog becomes infatuated with the guy, and this leads to another couple forming a relationship – just not the one they intend to pair up. In the Korean version, another member shoots a love bullet into a tree, and this causes one person from the potential couple to fall in love and make out with a tree. At the end of that video, one of the NCT WISH members dives in front of the love bullet, causing the female protagonist to fall in love with him instead. It turns out, as she saved his life earlier in the video and came across her again, he had fallen for her. I really enjoyed the members’ reactions to these different developments and thought the music video was fun to watch.

The choreography for WISH was exciting to watch. I like how it portrayed the group’s youthful charms, as teased out in the song. But they didn’t do it as cringingly as some of their other counterparts, which I appreciate. I really liked the routine during the song’s chanty sequences, which highlights both their synchronisation and sharp movements—which are strong attributes in all of NCT choreographies.

Song – 7/10
Music Video – 9/10
Performance – 8/10
Overall Rating – 7.8/10