The first 6 months of 2025 were even busier than 2024, with the monthly playlists totalling 8,859 songs, an increase of 1,778 songs on last year.
My ever-trusty Last.fm stats tell me that I listened to 12,059 songs between 1 January and 30 June, covering 2,161 artists, which is 4,056 different albums, EPs and singles.
Like last year, I did a spreadsheet which shows the breakdown per month of the various types of music I logged. There are still too many OSTs, although this year I am trying to pick a top 3 for each country every month in hopes this will make it easier at the end of the year 😂.
There was a large increase in singles compared to last year. I think most of this was probably due to discovering more artists from Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines.
According to Receiptify, my top 10 artists for January-June were:
B.I
EXO
Stray Kids
Xiumin
WayV
BII
Ryosuke Yamada
ALEPH
TEN
THE ROSE
I will admit to being slightly in shock that my beloved EXO lost the top spot, but given how often I listened to B.I, especially in June, it's not much of a surprise he beat them. I haven't spent much time with the group as a whole apart from on EXO day, when I listened to their entire discography (and loved every minute).
Interestingly, only 4 of the artists in this year's list appeared in last year's too. I'm sad to see Pentagon and The KingDom disappearing from the list, but as they're both on the verge of disbanding* 😭, there hasn't been anything new from them as groups for a long time now and with everything else I needed to listen to, there wasn't that much time to revisit their old work.
*The KingDom just announced they will be releasing a new album soon (finally!), but without leader, Dann, who was suddenly packed off to the military at short notice (he enlisted today😭). At this point, I've given up hope of ever hearing anything from Pentagon as a group again, although maybe Shinwon's return on 20 September might spur them into action 🤞🏻 (EXO's Sehun is back then too - we also need him to get the group back together - we need an OT9 comeback).
So, onto the lists.
Before we start, just a quick reminder that as always, they are split into the 3 categories that Spotify uses - albums, EPs, and singles - I may not always agree with the categorisation, but it's not me that decides where they sit.
Once again, OSTs got lost along the way, but Liu Yuningwill probably win everything this year anyway (including best actor in at least 2 C-dramas!). They also cover all Asian music. I haven't split it down into the different countries.
I'm going to reveal my Top 3 in each category; otherwise this post will go on for far too long and get boring, but the playlists have the full top 20 for each category.
As always, I'll be really interested to see which entries remain at the end of the year, especially with a lot of good stuff released post-June and with a lot still to come (*cough* EXO *cough* 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻😭😭😭)
It's been a really strong year for albums, with at least the top 5 or 6 grabbing me hard and refusing to let go. But, as always, there have to be winners, and at the halfway point of the year, they are the following:
I've always had a soft spot for B.I, even before he left iKON, and especially with his growth since debuting as a soloist. But since we saw him in concert last year, my appreciation for his work has continued to expand.
Fortunately, he gave us a brand-new full-length album at the beginning of June, ruminating on the end of childhood and the onset of adulthood, the artist effortlessly capturing both elements, particularly in the MV for the lead track Ferris wheel (withHeize). I heard the album, I fell deeply in love (it spent 5 weeks at #1 in my top 5 most-listened-to albums), and I'm still listening to it now.
He also got bonus points (as he always does) for innovative album packaging, which this time included a pop-up book with a Ferris wheel, a magic card version with a pop-up fairground theatre and 2 fairytale storybooks, one each for child and adult.
Considering this album wasn't released until 23 June (yes, really!), it did a fantastic job of taking hold of my heart and not letting go. I'm not sure whether it's their best album, but it is bloody brilliant, and my love hasn't diminished in the following months. CRAVITY are a fantastic band, but are also sadly, still largely underrated despite their win on Road to Kingdom: Ace of Ace last year (which featured a whole host of underrated bands and you should definitely watch the show if you haven't seen it).
Led by the super fun lead track SET NET GO?!, this is the perfect summer boy band album.
I already knew Ryosuke Yamada, as both an actor (he is absolutely amazing in 親愛なる僕へ殺意をこめて (The Killer Inside) and as a member of J-pop band Hey! Say! JUMP, but this album surprised me, with its catchy tunes and an underlying sultriness that had me relistening again and again, and the title track RED is a banger. This is another one that's not leaving my playlist anytime soon - both this and the albums above were still in my top 5 most-listened-to albums for August, which shows how strong they all are.
If anything, there were more excellent EPs than there were albums (as is always the case - there are just more released), so it was even harder to choose a top 20, but these 3 EPs really were the cream of the crop for me in the first 6 months.
YUTA (from NCT 127) absolutely blew me away last year with his first album, Depth, and then he came back with this, and rocked my world even harder than before. It was a close toss-up between this EP and the next one as to which would make #1, but this just about won out as it has a particularly eye-catching MV for the title track.
He is releasing a full-length album in October, so it will be interesting to see where this and his new release land in the end-of-year lists, as I'm sure he'll be there.
Not content with releasing a full-length album, Stunner (which made #5 in my album list), and his work with WAYV (who will definitely be in my end-of-year list), TEN decided to release a Japanese EP too, and it's excellent. Silence, the lead track, is just about perfect.
Ah, GOT7. Our favourite mischief makers had been missing for a while, with the dreaded enlistment that curses all boy bands eventually. But with Jinyoung's release from the Army (and a spoiler given by him on discharge day 🤭), the 7 were soon back in action with this excellent EP, and the superb Python as the lead track. Really, given its length, it should have been an album, but Spotify classified it as an EP, so here it is - and very good it is too.
This is always the hardest category for me, as there are so many good songs released each month, some of which you don't fully appreciate until much later.
Unlike last year, where a couple of real favourites emerged quite early on and stayed with me (even until now, they're still regular playlist favourites), there hasn't been a track I have to listen to at least once daily in the first 6 months. But while this list is very much an 'on the day it was made' list, as songs could easily go up or down, and others, as of now missing, could have made the list at another time, all 20 are great songs and fully deserve their place, and none more so than those that made my top 3.
Sadly, no MV exists for this, so you can only hear it on streaming sites. I honestly don't know much about it or the singer, except that it's great. According to Spotify, it's Leeon's debut release, so it's likely to feature in my end-of-year list there.
BIG Naughty is one of those artists whose work and collaborations I always really enjoy and will always playlist at the end of the month for top 3, but often don't quite make it into the lists. LEE CHANYUK (AKMU), is someone I have something of a secret crush on, as he is so unapologetically weird but also a musical prodigy of the highest calibre. Putting them together was a genius idea, and this wonderful single came out of the collaboration. More, please 🙏🏻
Once again, I know absolutely nothing about REIKO, except that I love his voice and I always enjoy listening to his songs. He too, didn't produce a MV for this song, but he does have this live version from his tour, and it showcases his vocals perfectly.
AND THAT'S IT, FOLKS!
Thank you if you've stuck with the post this far. I honestly appreciate it. I'd also be really interested to know any songs, EPs or Albums that are in your lists for the first half of the year. Please feel free to share.
I'm not sure whether I'll post again this month. I'm aware that I promised a drama catch-up quite some time back, and since then I have watched a lot more dramas, some of which were actually pretty good.
I am supposed to be recuperating, but as that basically involves sitting around all day (watching other people play Hogwarts Legacy), I might get around to doing something. To be honest, sitting around all day isn't much different to being at work, except there's no stress from ridiculous deadlines and stuff, I don't need to set an alarm to get up, and best of all, I can legitimately go and have a nap whenever I want one.
Until next time, stay healthy and safe, and enjoy all the upcoming releases this month will bring.
SEPTEMBER RELEASES (I know about)
10 - 찬민 (Chanmin) - Aftereffect
10 - Yeonsoo (Alphabat) - This is How I Disappear
10 - MA55IVE THE RAMPAGE - Empire Code
10 - SixTONES - Stargaze
10 - Cody.Lee - Silver
10 - AxMxP - AxMxP
12 - BamBam (GOT7) - Dancing By Myself
12 - Junhee (A.C.E) - The First Day & Night
13 - Taemin (SHINee) - Veil
15 - Jang Wooyoung (2PM) - I'm Into
15 - IDID - I Did It
16 - D.O (EXO) & Penomeco - Dumb
17 - FTISLAND - Instinct
17 - LUN8 - Lost
17 - ORβIT - Roar
20 - Sehun (EXO) & Shinwon (Pentagon) are discharged from the military 🎉
The eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed that I once again went missing in action and didn't post anything, even the playlist, in August. Unfortunately, this was due to ill health.
It started with me thinking that the heatwave and humidity were causing problems with my asthma, exacerbated by panic attacks (not being able to breathe does that to me), which, of course, made breathing even harder. But when a change to my medicine didn't have the hoped-for effect, and even walking about 20 feet was causing me to wheeze like a 90-year-old, I finally did the sensible thing and went to the hospital, where I ended up spending the next 8 days hooked up to an ECG monitor and an oxygen machine, while they did various tests on me.
TBH, I hadn't gone to the hospital to get help. I went to get a blood test and a chest X-ray, which the doctor had requested I do to rule out a chest infection. As I expected to feel better and have a pathological fear of both needles and hospitals, I had no intention of doing either, until I got to the stage where I really thought I was going to die (and I almost did, but that's another story).
So after 9 days in hospital, where I pretty much only listened to WayV (they became my saviours every time blood needed to be drawn, which was far more regularly than I was happy with) and the Harry Potter audiobooks (Stephen Fry version, obviously) as I kept drifting in and out of consciousness and couldn't focus on anything I didn't know well enough to pick up anywhere in the story, I finally came off the oxygen and was allowed to go home on massive sick leave, ordered to rest, and with not only July's top 3s still to sort, but the whole of August's playlist to listen to.
This was too much for me to even consider at the time, and almost 2 weeks later, I still haven't gone anywhere near it - in fact, in the week following my release, for the first time ever, my Last.fm stats couldn't provide a top 5 overview as I only listened to 18 songs all week - Chanyeol's (EXO) Upside Down and Stray Kids'KARMA (both of which are great).
I am slowly listening to the September playlist, though, and as my health improves, hopefully I should be able to catch up a bit.
On the bright side, I did get my 6-month lists done before I fell ill, so I'll post them later (no, I really will this time, I promise).
Stay safe, and look after your health - don't be like me.
