Well, to be honest, I’m not sure about that. But as I spent the whole of January and part of February getting my end-of-year music lists sorted and catalogued, it would be a waste for me not to share them, especially when I said I would.
Before we start, a small
disclaimer. I was on heavy medication during the time I did these lists (and
still am) so I kept deleting stuff before I’d finished with it, which was both
annoying and time-consuming, and after listening to over 4,000 songs in one
month I was away with the fairies. But I’m still happy with the results. Also,
this is why I’ve been nowhere near the blog this year. I definitely still
listen to music (currently I’m going through the January playlist so I’m a bit
behind), it’s just a bit tricky when all I want to do is nap because my brain
isn’t firing on all cylinders.
Also, a reminder that I use Spotify
categories for my playlists. If they say a single has 9 tracks, or an
album has 3 tracks, so do I (although I will moan about it. I still haven’t
forgiven a particular Chinese artist for releasing 7 different singles on the
same day – mate, just release them all as an EP and do everyone a favour). I
also classify all single recordings with more than one artist as a group rather
than solo. I don’t have enough time in my life to work out whether a featured
artist gets one line or half a song, so they all go under group. For EPs and
albums, it’s a bit more nuanced. If every track is with another artist, then it’s
group but if 90% of the album is features but they have a couple of solo tracks
then they’ll be solo (probably).
Everything covered in this post can
be found in the excel workbook here.
It’s worth taking a look if you’re interested as it covers A LOT more than the
stuff I’ve mentioned, including my top 3 album, EP and singles of each month by
country.
Oh yeah, and finally, obviously
these selections are my personal choice. If you don’t like any of them or think
I made the wrong choices you’re perfectly welcome to that opinion – after all, the
world would be a boring place if we all liked the same things – but please don’t
bother commenting and telling me that. You’re not going to change my mind and
it’s always better to be pleasant. I am more than happy for you to recommend a track,
EP, or album you think I might have missed and should definitely check out, but
bear in mind that with the amount of music I listened to last year, if they’re
in any way prominent in Asian music, I will probably have heard it and just wasn’t
impressed enough to put it in my top 20 (and believe me, every entry fights
really hard to be there when I listened to a total of 7,742 different albums,
EPs and singles over the year).
So, with that said . . . on with
the show.
ASIAN MUSIC 2025 – TOP TWENTIES
Song of the
Year
I’m sure the thing you’re most
interested in is what was my song of year from the 14,400 individual tracks (25,090
tracks in total) that I listened to in 2025. The answer is:
我之后的你
(Lover After Me) by WayV
Although the whole album is
excellent, I fell so hard for this song that it’s currently at #9 in my
all-time most listened to songs (according to last.fm). This is no mean
feat for a song that was released in December 2025.
If you want to know who else is
in my top 20 songs of the year list, you can find out here,
although I will be mentioning some of them as we go. I think it’s quite an
interesting selection and is a great playlist
if you want to get a flavour of some of the best Asian music released in
2025.
You can also find a link to the
playlist in the sidebar 👑👑👑
Albums
The top 5 were never going to be
a surprise, especially if you read the previous couple of posts. Both B.I’s
Wonderland and CRAVITY’s Dare to Crave were
my top two albums in the mid-year review, and I talked about them both here.
Both also feature tracks that are in my top 20 songs of the year (Lover
boi and Marionette respectively). WayV ’s 白色定格 (Eternal
White)
actually surpassed CRAVITY in
terms of the number of listens by the year end, but overall, I felt CRAVITY
won out as the reissue added more excellent songs to the ones that were
already on the original album and split the listening count.
Although 白色定格 (Eternal
White)
is
marketed as a winter album, most of the tracks are easy to listen to all year
round. For me the album has a more mature outlook than the group’s earlier
works, which suits the slower, warmer and more cosy tone of a winter album. The
members have grown up, are empathetic, and are even more attractive for it. Highlights
include Stay, the English track, which sees them showing support
and understanding of a loved one, and my favourite song, 我之后的你 (Lover
After Me), which is a whole-hearted wish that their ex can be
happy in a future relationship.
Fourth place was taken by WayV
member TEN’s hugely impressive STUNNER,
an album chock full of banging tracks, so it’s hard to pick a favourite. With
his Japanese EP Humanity also making my EP top 20, and Sweet
As Sin from this album making my top 20 favourite songs of the year list,
in my opinion it really does cement him as one of the most talented members of NCT.
Rounding out the top 5 is
Ryosuke Yamada’s RED, which took a slight drop from the
mid-year results but is still one of my most played albums of the year, and the
one I took most time trying to decide what my favourite track is (and I still
haven’t decided – HUSTLER eventually made it onto the list, but on
another day it could easily have been CARNIVAL or VELVET).
The full top 20 album playlist can
be found here
and is also linked in the right-hand side list 👑
For all album information,
including favourite A-sides, B-Sides and the whole year broken down by the different
countries, start here.
EPs (or mini albums as the K-Pop industry likes to term them)
This category was slightly more
interesting as GOT7 were the only pick from the mid-year review
that made it into the top 5.
The top spot was taken by WayV
and their magnificent BIG BANDS, an absolute stomper of an
album, which, along with Wonderland and Dare to
Crave, almost literally kept me alive during my hospital stay back in late
summer. I can’t express just how deeply I fell for the big band sound and the vibrant
beats. Fun, funky and sexy, everything we’ve come to expect from WayV
and more. Again, it was hard to choose a favourite track, but WOAH
finally won out on the day I made the list.
The second place EP was something
of a surprise entry, as it too wasn’t released until December, but ASH
ISLAND’s BURN PART. 1 swept straight into my favourites
and took the runner up spot. I’ve been a fan of his for several years, but from
the opening seconds of Midnight Sky, which takes 4th place in my songs
of the year list, I knew this was something special and was an EP that was
going to capture my heart. Bold and rocky, I just love it, and it has songs
that feature B.I and Bang Yedam, so how could I not?
Kim Jae
Joong started his re-emergence (after
years of being blacklisted from everywhere thanks to SM 🤬) with the excellent Flower Garden
in 2024, then captured my heart completely with the even better Beauty in
Chaos, released in May, and the Japanese version of the album, Rhapsody,
in October. As an ex-member of TVXQ! Jae Joong’s vocals
are never in doubt, but these EPs go hard, as ROCK STAR and my
personal favourite, Last VoW, admirably demonstrate.
GOT7’s WINTER HEPTAGON, released in
January, held its own against hundreds of other EPs to make it to fourth place
with a stylish and sexy album from our favourite chaos merchants. The perfect
return from a long, long military era.
In fifth place is my beloved ONEW’s
second outing since joining his new label, CONNECTION. From the
emotional opener WINNER, through to the upbeat and funky Conversation
and beyond, this EP showcases his incredible vocals to perfection. Like TEN,
ONEW has more than one entry in my top 20 lists. His Japanese release
SAKU, joins this one in the top 20 soloist EPs, and the gorgeous PERCENT
makes it into the top 20 albums.
The full top 20 EPs playlist can
be found here
and is also linked in the right-hand side list 👑
For all EP information, including
favourite A-sides, B-Sides and the whole year broken down by the different
countries, start here.
SINGLES
Every year it seems that one or two
songs grab me, won’t let go, and sweep away all other competition. This year
was a bumper year in that regard, particularly in the singles category where
not one but four excellent singles battled for supremacy and the ear worm
title. Although for this list &TEAM won with the wonderful Going
in Blind, displacing Leeon’s awesome Supernatural
from its mid-year top spot, and JUNHEE’s hyper-addictive Supernova,
beat out previous second place BIG Naughty and LEE CHANHYUK’s
MUSIC, they all deserve to be at the top. EPEX’s FOOL
(눈물나게 고마워) [Eng Ver.], while not quite taking over in the same way
as the other entries in the top 5 is nevertheless an excellent song, and tops
what was a fantastic year for them (check out the workbook to see all the
places they appear this year – I’m so proud of my kids).
The full top 20 list of singles can
be found here
and is also linked in the right-hand side list 👑
For all singles information,
start here.
I had intended to do full breakdowns
of the A and B-sides as I did for the other categories, but these were some of
the playlists I’d deleted and having already listened to over 4,000 tracks by
that point, I honestly couldn’t face having to go back and re-listen to all the
singles to work out what would make my top 20 from each country.
OTHER STUFF OF INTEREST
This will be links to a mish mash
of stuff, for which more information can be found in the workbook. And yes,
this year I did manage to do an OST breakdown – go me! Maybe it’ll make up for
not finishing the singles lists.
Debuts
Every year sees a remarkable
number of boy groups and soloists debuting in hopes of making it big in the
Asian (especially Korean) music industry. 2025 was no exception, with no fewer
than 56 groups and 64 soloists (that I know about) making their bid for stardom.
The soloist category does include a lot of members from established groups
making their solo debuts, so I have split these into a separate playlist from
the true rookies.
I was seriously impressed with
the quality of many of the debuts this year and found it hard to choose the winners,
particularly in the group category. Find out who I rated worthy of being in one
of my top 20 playlists below
Top
20 Asian Idol Soloists Debuts
Top
20 Asian Idol Soloists Debuts
To give you a bit of a clue . . .
Christmas/Winter Songs🎄
EXO’s The First Snow (did you
honestly think I wasn’t going to mention them anywhere in this post? 😂) was not the only song hitting the top of
the charts (both at the beginning and end of the year), and WayV weren’t
the only ones to foray into winter/Christmas song territory. In fact, it was more
popular than ever before with 131
songs (that I heard) related to the topic – and that was just male artists.
From all those tracks I distilled my 20 favourites into a playlist,
which while you might not be too interested in right now, as we head towards
spring, you should definitely check out when December rolls around again
(probably next week with the speed this year is slipping away). There are some
excellent songs on there – I love me a bit of Christmas music (at the right
time).
Drama and OSTs
I didn’t create a single list of overall
favourite OSTs but I did do one for each of the countries, although some have
more entries than others. As a caveat, I have to say that I don’t always know
whether something is an OST unless it’s explicitly stated or I find out
afterwards, so some may have ended up in their respective countries' playlists
as singles. I also tend to split down EPs or albums dedicated to a film, drama
or webtoon as solo songs.
I did state previously that Liu
Yuning, who had a fantastic 2025, would probably sweep the board, and
he pretty much did. 6 of his OSTs made it into the Chinese top 20. I think
there was only one song of his that didn’t make it into the list. He also made
the top 2 places starring in my favourite C-dramas of the year – Dream Within
a Dream and The Prisoner of Beauty, and if I had to rank
them, which I should do really (maybe in a separate drama post), I’d probably
say they were my overall favourite dramas of the year, with the Thai BL Khemjira
in 3rd place. I don’t watch many variety shows due to a lack of time, but if I
did have a list, Wow the World, in which Liu Yuning
also took part (and looked fabulous the whole time), would have been my #1
choice.
There are no playlists for these
but there is one for my monthly
top 3 OSTs, which includes all those on the lists plus those that didn’t
quite make it, yet are still amazing tracks.
Music Videos
Finally, for this post, is the YouTube playlist for my Top 21 favourite MVs of 2025 – yes, I said 21 because after extensive whittling I still couldn’t get it down to 20. They’re all great and are definitely worth watching if you have the time. As with all of my playlists, it’s real mixed bag, from the choreography and artistry of Lay (EXO) and G-DRAGON (BigBang), the cinematography of SB19 and 肖战 (XIAO ZHAN), through the fantasy stylings of &TEAM, 时代少年团 (Teens In Times) and KEY, the mini dramas of Jeff Satur, NANON, MEYOU and JUNHEE, the twisted and strange ZIOR PARK, LEE CHANHYUK and HUA CHENYU, not to mention the unsettling AM8IC and CLOSE YOUR EYES. Of course, my mid-year battlers YUTA and TEN are also featured.
If I could have added another couple, I would
definitely have included Body Language and Stretch
by U-KNOW, but 21 was already too many, so I’m putting them here
instead. They are every bit as crazy and as much fun as the others and fit the
list perfectly (and the album, I-KNOW, that they’re from is
excellent too).
As I’ve said throughout, all
information, links to playlists and more can be found in the workbook.
Honestly, go check it out. I put loads of work into it.
And with that, my 2025 music
review is at an end.
Did I just hear the album of the year?
EXO Crown – This is everything I was hoping
for and more. Welcome back Kings!
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