Music Time! - The 2026 Quarter One Rundown

So, a couple of weeks ago, I started writing a post about the dramas I’ve been watching this year so far. This was partly to make up for the fact that I said several times last year that I’d post about dramas and then didn’t 🫣 and, also, as I wrote in the post, to take the place of the 2026 quarter one music lists that I was still working my way through. In that post (as yet unposted for various reasons 😔) I said it might be a while before I got to the music as I tend to get easily side-tracked. And I did . . . but not with the music 🤣.

The problem with the drama post was that I’ve watched too many dramas already in 2026, so it was growing to huge proportions, and I kept referring to dramas I’d watched last year, and then had to explain about them too. So, I stopped that post (which had become 2 posts anyway by that time) and started a post about my top 10 dramas from last year to give some reference to what was coming. But that also turned into a massive post, which then became 3 posts, and then at some point I just gave up (when the combined posts got to about 12,000 words) 😂😭😂.

Anyway, all that to say there will be lots of drama posts at some point, but I have now finished the Q1 music lists, so today I’m going to share them instead.

A quick reminder before we start, that all categories are decided by Spotify not by me (that age-old problem of an EP having 13 tracks and not being called an album – yes, I am looking at you BIG Naughty 😤) and any song containing more than one artist is classified as a group because despite all appearances I actually do have a life and don’t have time to sit and work out whether the song is a single line feature or if they’re actually doing a duet or whatever.

Finally, and most importantly, obviously all the music mentioned is my personal taste and might not be to yours. This means your favourites might not be in there at all, or if they are I might prefer something else more. This is why the world is so wonderful; we can all enjoy different things and sometimes the same things but still remain kind to each other. And if you’ve not heard of any of the artists, give them a try. You never know you might like them.

As always, there is a link to the playlist in the table headers, or you can find them over in the list of links (when I remember to update it).

So, let’s start with the toughest category:

20 Favourites Songs Overall (Q1 – Jan-Mar 2026)

Although we’re only 4 (yeah, I know it’s almost 5 now, I got sidetracked again) months into 2026 (how? that’s what I want to know) I’ve already listened to 10,261 songs (give or take, I’ve just discovered last.fm has a problem sometimes – it wouldn’t show that I’d listened to an album that I actually listened to twice today (hrtz.wav’s debut The First Wave) so it might actually be more than that) and that doesn’t include all the songs I only listened to about 30 seconds of before deciding it wasn’t for me, so they didn’t register.

Even though it isn’t as bad as trying to work out a full year’s worth, it was still tough to get down to 20 from all the excellent music I’ve already heard this year. But I did it, and hopefully, if I can do this every quarter (yep, big dreams, I know, but I’m confident), then by the end of December I should pretty much have all my top 20 lists done and end-of year will be a breeze.

So, here’s the list. Several of the songs are fluctuating – even as I was looking at the list I put in the post, I changed a couple around 😂 – but the top 3 remained in place because they’ve grabbed hold of me and won’t let go.

20 Favourite Songs (Overall)
HYDE	NOSTALGIC
jo0ji	よあけのうた - Yoake no uta
Big Ocean	Cold Moon
EXO	Suffocate
Ryosuke Yamada	High High High
IN A MINUTE	Broken Doll
NIve	My Prelude
E'LAST	Tame
SF9	Broken Way
ONE PACT	Vampire (Special Track)
BLUE PONGTIWAT, TEN	You Give Me Butterflies
AB6IX	Endless
ATEEZ	Ghost
ONEW	Lie
CHASER	Gloomy
TNX	Love Letter
闫桉 (Yanan)	Wild Heart
ONEUS	STOP & MOVE
WOODZ	CINEMA
ALL(H)OURS	Cause I'm Insane

I’m not going to say anything about the individual tracks, but listening to these songs will make your life better, I promise.

20 Favourite Albums (Q1 – Jan-Mar 2026)

This list incorporates my top 10 favourite group and solo albums mashed into a delightful whole. They have given me a lot of pleasure so far this year, and I’m sure will continue to do so for a long time to come.

20 Favourite Albums (Overall)
HYDE	JEKYLL
EXO	REVERXE
Big Ocean	THE GREATEST BATTLE
AB6IX	SEVEN : CRIMSON HORIZON
CHASER	ROUTE 01: BURNING POINT
WONPIL	Unpiltered
WOODZ	Archive. 1
LØREN	Almost Right
BLACK ON	Chapter 1: My Little Universe
Hi-Fi Un!corn	FIRST MOVE (Special Edition)
NCT WISH	WISHLIST
831	沒有翅膀的人 (Nobody Can Fly)
WAKER	In Elixir: Spellbound
RYUGUJO	SHIBAI (Deluxe)
ALEPH	XYZ
KUN	KUN
1ST	wolf cub
Sion	Almost Human
PERSES	ALTERLAND
TOYOKI	MP3

HYDE’s album JEKYLL, is so good that I can’t stop playing it, and it fully justifies its place at the top of the list. The lush orchestral arrangements fit so well with the drama of his voice, and if I hadn’t been strict and insisted on only 1 entry per artist in the favourite songs list, he would have had at least 3 in there, and on any given day I could easily exchange NOSTALGIC with FINAL PIECE, or ABYSS (or pretty much all the songs). While I try not to judge music on the MVs as it’s how they sound and re-listenability rather than spectacle that I’m interested in, HYDE has made MVs for several of the tracks on the album, and they are each as exquisite and rich as the album sounds; beautifully artistic and worth checking out. I love a man in floaty fabrics, lace and fur and HYDE definitely doesn’t disappoint.

I know most people will probably be surprised EXO’s REVERXE didn’t immediately make it to the top of the list. To be fair, it is brilliant, with a return to their earlier sound that I absolutely love, but also full of the R&B vibes we expect on their B-sides. There is no doubt that the album would have been even better had CBX been allowed to take part, but the remaining 6 members did an amazing job at keeping their core sound going. Also Lay is back! 🙌🏻 Sadly, only for the recording and a couple of MVs, so I do feel we (and him too considering all the practice he did) were a bit cheated, but some Lay is always better than no Lay. I’m also still feeling salty about the promised ‘world’ tour that’s literally only taking place in Asia (as usual). I was at SMTown last year, when Suho promised that EXO would come to London, so they best be arranging the European tour for later this year.

Big Ocean’s THE GREATEST BATTLE might be a surprise pick for some people, but this group continues to impress me every time they release something new. Starting out as being seen as something of a novelty act, as all members suffer from hearing loss and perform their songs with sign language, they have steadily built a solid following by releasing some excellent songs. Last year, SINKING and Underwater, the EP it came from, both made it into my end of year lists, and I fully expect them to be there this year, too.

 

20 Favourite EPs (Q1 – Jan-Mar 2026)

Again, this is my 10 favourite group and soloist EPs mashed together.

20 Favourite EPs (Overall)
Ryosuke Yamada	Blue Noise
ONEW	TOUGH LOVE
SF9	About Love
ALL(H)OURS	NO DOUBT
jo0ji	よあけのうた - Yoake no uta
ATEEZ	GOLDEN HOUR: Part.4
Gabby Onme	Gabby Onme 3.0
ASC2NT	STILL:I
AxMxP	Amplify My Way
INSEONG	Crossfade
BIG Naughty	Between Cobalt and Navy
Travis Japan	Say I do / Tokyo Crazy Night (Special Ed)
CRAVITY	BLAST OUT
Kim Sung Kyu	OFF THE MAP
JANG HANEUM	DAYDREAM
BLACK ON	Only Wish
YANG YO SEOP	Unloved Echo
krnb	Spring Blossom
can't be blue	Prussian Blue
WOLF HOWL HARMONY from EXILE TRIBE	tera

Ryosuke Yamada is an old friend on this blog and when Blue Noise dropped in January, I was delighted to discover that I loved it almost as much as last year’s album RED. I’m particularly fond of the upbeat High High High, but all the tracks are excellent, and I’m very much looking forward to his new album, Are You Red,Y?, which is out on 20 May.

No list of mine is ever going to be complete without ONEW on it.  His latest offering, TOUGH LOVE is full of his signature vocal-led tracks, with Lie making into my favourite songs list, although yet again it could honestly have been any of them. Rumour has it that a full SHINee comeback is on the way. I can’t wait (and hopefully there’ll be a European tour to follow 🙏🏻).

I can’t remember whether I’ve mentioned SF9 much on here, but if I haven’t, I definitely should have done. I’ve been a fan of theirs for years, as my CD collection of theirs shows, but recently they’ve been hit by the dual curses of military service and members leaving or moving contracts (and then being excluded from taking part in group activities – I swear, K-pop agencies are so petty). Also, their one and only tour over here was on the same night I already had tickets to see One OK Rock (I did consider selling them but the venue for SF9 was standing only 😔). Anyway, we weren’t really expecting much from them and then, out of the blue with like a week or so’s notice, they dropped a fantastic EP full of beautiful songs About Love (see what I did there). Again, they could have had several entries on the favourite songs list but I finally chose Broken Way.

 

20 Favourite Singles (Q1 – Jan-Mar 2026)

You know the drill by now, groups, soloists, blah blah blah.

20 Favourite Singles (Overall)
HYDE	THE ABYSS
NIve	My Prelude
E'LAST	Tame
BLUE PONGTIWAT, TEN	You Give Me Butterflies
闫桉 (Yanan)	Wild Heart
Tyson Yoshi, Jackson Wang	Deadend (活該)
ONEUS	Grenade
ZEROBASEONE	Running to Future
Vuat	Snowflake
VINANSHI	IZM
Yeo One	Run it up
ONER	神笔马良
Phan Mạnh Quỳnh, Binz, Cadillac	Đoàn Ca Nhạc
LAY, 火风 (Huo Feng)	大花轿
Jung Yong Hwa	One Last Day (Jp Special Ed)
XMASwu吴骜	影
PERCENT	DOOR
TOMORROW X TOGETHER, HYDE	SSS (Sending Secret Signals)
the ge	ง่ายไป (Love is Verb)
STi	UPDATE

Oh, look, HYDE again. Honestly, that album is so good, and the single THE ABYSS, which is also on the album, is just so dramatic. Nuff said.

NIve regularly makes it into my monthly top 10 lists (the so-called ‘Duke It Out’ playlists) and sometimes slips into the end of year lists, but probably nowhere near as much as he should. My Prelude is the perfect accompaniment to HYDE’s song and might be my favourite song of his to date.

Have I mentioned before how much I love E’LAST? Again, I’m not sure I talk about them much, but they are always in my lists somewhere. I am so fond of this band that I spent an inordinate amount of time and money getting every copy of their releases (and even got a signed version for my trouble 😁). Anyway, Tame is a saucy little minx of a song, which somehow fits perfectly with the others in the top 3.

As you can see, the first 3 months of the year provided an excellent haul of new music for me, and with what I know is already coming up in the next 3 months, it’ll be interesting to see how the various top 20’s change at the halfway mark. With so much new music to look forward to, it’ll be fun listening at least.

While EXO are steadfastly ignoring touring the western world, fortunately other groups aren’t so reticent so I’ve got some excellent concerts coming up, although for some reason they all think June is a good time, so it’ll be a bit crowded. Xdinary Heroes (finally, last time they toured it was standing only), WOODZ (yay he’s back from the military and released a fab new album Archive.1, which is in the top 20 list), and a return visit from The Rose (before they go on extended hiatus). I’m also seeing my US favs Blue October, who are doing a 20th anniversary tour for what is my favourite album of theirs, the fabulous Foiled – damn, I’m old. I saw them on the original tour too.

 

Thank you to everyone who made it to this point. I’m really grateful that you read to the end.

See you soon for the promised drama posts – no, really, I promise this time they are happening. If nothing else, it’ll give me a chance to post lots of pics of my beloved Yanan, who absolutely killed it in Veil of Shadows.

My pretty Butterfly Demon