Nine's Top K-Pop Songs of 2017 (January - June): 40 - 31

Here's part two of what I guess is going to be a five part series of my favourite k-pop songs of the first half of 2017. Part 1 can be found here.

Without further ado, let's head onto part 2!

40. Hobgoblin - CLC

The song CLC should have debuted with. This is their strongest song since their debut with 'Pepe' back in 2015. I'll admit that the transition to this was a little jarring and sort of felt like Cube was waiting for 4Minute to die for CLC to go this route, but whatever. This song is freaking awesome. The rap feels right and everyone's voices sounds good. And, honestly, this is the only concept that Eunbin rocks; she felt out of place to me in the cutesy concepts.

39. Showtime - It's (Produce 101)

This was the concept in Produce 101 that I was looking forward to the most because a bunch of my faves were in this. This song is just plain fun and pleasant to listen to. Woodam's voice fits it so well, Samuel's voice shines as well, and all of them have personalities that much the concept. But do you know what would make this song better? Namhyung. Korea did us dirty,

38. Will You Go Out With Me - DIA

I'll admit that this song took awhile to grow on me, mostly because I'm not a fan of DIA's songs usually. I didn't look for it again until like 2 months after it's release and then found that forever reason I couldn't stop listening. It's actually one of my most played songs on Apple Music currently. Like 'Showtime' there's something that's just plain fun about the song. I love the talk rap sections, and even though the chorus should be annoyingly high pitched, I still enjoy. It's cute and a pleasant listen, and that's what's important.

37. Don't Wanna Cry - Seventeen

This so unlike anything else Seventeen has ever released that it immediately got stuck in my head. I don't really consider myself a fan of tropical house music, but this song is really good. It's just very mellow and pleasant; I don't know it's just nice. It's nothing special, especially not when compared to songs like 'Mansae' and 'Very Nice', but it's a strong addition to Seventeen's discography (and so much better than whatever 'Boom Boom' was).

36. Beautiful - Monsta X

So I didn't even listen to this song until literally 3 weeks ago despite it being released in March. I'm not kidding. Monsta X is another one of those groups that don't really do it for me, but this song came up on shuffle on the Apple Music Top K-Pop playlist and I was like "shit this is really fucking good". I love the beat of it and the vocals are really good. One thing that I especially like about this song are how seamlessly the raps are integrated into the verses, which can often be a very jarring transition in k-pop. Good for you Monsta X, you made me download one of your songs.

35. Wee Woo - Pristin

Being a fan of IOI, Pristin's debut was something that I was really looking forward to. And they didn't disappoint me (even if they disappointed everyone else). I love disjointed songs if they're done right, and this was done right. Again, the rap breaks are done well, but this song would have done better if Xiyeon got less singing parts. No offence to her, but she's a stronger rapper than singer. Only reason that this song is so far down my list, aside from Xiyeon's parts, is that break down for the bridge. Aside from that this song was enjoyable.

34. Why Don't You Know - Kim Chungha

The definition of a summer bop. This song surprised me because I honestly didn't think Chungha could vocally hold a solo, but of course she proved me wrong. She actually sort of reminds me of Jessica, which is a great thing because I love Jessica. The song isn't spectacular, but it doesn't have to be; it gets the job done.

33. Rollin' - Brave Girls

The fact that this doesn't have a million views yet is a tragedy. This song is incredibly sensual, but at the same time is a fucking bop. I can legitimately see myself getting down at the club to this, which is not usually what I like in a song but it works here. I love how the girls aren't getting overly fancy with their singing, because that would have brought down the song.

32. Excuse Me - AOA

Fuck this is a great song. One of the things that I really love about this song is the sensuality of their voices and how light the chorus is vocally. They do this thing where they raise their voices at the end of phrases in the chorus and I love it. ChoA carries this song vocally though, and it just makes me sad about how we're not going to get that anymore. This song suffers from having a disjointed rap section though.

31. Fine - Taeyeon

Once again, a section is being rounded out with a Taeyeon track. This is the sort of song that Taeyeon was made for. She effortlessly sings over a nice acoustic instrumental. This is musically one of the worst songs on this list, but that doesn't matter. What this song has is replayability, which isn't a word but let's go with that. Because it's such an easy listen it can go on almost any playlist that doesn't focus on pussy poppers or work out music.

And that's the end of part 2. I'll see you tomorrow for part 3.

Also, I don't think I'll be getting my review of episode 5 of Produce 101 done anytime soon. I have too much stuff to do and I'm jetting off overseas for 10 days on Saturday so I won't get to write it until I get back. Hopefully I do get it done, but with work and volunteering it's very hard to say.