ranking every WG release
Hey hi hello this is Mitsu and i am here today to, as the title suggests, rank every oficial release of Wonder Girls, a few things to consider before we start:
1. Remixes or english versions are not included
2. I will only talk about their "mainline" stuff, so yk, none of their weird collabs and one-offs with other artists
Now that we've set the rules, let's rank some releases!!
10th, "The Wonder Years - Trilogy"/"Nobody"
Even though this is one of their most popular and iconic songs, the whole release is actually so mid in my opinion, especially compared to the other things they would release later in their career, the title track "Nobody" is a cult classic, period, but the other 3 songs in this EP/Album(spotify put it under the "albums" section even though i feel it belongs more in the EP category but, whatever), or 2 if you don't count the intro, are lacking in comparison, it's really underwhelming to be honest, overall, i would say this is a 2/10, especially since the whole thing is just one relevant song, a remix of said song, three that don't add anything to the experience, and their instrumentals.
9th, "So Hot"
The only reason this is higher than the last one is because it features the rap version of "Tell Me" as well as the NOT A BLACKPINK SONG hit "So Hot",
Not only do i personally like "So Hot" more than "Nobody", but "Tell Me(rap ver.)" being included in the album wins it it's place in this list, the b-sides of this one are also lacking unfortunately, so that makes it worthy of a 4/10 in my books.
8th, "2 Different Tears"
Another album that includes previous successful songs in it to up it's ranking, and it's working, because "2 Different Tears" has 0 different songs in it, actually! It only has different versions of it's title track of the same name, and remixes, because the rest is just songs that already existed and were known to the public, that earns it it's 4.5/10 in here, because "So Hot" at least tried to include new songs, this is just embarrassing, like... yeah... all of the actual songs are good... but there isn't anything new in here.
(A/N: this is where i start to recommend songs from the albums because i feel like they are worth a listen)
7th, "The Wonder Begins"
Pretty solid for a debut, all of the 3 tracks, not including the remix of "Irony" sound good and i think are worth a listen, i don't have much to say about it, it just sounds good and i like it lol, 6/10, all three songs are worth a listen, "Irony", "Bad Boy", and "미안한 마음", aka "It's Not Love".
6th, "Wonder Party"
It pains me to out this one this low, but don't let the number 6 fool you, "Wonder Party" is actually really good, and has a few great songs in it, my favorites and also recommendations for you are "Hey Boy", "Like This", and "The DJ Is Mine", their infamous song from the nickolodeon movie starring them, but it's pretty decent to me, anyways, the other songs ("Sorry", "Girlfriend", "R.E.A.L") are avarage Wonder Girls b-sides, nothing that special, which makes me think that it deserves a 7/10.
5th, "Draw Me"
I know this sounds ridiculous, like what do you mean a SINGLE SONG, that didn't even have a PROPER RELEASE is superior to an EP with MULTIPLE SONGS? LISTEN, "Draw Me", the last release of the group and a celebration of 10 years as one is so overlooked, probably because of how it was promoted, in the sense that it wasn't promoted, at all, all we got were a few tweets from their account and a thank you video on jyp's YouTube channel, and that's it, which is why it's such a forgotten song, it didn't even have a physical release, making "Why So Lonely" be considered by many fans as their last work, but i will go through the trenches to defend this song because it deserves more love, i have no idea what it is with K-Pop fans and the fact that the vast majority does not have the capability to enjoy sad ballads or calm songs, it either has to be the most beautiful and heavenly song ever, like "Knock Knock", or "Spring Day", or it simply doesn't matter to them, if it isn't outright majestical, or something that would be played in an orchestra, it goes unnoticed(which i love btw, not saying songs like that are bad because they aren't), and "Draw Me" is the textbook example of this, if we remove the fact that it's basically unknown to anyone and how poorly marketed it was, it's beautiful, i love the cover, love the insturments, the lyrics, vocals, everything, but in comparison, "Rewind" a song that presents the same "chill songs to cry to" vibe, is way more popular, it just has an it factor, that is obvious and unique, "Draw Me" on the other hand, is "just a disbandment song", which pisses me off so much, like, this single also has the it factor to it, you just gotta look deeper, appreciate it, like an acquired taste, 8.5/10 as a release since it's only a singular track, but as a song, I'd say it deserves a 10/10, definitely one of my top favorite WG songs, and one of my favorite K-Pop songs EVER even if i don't listen to it so often, it's special.
4th, "Why So Lonely"
The last significant release of theirs, the title track of the same name actually became quite trendy on korean social media, but no way near enough to sustain the group for more than another release, it features 3 tracks, "Why So Lonely", a more reggae style song which i rarely hear in K-Pop, and implemented perfectly especially with the 70s/ Dreamy aesthetic of the EP, truly a certified banger, speaking of bangers, let's talk about the two b-sides of this EP, "아름다운 그대에게", know as "Beautiful Boy" and "Sweet & Easy", "Beautiful Boy" is a more upbeat song compared to "Why So Lonely" it has an hypnotizing melody and such a perfect rap part that reminds me why i love raps in K-Pop songs, "Sweet & Easy is an even more whimsy song, it's catchy, vibrant, and a masterpiece of composition honestly, listen to all three of them and you'll probably agree with me, 9/10 overall
The 3rd place goes to, "The Wonder Years"
I feel like this is their most underrated album, but there's a reason for that, as we've seen in my reasons to rank "Draw Me" so high, it becomes noticeable that i can sometimes just love calmer songs in K-Pop, and this album is FULL OF THEM, even the songs that i wouldn't classify as calm, such as "Move" are still very lowkey in the big picture of K-Pop songs, if you are more into calmer, more chill, lofi-esque songs, then switch "The Wonder Years", with "Wonder World" in this list and you should be happy, but overall, my favs from this album are, "Friend", "Headache", "Move", "Take It", "This Fool", "Irony", "Bad Boy", "It's Not Love", and "Wishing on a star", there isn't really much to say, it's just, great, nothing else 9.5/10
The 3rd place goes to, "Wonder World"
It was so difficult to decide in which place to put this one, it has their best title track in my opinion, that being "Be My Baby" and also some of the greatest b-sides ever!, for example, the first song of the album, "G.N.O" already thrusts you into a heavy and amazing synth heavy song that is the pure juice of late 2nd gen K-Pop, mind you that's the FIRST SONG ON THE ALBUM, and the following one, "Be My Baby" is peak music to me, nothing more, nothing less, but this album isn't composed of just party worthy songs, oh no no no, it also has songs like "Do Go Do Go", and "Sweet Dreams", and that's not even talking about the other types of songs that appear in here, you have "Act Cool", which although i find quite cringy, is actually pretty good not gonna lie, and surprisingly enough, "Nu Shoes", which first of all, is amazing, second of all, IT'S IN ENGLISH??? IT TOOK ME SO LONG TO REALIZE THIS BUT IT'S IN ENGLISH, which is so weird and intersting to me? It doesn't add anything to the ranking but i felt like mentioning it, anyways my recommendations are, "Be My Baby", "G.N.O", "Sweet Dreams", "Act Cool", "Do Go Do Go", "Girls Girls", which i forgot to talk about, sorry:( , and "Nu Shoes", overall, a 9.8/10 suits this album very well.
And finally, the one you've all been waiting for...taking 1st palce in this ranking is... "REBOOT"!!!(Wow who could've guessed? Not me!)
This is gonna be a looooooooong one, so strap in because i'm about to waste a whole lot of time writing about all of the 12 songs of this masterpiece
Which all follow a story, since this is a concept album, something that's very rare in K-Pop apparently, also, this one alongside all of their rekeases after this were composed by the members themselves! Because y'know, the group became a proper band, hence the name of this release being "REBOOT", It truly simbolized a new era for the group who would spin the retro concecpt that they were so well know for and add a lot of spice and emotional luggage to it, really cool stuff, anyways, the album starts off with a solid track called "Baby Don't Play", which talks all about how they are tired of a guy playing with their feelings, and how they don't want that to keep happening, musically it's very catchy and has an almost sexy undertone to it, especially the vocals, the track that follows, "Candle", is just straight up horny, the person we are following wants their love interest to light up their candle(sidenote, this is the way i'm going to refer to the "characters" of this story), i don't know why but this song just feels quieter compared to "Baby Don't Play", maybe it's the vocals which are almost whispered in the chorus and carry the "sexy" vibes of the introduction to this project onwards, that leads us into the title track of this album, "I Feel You", the most disco/80s song I've ever heard in my life probably, it's very upbeat, uses a ton of synths(not as much as some of the next songs but still enough to make it immediately stand out as one of the "louder" songs of this release), this one picks up on where "Candle" left, and continues with the heavily "i'm so horny i need you" vibes, and this one is way more on the nose because, like, they feel you... inside of them..., something that could be interpreted literally, or metaphorically, such as understanding another person's emotion(duh thank you captain obvious i didn't know that>:(((), "I Feel You" sets the stage of what you're gonna get while listening to all of this, that is, mostly melancholic, but still danceable melodies. Now we get to the famous b-side, "Rewind", it truly doesn't need introductions at all, if you've heard it, you know it, and if you haven't, then you're the problem, go listen to it right now, "Rewind" basically tells us that the main character of sorts is longing for all of the stuff(possibly one night stand?) that they've had with the so-called love interest, and how they wish they could relive that moment again, it's very 80s, very sad, and very much deserved the attention it got. "Rewind" is followed up with "Loved", a composition whose instrumetal gives me boxing ring vibes to it, especially on the first few seconds of the song, really good and has a great chorus that's very hypnotizing, the lyrics talk about moving on and learning about the bad sides of whatever relationship the character was in with the other person. "John Doe" is where the person we are following decides that they've had enough and are flipping the script, making the love interest chase after them, doing what they did to them essentially, sound wise this takes the synths we saw in "I Feel You" and cranks them up to 100, it's chaotic almost, but still wonderful, the next one in line, and by far one of my top songs from this album is "One Black Night" where, as the title suggests, our character is making the other one feel like the night they are having will last forever and ever, the bridge and last chorus are actually so epic it reminds me of anime intros like "Monster" from Beastars, or "Gurenge" from Demon Slayer, unfortunately songs like "One Black Night" are only found in K-Pop when it's a group's debut, or when it's a group's disbandment, sometimes though, we find gems like this just waiting to be discovered, so... Waiter... More please!!
"Back" is in my opinion the odd one out of this album, it still sounds very 80s like everything else, but in a different way, i guess that makes sense considering that this song in specific is a duet between Hye Lim and Yubin, plus the fact that the lyrics don't really contribute to the story, it's more of a filler/intermission song, that could be the reason it sounds more hip-hop compared to the rest of the whole package, it's just Wonder Girls saying "We're so fucking back y'all" it can be shaped to fit the narrative of the story, in this case the main character being a hot topic after doing what they did to the love interest, but i think that's kind of a stretch, overall i'd consider this one as one of the weaker songs of the album. "OPPA" is the character's way of saying "i don't care what you think i wanna have fun wheter you like it or not", i always see this one in specific being put very low on rankings of this album, but honestly? I really like it, except for the "dance break" part of the song, which just sounds bad and breaks the atmosphere of the song, besides that, it's catchy and has a great instrumental, now that we are closer to the end of the album, things slow down a bit, that takes us to "Faded Love", a very bassy and way calmer song than the last ones that we saw, for some reason, "Faded Love" gives me strong Daft Punk vibes especially the instrumental and it's melody, and when i say strong vibes, i mean strong, like, to the point that if you told me this was produced by them or was one of their rejected songs, i'd totally believe you, because it perfectly captures that vibe, the lyrics themselves talk about how it's lonely to be an independent woman and how cold the days are when there isn't anyone there with you, something that's followed on the next track, "GONE" whose instrumetal is so interesting the only way i've come up with to describe it is, if a wind spinner were an instrument, this song took it to the maximum, and i mean that in the best way possible, the vocals are so emotionally filled it feels like i am listening to a performance of pretty people crying and singing while they have a complete breakdown, it's way more noticeable during the chorus, and i'm here for it, it talks about the pain of being someone's side hustle now and never the priority of the love interest, that takes our character on a trip down memory lane with the song "Remember" another one of my top favorites, it obviously speaks about longing and nostalgia for the simpler and happier days from the past, the song just by itself is a masterpiece that i highly recommend you listen to, but the lyrics just add to the already sad song, if this one were a facial expression, it would be a sad smile.
Aaaand that's it for "REBOOT", and the whole Wonder Girls mainline releases ranking, thx for sticking around and I'll see you in another 2 months probably.
this is Mitsu, signing off:)
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